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Voting

Votes versus seats in the 2015 general election

“Disproportionality is the degree of mismatch between parties’ shares of votes and their shares of seats, with measures of disproportionality usually calculated for national elections. This year’s general election was criticised by many as the least proportional ever. Chris Hanretty acknowledges that on some measures, this is a valid claim, but demonstrates that calculating a measure for local disproportionality gives a better sense of how the mismatch varied across England, Scotland and Wales. …

… constituencies in the South West also have high levels of local disproportionality – in part because of a large number of wasted votes for UKIP, but more because of the failure of the Liberal Democrats in what was previously a successful hunting ground.”

http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=18360

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Asset sweating, Austerity cuts

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“Charging old people for falling down is an affront to human decency”

During my time at Essex county fire and rescue service, barely a shift went by without receiving a call from an elderly person who had fallen in their home, or from their concerned neighbour or carer.

The calls were always the same: a frightened voice, racked with humility and embarrassment, apologising profusely for “wasting” our time. “I telephoned because I know you can get in my house. I can’t get up, you see. I’m so sorry to trouble you.”

I would mobilise a crew and inform the ambulance service, which wouldn’t be far behind. We’re the “fire and rescue” service, you see, and that’s what we do. It was all part of the service, along with rescuing donkeys from swimming pools, righting overturned horse boxes and getting dogs out of lakes. These days the service is so much more than pointing wet stuff at burning stuff.

So news that Tendring district council in Essex is planning to introduce a “falling fee” for elderly residents struck a blow to all that I knew about decency, humanity and my years in the service.

I only did four years and thought perhaps attitudes were changing, so I contacted a former colleague to ask his opinion. He responded with expletives, with anecdotes of broken hips and shattered wrists and ribs smashed on the sides of bathtubs, and how dealing with them needed the professional care that comes of regular first-aid training and having a paramedic on hand.

Paul Honeywood, a Conservative councillor for Tendring, defended the measure saying the council needs the £26 annual charge in order to continue offering a “lifting service”. “Having consulted users, we have discovered there is a demand – and the idea is now going through the budget process with a final decision to be made in February,” he said.

Ironically, Mr Honeywood is also an officer with the Citizens Advice Bureau , which offers assistance to people who feel that they are being unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of age under the Equality Act 2010. If I were an elderly resident of the area, I might feel that being charged £26 for the inconvenience of growing old would count as discrimination, and might complain to Mr Honeywood at both of his offices. Politics, local and national, feel so desperate and deluded as to be beyond satire.

The falling charge will apply from April, if approval goes through. But this has wider implications. If passed, it will almost certainly prompt other cash-strapped local councils to follow suit. Yet old people will have contributed to healthcare services all their lives, through income tax, council tax (part of which is diverted to their local fire service) and taxes on goods and services. And many of them will have served their countries in the second world war, fighting for Mr Honeywood and others to have the freedom to decide to fine them for growing old.

In Essex, older residents already pay £21 a month if they want a Careline “big red button” alarm system in their homes – the falling fee is extra. The sinister undertone in this discussion is one of fear, and the same old nasty politics. Instil fear in people who are not as young as they were, not quite as sprightly, who may be living alone, and may already be fearful not just of taking a tumble on the stairs but of what the future holds.

For public officials to capitalise on this fear of infirmity is both sinister and cruel. My grandmother, who is in her early 80s, has had the odd fall. But if Southend council thought to offer a £26-a-year service to pop her back on her feet, I’m sure she would politely tell them where to stick it.

Elderly people, save your pennies and buy a £10 mobile phone. Stick it in your pocket, and if you should find yourself needing to be picked up and nobody else can get into your home, 999 is – and will always be – free to call.

In the meantime, this Essex council wants a “consultation”. Let’s give it to them. As Martin Luther King once said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter … What are you doing for others?”

http://gu.com/p/4f94g

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EDDC, Rural communications, Rural communities

Unspinning spin about rural broadband

A letter to the editor of Western Morning News:

Your piece in the WMN, Dec 18:

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/South-West-telecoms-firms-ready-phase-2/story-28389453-detail/story.html

makes an excellent marketing piece for Connecting Devon & Somerset, but you are misleading your readers with this supposed good news story when infact CDS is a basket case compared to almost every other county council run superfast broadband programme in England:

What you don’t tell readers is that:

1) This is CDS’s third attempt to find Phase 2 suppliers after they dumped 25 suppliers who attended their previous Phase 2 supplier day in 2014 and then failed to secure an exclusive contract with BT in June 2015.

2) Devon & Somerset are now one year behind almost every other County in England at getting Phase 2 off the ground.

