to take the schedule of meetings off your (new) website when you plan to push Knowle relocation and land grab through before the end of this council session and before the district council elections in May 2015.
Now, why would you do that?
This is the web page from which the information has been removed:
http://new.eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/
Council and Democracy – yet another oxymoron!
Ladbrokes odds last week and this week:
Hugo Swire last week 1/12 now 1/8
Claire Wright (who started at 66/1) last week 12/1 now 6/1
UKIP unchanged at 12/1
Lib Dem unchanged at 50/1
Labour, Greens unchanged at 100/1
To make a bet go to Ladbrokes/Politics/General Election/Constituencies/Devon/Devon East (NOT East Devon)
If you want to make a bet REMEMBER: bet responsibly and you must be over 18
Western Morning News on a new report:
Affordable Housing: A Fair Deal for Rural Communities
at
Click to access afairdealforruralcommunitiesmainreport3-1.pdf
highlights:
“…. Cornwall and Devon have among the highest levels of second home ownership in the country, with around 26,000 part-time properties in the region. …
…. The report also calls on the Government to reverse its new policy that means developments of fewer than ten homes are exempt from ensuring a proportion of the properties are sold or rented at affordable rates.
Lord Taylor said small sites are the “mainstay” of rural housing development.
He said: “In Cornwall and Devon this change, pushed through by the Conservative Planning Minister, will be devastating – leaving most small communities with no hope of affordable housing within local developments and local people unable to afford the vast prices inevitable on the open market in attractive villages.”
He said while new planning guidance had some rural exemptions the main effect will be to “increase site values to the benefit of wealthy landowners at the expense of local people unable to afford a local home”.
The report also calls on the “bedroom tax” to scrapped in rural areas, and for the Right to Buy council housing discount to be curbed because of fears the housing stock is being diminished.
Brandon Lewis, Housing Minister, said: “Trying to impose state bans on who can own property is totally inappropriate and simply will not stand up.”
“Protestors will march through Exeter City Centre this weekend to highlight the plight of the NHS ahead of the General Election.
Campaigners will meet at the Richard Hooker statue on Cathedral Green on Saturday at 11am.
They will then move onto the High Street brandishing placards and banners.
The protest has been instigated nationally by 38 Degrees, one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities.”
Our long- running campaign (Sidmouth Independent News, EDA former blog, then this blog) has – with little thanks to EDDC – ensured that our district has at last caught up with most of the 6,000 voters missing from the electoral register in 2014 – a misfortune that got our CEO and Electoral Returning Officer, Mark Williams, hauled before the Parliamentary Commission on Voter Engagement to explain. Rather unsatisfactorily.
In its most recent report: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/182375/Analysis-of-the-December-2014-electoral-registers-in-England-and-Wales.pdf
the Electoral Commission has this to say about East Devon, key paragraph:
“In contrast, in East Devon, where the challenges are different, there hjas been an increase in the number of entries on the register. The ERO has attributed this to the success of making visits to non-responding properties and individuals, which were carried out across the area in 2014 for the first time since 2010.”
In other words, Mark Williams has effectively admitted that, had he carried our doorstep canvassing as he was required to do between 2010 and 2014, rather than trying to cut corners (for whatever reason) then most of the missing voters would have almost certainly been registered in that period.
This could well have affected the outcome of European elections in East Devon and, had these voters not made it on to the register, the outcome of district and Parliamentary Elections in May 2015. An election where results may hinge on only scores or hundreds of votes.
Next on the agenda to fix – Households of Multiple Occupation.
Oh, Malcolm, we know how hard it is for someone who has “done nothing wrong” who ends up being ditched by his party and having to resign.
We’ve seen it for ourselves here in East Devon a number of times over the years with our Tory councillors – and quite recently, too with our ex-Tory Councillor Graham Brown. AND he was stung by the Daily Telegraph too. AND he was on the front page too – saying that he “didn’t come cheap”.
People can be so unkind whe all you want is to have the money to live the life you deserve …
Our thoughts are with you.
Recall that, not long ago, our EDDC councillors, piggy-backing on the promises of the national Conservative Party, were boasting that, pretty soon, Devon would be covered with whizzily fast broadband coverage. That continued till it transpired that, in fact, it wasn’t going to happen.
In fact it was poor tendering on the part of councils dealing with the project which gave BT a stranglehold and a preference for dealing with the easy connections and not bothering with the, largely rural, infrastructure that cost more to put in.
