Somerset is included in LEP plans for super-expansion! But the questions remain and the situation gets even more complex. Will Cornwall and Dorset be happy with SO MUCH money destined for Hinkley C!
Owl has named the new foursome “The Golden Quadrangle” until such time as it is given its own name!
If the Heart of the South West LEP is “dead in the water” and “there is no money left”
Where is the £25,000-plus coming from to pay someone to encourage a new threesome of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Devon and Dorset?
What’s happening about the divorce from Somerset and are we paying that county’s expenses still?
HOTSW LEP is the vehicle for taking business rates from Enterprise Zones such as the East Devon Growth Point – if it’s defunct what happens to that money?
Who pays Mr Garcia’s salary and those of the 3 or 4 other employees who presumably now have no jobs? Somerset or Devon?
What’s happening about the “Golden Triangle LEP”?
Where does “Greater Exeter” fit in and with whom?
East Devon – where do we fit in? Our Leader is a HOTSW board member and is responsible for HOTSW housing. Is he still responsible for housing in Somerset, Greater Exeter and/or the “Golden Triangle”?
What is DCC’s/EDDC’s role in this – where was it discussed, when and by whom?
Where are the minutes of the meeting where the current deal was dropped and a new deal thought up?
What does Somerset think about all this?
Do YOU recall being consulted on any of this?
“This was one message East Devon Alliance (EDA) representatives took to what the national press called “one of the biggest NHS rallies in history”, in Central London just one week ago ( Saturday 4th March). An estimated crowd of 250,000 from all over the country, included coachloads from Devon’s ‘Save Our Hospital Services’ (SOHS) network of campaigners, strongly supported by EDA. Prominent amongst the East Devon Alliance group were District Councillors Cathy Gardner (Ward Member for Sidmouth Town) and Val Ranger (Newton Poppleford & Harpford), along with Mayor of Axminster,Paul Hayward. Their call to the government is to reinstate the NHS, now being systematically dismantled, and to repeal the 2012 Health & Social Care Act NOW!
In bright sunshine, the marchers gathered in a densely-packed Tavistock Square at midday, to hear speeches. One was on behalf of hard-pressed Junior Doctors (“We have to take this fight to the streets”). Another example, from Devon’s SOHS , “ now a mass movement in the whole of Devon”, told of “cuts of 93 beds in 5 community hospitals, in Seaton, Okehampton, Honiton, Whipton and in Holsworthy” , and of “six-figure salaries of consultants parachuted in to Devon” who say that there will be “no red lines: any service could go”. Hence the SOHS events based on ‘protective red lines’ drawn by the public..in red clothes, hats, ribbons,etc,…around hospital services.
Due to the huge numbers, there was some delay until the procession to Parliament Square could begin, and for the same reason, it took a full 3 hours’ walk to arrive at Big Ben. On the way, SOHS led the chants outside Downing Street, enthusiastically echoed by the crowds, “Hey, Hey, Theresa May, How many beds have you cut today?” Throughout the event, a pervading mood of sincerity, calm determination, and decency, left the police on duty notably friendly and relaxed.
The policy of dismembering the NHS may not be good for the government’s long-term health, nor for ours!
Come and join the ‘Red Line’ actions in East Devon on Saturday, April 1st. Details coming soon.”
Again, no consultation of the people of these three counties plus Isles of Scilly – just a mad dash to hoover up money – any money – for what the Chair of the Heart of the South West LEP described as a defunct organisation yesterday! And what of the “Golden Triangle LEP” mooted last month? Add in Greater Exeter and we have lots of sows ears to be made into silk purses!
Unfortunately, the closing date is today! And can you IMAGINE the stress of reporting to THREE different LEP CEO’s! Still, at £25,000 plus for 4 days a week for 4 months there will be no shortage of takers.
“South West Partnership Executive”
Heart of the SW, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, and Dorset LEPs are working together to support the development of cross LEP partnership across the whole of the south west.
We are seeking an individual with the right skills and experience to support and manage these developing opportunities; working with stakeholders from public sector, education and business.
Reporting to the three LEP Chief Executives, this role’s priorities will be: to support the development of a clear set of business propositions around the ‘added value’ of regional partnership; engagement with key stakeholder groups to align partnership working and initiatives; and facilitate use of a common brand.
