Daily Archives: 18 Dec 2015

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18 Dec 2015

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Asset Management Group, EDDC

EDDC Corporate Asset Management Plan

Can be found in this document page 5 onwards:

Click to access 051115amfcombinedagenda.pdf

Highlights

Table (page 4)

Sports centres and facilities appear to be operating at a large loss – presumably, this is the subsidy paid to East Devon Leisure

Parking get EDDC an income of more than £3 million on an outlay of just more than £1 million – all profits from parking must be spent on transport- related projects.

The East Devon Business Centre appears to be unprofitable (page 11)

IT STILL MEETS IN SECRET

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18 Dec 2015

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EDDC, Phil Twiss, Rural communications

Alternative broadband provider suggested by EDDC Councillor Twiss in October 2014


Scrutiny Committee 16 October 2014

Minute 38

… In response to a question, Councillor Phil Twiss informed the committee that he would know more about the SEP funding shortly but the timescales were not expected to be kept. Work was being undertaken to see if the SEP could be extended to open to other providers other than BT.

RECOMMENDED

that clarification is sought from the Connecting Devon and Somerset team, and reported to members, at the earliest opportunity as to whether the SSDC/EDDC element of the potential £22.75 million SEP funding can be redirected to an alternative provider outside of the Connecting Devon and Somerset Programme;

that clarification is sought from the Connecting Devon and Somerset team, and reported to members on whether the original objectives of the BDUK project was to provide improved access for rural residents to Superfast Broadband, in recognition of the fact that such access is now seen as essential in modern domestic and business life, or was it also to support cheaper provision to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in more urban areas. Members would also like to have the position on state aid to businesses clarified in relation to this point;

that whatever decision are taken corporately to address providing Superfast Broadband to “the final 10%”, there is a commitment to openness, transparency and accountability from all those involved and there will be no further use of non-disclosure agreements or similar.

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/scrutiny-committee/overview-and-scrutiny-committee-minutes/16-october-2014/broadband-scrutiny-review-report/

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18 Dec 2015

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Democracy, EDDC, Exmouth, Moirai Exmouth project, Transparency

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Exmouth: EDDC gives masterclass in how to alienate residents

Extract from Save Exmouth Seafront facebook page:

This evening (Dec 16th) a number of SES supporters (abt 30 of us) went to EDDC’s Full Council meeting.

Following a demo outside, five questions were asked of the council on the plans, and Richard Cohen, EDDC Deputy Chief Executive answered these. A precis of his responses is in brackets.

First question was the need for the release of plans into the public domain (answer: apparently there are not yet any to release).

Second question was about the need to take seriously the findings of the seafront survey (recognised a ‘range of views’ but no commitment to act on the findings beyond making them available to developers).

The third question was about how the EDDC portion of the consultation was totally misleading to the students who were at the consultation and in the use of this exercise as justification for the plans (very little to say in answer to this, except that others had been consulted too).

The fourth question was about the issue of the earlier consultation stating ‘no permanent residential’ and yet plans shown over the summer included a large amount of residential therefore further consultation should be undertaken (dismissal that these plans were simply ‘one version’ and patronising comment that people have ‘extrapolated from this’, [I suggest that this is what will happen when you do not tell people what you intend to do to their town], and

finally a question was asked about whose responsibility it will be to clear sand from any development given the large amounts blown across the Queen’s Drive in the recent bad weather (after a moment looking slightly panicked, he answered that this is what will happen on a seafront!).

Further questions were then asked by a number of independent councillors around the proposed development, the need for a consultation, and the secrecy around meetings that are held on this. Unfortunately the answers given were lacking, and the public at one point had to be asked to be quiet as we felt the need to express our general outrage that important questions about the future of Exmouth were not being addressed. The lack of democracy this evening was pretty depressing.

Earlier EDW post on the same meeting here: https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/12/17/as-a-young-person-of-exmouth-i-feel-misled-and-horrified/

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18 Dec 2015

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EDDC, Phil Twiss, Rural communications

When did EDDC decide to ” go it alone” on broadband coverage?

Owl is confused. When exactly did EDDC decide to formulate its own solution for full broadband coverage in the district?

Certainly as early as May 2015 according to this item in the minutes of the Yarcombe Annual Parish Meeting on 18 May 2015:

“Broadband Briefing

… News had been received that morning from Councillor Phil Twiss of East Devon District Council explaining that EDDC were attempting to go it alone and provide a private equity solution which Steve Horner thought might be a more expensive solution.

Steve also commented that despite the fact that Yarcombe was not a very remote Parish we have both the A 303 and A 30 trunk roads running through the parish, it would appear that we will be left out of the programme and will have to rely on the expensive “Satellite“ solution.

Steve did promise he would continue to lobby long and hard on behalf of Yarcombe to ensure we did have a decent broadband signal.

Cllr Pidgeon thanked Steve for all his work on our behalf.”

http://www.yarcombe.net/docs/Parish%20Council%20APM%2020150518.doc

And as late as Aptil 2015, EDDC was saying that it was working in partnership with CDC – the combined Devon and Somerset group that it now seems to have pulled out of:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/business-and-investment/business-support-and-advice/

But was EDDC still taking the lead on this with the Devon and Somerset CDC? If so, wouldn’t that be a rather conflicting situation?

Also, if a ” private equity solution” is being sought, would this not come under EU tendering rules that assume a great deal of transparency on who is talking to whom about what?

If only one “private equity” company is involved surely this would be against competition rules too?

Perhaps councillor Twiss could enlighten us all.

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18 Dec 2015

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Phil Twiss, Rural communications

Now you see him, now you don’t … Councillor Twiss unable to attend crucial Council meeting

The usually ubiquitous Cllr Phil Twiss (Conservative Group Whip, Portfolio holder for Corporate services, Cabinet member, member of the development working party, and Capital strategy and allocation group, member of Local joint panel, representative on Exeter International Airport consultative group and representative on South West councils group (1) was strangely absent from Wednesday’s EDDC full Council Meeting.

Unkind rumours suggest that the Honiton heavyweight, not known for his discretion, was advised to be AWOL to shield him from a perfect storm of embarrassing questions around issues he is involved in.

Stand-in Cllr Ian Thomas struggled to defend the omnishambles that is local rural broadband roll-out under Connectivity in the South West on which Phil is the District representative, given his expertise in IT and broadband issues (Councillor Twiss describes himself on the Linked-In business network site as an “Independent Telecommunications Specialist”).

Independent Cllr Roger Giles was denied the opportunity to ask the Tory Whip ( who, before Owl is challenged, says he NEVER whips!) why his party press release on the Heart of the South West devolution bid had pre-empted an official Council statement.

Most intriguingly, Independent councillor Cathy Gardner, in a follow up to a question on EDDC’s representation on Exeter International Airport consultative group, wondered if there might be a conflict of interest if a representative of EDDC speaks on behalf of their customers rather than EDDC.

The suggestion was dismissed airily by Council leader Diviani, but it would have been interesting to hear from the man himself.

(1) Ironically in 2012 when Stuart Hughes (now back in the fold as Council Chairman) was sacked as Scrutiny committee head for asking embarrassing questions about the East Devon Business Forum, Twiss said the real reason was that Hughes was “too busy”!
Hughes retorted that the Council leadership was “spineless and arrogant”.