3) That contract negotiations with BT collapsed in June because not one District Council in Devon would commit a penny of match funding because CDS would not tell them what they would be buying for their money.
Read the quotes from East Devon District Council’s Leader, Paul Diviani on the EDDC website about why he would not give match funding to CDS and now wants to run his own programme!!!…..

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2015/12/east-devon-district-council-will-pursue-pivotal-broadband-project-on-behalf-of-its-communities/

4) Now that the EU State Aid for the programme expired on June 30, an exemption agreement is having to be negotiated with Brussels and the EU Competition Commissioner is forcing the Phase 2 contract to be broken up into 6 or more small contracts for smaller areas of the two counties and that any supplier who is awarded a contract will be required to make all their infrastructure (fibre cable, ducts, masts, DSLAM cabinets etc etc) available to all their competitors to use.

Rather than the good news story CDS would have you believe this is, CDS are simply picking up the pieces of their two previous failed attempts to find suppliers and worst of all, having wasted two years, council budgets are tighter for 2016 than they were in 2015, so that when contracts with suppliers may possibly be signed in the second half of 2016, there is likely to be less money available for the Phase 2 programme than their was in June 2015.

And who suffer as a result of this incompetence?…….Devon & Somerset’s rural taxpayers who are being left out of this digital age.

Please correct your misleading article.

B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset)
http://www.b4rds.org/

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Environment (local)

Council decision to allow quarrying in Cornwall quashed in High Court

May be some useful information for Straitgate quarry objectors, though the circumstances are somewhat different general principles may have been established in case law:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-35141107

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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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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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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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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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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”.

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Asset sweating, Austerity cuts

Tendring council will charge elderly people who fall £26 to pick them up

The proposal by Tendring District Council, Essex, would affect some 3,000 elderly and vulnerable residents who pay for its Careline service, which helps users live independently at home.

Pensioners who need help getting to their feet after a fall will be charged a £26 call-out fee as part of planned cost-cutting measures.

The proposal by Tendring District Council, Essex, would affect some 3,000 elderly and vulnerable residents who currently pay for its Careline service, which helps users live independently at home.

Among the technology offered by Careline is a pendant which allows the wearer to send out a distress signal to a call centre in case of a fall or other minor emergency.
The Careline service currently costs £21.60-a-month but the council is planning to introduce an additional £25.92 charge in the event that a worker is called out to pick up someone after a fall.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3364544/Pensioners-trip-fall-home-charged-26-local-council-come-pick-again.html

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Democracy, Devolution, East Devon Tories, EDDC, Exmouth, Moirai Exmouth project, Phil Twiss, Richard Cohen, Rural communications, Spin, Transparency

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“As a young person of Exmouth, I feel misled and horrified …”

So said the Exmouth College student who questioned EDDC leaders last night (16 Dec,2015), about the process behind the seafront development proposals in her town. But Deputy CEO Richard Cohen’s answer skirted around her main point (“I feel misled”), in a Full Council meeting that showed EDDC manipulative management at its very worst.

Blind block-voting without debate; and a Chair who allowed 5 serious questions from Exmouth residents to be rolled into one by the responding officer, thus enabling central points made by the speakers to be glossed over or, (as with the offer by Louise McAllister, specialist in surveys, to meet EDDC), simply ignored.

Not a single question was asked by any Majority Party councillor: only one of the 9 questions put, all from Independents, had a satisfactory answer (given thoroughly by Environment Portfolio holder, Cllr Iain Chubb).

Corporate Services portfolio holder, Cllr Phil Twiss, was unavailable to answer embarrassing questions about broadband, leaving Cllr Ian Thomas apologetically unable to provide informed replies.

The meeting reached a crescendo of ‘confidentiality’, when the critical information needed by councillors before deciding whether to give Leader Paul Diviani ‘delegated powers’ regarding the multi-million pound Heart of the South West (HotSW) devolution bid, was declared (without debate) too sensitive for press and public. So the devolution item was dealt with in private, at the end of the session.

Just a few minutes into this part of the agenda, the Chair, Cllr Stuart Hughes, closed the meeting, somewhat prematurely perhaps. There had been no discussion by councillors, and the whole point of this session had been missed: there was no vote on delegated powers for the Leader.

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Cranbrook, EDDC, Environment (local), Local Plan

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EDDC quietly drops the “eco town” from Cranbrook in Draft Local Plan

According to the front page of this month’s Cranbrook Herald, the lead story is that EDDC has dropped the words that it is built ton”eco-town standards” when describing Cranbrook in the draft Local Plan.

http://www.cranbrookherald.com
(e-edition)

The town council agrees, saying that the phrase cannot apply when EDDC is “downgrading future environmental requirements for the town”.

It is apparently now being described as a “modern market town”.

