http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/swire_aims_to_end_the_war_on_drivers_1_4005573
Unless, of course, EDDC chooses to auction parking spaces from now on … given our (current) MPs special talents!
Daily Archives: 23 Mar 2015
Oh dear, it gets worse for Mr Swire!
This is what Hugo Swire thinks of you if you have ever been unlucky enough to have been on benefits
In case you missed it in the post below, here is the Guardian’s take on tonight’s Channel Four “How to get a meeting with a Minister” with our own (current) MP, Hugo Swire, in a starring role giving his views on those on benefits and (allegedly, of course) how it used to be so easy to buy fast Italian cars on MPs expenses.
Missing from the article was this joke filmed by Channel 4 at the £15,000 per table Tory fund raising ball in January 2015:
“It’s quite naff to have Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Ferraris because anyone could have them in the good old days of MPs expenses, we could have them too but we don’t any more”.
and:
“That was the gentleman from Lycamobile. We all like a mobile and we like your mobiles”
Lycamobile avoids tax and is a large Tory donor:
“The Tories have come under fire for accepting just over £105,000 from telecoms giant Lycamobile, which has not paid corporation tax in Britain since 2007, despite making millions each year….”
… Lycamobile’s latest donation, accepted this March, means they have given the party well over £500,000 since 2011, making them one of the party’s biggest corporate donors. The firm gave £102,620 to the party, and a further £2,400 to the party’s branch in the Cities of London and Westminster. …
“… According to its latest accounts, Lycamobile posted a turnover of £142 million over the financial year 2012 to 2013, declaring a profit of just over £4 million. This marked an increase in turnover from £120 million the previous year. …”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05/29/lycamobile-donations-tories-tax_n_5409793.html
“How to buy a meeting with a Minister” – the sleazy truth: all it takes is money
Watching the Channel 4 investigation “How to buy a meeting with a Minister”. Shocking just isn’t a good enough word for the disgusting reality that all it takes is money – and the more money you are prepared to pay the higher up the filthy Ministerial ladder you climb. Heck, enough money and it seems you can buy yourself a peerage according to yesterday’s newspapers.
The investigator gets to meet Vince Cable just by promising to donate money – really one thinks he should have been paying the investigator for the privilege!
The “Tory Donor Club” asks only £50,000 to meet the Prime Minister – a bargain. £25,000 to have a private lunch with Health Minister and a Russian businessman (donator of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservative Party and individual MPs) at the height of the the A and E crisis when he should have been at his desk sorting it out.the
Hunt gave his thoughts on the NHS at lunch, and deferred in a friendly way to the Russian businessman on several points.
The Treasurer of the Donor Club says that £50,000 gets you direct access to many Ministers. The Russian businessman went to the £15,000 a table Tory fundraising ball – where the more you donated the higher the level of Minister who would be on your table.
The Prime Minister had a hedge fund manager as a guest on his table, a big donor. Mobile phone companies avoiding tax also had places at tables with Ministers.
Our dear MP Hugo Swire was there auctioning in fine style with several off-colour jokes about having been able to buy Lamborghinis on expenses in the good old days as detailed here:
No-one was told who was the highest bidder for each item (was the cost deducted from attendees expenses one wonders?)
Labour: Fund raising gala (free admission because he had said he would probably donate) – table with 2 shadow ministers, though they did say donations over £7,500 would have his name published. Meets a shadow minister (still no payment for access requested) but the feeling that the meeting happened more quickly because he was a potential donor.
Final part: Tories and Labour both said undercover reporter donations over £7,500 would be publicised.
However, Lib Dem peer Lord Strasburger meets him after the lunch with Vince Cable and discusses how his donations can be concealed: via a business or his wife or later he asks if another family member can donate on his behalf: his stepfather i.e. a group of people donating individually each under that figure . The investigator then gets to meet Nick Clegg who has already been briefed about him. The peer explains the donors wish to be anonymous – Clegg appears to suggest donations in two different financial years.
He goes to another Lib Dem Party bunfight with a cheque for £10,000 in his stepfather’s name, telling the peer it is really from him as a first instalment. The peer accepts the money and shares a table with him at dinner and later thanks him for the donation.