This is a short term role for 3 to 4 days a week, for the next four months, possibly extendable on a quarterly basis. The ideal candidate will have a background that includes marketing and communications and building or managing partnership with stakeholders from the public, private and education sectors. Some exposure to economic development and related sectoral agendas will be useful.
The role will involve travelling across the south west and attract remuneration in the region of £400 a day plus out of pocket expenses.
Please send your C.V. to Janet.Powell@heartofswlep.co.uk highlighting in a short covering note how you meet the requirements and challenges for this role, and confirmation of your fee rates. The following link provides access to an equal opportunities form which we would also ask you to complete as we are committed to equal opportunities in our policies and practices.”
http://heartofswlep.co.uk/news/south-west-partnerships-executive/
Hot on the heels of his questions about the possible negative effect of the sugar tax on soft drink manufacturers, our Man of the People gets stuck into another East Devon hot topic!
Written Answers – Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Maldives: Commonwealth (10 Mar 2017)
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2017-03-02.66321.h&s=speaker%3A11265#g66321.q0
Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Commonwealth Secretariat on the issue of readmitting the Maldives into the Commonwealth.
Written Answers – Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Maldives: Politics and Government (10 Mar 2017)
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2017-03-02.66322.h&s=speaker%3A11265#g66322.q0
Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the UN on the political situation in the Maldives.
Written Answers – Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Maldives: Politics and Government (10 Mar 2017)
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2017-03-02.66323.h&s=speaker%3A11265#g66323.q0
Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Government of the Maldives on the political situation in that country.
Owl says now I’ve heard everything! This could be straight out of Socialist Worker (Middle Class Branch)!
“… It was less than two years ago that the Conservatives went to the polls on a promise, spelled out four times in their manifesto: ‘We will not raise VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax.’
In that now discredited, apparently worthless document, there was no suggestion the pledge referred only to Class 1 NICs (how many voters even knew there were four classes?)
Yet this was the devious excuse offered after the Chancellor increased the rate for Class 4, costing 2.4million self-employed workers some £240 a year each – almost eight times the 60p-a-week ‘average’ he so disingenuously cited.
Not content with this betrayal of his party’s core supporters, he slashed the tax-free allowance on dividends from £5,000 to £2,000. Thus, he hammered family-owned businesses, freelance workers and every saver with stock market investments of more than £50,000.
Meanwhile, tax rises and changes to compensation payments are likely to add £75 a year to car insurance premiums.
But still Mr Hammond hadn’t finished. Having joked he would not exhume Labour’s death tax, he is now pushing through… a huge increase in death tax! …
… And now it emerges the Chancellor has another £700million trick up his sleeve. Complex changes in already baffling tax rules mean some shops and newsagents will see their VAT more than quadruple, while self-employed service-providers will also be hard hit.
So bang goes another pledge that helped sweep the Tories to power in 2015. Indeed, all parties seem to see manifestos merely as vote-winning exercises, to be forgotten once an election is won.
David Cameron is right about one thing. It is indeed ‘stupidity’ to break manifesto pledges. But then look who’s talking! He was the PM who shredded almost every core promise he made in 2010, from cutting migration to below 100,000 to scrapping the Human Rights Act.
Meanwhile, his shameless sidekick George Osborne is becoming a veritable Tony Blair, stuffing his boots with banknotes on the strength of contacts and experience gained in public office.
He even tried to bury news of his one-day-a-week, £650,000 job for a US investment company by sneaking it out on Budget day. No wonder politicians are held in growing contempt. …”
“Analysis by Labour shows that out of the £2bn of new money for social care in England announced in Wednesday’s budget, Surrey will see the biggest increase in the share of funding by the 2019/20 financial year.
The analysis says that Surrey will get 1.66% of the money, rising from 0.75% in 2017/18, an increase of 0.91 percentage points in the three-year period – more than double the increase of the second council, Hertfordshire.
Theresa May has repeatedly denied Surrey will receive any form of funding not available to other local authorities, after the council last month called off a planned referendum on increasing council tax by 15% to pay for what it said was a crisis in social care funding.
But soon after the postponement, leaked text messages about a supposed “memorandum of understanding” between the council and government prompted Jeremy Corbyn to accuse May of buying off Surrey with a special deal, which she denied.
The Labour leader reiterated the accusation this week after the release of an audio recording in which the council leader, David Hodge, told fellow Surrey Conservatives about a “gentleman’s agreement” with ministers.
