Daily Archives: 9 Nov 2014

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Nov 2014

Posted under

EDDC, Feniton/ Talaton, Flooding, Wainhomes

Wainhomes and Feniton flooding

Temporary attenuation tanks and a temporary ditch on the Wainhomes site do not appear to have alleviated surface water run off from the site at all.

See (with particularly harrowing pictures)

https://susiebond.wordpress.com/

Recall that Wainhomes excuse for not putting in the permanent attenuation tanks on this site (before 6 the homes which are now occupied and which the planning inspector said must be put in before ANY homes were occupied) was that they are planning to put in different tanks to accommodate other planning applications they will put in at some point in the future and which may or may not get permission.

What a nightmare this small village is suffering still.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Nov 2014

Posted under

AONB, EDDC, Environment (local), Local Plan, NPPF

Retiring director of National Trust slams Prime Minister

In an article in today’s Sunday Times, Sir Simon Jenkins says:

“PM ‘ has wrecked beautiful Britain’

Summary

He argues that Britain has a better record of protecting urban environments than rural ones;

“We have looked after our cities very well for decades”

“We are very good at preserving architecture. But we are now really bad at protecting the countryside and landscapes.”

Over the past year, the trust has received about 400 calls from people in towns and villages objecting to what they consider unsightly and unnecessary applications for developments on their outskirts, “Yet five years ago we used to get a handful annually,” said Jenkins.

He ends by saying: “This guerrilla warfare between developers and the countryside must be stopped.”

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Nov 2014

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, EDDC

More jobs – but who WANTS them?

East Devon has very low unemployment levels. East Devon District Council says its aims is to create thousands of new jobs and thousands more houses for the people doing those jobs.

In Northamptonshire they also have low unemployment and a local company is having to fill vacancies for new jobs by advertising them in Hungary because locals are not applying for them:

Greencore, which employs 1,200 staff in the US and Britain, is currently advertising for machine setters, cleaners, porters and quality monitors to work at the new factory.

Mrs Russell said recruiters would be heading to Hungary tomorrow to find new employees. She said: ‘In Northampton, we do have a problem in that there is very low unemployment. There aren’t enough people around and it is not always the kind of work people have wanted to do.’

She said Greencore had run a scheme with job centres in Northampton, but had still not attracted many applicants from the town. She said: ‘Ideally we would be flooded with applications, but actually we are having to work really hard to find people who will come and work for us. Everyone has an equal opportunity, but we haven’t been able to find the staff coming to us locally.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2827625/Factory-bosses-forced-recruit-Hungary-locals-not-apply.html

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Nov 2014

Posted under

EDDC, Voting

Comments

1 Comment

Those missing voters and telephone canvassing

Mark Williams maintained to the Parliamentary Commission on Voter Engagement that his telelphone canvassing method was superior to door-to-door canvassing in producing voter registrations.

An Ofcom survey reveals that only 28% of 16-24 year-olds use a landline phone compared to 64% of all adults. 94% of this age group say their mobile is the main way they make and receive calls.

How did Mr Williams track down the mobile phone numbers of voters in this age group and people in other age groups who have only a mobile phone? Or were they tracked at all?

Anyone ever seen a personal mobile phone number in a telephone directory? Perhaps he used forms that people sent in for other reasons where they divulged their numbers to EDDC – but how many of the missing voters would that have caught bearing in mind he was looking for people who had not registered on the electoral roll and he missed opportunities to match data?

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Nov 2014

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, EDDC, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

Affordable retirement flats in Seaton?

According to today’s Sunday Times McCarthy & Stone (now owned by hedge funds) plans to list on the stock market next year having had a “fivefold surge in profits” – sales up 25%, profits up from £12.5m to £63.2m.

More than half of its shares are owned by Goldman Sachs, TPG, Anchorage Capital and Strategic Value Partners. Its investment bank is Rothschilds.

So, we can surely look forward to a large percentage of the retirement flats in Seaton (and wherever else they build in East Devon) being “affordable” can’t we!