On being told about the donation, the peer resigned from fundraising and reported himself to Parliament and it also went to the Electoral Commission.
£15,000 bought the investigator meetings with four Cabinet ministers and two Shadow Cabinet ministers.
East Devon’s MP in Channel 4 sting
Bad day for EDDC’s Local Plan officers. Good day for Clyst St Mary.
A barrage of questions from the public (no less than 17 people had pre-registered to speak) were fired at the DMC who were today considering the revised Local Plan. Several councillors firmly added their own particular concerns.
Seven speakers were from the Save Clyst St Mary Group. Campaign leader Gaeron Kayley has just circulated the news copied below:
As you will be aware, today was the day the Development Management Committee met at EDDC to discuss the Local Plan.
This had great significance for Clyst St Mary, given that it had been proposed that both the Winslade Park area and the green field owned by the Plymouth Brethren would be used for the village’s allocation of an additional 200 houses.
22 members of our group met last Monday and discussed our key arguments against this which were to be delivered at today’s meeting.
We are thrilled to announce that, following today’s Committee meeting, it was unanimously agreed by the 15 councillors present to reject the green field proposal and reduce the housing allocation for Winslade Park to 150 in total.
A massive thank you to everyone who attended last Monday’s meeting, including the seven brave souls who spoke so passionately and articulately today, as well as all those local residents who turned up simply to offer moral support. It really was greatly appreciated.
Whilst this was only a hearing for the Local Plan – not a hearing for the specific applications to which we have all objected – it does give us hope for the future. Things certainly appear now to be less bleak than they did ten days ago!
Rest assured, with your support, we will continue to fight in a dignified, professional and open manner to unite and preserve our village community.
What happens when Planning Inspectors get it wrong?
“How to buy a meeting with a Minister”
Tonight, Channel 4, 8 pm
The title says it all.
Our current MP, Hugo Swire, is a Minister.
Short statements from your East Devon Parliamentary candidates – except Hugo Swire who appears not to (yet) have had the time …
Claire Wright: latest meetings at Woolbrook (1 April) and Exmouth (16 April)
Press Release:
Claire Wright, the Independent candidate for Devon East in the General Election, will be in Woolbrook, Sidmouth, on Wednesday, 1st April. Everyone is invited to this free meeting, the latest in a series, which begins at 8 pm. The venue is the St. Francis Church Hall.
Following a short speech, in which the candidate will outline the key points of her campaign, concentrating on important local issues, there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.
Claire, who was born in Devon and who has always lived in the area, launched her manifesto in Exmouth. She will explain how the results of her comprehensive survey, completed by many hundreds of local people, have revealed the concerns of the voters of East Devon.
Additionally, more than a thousand conversations with local people and many visits to local businesses, as well as her experience as a town, district and county councillor, mean that the candidate is very familiar with the constituency and its problems. Indeed, it was the enthusiastic and extensive support in her successful bid for a seat on Devon County Council that prompted her to run for Parliament. Claire Wright will say how, if elected, she would be an active and energetic MP, working for the constituency.
The next public meeting, commencing at 7 pm, will be in Exmouth on 16th April at the Exmouth Rugby Club, Imperial Road.
Urgent election registration information for those who THINK they are registered
From a reader:
For info, a neighbour of mine emailed the electoral services to check he was eligible to vote… he was told that he was on the register to vote, the only thing is…..
They got his name completely wrong…. nobody of that name has ever lived at his address….. I have advised him to phone…
This is very worrying…
To check your registration entry (or to register)contact the Electoral Registration Team on 01395 517402 or at electoralservices@eastdevon.gov.uk
Give Cabinet control over major planning applications” proposal shocks councillors.
EDW hears that councillors are deeply uneasy about officer proposals to allow EDDC’s Cabinet to decide “strategic” planning applications of more than 50 dwellings and over 5000 square metres of industrial floor space.
Lead Planning Officer Ed Freeman and Deputy Chief Executive, Richard Cohen, made a verbal report to the Audit and Governance (A&G) Committee on March 5th on “improving Strategic Planning Policy”, especially on ensuring a five year housing land supply.