Hodge revealed in the recording that there had been a “series of conversations” with the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, in a car outside Downing Street. That was followed by a second meeting with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, he said.
Later that day, documents released by Surrey under freedom of information rules showed Hammond was among a series of Surrey Conservative MPs who lobbied Javid over the issue.
A new set of correspondence released by Javid’s department shows that on the morning of 7 February, the day Hodge announced he was backing down from the referendum, frantic negotiations were still going on.
At 8.23am Surrey’s director of finance, Sheila Little, messaged Matthew Style, head of local government finance at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), one document showed.
“The leader [Hodge] has just shown me a note from a Surrey MP about a conversation late last night with SJ,” she wrote. SJ refers to Javid.
“Seems to indicate government are willing to get us some extra funding from 2018. V interested in whether this is sincere. As it stands isn’t enough to call the ref [referendum] off? But could it be?”
May’s official spokesman was adamant when asked whether the exchange indicated the prime minister might have misled the Commons over the issue. “No,” he said. “There is absolutely no change in our position.”
A DCLG note released with the freedom of information documents made the same point.
“Whilst the final settlement has yet to be approved, the government is not proposing extra funding to Surrey county council that is not otherwise provided or offered to other councils generally,” it read.
“There is no ‘memorandum of understanding’ between government and Surrey county council.”
However, Labour’s Teresa Pearce, the shadow communities secretary, said the analysis of the extra social care money showed ministers “are busy playing political games with funding allocations in a desperate attempt to hide their sweetheart deal”.
She said: “This week’s budget won’t fix the issues facing social care. What we need from the Tories is a long-term sustainable plan, rather than cosy deals for Tory councils.
“Theresa May has failed to come clean about the terms of the deal offered to Surrey, failed to apologise for her government’s misleading suggestion that there had been no such deal and would not give the assurance that other local councils will get the same treatment.”
Late on Friday night, Labour MP Andy Burnham tweeted that he would raise the question of whether the ministerial code had been broken.
A DCLG spokesman said: “To suggest that any local authority is being given preferential treatment is simply not true.
“The majority of the £2bn of additional funding for adult social care announced at the budget will be allocated in the same way as the Better Care Fund, ensuring those who can raise less through the social care precept benefit most. The remainder will be allocated according to relative need in recognition of the additional challenges which social care places on certain councils.
“This is entirely fair, transparent and consistent with how we already fund adult social care.”
“A leading figure in the East Devon Alliance (EDA) is to challenge Sidmouth’s long-standing Tory representative for the town’s seat on Devon County Council (DCC) – with a Labour candidate also standing.
The alliance is fielding three independents to challenge seats in Sidmouth, Seaton and Colyton and Axminster – and the trio have presented a united voice in their promise to fight for transparency and NHS services.
Independents are hoping to see a repeat of their success in the district council elections of May 2015 – when they gained 10 seats across the region and ousted six Conservative councillors in the Sid Valley alone.
EDA Paul Arnott, former chaoorman of the group, will challenge Councillor Stuart Hughes for Sidmouth’s county council seat in the elections on May 4.
An East Devon resident of 20 years and former parish councillor, Mr Arnott is a father-of-four who runs a television production company, along with his wife Lydia, and has had three books published.
As a ‘passionate and outspoken’ defender of the NHS in East Devon, he promises to fight at county level to address the ‘major issues of health, social care and education’ which, he says, are ‘now a matter of urgent concern’.
The EDA says it supports independent candidates who are responsible, and answerable, to the electors, rather than a national party machine.
A spokesman said: “Like all local authorities, DCC is facing an unprecedented long-term loss of funding and jurisdiction. Once elected, Independent EDA county councillors will use their positions to campaign for fair funding for local services and ensure local democratic control – rather than allowing central government and corporations to increasingly privatise everything which affects our communities.”
Cllr Hughes – who is also the cabinet member for highways and represents Sidmouth at town and district level – confirmed he will stand for re-election as a Conservative. He pledged to provide a strong voice for the Sid Valley and give 100 per cent in his community leadership role, working with residents, groups and the town and district councils.
Cllr Hughes added that he will continue to champion the cycle and footpath links across the Sid Valley, fast implementation of the town’s flood alleviation scheme and work on the traffic management plan and Alma Bridge.
