Owl assumes that Mr Sajid Javid’s expenses for his trip to Devon will be appropriately accounted for – particularly his help to the DCC Tory councillors who did the photo op with him today …..
Daily Archives: 3 Apr 2017
Devon Tories are running scared
How does Owl know?
Sajid Javid was in Devon today drumming up support for their DCC manifesto.
Once upon a time, Devon was such a safe county that there would have been no need whatsoever for the big guns from national government. Bringing them in now shows just how frightened they are this time around.
Wonder what Leader John Hart thought about the bloke who has helped strip his council to the bone pretending all is well?
And that photo of ex-Monster Raving Loony Hughes, austerity-cutter Javid, worried-looking Hart and super-cool (not!) Swire:
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Really, if you are looking for a reason NOT to vote Tory (sensible people vote true Independent or, if no Independent is standing the person who would have expected to come second to a Tory, whatever party) this is the photo you should carry around in your wallet!
EDDC relication costs £10.3 million and counting …
Owl says: are these audited costs or still on
“District chiefs are being advised to press ahead with their £10million relocation from Sidmouth – despite having no guaranteed buyer for their ‘not fit-for-purpose’ Knowle HQ.
East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) cabinet is being asked to sign off nearly £8.7million to press ahead with building work at Honiton’s Heathpark, on top of the approved £1,7million pot to refurbish Exmouth Town Hall.
If approved, the relocation project’s total budget will stand at £10.36million, up from £9.2million in March 2015.
Members will also be asked if they support a further £225,000 cost for an improved access road to the Honiton base when they meet next week.
EDDC originally promised that the relocation would be ‘cost neutral’, that it would not borrow money and the project would not progress before Knowle was sold.
But after refusing PegasusLife’s £7.5million bid to redevelop Knowle into a 113-home retirement community, the authority now has to decide how to proceed with the relocation.
According to cabinet agenda papers, members have three options to choose from:
• ‘Go now’ – press ahead with building in Honiton in anticipation of an acceptable combination of cash for Knowle and prudential borrowing. Work could be completed as soon as December 2018.
• Delay relocation for one to two years, or more, so planning permission for Knowle can be secured to fund the project. EDDC understands PegasusLife is preparing an appeal, which would have to be lodged before June 9.
• A ‘do minimum’ option of giving up on the new-build Honiton HQ, completing the refurbishment of Exmouth Town Hall and modernising a section of Knowle. Essential repairs to Knowle would cost £1.9million, but there is no capital receipt for this expenditure.
Councillors have been recommended to pursue the ‘go now’ option. EDDC maintains that the move will save money in the long-run.
Its development management committee refused PegasusLife’s application because it represented a departure from Knowle’s 50-home allocation in the authority’s Local Plan and due to the lack of ‘affordable’ housing.
EDDC has considered various re-marketing options for Knowle – if a PegasusLife appeal is unsuccessful – that could fetch between £3.22million and £6.8million. One scheme proposes 50 homes, half of which would be ‘affordable’, and could bring in £4.2million.
Critics have long said EDDC could remain at Knowle rather than relocate. The cabinet papers say modernising the former hotel would cost nearly £11.3million, or, for the newer offices, the bill is expected to be more than £5.9million.
The relocation project has cost £1,784,884 to date.
Cabinet members will meet to discuss the options at Knowle at 5.30pm on Wednesday (April 5).”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/budget_for_eddc_s_relocation_tops_10_3million_1_4955207
How you explain snout in trough when you are a Tory MP
“A Conservative MP advocated in favour of subsidies for the biomass industry after accepting more than £50,000 in political donations and hospitality from companies in the sector.
Nigel Adams, who has accepted tens of thousands of pounds in hospitality and political donations from biomass firms both in and outside his constituency, has called parliamentary debates, tabled questions, written opinion pieces, and written to the prime minister in support of subsidies for the industry.
But records compiled by Energydesk, the journalistic arm of Greenpeace, and shared with BuzzFeed News, show that on a number of occasions he did not mention the donations when he advocated for biomass – a sustainable form of energy generation based on burning wood pellets or other materials instead of coal and gas – over other forms of renewable energy such as onshore wind.
Parliamentary rules allow MPs to accept donations and hospitalities from businesses and others provided they are declared on official registers, as Adams’ contributions were. The rules also require MPs to “open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees”.
Adams told BuzzFeed News he referred to his hospitality and donations from biomass companies in parliamentary proceedings when his interventions were “substantively” about the industry.
Hospitality he accepted includes an £8,578 three-night trip to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New Orleans to speak at a biomass conference. Adams accepted a further four trips to the same conference in following years, held at the five-star Fontainebleau on Miami Beach, a holiday spot beloved of America’s elite.
Adams’ trips to the resort from 2013 to 2016, worth £5,460, £7,177, £4,210, and £4,950 respectively, were funded by Eggborough Power Limited and Draw Power Limited, both of which operate biomass plants in Adams’ Selby and Ainsty constituency.
Adams also accepted auction prizes worth a total of £17,800 from another biomass producer from outside his constituency, Simec, as well as a trip to Dubai worth £2,850 to attend a pro-Brexit event in the city for UK expats.
In 2015, Adams held a debate on scrapping subsidies for onshore wind, during which he described it as being “about as much use as a chocolate fireguard”, claiming it was inferior to biomass in handling spikes in demand – naming Drax and Eggborough in his speech – and stating that cutting wind subsidies would “allow other, more efficient technologies to benefit from government support”. He made no mention of his contributions from the sector in that debate.
