Until the last election educational funding per pupil in Torbay was £1,350 per pupil whereas in other parts of the country it was up to £5,000 per pupil.
Now, 2 months after the election, and Torbay now being politically fully blue in control terms rather than blue and yellow, the government has announced that it will inject a further £1.5 million into Torbay schools.
It is a terrible thing when education is politicised.
Given all the hoo-ha a couple of years ago when errant Councillor Graham Brown was forced into resigning as an EDDC Tory Councillor due to his extensive personal local development interests:
the government put out the following press release:
Response to a report in ‘The Telegraph’ that councillors are offering themselves for hire to property developers.
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Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said:
“This government has increased accountability and transparency over councillors’ interests, to accompany greater power and freedoms for local councils.
“Councils should adopt a Code of Conduct that reflects the Nolan principles on conduct in public life, with councillors declaring any private interest that relate to their public duties, and councillors must take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
“In addition, it is now a criminal offence to fail to declare or register disclosable pecuniary interests – which includes any employment or trade carried out for profit or gain. The register of councillors’ interests must be published online by the council.
“Councillors should act in an open and transparent way, to avoid conflicts of interest on issues such as planning applications or benefiting financially from the issuing of council contracts.”
Given this advice, how do our new councillors with extensive property development interests plan to deal with the fact that two of them are on the Development Management Committee and one of them is the Chairman of the Asset Management Forum?
Councillors Colin Brown and Paul Carter are both on the Development Management Committee.
Councillor Brown’s Register of Interests is here:
Click to access roi-colin-brown.pdf
and includes local property development interests (as well as owning a hotel that is currently used as a polling station for local and national elections):
and Councillor Carter’s Register of Interests (recently updated) is here:
Click to access roi-paul-carter.pdf
and includes local property development interests:
In addition, Councillor Carter has submitted land that he owns for inclusion in the EDDC Local Plan.
Councillor Pook may be a more complex case. In HIS Register of Interests (also recently updated) he lists his local property development interests but also adds in Section 4:
“Litehomes purchase of land from and development house for EDDC (May 2015)” (sic)
Click to access roi-geoff-pook.pdf
What on earth does this mean? Perhaps he could enlighten us about Litehomes.
Additionally, he neglects to inform us that, as Chairman of the Asset Management Forum, he leases a site for beach hut in Beer from East Devon District Council and is currently heading meetings about EDDC giving notice to all lease holders so that huts can be auctioned off to the highest bidder – something being handled by … the Asset Management Forum.
In this case, he has sought to say that Beer, where he leases his hut, should be a “special case” because:
“I have suggested that the history of beach hut ownership and use in Beer is perhaps different from other towns and villages in East Devon – families have traditionally had tea on the beach in Beer and this is part of the historic character of the village”.
http://www.beerparishcouncil.org.uk/news.php?id=4604
As EVERYONE who leases a beach hut anywhere in East Devon also by default has “tea on the beach” we are not entirely convinced by this argument for making Beer a special case!
It should also be noted that on 11th May 2015, 4 days after the latest local election, Councillor Pook left the Independent Group. On 15th May he was identified as a cabinet member. At the beginning of June it was rumoured that he may have indicated that he might not continue as an “Independent” councillor for much longer.
Some Beer voters might feel a little miffed if that transpires.
Following on from the post where Devon County Council foresees a town “as big as Barnstaple” at Cranbrook. we have received the following comment which is upscaled to a post here:
Here are some historical EDDC statements about the size of Cranbrook:
Cabinet 2 May 2012 – “The Local Plan anticipates the completion of 6,000 homes at Cranbrook in the period to 2026 representing a likely population in excess of 13,000 people.”
Cabinet 3 April 2013 – “More broadly this pace of delivery is fundamental to supporting the achievement of the Local Plan, with circa. 60% of the remaining strategic housing requirement due to be accommodated at Cranbrook with expansion up to circa 6,500 homes over the plan period.”
Cabinet 4 Sept 2013 – “It is anticipated that by 2026, 6,000 new homes and associated town centre and other facilities will have been built. Assuming an occupancy rate of 2.2 persons per dwelling this is likely to mean that Cranbrook’s population will reach approximately 13,000 people – similar to Honiton by 2026. These 6,000 new homes are anticipated to come forward as a consequence of the following: Outline planning application 03/P1900 granted in October 2010 for the first 2,900; A Full Planning application for 600 homes (submitted on 2 August 2013) and (at the time of writing, being checked for validation) the ‘East and West Expansion Areas’ – allocated for approximately 2,500 homes in the emerging Submission East Devon Local Plan 2006-2026.”
