Leader of Tory group Cllr Philip Skinner is asked to withdraw the whip from him.

The story broke at last night’s Cabinet meeting when a statement was read by a member of EDDC staff from Cllr Jake Bonetta (who was unable to attend).

This statement described what happened yesterday morning at a planned tree planting occasion attended by school children, councillors and council officials. 

Cllr Bonetta alleges that he, and others, witnessed Cllr Allen, and someone else, removing the trees and planting stakes that had been prepared for the occasion.

As a result the formal tree planting had to be abandoned.

Cllr Bonetta considers this to be “abhorrent” behaviour on the part of Clle Allen and will consider what further formal action he can take.

In response to the statement, Cllr Paul Haward, Deputy Leader, called on Cllr Philip Skinner to withdraw the tory whip from Cllr Allen and “kick him out of the party”. (Cllr Skinner was not present but Cllr Ton Wright offered to transmit the statement to him).

Ironically only a week ago at full council, the council agreed to a motion put forward by Cllr Allen for councillors to show “civility and respect”.

Watch the relevant section on the EDDC Youtube channel between approx 17 mins and 23 mins

He claims a lack of democracy after he and Cllr Philip Skinner lost a completely superfluous motion they put forward at last week’s full council to restart local plan consultation when the whole exercise has been put on hold. 

The purpose seemed designed to allow a whipped Tory group to shed crocodile tears over what development would be needed to meet Tory “ Build, buld, build” targets. Targets that Cllrs Skinner and Allen have enthusiastically supported in the past.

It looks as if this was the last straw for Cllr Mike Howe, who resigned from the Tory Group immediately after this debate. At one point Mike Howe was seen holding his head in his hands.

Cllr Allen will not be a loss to democracy – Owl

Mike Allen will leave in May

www.radioexe.co.uk 

A councillor in East Devon is qutting in May because of what he claims is a lack of democracy.

The decision by Cllr Mike Allen (Conservative, Honiton St Michael’s) comes after the local authority chose not to revisit a previous consultation phase of the local plan, a document which sets out planning policies and possible locations for development.

The government’s delayed announcement on its own policies has halted progress for East Devon on selecting new areas for housing and infrastructure.

The council has been putting its ideas for its new local plan to the public, but had faced criticism over the handling of a recent online consultation.

Some residents reported that they encountered technical difficulties, so were unable to put their views across. Others, however, completed it without issue.

As a result, Cllr Allen asked the council to revisit the consultation, but this request was denied on the grounds that it did not have the resources to go back and re-do it.

Mr Allen felt that this was not a good enough reason not to begin the process again. “The only thing that they said, despite the errors, was that it was going to be too costly to re-do it,” he said. “If it’s wrong, it’s wrong, and if a consultation is done wrongly, then it will come out if it goes ahead because the inspector will be duty-bound to look at the whole thing. And that just wastes money.

“I’m disgusted with the lack of democracy in the present council, and I’m leaving it in May.”

Cllr Dan Ledger (Independent East Devon Alliance, Seaton) conceded that it is difficult for consultations to work for everyone, but he assured that “a raft” of future consultations is on the way.

“It’s a 3,000-page document so trying to consult and make that really clear and concise and short exercise for people to do is really hard,” he explained. “So, trying to condense 3,000 pages into a 20-minute exercise for people is never going to happen.

“So, we try to reduce it so that everyone can answer individual questions but it’s never going to be able to do everything for everyone.

“It’s never going to be perfect but we’re trying to get as many views as possible, and hopefully we can do that over the next couple of consultations we do.”

The South West saw the greatest increase in economic inactivity among the over-50s at 16 percent, followed by the East Midlands, West Midlands and North West, which each saw a rise of 15 percent.

Katie Elliott www.express.co.uk 

MPs are being urged to back Labour’s plans to reform job support ahead of the Opposition Day Debate as recent research shows a stark increase in over-50s across the country who are either struggling to find or go back to work since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some areas are populated with more economically inactive Britons than others.

Commenting on the proposed reforms, Jonathan Ashworth, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “We’re wasting the talents of so many people across the country who are desperate for quality work”, before adding that a “generation of over-50s in every part of the country have been given no help”.

He continued: “MPs must back our welfare reform plans to get Britain back to work, raise living standards and target the highest growth in the G7.”

Analysis from the Labour Party, released today, shows that every part of the UK saw a rise in the number of over-50s who are economically inactive between March 2020 and September 2022 – with an overall increase of almost 350,000 (11 percent).

The South West saw the greatest increase in economic inactivity among the over-50s at 16 percent, followed by the East Midlands, West Midlands and North West, which each saw a rise of 15 percent.

The research shows the number of economically inactive men between the ages of 50 and 64 had increased by almost a quarter (23 percent) in the North West and the West Midlands and by more than a fifth (21 percent) in the East Midlands.

The South West saw the greatest increase in the number of economically inactive women between the ages of 50 and 64 at 17 percent, followed by the North East on 15 percent.

A total of 55,000 more men over 50 are economically inactive across the North, while 50,000 more women over 50 are economically inactive across the South.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recent economic labour market report published in September, being sick, injured or disabled continues to be the main reason why people aged between 50 and 64 years are economically inactive in the labour market (39.1 percent, or 1.4 million).

Nearly 760,000 people aged between 50 and 64 years are either actively seeking work, or are inactive but are willing or would like to work.