Labour’s Ray Davison has also confirmed he will be standing as a candidate for Sidmouth and believes the Tories will be under fire in the upcoming county elections because of the ‘refusal’ by central Government to provide more social care funding.
The father-of-three has lived in East Devon for more than 30 years and pledges to focus on issues of education, transport and education investment in the region.
Further candidates were yet to be announced.”
Clinton Devon Estate has just submitted outline planning application 17/0495, for 2 bijou residences, an access road and a small residual strip of green space.
The site is vaguely (and perhaps somewhat disingenuously) described as “east of East Budleigh Road, Budleigh Salterton.”
It is, in fact, the Budleigh Salterton Cottage Hospital garden, gifted 120 years ago in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It has been used, ever since, to help patients convalesence and has been planted with an “in-memoriam” garden.
Because of this history and recreational use, the garden has been proposed as an open green space in the emerging Budleigh Salterton Neighbourhood Plan, approved this week by the EDDC Cabinet.
It ticks all the para. 77 NPPF boxes for the designation of open spaces. CDE are stakeholders in the formulation of this plan and at consultation made no comment.
So this application comes as a bit of a surprise to the people of Budleigh Salterton who have been promised an all-singing and dancing “Health Hub” with recreational facilities on the hospital site.
“The owner of an Exmouth café has been left ‘heartbroken’ after being forced to close following plans to build a multi-million pound development on the seafront.
The family-run Harbour View Café and Chip Shop is set to disappear from the seafront after 40 years of trading, following East Devon District Council’s plans to build new development called Queen’s Drive Leisure Area. …
… Dawn said that they first found out about the development plans eight years ago.
She said: “The initial plan was that all of the independent businesses would be involved in the new development.
“I don’t know when that changed because it all went very quiet for a while, and then by 2014 we were given a formal notice and the council said we had to leave by September that year.
“At that point we had to decide whether we wanted to take it further and go to court or to agree to the end of the lease. And because we didn’t have the resources to take the fight all the way we had no other option but to agree to it.”
Since that point Dawn said that the council had given them an extension of their lease, but now that has ended and 2017 will be the last season. “I am grateful that the doors aren’t closed yet, but we did think that we would have at least another year of trading,” she added.
“The council have told us that we need to be out by the end of August, but I just wish we knew why. For the business to close in the peak of summer is the worst time for us as we will be so busy.
“We also have 19 members of staff that we will have to make redundant and we will still have to pay our mortgage somehow after August.
“Obviously we would love to keep Harbour View alive and we are currently looking for a new home. But it just scares me to know what the development is going to look like in three years’ time as I don’t know what I will be looking at.” …
… A spokeswoman for East Devon District Council said: “Change isn’t always easy to accept but Exmouth is a growing town with residents and visitors whose desires and expectations are changing as well. The council is committed to giving townspeople and visitors more and better attractions and facilities and that includes the Queen’s Drive site. Exmouth is the biggest town in Devon and it is starting to up its game.
“The café operators have known for two years that the Council is taking the site back and we have during that time supported them with a further season extension and free rent. We did this so that they have time to prepare to leave and plan for the future of their business.
“Mamhead Slipway, the Strand, the Premier Inn and M&S are all signs that Exmouth is embracing change and benefiting from new assets. A café at Orcombe Point could be next. Meanwhile Queen’s Drive investment is getting back on track.
“When the Council takes the Harbour View Cafe site back at the end of August we will also be preparing to move the road and car park and consultation will be under way on the water sports centre. For the Harbour View site in particular, once the council has it back, then we have the freedom to consider the best way forward and the best timing to bring a new and fresh eating place to what is one of the finest locations in the south west. …”
Owl says: where HAS all the money gone, Mr Hindley?
And why are the “same old” people who spent it all but failed to give us a devolution package we could all sign up to now trying to capture a new group to keep future money in the “same old” hands?
“South West business must pull together to unlock regional prosperity, a regional business leader has warned.
Steve Hindley, Chairman of Heart of the South West LEP, said that the only way to unlock government cash is to present a unified front. And he revealed that a devolution deal for Devon and Somerset is effectively off the table for now.
He was speaking about his wishes for the region at the Devon and Cornwall Business Council spring conference held at Flybe Training Centre at Exeter Airport today.