Incredibly, they explained that their first recommendation was to alter EDDC’s constitution to take “strategic” planning applications from the Development Management Committee, (DMC) and to give them to Cabinet for determination.
They admitted spending considerable time looking at this controversial option that would have further strengthened the power of, what many critics consider, an overweening and developer-friendly Executive.
They were forced to drop it, by legal advice pointing out the potential conflicts of interest inherent in the proposal. Their preferred option now is to create a “Strategic Planning Committee” consisting of both Cabinet and DMC members, possibly under the chairmanship of the current Strategic Planning Portfolio Holder Andrew Moulding, to look at strategic planning applications.
This was still too much for members of the A&G Committee. Cllr Geoff Pook said, “We don’t need a second DMC looking at planning applications”. Cllr Tony Howard agreed: what was needed was competent, well-resourced officers who could get a grip on the figures for housing land supply. Constitutional changes giving more power to the Cabinet, he said, “is a different matter”.
A big “Hear, Hear!” to that from East Devon Watch.
And who defines what is “strategic”? Our suggestion: anything that involves a developer and/or a former member of the East Devon Business Forum – leaving only conservatories and extensions to the current DMC!
Local election timetable: final call for Independent candidates
East Devon District Council had published its timetable for elections in May 2015.
Click to access election-time-table.pdf
Candidates must register between:
9:00 am – 5:00 pm from 31 March until 4:00 pm Thursday 9 April 2015
If you are interested in standing as an Independent candidate under the East Devon Alliance umbrella please contact them as soon as possible, details on their website:
eastdevonalliance.org.uk
Roll up, roll up: just a week left for politically-mindec councillors to get their names into the papers!
“Purdah” – the period when all serving councillors (and their supporting officers) have to stop placing party politically-targeted stories and photographs about their party-politically motivated actions in newspapers, journals etc when they involve using council resources and not their party resources.
No more “politically sensitive” press releases, no more pictures taken by press officers of our local majority party councillors doing what they do best .. er .. though not sure what that is!
Expect a raft of mutual back-patting stories and press releases of local do-gooding in this week’s local and regional newspapers!
Once again, here is our guide to what can and cannot be done during this period.
The first question to ask is ‘could a reasonable person conclude that you were spending public money to influence the outcome of the election?’ In other words it must pass the ‘is it reasonable’ test. When making your decision, you should consider the following:
You should not:
• produce publicity on matters which are politically controversial
• make references to individual politicians or groups in press releases
• arrange proactive media or events involving candidates
• issue photographs which include candidates
• supply council photographs or other materials to councillors or political group staff unless you have verified that they will not be used for campaigning purposes
• continue hosting third party blogs or e-communications
• help with national political visits (as this would involve using public money to support a particular candidate or party). These should be organised by political parties with no cost or resource implications for the council.
EDDC funded hospital bus for Exmouth and Budleigh – no news of similar services for Seaton/Axminster/Honiton/Sidmouth/Ottery
Seems rather unfair – and announced just before local elections too:
Wonder which councillor(s) will be jumping in to take the credit before 30th March when this sort of thing has to cease until after the elections!
Probably not worth Ladbroke’s opening a book …..!
Exmouth bowling centre to be taken over by East Devon Leisure
Wonder if EDDC will be subsidising this via LED? Or will it eventually be sold on to the highest bidder after expensive renovation?
Note: EDDC hived off its leisure interests to Leisure east Devon now known as “Led Leisure Management Ltd” and has subsidised the company with hundreds of thousands of pounds since the handover, with several EDDC Conservative councillors involved in the company who have to declare personal interests whenever the company and its finances are discussed (often in secret).
Is the company, like the banks, too big to fail?
Questions for DMC regarding Knowle site
You say the district’s desperate need is for much more affordable housing.
Will any of the retirement flats be affordable? If not, why not?
If the loss of parkland is only a Sidmouth issue, will all S106/ potential Community Infrastructure Levy income be applied solely to Sidmouth in mitigation?
East Devon Watch 