Now we hear the shocking news that only 15% of Devon can receive 3G phone coverage. This is the coverage that would at least allow users to get their internet and email on their smartphones if they could not get broadband coverage. It isn’t 4G – that allows very, very fast coverage on smartphones and tablets, which is now available in many areas – but the slower, clunkier, now old-fashioned 3G!
Wouldn’t the millions of pounds being spent on flash new offices be better spent ensuring our medium and small businesses (including rural tourism) was in the 21st century?
Or will we operate a two-tier system: the nearer you are to the Science Park and the “Growth Point” the better you will be treated?
T“The most recent data published by the regulator shows that Devon has most limited mobile phone access of any local authority area in the South West. In just 15% of the county’s geographic landmass can a 3G signal be picked up with the “Big 4” networks, namely Vodafone, 02, Three and EE.
The parlous provision continues across the rural areas of the South West. In Cornwall, 3G coverage for all operators is 25% of Cornwall’s geography, 26% in Dorset and 38% in Somerset.
By contrast, in Plymouth, the biggest urban area in the Westcountry, coverage is 99% of the city, as it is with the capital and most built-up areas in the UK.”
Councillor Ian Thomas has taken this post to task in a comment saying the first paragraph is “not truthful” and wants it changed. This is an issue that may be judged subjectively, but this post below does look like boasting and all the people mentionec by name are (or were at the time) Conservatives:
MPs are elected to represent their constituents in Parliament but many – currently 100 of them – are also given jobs as ministers in the government. What happens when the two roles come into conflict?
Read here:
Surely the agenda should be in the public domain by now for a 5 March meeting?
And the calendar of meeting dates has also mysteriously disappeared from the “Council Meetings” web page too.
Hhhmm.
No, of course not OUR Chief Executive!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/town-hall-boss-rejects-pay-5218209
Ministers are prepared to use their powers to stop local authorities that are paying lobbyists in potential non-compliance with the Code of recommended practice on local authority publicity, Eric Pickles has warned.
Interestingly, one point not mentioned by the National Farmers Union is the amount of Grade 1 agricultural land lost to speculative building which leads to the land being worth up to £1 million per acre when planning permission is received – especially in areas such as ours where we have no Local Plan and no 6-year land supply. And where quite a few farmers are parish, town and/or district councillors (and even, in the past, running a plannung consultancy) and are sometimes developers themselves.
After the first candidate withdrew:
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/steve_joins_election_race_1_3962430
East Devon District Councillors we have not seen or heard of in public for MONTHS and sometimes YEARS are popping up all over the place.
Is something happening? District Elections in May? Haven’t they left it just a bit too late to get our votes? Independents working for us and no party whipping is the alternative? Bring it on!
Up to 40% of jobs in Devon and Cornwall earn less than the living wage making it the low pay capital of the UK, according to worrying new figures out today.
We wonder how many of the jobs which might be generated at a Knowle Retirement complex would be minimum-wage, low/zero hours – at least 40% one suspects. Rather different to the kind of more highly paid jobs currently on offer there.
“It is claimed that Mr Straw was recorded describing how he operated “under the radar” and had used his influence to change EU rules on behalf of a firm which paid him £60,000 a year.
On the subject of payment, Mr Straw is heard saying: “So normally, if I’m doing a speech or something, it’s £5,000 a day, that’s what I charge.”
Sir Malcolm is reported to have claimed he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world.”
Ring any bells? Only the place, names and the numbers change!
AND they both say they did nothing wrong.
” …At this election, we can sow the seeds of a new politics. We encourage voters to support candidates and policies which demonstrate the following key values:
Halting and reversing the accumulation of power and wealth in fewer and fewer hands, whether those of the state, corporations or individuals.
Involving people at a deeper level in the decisions that affect them most.
Recognising the distinctive communities, whether defined by geography, religion or culture, which make up the nation and enabling all to thrive and participate together.
Treating the electorate as people with roots, commitments and traditions and addressing us all in terms of the common good and not just as self interested consumers.
Demonstrating that the weak, the dependent, the sick, the aged and the vulnerable are persons of equal value to everybody else.
Offering the electorate a grown up debate about Britain’s place in the world order and the possibilities and obligations that entails.”
Click to access whoismyneighbour-pages.pdf
Claire Wright – Independent – you know it makes sense:
claire-wright.org
East Devon Watch 