He said: “What I would like to see doesn’t involve government. I would like to see more co-ordination in the South West with the industrial strategy for our aeronautical, marine, food, nuclear, data analytics and creative sectors.
“We have got an enthusiastic bunch of business people that are leading in the agenda and that’s the way the Government begins to take notice of the South West.
“It is my wish that we get our act together before we go to government.”
Mr Hindley was joined by Tim Jones, Chairman of DCBC, Karine Hassan, Chief Executive of Exeter City Council, Mark Duddridge, Chairman of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP and Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director of Sponge UK for a panel discussion of the major issues that businesses currently face including productivity, skills, innovation and devolution.
The region is hindered by a lack of investment in skills and infrastructure but it has the power to take responsibility for it own prosperity. Mr Hindley said the way to drive transformation in the region was to meet the aims of the Industrial Growth Strategy, set out by Theresa May in January.
“That is what is on the table at the moment,” he said. Devolution as a way of taking control of cash from Westminster is currently off the agenda. He said: “I am disappointed that in Devon and Somerset we have not moved forward on devolution. That was a missed opportunity that has gone now. The money has all been spent.
“With 19 authorities involved it was always going to be very difficult.”
But Mr Jones insisted that areas like the Northern Powerhouse, that had secured a devolution deal, had been singled out for investment in the spring budget.
And Mr Duddridge said that Cornwall’s own devolution deal had brought great advantages despite being much maligned by the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, Sajid Javid. The key is to take to government a well presented business case to attract funding, said Mr Hassan. Exeter is at the forefront of pioneering environmental science and deserves investment in innovation and skills. And in Plymouth, 40% of workers at digital firm Sponge UK are Plymouth University graduates.
Mr Hassan said: “Right across the country, significant investment is going to other areas not to major institutions like our universities. “If we don’t get our act together, all the other institutions are going to leave us behind.
“We have got to work out what we are going to go to government with to unlock funding to make this place sing like the rest of the country.”
The message set out by the conference is echoed by the Western Morning News’ #BackTheSouthWest campaign. It has culminated in the Growth Charter, presented to government, that sets out a series of pledges by the business community to improve the fortunes of the region alongside a series of asks from government to support regional growth.”
“Exeter City Council’s appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that it should publish details of the business case for the controversial St Sidwell’s Point leisure complex on the current bus station site will be heard by an Information Tribunal.
Exeter resident Peter Cleasby used the Freedom of Information Act to ask the Council to release details of the business case for the development so that the assumptions contained in it – particularly about the running costs – could be open to wider scrutiny before contracts were signed.
The Council refused on grounds of commercial confidentiality, and Mr Cleasby complained about its refusal to the Information Commissioner.
The Commissioner ordered key information in the business case to be made public, but the Council appealed against the Commissioner’s decision.
The matter will now be decided by a judge-led Information Tribunal, in a public hearing at Exeter Magistrates Court on Monday 13 March starting at 10am.
Peter Cleasby said:”Exeter City Council is set to spend £26 million of public money – a sum that may well increase – on the leisure complex. It claims that the complex will make a profit, but only a handful of officers and councillors know what assumptions are made in support of these claims. If the Council get this wrong, the city could be saddled with an expensive liability for years to come, so wider scrutiny and challenge of the business case assumptions is vital.”
A City Council spokesman said: “The Council will make its case before the Tribunal. It would be inappropriate to comment further ahead of the hearing.”
The pool project was recently put on hold because the council had not appointed a contractor, despite having already spent a significant proportion of the £32.5million combined pot for St Sidwell’s Point and the bus station.”
“Over the past year, a Channel 4 News investigations team has unearthed compelling evidence that the Conservative Party may have broken election laws to fight three by-elections in 2014 and win power in the 2015 General Election.
The Battlebus 2015 campaign sent a fleet of coaches filled with Conservative activists into 29 marginal seats in the final weeks of the 2015 General Election – to persuade voters on the doorstep.
The whole Battlebus campaign is now under investigation – after allegations that Conservative candidates may have broken election law by failing to declare the costs on their local spending returns.
The Party has repeatedly said the spending on the bus tour should have been declared nationally not locally.
But two Tory whistleblowers have spoken to Channel 4 News and cast doubt on that claim.
They say the party is “lying” about what happened on the Battlebus – and is now engaged in a “cover-up”.