Similarly, in March 2016 Adams urged Andrea Leadsom, then an energy minister, to increase deployment of biomass, without making any mention of his contributions from Drax, Simec, or Eggborough.
Adams heads parliament’s all-party group on biomass, which is funded by the industry, and in 2012 urged then prime minister David Cameron to prioritise biomass subsidies over onshore wind. He also held a further debate on biomass, in which he declared he had received contributions from the sector.
Adams has declared all of these donations on the official registers of MPs’ interests as required and said he believes he has not breached any parliamentary rules because he has declared his interests in parliamentary proceedings. However, his failure to declare these interests on some occasions has drawn criticism.
Tamasin Cave of the lobbying transparency group Spinwatch told BuzzFeed News Adams risked the appearance of conflicts of interest – likening his situation to that of recently appointed Evening Standard editor George Osborne.
“Who does Mr Adams think he is working for?” she said. “A few transatlantic trips and fine dining could leave someone a bit muddled.
“And as George Osborne has just demonstrated, it’s clear that some in parliament don’t take their public role that seriously. With all eyes on Brexit, we also arguably have less scrutiny of what our MPs are up to.”
Greenpeace told BuzzFeed News that Adams raised concerns about conflicts of interest.
“As an MP, he has some serious questions to answer about whose interests he’s been looking after – the common good or the biomass industry funding his trips to Miami Beach,” said Greenpeace campaigner Hannah Martin.
Martin added that Greenpeace had concerns about biomass because in its view it has question marks over sustainability not shared by other energy sources.
“Ministers have spent millions of taxpayers’ money on controversial biomass when they could have invested it in far cleaner and more mature technologies like onshore and offshore wind. As a staunch advocate of biomass and a fierce critic of onshore wind, Nigel Adams bears at least some responsibility for a policy whose environmental and economic benefits remain in doubt.”
The tax woes of a big Tory donor
“Lycamobile, the international phone call business and a major donor to the Conservative party, is embroiled in a £26m tax dispute with HMRC over VAT.
Accounts filed with Companies House show that Lycamobile’s UK division nearly doubled its pre-tax profits to £10.9m last year on turnover of £194m.
But the company, owned by Sri Lankan-born tycoon Allirajah Subaskaran, also revealed that it could face a bill of £26m from HMRC, including “potential penalties”, due to a dispute over VAT. …
… Auditors from KPMG have revealed that they are unable to form an opinion on the accounts due to a lack of “sufficient appropriate audit evidence”.
Last year, the accounting firm flagged up its confusion over £134m in funds owed to Lycamobile UK by related companies, adding that the knock-on effect on this year’s accounts meant it was still lacking information.
“Because of the significance of the matter […] we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion,” said KPMG. “Accordingly we do not express an opinion on the financial statements.”
It added: “We were unable to determine if adequate accounting records have been kept by the parent company.”
Lycamobile UK’s own directors’ report admitted that the tax dispute and complex structure create “material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
The Labour party and tax experts said the accounts raised questions for the Conservative party, which accepted £614,300 from Lycamobile in 2016 and nearly £1m the year before.
Tax accountant Richard Murphy said KPMG’s audit report and the VAT dispute raised “massive uncertainty” about Lycamobile’s financial position.
He said: “In the circumstances anyone dealing with the company has been given notice as to the risk they take. And the Conservative party is especially vulnerable. Taking donations from a company subject to this level of doubt as to its true financial position looks unwise. They’d do themselves a favour by saying no to further offers for the time being.” …
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/03/tory-donor-lycamobile-in-26m-tax-dispute
Persimmon loses appeal against Newcastle master plan decisions
Though basically it was just a developer/developer spat – one developer fighting another about who got to build 3,000 houses and where – Persimmon saying that the other developer shouldn’t be allowed to build where it was given permission to build.
Nothing like the right to build masses of houses to bring out the developers’ lawyers!
Rural infrastructure- lack of
One for Councillor Twiss, perhaps. And him apparently being a telecomms expert, he might also tell us how he plans to ensure that many rural communities in East Devon can move – not to the new 5G phone service everyone is now anticipating – but just to the much older 3G phone service that some areas of East Devon have never had and which is now considered old-fashioned and out-of-date.
Bet the new EDDC HQ will have 5G …
” … Existing discussions on rural infrastructure often focus on broadband, where demand for digital services often outstrips many urban places but the task of connecting residents and businesses up remains great due to lower population densities and geography which combine to make the commercial case for investment more challenging.
There are debates over whether having a broadband internet ‘service’ should be treated as a basic ‘utility’ much like electricity, water or the traditional telephone or seen as a luxury item. And whether rural residents and businesses expect the same or comparable levels of connectivity as their urban counterparts?
Other discussions have focused on transport: rural residents tend to travel longer distances, have higher costs, greater reliance on car use and increasingly limited access to public transport. These issues are incredibly important to rural communities and while they should not be overlooked there is a tendency to consider them individually and in isolation rather than collectively.
Going forward, we need to monitor whether, how and when existing Government infrastructure projects and programmes are benefitting rural areas. We also need to be mindful of a gap opening up between whether we should update / improve existing infrastructure or provide brand new infrastructure. …
http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/analysis/mind-the-rural-infrastructure-gap