Interesting that Councillor Skinner feels he can bully his way into an SES meeting but does not allow anyone to attend (and listen) at an Exmouth Regeneration Board meeting! One law for him one law for others, it seems.
“An unexpected and uninvited band of Conservative councillors descended on the Harbour View cafe last night for the meeting of the Save Exmouth Seafront (SES) campaign group.
Councillor Philip Skinner, Chair of the Exmouth Regeneration Board was flanked by two Conservative Exmouth Town councillors, Fred Caygill and Richard Scott, when they arrived to the meeting of the campaign group. SES aims to push for independent consultation on the future of the seafront before any further work, including the submissions of additional planning applications. This is in sharp contrast to the Exmouth Regeneration Board who appear determined to press ahead with their development vision without consultation.
Councillor Skinner said he’d come to listen. People at the meeting were stunned but used the opportunity to question him. Laura Freeman, an SES member explained “I attended the meeting to help with SES’s campaign for independent consultation and the support of the existing seafront businesses. I was shocked to see Councillor Skinner, but like others, I tried to use the opportunity to ask him questions. However he rudely laughed at me as I tried to ask a question, which he then avoided answering. His presence at the meeting seemed to be more about disrupting SES than listening to what any of us had to say”.
SES spokesperson Louise MacAllister has been trying for some time to organise a public Q&A session with Councillor Skinner, and despite the negative feeling surrounding Councillor Skinner’s unexpected arrival at an SES meeting, hopes that this is a sign he is willing to engage with the wider public and ensure a Q&A session is organised as soon as possible. SES are not against meeting with external stakeholders but would rather they did not gate-crash their meetings. SES are now seeking an arranged meeting with Dr Mark Dixon the benefactor of the Watersport’s Centre.
—ENDS—
East Devon Watch 
I would like to point out that prior to the Exmouth Exhibition Summary and the Town Centre and Sea Front Masterplan was announced in 2010, and we had the Public Consultation from June until Sept 2011, I had attended all the seminar’s and work-shop groups, and i must admit i was not critical back then, as i have now become.
I found i was largely pleased that the objectives for Exmouth were what would help give us a vision of our future opportunities.
This we were told would start with Transforming the Esturyside, and regenerating the Town Centre.
Next they would establish a link between the town and estuary along the parade which would than draw the waterside assets together. Also this would reinforce the space between the Elizabeth Hall and the Maer as the focus for leisure, recreation, and entertainment. Although it was said this could take until 2035. So far we have the Mamhead Slipway 4 years and 1.4 million,
A nice Premier Inn that could have been as successful anywhere else in Exmouth, then we could have had our old Hall as a renovated Tourist and Interpretation Centre. We do have the Ocean Blue, but it needs Council subsidies, and we have boarded up play area’s, a road which is costing? to acommadate a new 2 acre ? water sport centre, which may be pay to enter?.
We have so far lost some 40 jobs and businesses with no idea what will replace them. and the Town Centre has been forgotten.
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I feel that I should correct the record as far as the reports that have been made on the East Devon Watch Blog and the Exmouth Splash Forum on Facebook are concerned. Instead of disingenuous writings and comments, people should look at the truth of the SES meeting at the Harbour View cafe on the evening of the 1st Dec 2016. I as a Conservative Town councillor, am very interested in the future of Exmouth Seafront as are many other residents. Having seen an invitation on (Facebook , a public social media platform to communicate with others) to a SES meeting at the Harbour View inviting that ‘All are welcome, and nothing to indicate to the contrary that this was a private meeting, I thought that I would take the opportunity to attend and listen to the views of others and hopefully engage further with those that welcome development, but have some concerns about how that development may be reached. Having organised a road show back in the summer on behalf of Exmouth Town Council and met many people with differing views on the future of the seafront, I believed that some of those people that I met would welcome me to their meeting.
Firstly, I would correct the headline of EDW Blog “Conservative Councillors Gatecrash Save Exmouth Seafront Meeting “. I met up with Cllrs. Skinner and Scott outside of the harbour view café on a very cold evening and waited for the venue to open. Councillor Scott and I were in the shop opposite purchasing coffee when the café opened so could not have possibly flanked Cllr. Skinner in his entry to the building.
Councillor Scott was in fact invited to attend the meeting by a member of the SES group, so to imply that he gate crashed the meeting with me is incorrect. Gate crashing usually infers entering a private party/meeting without an invitation or ticket. According to the publicity material this was neither.
The meeting had just commenced when I entered the building with Cllr Scott after purchasing our coffee. The business of the Agenda was dealt with by the chairman and Councillor Skinner was welcomed by the chairman and Cllr Skinner was asked if he would answer questions from the people present, to which he replied he would.
Other Councillors present were East Devon Councillor Megan Armstrong, Leader of SES and arriving some time later in the meeting was Town Councillor Robert Masding. I counted forty people in attendance and many of the people present took the opportunity to ask questions of Councillor Skinner and he endeavoured to answer those questions, honestly and openly. For the author(s) to imply that Cllr. Skinner was bullying his way into a meeting could not be further from the truth. I did note that some of the audience have still not grasped and understood some of the information that has been previously published in various mediums.
In my view, confrontation of this sort, even in the written word does not help anyone’s cause. It is not a competition; it is not a them, and us.
There is an opportunity for consultation on all the proposals being put forward and I would encourage everyone to engage fully in that process. I hope this clarifies the facts of the meeting on the evening of the 01/12/16 at the Harbour View Café.
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This is a really interesting exchange of opinions (I won’t call it a debate since debates involve listening). I wasn’t at the meeting and so cannot comment from personal experience about what happened, but I suspect that if we look at some historic facts, rather than defensive rhetoric, then we might get a feel for which perspective has more merit.
Exmouth people say that EDDC is not consulting properly and not listening. Exmouth Town Council as a whole were concerned enough about EDDC’s lack of consultation, that they went to the trouble and expense of having a Town Vote on whether to demand proper consultation, a vote that EDDC then went on to ignore.
(All the above is a matter of public record – Google searches will produce ample evidence.)
Given ETC’s position, I struggle to understand why Exmouth Town Councillor Fred Cargill is supporting EDDC Councillor Phil Skinner’s view that EDDC has consulted properly. Surely he should accept the democratic decision of ETC and rather than trash it, he should be supporting his Council in their demands for better consultation.
In the end, the quality of consultation can ONLY be measured by whether the consultees actually feel like they have been consulted. Anything else is simply whitewash.
It can easily also be argued that, had EDDC consulted better on regeneration, the current fiasco of Queens Drive development proceeding without any clear plan of what they are aiming for would quite probably have been avoided. And by avoiding this lack of planning, Cllr Skinner (who is in charge of Exmouth Regeneration) might have also avoided the costs of Exmouth Regeneration more than doubling. (Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.)
It seems to me that both ETC Cllr Cargill and EDDC Cllr Skinner both need to start listening to what the people of Exmouth are saying – to fail to listen is to do the people of Exmouth a great disservice.
P.S. A recent Pulman’s View From article was comparing the puff from EDDC claiming that the £1.9m investment in Seaton Jurassic was a great “investment”, with comments from many local business who said that Seaton Jurassic has not actually brought increased tourist trade to Seaton – which suggests that this “investment” of £1.9m of our money was a bit of a waste. Are we to see a repeat of this in Exmouth, only this time with £3m-£4m of our money?
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