Will Phil Skinner be made an Alderman?

Eligibility requirements for nomination are that the councillor should have served for at least eight years (two terms), not necessarily consecutively.

Nominees then need the approval of a two thirds vote from the full council.

The draft Verita report describes the nomination process within EDDC as relatively informal:

The CEO described the steps that were normally involved. He wrote: 

“The Council’s convention has been that Group leaders and/or other interested Members have put forward suggestions to the Democratic Services Manager (on behalf of the CEO) as to who could be nominated for conferment of the title of Honorary Alderman.”

“Once a Group Leader or councillor nominating an individual for the title has provided information to support their nomination, a report of all the nominations received with the evidence as to why the title should be conferred is collated and sent to all Group leaders for consideration. They will discuss all of the nominations and then convey their respective views about whether the title should be conferred or not at this point in order to reach collective agreement and the nominees are then contacted.” 

Where does that leave independents, especially those who dare to hold the council to account?

Phil Skinner is just one of more than a dozen long standing councillors who have stood down or failed to get re-elected. 

In December 2019 Conservative ex-councillor John Humphreys, was one of 11 ex-councillors to be awarded the honorary title of “Alderman”.

Following John Humphreys’ conviction for historic rape this honour was withdrawn from him in September 2021.

Owl thinks that it is  high time for this council to rethink the whole process, now that it has become debased to the detriment of genuinely deserving individuals. Shouldn’t it  be reserved for exceptional service to the community; rather than just long service by itself or some sort of consolation prize for political appointees who have no longer been selected as a candidate by their party?

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak announced “a new plan to stop scams at the source and help make it easier for people to protect themselves from fraudsters”.

Owl recalls that when Conservative Cllr Graham Brown was exposed in a Telegraph sting offering to get planning permission for cash, the case was referred to the Police by the EDDC monitoring Officer who then referred it to “Action Fraud”. 

Action Fraud eventually declared that it wasn’t a matter they dealt with. 

By the time the local Police put a “Senior Fraud Officer” on the case the trail had gone cold.

Though the story has refused to die.

This new strategy concentrates on online fraud rather than political fraud.

All a bit rich coming from the Conservatives, don’t you think? – Owl

Fraud Strategy

www.gov.uk (Extract)

This strategy sets out a plan to stop fraud at source and pursue those responsible wherever they are in the world, reducing fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by 2025.

Predatory criminals take money out of the pockets of hard working people, businesses, and organisations, callously targeting the most vulnerable, online and in their own homes. The volume and severity of fraud also undermines public confidence in the rule of law and threatens our national and economic security.

To deliver a 10% cut in fraud on 2019 levels by December 2024, the government will:

• establish a new national fraud squad with over 400 new posts and make fraud a priority for the police
• deploy the UK intelligence community and lead a new global partnership to relentlessly pursue fraudsters wherever they are in the world
• put more fraudsters behind bars through better investigation and prosecution processes for fraud and digital offences
• ban SIM farms which are used by criminals to send thousands of scam texts at once
• stop fraudsters from being able to send mass text messages by requiring mass texting services to be registered, subject to a rapid review
• Replace Action Fraud with a state-of-the-art system for victims to report fraud and cyber crimes to the police
• ban cold calls on financial products so fraudsters cannot dupe people into buying fake investments
• stop people from hiding behind fake companies and create new powers to take down fraudulent websites
• work with industry to make sure that intelligence is shared quickly with each other and law enforcement
• change the law so that more victims of fraud will get their money back
• overhaul and streamline fraud communications so that people know how to protect themselves from fraud and how to report it
• make the tech sector put in place extra protections for their customers and introduce tough penalties for those who do not
• shine a light on which platforms are the safest, making sure that companies are properly incentivised to combat fraud

The Annual Meeting is the one at which the full council elects the Chair, Vice-Chair and Leader for the coming year who will then announce Cabinet appointments.

The proposed venue is the Ocean in Exmouth which has been used for recent “in person” council meetings.

Why not use another enduring legacy, the Tory Flagship Council Office in Honiton with its narrow dysfunctional council chamber? 

Does this extract from Tim Todd’s FOI, June 2019, give us a clue?

Along with a fair number of members of the public, I attended the first council meeting under the new intake of councillors in May. Even arriving early I found that there was no room to accommodate me and a number of other members of the public, we had to use a less than satisfactory gallery with a restricted view of the participants. We also had to put up with broadcast information and missed out on all that was said when speakers forgot to use the microphones. Being quite separate from councillors and others, we were not readily able to have conversations with others on matters that may have been relevant and could have been raised by our representatives.

I gather from some in the small chamber downstairs, and from social media, that many were less than impressed and some felt the design and construction did not give due weight to public engagement in council matters in their public meetings, that the council has failed in its duty to provide adequate facilities or encourage participation.

Annual Council meeting 24 May 6.00 pm

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Ocean Suite, Ocean, Queen’s Drive, Exmouth, EX8 2AY

The First Cabinet meeting 7 June

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Council Chamber, Blackdown House, Honiton