Seems the predicted merger is underway, as some of you may have noticed, from news of an EDDC job advertisement in an earlier EDA post today. In ‘About the role’, the link refers to the ‘partnership’ between EDDC, Exeter and Teignbridge for delivering jobs and growth.
Bear in mind our earlier post about how Teignbridge planning already operates:
In the EDDC council year 2013-2014 (May 2013-April 2014), the Cabinet met 11 times and three of those meetings had secret sessions.
So far this council year, the Cabinet has met 5 times and 4 of those meetings have had secret sessions.
http://new.eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/cabinet/agendas/
Why does (Un)Beloved Leader Paul Diviani have an 0845 telephone number – 0845 3285788
Is it cheaper or more expensive for us to call him than a Blackdown Hills 01404 number?
https://new.devon.gov.uk/democracy/councillor/paul-diviani/
http://www.payhembury.org.uk/important-information/
http://www.tivertonhonitonconservatives.co.uk/person/honiton-st-pauls-cllr-paul-diviani
According to this Wikipedia article :
“0845 numbers offer the called-party the chance to collect a premium of up to 2 pence per minute. Only a very few fixed line telephone companies include 0845 numbers in bundled call allowances, in which case the onwards revenue share payment is subsidised by the Originating phone company.”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-geographic_telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom
and see this article:
Costly calls aren’t right – why TSB has ditched 0845 numbers
(April 2014)
http://conversation.which.co.uk/money/tsb-costly-calls-03-0845-win-paul-pester/
and here is the “Which” magazine campaign
… “The companies that use 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 phone numbers can theoretically share the revenue from each call with the phone service operator – Virgin Media or Orange, for example – so the longer you stay on the line, the more the companies earn. ”
” … Planning departments across the peninsula have been cut by up to half, and Prof Balch said the axe was likely to fall again. One planning officer told him she had a caseload of 91 applications, which had to be determined within eight weeks – more than two a day.
“How can you visit the site, prepare paperwork and do all the consultation?
“The changes may not be bad in principle, but you will see unintended consequences. You are probably going to see more legal challenges from a system which is running on three-quarters empty.”
Who are we doing planning for? Is it for the landowner and applicant, or is it for the community and society?”
Prof Balch said that there was some suspicion that the government was “teeing up” the planning system to be outsourced.
Prof Balch warned that decisions were likely to become more inconsistent because the government had introduced more ambiguity into the system.
“In Teignbridge virtually all the barn conversions go through on prior approval. In Wiltshire they have hardly approved any,” he said. …”
Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Countryside-risk-planning-control-ditched-8216/story-24609710-detail/story.html#ixzz3JuPHdRgG
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Anyone else think that this job description (EDDC Habitat Regulation Delivery Officer) may be the exact opposite of what it purports to be and may be, in fact, a way of helping developers to build even more houses in environmentally sensitive locations in East Devon – such as AONBs?
“Strategic in your thinking, you will be confident setting the direction – and budget – of various programmes to protect wildlife. Persuasive and credible, you are an exceptional communicator with good networking, negotiation and communication skills, and you are capable in sharing information with a wide variety of stakeholders.”
A tongue in cheek translation:
“Strategic in your thinking” – doing as you are told
“Confident in setting the direction and budget” – doing as you are told on the cheap
“Persuasive, credible, exceptional communicator” – doing as you are told whilst persuading others of the opposite
“A wide variety of stakeholders” – doing as you are told whilst keeping developers happy but also persuading the voters you are on their side!
” …The latest Halifax rural housing review found that rural homeowners in Devon and Cornwall are paying an average of £56,000 more for their properties than an urban equivalent. …
… Figures also revealed that the South Hams and Eastern and Northern parts of Devon are among the ten least affordable rural districts in the country. …
… Social housing was found to account for just 8% of housing stock in Torridge, 9% in Teignbridge and East Devon and 10% in North Devon and the South Hams.
The national rural average for social housing is 12% and the typical urban rate is 19%.”
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/56-000-premium-rural-lifestyle/story-24519038-detail/story.html
East Devon Watch 