Parish council elections: many councils returned unopposed and some with too few councillors

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/election-documents/town-and-parish-council-elections-2015/

The following town and parish councils WILL have elections in May 2015 there being more nominees than seats:

Axminster Town, Budleigh Salterton, Clyst St George, Dalwood, Exmouth Brixington, Exmouth Halsdon, Exmouth Town, Exmouth Witycombe Raleigh, Gittisham Village, Honiton St Michaels, Honiton St Pauls, Kimington, Lympstone, Membury, Offwell, Ottery St Mary (Tipton St John), Plymtree, Seaton, Sidmouth North, Sidmouth Primley, Sidmouth West, Stockland, Yarcombe.

The following councils will not face election run offs either because they have the same number of councillors as seats, or too few people have put themselves forward for nomination, so all will be returned uncontested. In some cases, too few people have put themselves forward and there will need to be co-option, or failing that, further elections.

All Saints, Awliscombe, Axminster (Raymonds Hill), Axminster Weycroft, Axmouth, Alyesbeare, Beer, Bicton, Brampton Speke, Branscombe, Broadclyst, Braodham, Buckerell, Chardstock, Clyst Honiton, Clyst Hydon, Clyst St Mary, Colaton Raleigh, Colyton, Combpyne/Rousden, Cotleigh, Cranbrook, Dunkeswell, East Budleigh, Exmouth Littleham, Farway, Feniton, Gittisham kVale, Hawkchurch, Luppitt, Monkton, Musbury, Newton Poppleford (Harpford), Newton Poppleford (Venn Ottery), Northleigh, Otterton, Ottery St Mary North, Ottery St Mary Town, Ottery St Mary West Hill, Payhembury, Poltimore, Rowe, Rockbeare, Shute and Whitford, Sidmouth East, Sidmouth Salcombe Regis, Sidmouth Sidbury, Sidmouth Village, Sidmouth South, Southleigh, Sowton, Stoke Canon, Talaton, Uplyme, Upottery, Upton Pyne, Whimple, Widworthy, Woodbury Exton, Woodbury Woodbury Salterton, Woodbury Woodbury.

Candidates District Council elections 2015 – vast majority of seats to be contested, 37Independent candidates

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/election-documents/district-council-elections-2015/

Three wards are missing from the list as it is presumed candidates are being returned uncontested:
Beer and Branscombe (Geoff Pook – Independent), Clyst Valley (Mike Allen, Conservative) and Trinity (Ian Thomas, Conservative).

ANALYSIS
37 Independent or Independent East Devon Alliance candidates are standing

1 independent candidate elected unopposed (Geoff Pook, Beer)

so, 15 Independent (including 1 elected unopposed)), and 22 Independent East Devon Alliance

One Independent is former Conservative Councillor Roger Boote (Honiton St Pauls) 2 candidates shown as unaffiliated are recent Conservative Councillors Bob Buxton (Dunkeswell) and Andrew Dinnis (Tale Vale) and two candidates show no affiliation Graham Long (Otterhead) and John Dyson (Sidmouth Town)

Yarty, ward of current council leader Paul Diviani, which was uncontested last time, is now being contested by Diviani again for the Conservatives but he is being challenged by Green Party, Independent East Devon Alliance and Liberal Democrat candidates.

BREAKDOWN by WARDS

Axminster Rural 1 seat: 2 candidates, neither Independent
Axminster Town 2 seats: 7 candidates including 1 Independent and one EDA
Broadclyst 2 seats: 4 candidates including 1 Independent
Budleigh 1 seat, 5 candidates including 1 Independent
Coly Valley 2 seats: 4 Candidates including 2 EDA
Dunkeswell 1 seat: 2 candidates including 1 Independent (former Conservative incumbent Bob Buxton)
Exe Valley 1 seat: 2 candidates including 1 EDA
Exmouth Brixington 3 seats: 6 candidates including 1 EDA
Exmouth Halsdon 3 seats: 6 candidates including 1 EDA
Exmouth Littleham 3 seats: 7 candidates including 1 EDA
Exmouth Town 3 seats: 8 candidates, none Independent
Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh 3 seats: 7 candidates, none Independent
Feniton and Buckerell 1 seat: 2 candidates including 1 Independent
Honiton St Michaels 3 seats: 8 candidates including 1 Independent and 1 EDA
Honiton St Pauls 2 seats: 6 candidates, including 1 Independent (former Conservative Councillor Roger Boote)
Newbridges 1 seat: 2 candidates, neither Independent
Newton Poppleford and Harpford 1 seat: 2 candidates including 1 EDA
Otterhead 1 seat: 2 candidates including one no affiliation
Ottery St Mary Rural 2 seats: 4 candidates including 2 EDA
Ottery St Mary Town 2 seats: 5 candidates including 2 Independent
Raleigh: 1 seat: 2 candidates including one EDA
Seaton 3 seats: 10 candidates including 1 Independent
Sidmouth Rural 1 seat: 2 candidates including 1 Independent
Sidmouth Sidford 3 seats: 8 candidates including 1 Independent and 3 EDA
Sidmouth Town 3 seats: 6 candidates including 2 EDA and one unaffiliated (John Dyson)
Tale Vale 1 seat: 1 Independent (former Conservative Councillor Andrew Dinnis)
Whimple 1 seat: 2 candidates neither Independent
Woodbury and Lympstone: 2 seats: 3 candidates including 2 EDA
Yarty: 1 seat: 4 candidates including 1 EDA

