Teignbridge Council wants to compulsorily purchase a farmer’s land so a nearby developer can use it as “parkland” for their development which otherwise will not have the requisite green space.
The farmer does not want to sell the land to the council and, if it is compulsorily purchased, he will get only the low agricultural value and not much, much higher development land value.
http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/Campaign-save-farmer-s-land/story-24569287-detail/story.html
The Exmouth and Seaton Regeneration Board meetings have always been secret. Many people have attempted to get their meetings, agendas and minbutes made public but no-one has succeeded, even with Freedom of Information requests.
And, when those meetings are discussed in Cabinet, they are again always secret.
Always the reason is “commercial confidentiality”. This has been the case for years and years.
So, all regeneration matters are kept secret between developers and the council – or rather a few councillors. We are not even allowed to know who exactly they meet with or why or what is discussed. Anything that gets into the public domain is sanitised “good news”. Any “consultation” is done against a backdrop of those few priviledged councillors and (presumabky) developers operating in the shadows until they decide what we can be told of decisions that have been made in secret.
By law, all items heard in secret must have reasons given in advance. The usual one (which EDDC uses for Knowle relocation and even the now-defunct Knowle Planning Application) is “commercial confidentiality”.
Who signs off these confidential items? None other than Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Councillor Tim Woods.
East Devon District Council – working for …. well, who are they working for?
National Audit Office report:
Click to access Impact-of-funding-reductions-on-local-authorities.pdf
Answer: at EDDC – think tank, forum, meeting, group, working party, board
All these words mean secret
as in
Economy think tank
Asset Management Forum
Parishes and town councils meeting
Capital Strategy and Allocation Group
Relocation Working Party
Exmouth and Seaton Regeneration Board
As stated in the post below, most of EDDC’s work now seems to be done this way. You can’t see agendas or minutes and Freedom of Information requests for information on these meetings are routinely refused.
Recall that, in its first incarnation, even discussions about the (failed) Local Plan (called Local Development Framework in those days and chaired by expelled-ex-Tory Councillor Graham Brown) were secret until an Independent Councillor (Claire Wright) forced publication.
How can you know who or what to vote for if you don’t know what they say or do?
East Devon Watch 