Battlebus activists
Gregg and Louise Kinsell volunteered for the Conservatives in the final few days of the “Battlebus 2015” campaign in the South West, working in four key seats for the party.
Louise says that: “We worked for the local candidates and MPs to ensure that they won their seat and we were sent wherever they thought we would help.”
The Conservatives insist the Battlebus was a national event, with volunteers only promoting the party and not specific local candidates. As such the Battlebus was only declared in the Party’s national campaign expenses.
Last year, David Cameron said: “Lots of political parties have these bus tours – you know buses that go round different constituencies and this is a national expense.”
But the Kinsells say they were tasked with promoting local candidates,
including being given local briefing papers and seat-specific scripts, being furnished with specific voter data and distributing local leaflets.
Gregg said: “If people are saying, and the MPs concerned in these areas are saying it was part of a greater expense nationally for the Conservatives, that is a lie and an obvious falsehood. In that case I feel especially motivated to go to the police and go to the Electoral Commission.”
“So they are telling lies about what we did – and we duped people on the doors, it feels like cheating.”
All four seats visited by the Kinsells on the Battlebus tour were won for the Tories and the party took 14 seats in the South West in total, wiping out their Liberal Democrats coalition partners from the region.
Louise Kinsell said, “We went down and worked for individual candidates who then won their seat. If they hadn’t won their seat, the Conservatives may not have won the election.”
Police investigation
The Battlebus tour is currently under investigation. Under election laws, any costs incurred to promote a candidate, must be declared on local candidate spending returns. It’s a criminal offence for the candidate and agent to knowingly make a false declaration.
Channel 4 News has previously revealed that hundreds of thousands of pounds in Conservative campaign spending may not have been properly declared.
And the Kinsells have revealed more examples of what they believe are questionable campaign spending.
The Battlebus group stayed at the Jury’s Inn in Plymouth. Channel 4 News has seen a hotel bill for 29 rooms at the Jury’s Inn totalling £2,520. But that hotel does not appear to have been declared in the national expenses.
The Battlebus tour was then accommodated at the Premier Inn and Travelodge in Hayle, Cornwall. Again, these hotels do not appear to have been accounted for in the Conservative national returns.
The Conservative Party has previously stated that the failure to declare the hotels used on the Battlebus campaign as an “administrative error”.
In the nine seats visited by the Battlebus in the South West, the Conservatives candidates declared that they had spent below the legal limit, as governed by electoral law.
However, Channel 4 News has calculated the cost of the buses, hotels, and staff for the Battlebus tour in the region amounts to £2,460 for each seat visited. If the activists took part in local campaigning, this cost should have been declared on local spending returns.
The Kinsells say there is now a “code of silence” amongst Party activists about what took place on the Battlebus tour.
“It has shocked me that they have been this arrogant and think they can get away with it.”
The Kinsells say they feel betrayed by the Conservatives. “We were on the bus. We know what happened. We know what we were doing. And they know what we were doing.
Gregg Kinsell said: “I feel like there’s been a betrayal. We were unwitting participants in a huge betrayal. That’s how I feel.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “We are cooperating with the ongoing investigations.”
None of the candidates responsed to requests for comment.
https://www.channel4.com/news/tory-whistleblowers-election-expenses-conservative-party-battlebus
The observations of a member of the public (Chris Wakefield) at the meeting. Note: whoever voted for Councillors Brook (Chudleigh) and Diviani (Honiton St Pauls) at the last election – hang your heads in shame.
Brook tried to stop Claire Wright’s tough motion (which was carried) because she wrote it down!!!!! Diviani, also Leader of East Devon District Council) said and did NOTHING to help Honiton hospital to stay open. Others who voted against are named below.
The vote (which should have been unanimous) went 7-5 in Claire Wright’s favour. Those voting against were: Jerry Brook (Chudleigh), Paul Diviani (Honiton St Pauls) Chris Clarance (Teign Estuary), Debo Sellis (Tavistock)and Rufus Gilbert ( Salcombe).
“Having watched the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee webcast it is easy to see why we are where we are with this. Here’s a selective personal account for anyone who missed the live action.
CCG’s team was out in force, with a front bench of four, bolstered by some invisible ‘friends’ mentioned by the chairman but never seen by us, to urge them on.