Parliamentary candidates

Our Labour candidate gives his address as London N1.

Our Conservative candidate gives “Address in the CENTRAL DEVON constituency”. The only candidate not to provide a full postal address.

He doesn’t even have a second home in East Devon let alone a first!

Perhaps he couldn’t afford East Devon prices, or maybe Central Devon is a cleaner and greener place to live …

Influence? Who is influencing whom?

An awful lot of Hugo Swire placards appear to have been placed on land belonging to well-known local developers and/or farmers, some of whom were very enthusiastic East Devon Business Forum members. Claire Wright placards appear to be mostly at private residences or small local businesses.

Who is influencing whom, one wonders?

Conservatives have circular pre-formulated standard letters for farmers, pensioners, small businesses etc

Should you receive a personal letter from the Conservative Party that seems specific and personal to you (e.f. pensioner, farmer), be aware that it is actually a circular letter sent to lots of people with only the name changed:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3031803/Dear-target-voter-Tory-letter-writing-kit-woo-farmers-pensioners-women-revealed.html

Susie Bond (Independent, Feniton) standing again and supports other independent candidates

See her latest blogpost here: https://susiebond.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/and-were-off/

You only have to look at the records of our Independent councillors such as Susie, Claire Wright, Roger Giles and Ben Ingham to see that independent councillors makes the biggest impact on scrutiny of our current majority Conservative council. Now we need them to be the decision-makers.

Recall that before Susie was elected Feniton was in the hands of ex- councillor Graham Brown …

Housing ‘crisis’ based on shaky foundations?

Simon Jenkins believes so. For those who missed it first time round, here’s his evidence…http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9452952/the-myth-of-the-housing-crisis/

 

Naughty Hugo Swire “MP” – not

A reader has pointed out to us that, in the poster that has gone up in West Hill (why just West Hill one wonders – surely this “very influential” ex-MP doesn’t feel threatened by Claire Wright!) extolling the “virtues” of Hugo Swire he refers to himself as “Hugo Swire, MP”.

In fact, although he remains a Minister of State at the Foreign Office (so that he can carry on jetting all over the world influencing people and presumamably being influenced by them in turn since this is not usually a one-way street) he is NOT an MP – he is a Parliamentary Candidate, just like all other Parliamentary Candidates in East Devon and everywhere else.

All MPs ceased to be MPs when Parliament was prorogued in March. At that time they had to clear their offices and hand back all their identification and other passes, etc.  If his “team” can’t get this very simple fact right, what else might they be getting wrong?  Time for a slap on the wrist for the election agent who is supposed to be on top of these things.

However, it should be noted that, because many MPs would lose their Google ranking, Facebook links, etc if they had to change their websites, an exception has been made for social media where web addresses may remain the same (at least for now and until the results of the election when former MPs will have a lot of social media reorganisation to do).

Here is the official text from the Parliament website:

House of Commons

When Parliament is dissolved, every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant. All business in the House comes to an end. There are no Members of Parliament. MPs revert to being members of the public and lose privileges associated with being a Member of Parliament.

MPs are allowed access to Parliament for just a few days in which to remove papers from their offices. The facilities that the House provides for MPs in Westminster during a Parliament are no longer available to them from 5pm on the day of dissolution.

Until a new Parliament is elected, there are no MPs. Those who wish to be MPs again must stand again as candidates for election.”

http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/dissolution/