Hhhmmm …

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Osborne gives his image adviser 42% pay rise

“The disclosure comes in data that shows the bill for special advisers across government has risen to £9.2m in 2014-2015, up from £8.4m over the previous year.

In July, the chancellor told thousands of teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and civil servants that they would face another four-year pay freeze at 1% a year, as part of planned savings worth £17bn. Many more jobs are also set to be lost across the public sector.

The increasing use of public money to fund the chancellor’s office, where he now has 10 advisers, will anger many public-sector workers. The increase in money spent on special advisers is especially embarrassing for David Cameron because of previous pledges to cut the cost of government and the number of special advisers.

The increase in money spent on Osborne’s office will be seen as further evidence that he is seeking to increase his influence across Whitehall. Senior Tories believe he wishes to exert his influence as he seeks follow Cameron into the job of prime minister.

The data shows that Cameron has 32 advisers – six more than in November last year. Twenty-three are paid more than £63,000 a year. Topping the list are his head of communications, Craig Oliver, and chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, who both earn £140,000.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/17/osborne-hands-advisers-big-pay-rises-while-freezing-public-sector-wages

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“Taking out the trash: how spin doctors wrangle the news”

“The final day the Commons sits before a Christmas or summer recess is always a busy day for political journalists – because of the large number of government announcements that are made at those times. But on Thursday there were 36 written statements from ministers. And, according to the gov.uk website, departments put out 424 publications on this day.

There were two important announcements, on local government spending and Lords reform, accompanied by oral statements to the Commons. And the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, an important government quango, published its annual report, among plenty more reports and documents issued.

At Westminster this is known as “burying bad news” or, after the same practice featured in an episode of West Wing “taking out the trash” day.

Government spin doctors know that if they release a vast amount of potentially embarrassing news on the same day they will limit negative publicity. In an ideal world the No 10 communications chief would also arrange for someone like José Mourinho to get sacked, but there are limits to the powers of Craig Oliver and so it’s best to put that one down to luck.

Some of the information released today came under the heading of “transparency” and Matthew Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister, said in a statement that “enhancing transparency and accountability continues to be at the heart of our approach to government”.

That is hard to square with an approach to news management that seems intended to minimise scrutiny. The prime minister’s spokesman claimed the government was having to put out so much news today because it had “a big agenda”.

Announcements are made on the day before recess because many ministerial declarations have to be made to parliament. Many of the items released today are genuinely awkward or embarrassing for ministers. But others are more innocuous, and they may have been held back not as part of a cover-up but simply through inertia and Whitehall’s ingrained reluctance to release information.

We have not read all 424 documents published today. But here are 30 of the announcements that have appeared, which the government seem to want you to overlook.

1 – A local government spending settlement involving cuts worth billions

2 – A report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission saying Britain is on track to becoming ever more divided

3 – A long-delayed report into the Muslim Brotherhood whose conclusions may disappoint allies like Saudi Arabia

4 – The list of government special advisers, and figures showing how much they are paid

5- The list of ministerial interests

6 – Information about David Cameron’s ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings

7 – A list of receptions held at Downing Street

8 – A list of government officials earning more than £150,000

9 – A report from the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration saying the authorities have lost contact with around 10,000 asylum seekers

10 – A plan to curb the powers of the House of Lords that has been criticised by opposition parties and by constitutional reformers

11 – Cuts to solar panel subsidies

12 – Homelessness figures showing a 45% increase in the number of families living in emergency B&Bs

13 – An official Department for Work and Pensions report on the bedroom tax saying that three-quarters of those affected have cut back on food and that the impact on downsizing has been limited

14 – A Home Office review saying the government should abandon its policy of having tied visas for overseas domestic workers

15 – An air quality action plan that has been criticised as too lax by environmental campaigners

16 – A report into failings at the Southern Health NHS foundation trust

17 – A range of court fee increases

18 – A statement saying 177 service personnel are embedded with other nations’ armed forces

19 – Police funding figures for 2016-17

20 – Charts setting out how much money is spent on ministerial cars

21 – Suspension of a badger vaccination programme

22 – The allocation of onshore gas and oil exploration licences that would pave the way for fracking

23 – An evaluation of a pilot relating to the use of independent child trafficking advocates

24 – Data about the number of quangos funded by the government

25 – The government’s response to the Harris review on self-inflicted deaths in custody

26 – A report on the needs of ex-service personnel in the criminal justice system

27 – The government’s sports strategy

28 – A long-term walking and cycling investment strategy

29 – A consultation on reform on the Independent Police Complaints Commission

30 – A list of guests who have visited Chequers”

http://gu.com/p/4f797

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EDDC, Local Plan, Local Plan Inspector

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Local Plan progress – is telepathy involved?

According to Great Leader Diviani’s Christmas message, he expects the latest version of the draft Local Plan to be adopted early next year.