They kicked off with a slightly nervy CCG presentation mainly to tell us why the consultation was such a remarkable achievement – an award-winning consultation – endorsed by all sorts of benchmarks, quality marks, kite marks, hall marks and all; and it is hard to fault it against the measures offered to us. The only down side is that everyone else thought it was a ready-made decision seeking a post-facto endorsement. Neil Parish MP called it a ‘sham’ and few would disagree with him.
The councillors on the committee, in the main, then laid into them, and voiced what the feeling was among their constituents, which was justifiably murderous, and which prompted CCG’s Rob Sainsbury to launch into vigorous technicalities, emphasising his case with staccato hand movements, and showing the clear strain of casting his carefully modeled pearls before such porcine auditors.
There were questions, to which most answers were inadequate, and others not given. There was talk, (threats possibly) of FOI demands, which is alarming given that all these people are in public employment, and I have never worked out why any information is not forthcoming simply for the asking.
Anyway, a few highlight will cheer us up – first the pleasure of watching old hands in action – Cllrs Westlake and Greenslade in particular, the latter quite chirpy considering the doleful nature of the business at hand, leaping on Simon Kerr’s foot-in-mouth remark about the complete absence of responsive social care in Axminster, and brazenly cutting to the chase, asking how much the Success Regime was costing us. (An interim cost was £2.6m I thought I heard, but I could be wrong – that seems like an awful lot of cutter for a man-and-a-dog outfit like Carnell Farrer).
No one in fact was inclined to give wholehearted support to the CCG in their plans; there were a few limp equivocations – cllr Diviani told us (once he could get his voice going – the key is turned but the engine always takes ages to actually start) that he’d been in hospital and it was brilliant, and one or two others wrung their hands over the clear lack of social care provision, while not condemning the process that brought us the crisis.
Claire was invited to make her proposal for the committee to vote on, whereupon the snappily dressed cllr. Brook, clearly confused that Claire has prepared for the meeting by writing down her proposal, suggested that people who wrote things down were clearly trying to subvert the democratic process. (Tories have traditionally held that teaching the working classes to read and write had been a mistake – and that tendency has played into our education system ever since 1872, which is why legislation has studiously avoided any education in matters of politics, in order to forestall indiscipline in the ranks. There is a cracking story on that topic, but I’ll skip it for the moment).
Cllr Westlake, from the chair, reminding cllr Brook that writing was OK, proposed that Claire’s proposal was put to the vote. Result 7 – 5 in favour. That’s OK, good even – but what is there to vote against one wonders, the proposal is merely to make sure we do the utmost to get things right before trashing the existing local health infrastructure. And when you hear ‘We are very cautiously optimistic that the new model of care can be implemented’ from the CCG, then caution seems eminently sensible.
Just watched the budget in the commons. Must pack this in – politics is infuriating enough without hours of watching it on the telly as well. Except that it is primary data, and bypasses the media, so it does help us to see what actually is going on.
It will be interesting to see how much of the £1bn for top performing STP planners comes Devon’s way. Probably in proportion to the extent of fawning the local MPs can summon for Mrs May’s other tricky issues on the government’s agenda. Well done Claire.”
EDA Public Meeting
Saturday, 18th March at 4.30,
Colyford Memorial Hall
Independents’ Way Forward on Hospital Beds
Speakers:
Claire Wright
fresh from her success on the DCC Health Scrutiny Committee,
together with the Independent East Alliance candidates for
Seaton and Colyton (Martin Shaw)
Axminster (Paul Hayward)
Sidmouth (Paul Arnott)
and
Leader of the EDA, Cllr Cathy Gardner,
to discuss the next steps in the fight for our community hospital beds and to save the NHS in Devon from widespread cuts.
“Cleaning up the plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after it was struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on the afternoon of 11 March 2011, is expected to take 30 to 40 years, at a cost Japan’s trade and industry ministry recently estimated at 21.5tr yen ($189bn).
The figure, which includes compensating tens of thousands of evacuees, is nearly double an estimate released three years ago.”
“Local authorities are to share a £300m pot for discretionary business rate reliefs to help firms facing higher bills due to next month’s revaluation of the levy, chancellor Philip Hammond has announced.”
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/03/councils-share-ps300m-business-rate-relief-fund
Question: How will this be monitored to ensure that officers and councillors do not favour their mates?
