The Who Cares What You Think? conference at EDDC HQ , Knowle, last Saturday (23 April marked a turning point for the new political group of Independents, established in March 2015, just one year ago.
They have now joined forces with colleagues from across the South West.
Background
The East Devon Alliance of Independents (IEDA) have been hard at work since winning remarkable support in the May 2015 elections, which saw the number of Independent East Devon District Councillors increase five-fold, to 15.
Since then, two major IEDA reports have been accepted by Parliament:
House of Lords Select Committee on the economics of housing in the UK and
National Audit Office (Local Enterprise Partnerships)
The latter report, on LEPs, has just been sent to a higher level, the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC), at the suggestion of the National Audit Office (NAO).
Making a difference
Meanwhile, the new IEDA Councillors have brought positive change:
– raising the level of debate
– producing well-researched reports so that decisions can be based on evidence rather than party allegiance
– introducing proper scrutiny.
Full report on the Who Cares What You Think? conference coming soon.
East Devon Watch 