But how does he know this?

According to the EDDC web page where ALL correspondence with Mr Thickett is supposed to be published:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/document-libraries/local-plan-documents/correspondence-between-council-and-inspector/

EDDC has not written to Mr Thickett since February 2015 and Mr Thickett has not replied since March 2015.

Special telepathy perhaps to which the public is not allowed access?

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Affordable and Social Housing

Affordable housing: the opposite side of the coin

“The government are planning an attack on the aspirations of thousands of young people and families who simply want a home to call their own.

Should the Conservatives proposed housing and planning bill become law then it risks not only delivering a hugely damaging impact on the amount of affordable housing in our communities, but also takes power away from local people and councils to deliver more in the future.

Around half of all affordable homes built in the last decade were funded through section 106 obligations – approximately 234,000 homes. At its peak under Labour, in 2008-9, this enabled over 32,000 homes to be built. The housing and planning bill is going to put a stop to that.

The government plan to set aside developers obligations under section 106 and instead legislate for the provision of so called ‘starter homes’ – to be sold at 80 per cent of full market rate.

The Conservatives are trying to pass this off as providing affordable homes, but the fact is that in my own town of Dartford you would need to earn a salary of £52,000 to afford one of these misnamed ‘starter’ homes. They will be totally out of reach for many young people and families in the ward I represent and it is a similar story in many others across the country.

Starter homes will do nothing to help people already struggling to get on the housing ladder, and it reveals the truth about this government’s attitude towards people who simply aspire to get on and get on the first rung of the housing ladder – the Tories have nothing to say to you. Thousands of people risk being locked out of housing market.

Understandably, councillors across the country are hugely concerned, not only about the potential impact on the future of affordable housing in their local areas but also the fact that this bill takes power away from councils to act to stop the loss of affordable homes we are going to experience.

The government may talk about localism and devolution but their actions here are in total contradiction to their words. By handing a wide range of powers over planning back to the secretary of state they will weaken local government’s ability to provide the mix of housing local communities need and robs local people of their say in the planning process:

It means that the government can impose starter-home obligations on developers.

It means that the government can direct councils to change their local plan or even suspend it altogether.

It means the government can overrule council planning boards and grant planning permission directly – regardless of whether a new development is going to meet the housing needs of a local area – undermining the ability of local people to have a proper say about what happens in their area. …

.In my own council, the Conservatives used a closure motion to prevent a full debate taking place. When Conservative councils like Dartford are not prepared to defend their own government’s policy it tells you everything about what even the Tories in local government feel about what this bill is going to do to affordable housing provision in our communities. …”

Jonathan Hawkins, Labour, Dartford, Progress Online 17/12/15

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Corruption, Misc, Monitoring Officer, Transparency

Ethical standards in public life

Owl would add some of the comments from this report, but its blood pressure can’t cope … well, ok, maybe just one:

“Question:
Evidence of internal control and accountability measures – what is the internal control environment for maintaining ethical behaviour and standards in the organisation?

Answer:
A suitable code of conduct – typically a series of Do’s and Don’ts, publicly available and adherence to the code monitored.

Identification of key indicators or measures of an ethical culture within the organisation and periodic reviews of their effectiveness.

Existence of and adherence to whistleblowing policy or speak up mechanisms, gifts and hospitality registers, anti-bribery and corruption, declarations of interests requirements, procedures for dealing with conflicts of interest, which are regularly reviewed.

Ethical risks captured and controlled in the risk management process and evidence they have been identified, assessed and where required mitigated.

Transparency and reporting arrangements which encourages “intelligent accountability” putting out good quality information in intelligible and adaptable formats creating a genuine dialogue with stakeholders.”

Click to access 6.1291_CO_LAL_Ethical_standards_of_public_life_report_Interactive__2_.pdf

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Devolution: our fate decided in secret

Upgraded from comment to post:

What a pity that press and public were excluded from the Devolution debate at this evening’s Council meeting. This way of behaving by the majority Party really leads one to assume something nefarious is going on. Why oh why can’t the Tories have the courage to debate things openly? If they have to muzzle press comment and keep their electorate in ignorance of what they are deciding, is it any wonder that we doubt them?

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Fracking

Nowhere is safe from fracking, including national parks and AONBs

MPs have voted to allow fracking for shale gas 1,200m below national parks and other protected sites.

The new regulations – which allow drilling from outside the protected areas – were approved by 298 to 261.

Opposition parties and campaigners criticised the lack of a Commons debate – and accused ministers of a U-turn as they previously pledged an outright ban on fracking in national parks.

The government said its plans would protect “our most precious landscapes”.

It said the UK had “one of the best track records in the world for protecting our environment while developing our industries”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35107203