Owl is not convinced that this government or even EDDC – wants a more inclusive electoral register – students were mostly against Brexit and they often vote for minority parties.
It will be interesting to see what efforts our electoral registration officer (CEO Mark Williams) will make to ensure that East Devon registers more voters – after the fiasco at the last election, where frantic efforts had to be made at the last-minute to find 6,000 voters who had dropped off the electoral roll due to changes in procedures authorised by Mr Williams but which very much displeased the parliamentary committee to which he was summoned to explain his unilateral changes.
“Before the Lords voted against Brexit yesterday in the House of Lords, the government was defeated on another important democratic issue: voter registration. This passed largely without comment by the media (and went unmentioned in the BBC’s Yesterday in Parliament, for example). It is unsurprising that voter registration rarely receives the same level of coverage as Brexit, but it is nonetheless a vital issue.
Up to 8 million people were thought to be missing from the electoral register in 2015. Research shows that citizens were turned away from the polls at the Brexit referendum because they were not registered to vote.
Registration levels have been declining for a long time. It was long forecasted that this decline would continue under individual electoral registration (IER). The introduction of online voter registration and voter outreach work from organisations such as Bite the Ballot did much to address this in the run-up to the EU referendum. But now the referendum is past, we should expect the completeness of the register to slide away again.
One group that research predicted would be hardest hit was students. Under the old household electoral registration system, they were automatically enrolled by their university administration. Although data on the number who have fallen off the register is hard to track, we know that young people were especially affected by IER. It was therefore a mistake that the Electoral Administration Act of 2013 did not provide for a suitable student registration to be put in place when the old system of household registration was abolished.
Yesterday, an amendment to the Higher Education and Research Bill was introduced to require universities to offer students the opportunity to register to vote at the point of enrolment or re-registration as a student at their university. A successful example of a scheme like this was piloted at Sheffield University, where student registration rates soared to a quoted 76% of its eligible students registered, compared to 13% at similar-sized institutions. The amendment offers an opportunity to save significant funds too. The head of registration services at Sheffield Council has confirmed that the cost of registering a student with this model is just 12p, rather than £5. Cardiff Council calculates that using this scheme for combining enrolment with electoral registration has saved it some £63,000.
The amendment was passed, against the government, by a majority of 200 to 189.
Beyond students: towards a more inclusive democracy
The principle behind the amendment is a simple and powerful one. Make voter registration easy and convenient and more people will register. If you combine registration with other administrative jobs, such as paying council tax or renewing a driving licence, the paperwork-adverse citizen will be more likely to complete it. It is important that measures therefore go beyond supporting student registration and that the idea is extended to other public services to engage the wider public.
There is a powerful research and international practice to suggest that this works. In the US, a federal Act was passed in the 1990s to expand the number of locations and opportunities whereby eligible citizens could apply to register to vote. In particular, citizens were to be given a voter registration application when they applied for or renewed a driver’s licence (hence it became known as the ‘Motor Voter Act’), or when applying for (or receiving) services at certain other public offices. Nearly one third of registrations are submitted in the US at motor vehicle agencies. Some studies suggest it raised turnout by around 2 percentage points and some have argued that the results could have been even better with improved implementation.
Support for making registration easier dates back to 2014, when a select committee report on Voter Engagement proposed making it automatic. This became the basis of some party manifestos. There is now a growing cross-party consensus about a set of measures that could be used to address the problem of the Missing Millions, with a report on the issue published last year and backed by members of all political parties in Westminster. After all the divisions the Brexit debate has opened up, the effort to build a complete and inclusive democracy is more important than ever before. …”
“The Electoral Commission maintains the official register of political parties and regularly culls defunct entries from it.
Amongst the parties removed from the list in the latest updates were:
British Unicorn Party, who wanted to abolish BBC South East Today, soared to four group members on Facebook and whose founder issued death threats to magistrates.
The Grumpy Old Men Political Party, whose policies included creating Whack a Munchkin day and restoring not only corporal punishment but also the death penalty.
Everyone’s Party, which possibly inaccurately called itself on Facebook, “The Largest Political Party On The Planet” (84 likes at last time of checking).
Kitten Independence Party, which intended to stand Sheena Gael Hunt in Torbay in the 2015 general election but did not manage it. It alas never registered a party logo.”
East Devon Watch 