Residents 0, Developers 1. Better hope EDDC doesn’t own anyone’s garden.
“It’s taken decades of toil and thousands of pounds to turn these gardens into pristine suburban oases. But there’ll be digging of a different kind soon – when developers send in the demolition squads.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3285446/The-council-s-trying-steal-gardens.html
What’s betting our own dear International Minister MP Hugo Swire was involved!
“Conservative ministers have been accused of quietly abandoning the longstanding principle that members of the government should be bound by international law.
A rewrite of the ministerial code that sets out the standard of conduct expected has omitted a reference to the subject – a decision that senior lawyers say could have far-reaching implications for the UK and its relationship with the rest of the world.
The latest version of the code, which was published without fanfare on Thursday last week, reveals that a key element has disappeared. The previous code, issued in 2010, said there was an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law including international law and treaty obligations and to uphold the administration of justice and to protect the integrity of public life”.
In the new version the sentence has been edited to say only that there is an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law and to protect the integrity of public life”.
Lawyers say key issues affected by the change could include decisions about whether to go to war or use military force, such as the use of drones in Syria, any decision made by an international court about the UK and any laws not incorporated into English law, such as human rights legislation and the Geneva conventions.”
http://gu.com/p/4dgj
Mysterious words from EDDC Leader Paul Diviani at the latest Full Council apparently. They tumbled out in response to a barrage of questions from IEDA Councillors, following issues raised by representatives of the Save Exmouth Seafront (SES) campaign.
East Devon Watch has received this summary:
“Cllr Megan Armstrong quoted from Exmouth Regeneration Board minutes (7th Oct 2015) which state that the area was being regenerated “for the wider benefit of Exmouth” . Was this statement, and other justifications for the seafront development, “based on facts, assumptions, or wishful thinking by the Council”, she asked?
Cllr Ben Ingham picked up her point, saying that the Council should “tell the truth”, that their Exmouth seafront plans were to make money to fill an anticipated gap in their finances. It was “total rubbish” to pretend it was “for the wider benefit of Exmouth”.
Cllr Ingham also referred to concerns raised at public question time about EDDC’s choice of partnership company for the seafront development. SES had sent Councillors their research on the matter. But Cllr Cathy Gardner’s proposal that the Scrutiny Committee should check that due diligence had been properly done, was summarily dismissed by Leader Paul Diviani. “You are wandering into territory that is very dangerous”, he told her.
A (combined?) written reply to the Independent Cllrs was promised.”
More on the Save Exmouth Seafront campaign on BBC RADIO DEVON’s breakfast programme today and on RADIO EXE.
Some background here:
“Ask Holly: My boss keeps flirting with me”
“Dear Holly,
My boss keeps coming on to me and I don’t know what to do. Most of the time, it’s just the usual ‘playful’ slaps on the buttocks, or ‘accidentally’ dropping his pen on the floor and asking me to pick it up, but it’s only a matter of time before he tries to get me involved in that pig nonsense. How can I fend off his attacks but still keep my plummy job?
Hugo Swire
Westminster
Dear Hugo,
Maybe your boss is lonely. Sometimes grown ups just want a friend. Like my teacher, Mrs Dodkins. She’s always cracking maths jokes and trying to get everyone to join her rubbish choir, but no-one ever does because her breath smells of coffee and she openly says One Direction aren’t very good, but she has no taste because she’s MEGA old, like 36 or something and too outdated to appreciate real art.
Hope that helps
Holly”
It is now widely accepted that councils are no longer viewed as “public services”. A council used to be elected to represent the interests of its area and its councillors were supposed to represent the views of their electors (though this was not always the case). Council tax was seen as the price we paid for our public services.
Now councils are seen as businesses. They exist to make a profit. They are no longer guardians of public assets but are looking to sell off as many of their “unprofitable” assets as possible whilst retaining cash cows. They do not see a responsibility to council tax payers or to future generations and now developers are what they call their real “customers” that they are there to serve. Indeed, a few years ago, one of EDDC’s senior officers said that, yes, developers are their real customers as they pay large sums into council coffers, more than council tax and therefore they should be considered the council’s most important customers – far more important than council tax payers.
Now we have the situation where the “council businesses” no longer has the interests of electors at their heart and they are increasingly attempting to be simply profitable businesses. But the problem then arises when what is best for the business is not best for electors.
Take the situation in Exmouth. The district council does not want Marks and Spencers Food to be sited near the railway and bus stations (on land owned by Devon County Council) but on its own land which is currently designated as a rugby field. Marks and Spencers knows what it wants and would have been aware of the choice of sites and they chose the one that suited their needs.
This now pitches council business against council business – EDDC against DCC. Some might say this is a good thing as it stimulates competition. However, there is a BIG stumbling block. One of these businesses (EDDC) holds the right to allow or refuse the planning application on the other businesses’s land. Today it is EDDC which holds the trump cards, tomorrow it may be DCC (for example, Straitgate Quarry, where DCC wants it to continue and EDDC does not).
In the past, the deal-breaker would have been: what is best for the district? Now the deal-breaker is: what effect does this have on our income stream and our ability to sell off assets to the highest bidder?
Increasingly, councillors are playing no part in these decisions, except to follow government guidelines that services must be slashed and developers must be encouraged and they must toe the party line on this.
We, the electors, are not just marginalised but practically eradicated from the decision-making process, since our interests are not those of the businesses which our councillors now serve.
Is this what we should accept? If not, how do we ensure that we get what is best for our district and not what is best for EDDC plc or DCC plc?
Planning Application 15/2188/MOUT
Objections need to be in to EDDC Planning by 27th October 2015. This is the date which you should look to if you want your email or letter displayed on the EDDC website and to be considered by the Development Management Committee.
The planning application will probably be discussed by the Development Management Committee on 8 December 2015 at The Knowle, Seaton.
Unfortunately the EDDC New Local Plan will not be approved by the inspector until early 2016 – one possible reason why this planning application has been made at this time.
Below is a link to points that you may wish to consider when making your objection:
East Devon Watch 