Cabinet 4 June 2014 – “The vision for Cranbrook clearly anticipates that it will be much more than a housing estate with it being seen instead as a “new East Devon ‘market town’” with a “fully functional town centre” that is “ideally placed to perform a role in serving tourism in East Devon”.”
Cabinet 5 Nov 2014 – “The new Local Plan identifies both east and west expansion areas for Cranbrook to bring the overall level of development to about 6,000 houses. The new local plan does also show an indicative location for about 1500 houses to the south of the old A30 Honiton Road after 2016. New Community Partners (NCP) have advised that they will be submitting an outline planning application for the east, west and southern expansion of Cranbrook comprising possibly 4,000 houses before the end of 2014. The NCP held a “Cranbrook to 2031’ public exhibition on 15 and 16 October and before the end of this calendar year we expect to receive an application or applications for the largest residential scheme East Devon DC has seen in many years.”
EDDC Web site today – What is Cranbrook all about? – “Currently, a total of 3,561 homes, two primary schools, a secondary school, town centre, local centre and associated infrastructure and green spaces have planning permission but there are plans for a further 4,000 homes and associated infrastructure set out in the New Local Plan meaning that the town is planned to grow to a total of around 6,000 homes by the year 2026 and to 7,500 homes beyond that. This equates to a town of approximately 15,500 people (slightly larger than Sidmouth or Honiton).”
So, EDDC’s official position is originally 6,000 houses / 13,000 people , and now targeted at 7,500 homes (which would be c. 16,250 people). So I am not sure where 30,000 people has come from – or why a second station is needed when the population is actually projected to be only half the size of Barnstaple.
It is now possible again to set up a petition for a subject to be debated in Parliament. When a petition reaches more than 100,000 signatures it must be debated in Parliament.
You can sign a current petition or start a new one at:
https://petition.parliament.uk/
Current petitions include:
A vote of no confidence in the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104334
Imposing taxes on foreign investors buying property worth more than £3.5 million:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104311
To sign you must give a valid email address (which is not published) and respond to a link which will be sent to that email address.
The Cranbrook Herald is running a front page story which says that, according to Devon County Council, Cranbrook will need a second railway station because eventually “it could be bigger than Barnstaple” (pop: 30,000 plus).
http://www.cranbrookherald.com/home
This is an even bigger increase than that announced late last year (around 20,000):
The current population estimate of Cranbrook is around 2,500:
It’s 7 shops will open later this year: a cafe, fish and chip shop, a Chinese takeaway, a small Co-op, an estate agent, a pharmacy and a charity shop.
Talks about new roads into Cranbrook (which the new town council don’t like because they are “dull and not pretty” with insufficient access for the planned supermarket and a pub) seem to hint that there may also be a bigger supermarket in the offing.
Not much infrastructure for 30,000 people! Still at least they can eat, drink, be merry, sort out their hangovers and buy cheap clothes and then, when they are ready to move, they can use the estate agency! Though with many homes likely to be buy-to-let from cashed-in pensions and the like, the rental side may be busier.
Isn’t it interesting that Hugo Swire seems to criticise controversial decisions in East Devon just after those decisions have been mad.
Knowle relocation – condemned only after the decision had been made and just before the election.
Closure of local hospitals – criticised the day AFTER the decision was made.
Good or bad timing?
Voter registration leaflets are dropping through our doors. It is SO tempting not to return them to see if we get a visit from a nice lady or gentleman who will ensure that we do!
Mark Williams is not a great believer in those visits, not having not arranged any for several years – a fact that Members of Parliament heavily criticised when he was hauled before them last December to explain an alarming drop in voters – from around 102,000 to 96,000.
Now intriguingly we learn from this week’s Sidmouth Herald that he is talking of a current 110,000 voters who are registered – which would mean a whopping 14,000 people have only recently been registered.
Typo surely? Fortunately, he is appearing before a committee in September to explain why so many things have gone wrong with voter registration in the past few years, so we can all know what is really the correct number.
East Devon Watch 