Daily Archives: 17 Jul 2023

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

17 Jul 2023

Posted under

Misc

Planning Applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 3 July

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

17 Jul 2023

Posted under

Misc

Comments

3 Comments

Police patrolling ‘as and when they can’ 

Remember about 12% of your council tax goes on the police, 7% on EDDC and 4% on town and parish.

Seaside towns, like Budleigh, get three EDDC street scene rubbish collections a day during the tourist season. The “benefits” of Alison Henandez 6% hike in council tax this year may not be seen before her next tax hike. – Owl

Adam Manning www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

Exmouth police say they will be patrolling Budleigh ‘as and when they can’ after the town saw a rise in anti-social behaviour from children.

Police say they are currently aware of ongoing problems of anti-social behaviour in Budleigh town centre and the immediate surrounding area.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “We have liaised with the Child Centred Policing Team at Exmouth Police Station about the issues raised and they have placed a bid with our partners at Devon County Council’s Youth Outreach Team hopefully to meet and engage with the youth of the town.

“Meanwhile the Neighbourhood Policing Team will patrol Budleigh as and when we can.”

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

17 Jul 2023

Posted under

Misc

Comments

1 Comment

Refreshing council priorities and resources better to support residents in challenging times

Agenda item – Motion: Actions to provide the strong, united and informed managerial and political leadership

EDDC council meeting 6.00 pm, Wednesday 19th July

Another week another interesting debate. – Owl

democracy.eastdevon.gov.uk

Council believes that the start of a four-year term with a controlling partnership of councillors with an increased mandate from the people of East Devon provides the opportunity to refresh the whole council both in terms of its priorities and the way it assembles all its resources to deal with the complex issues faced by its residents in challenging times.

To that end council commits to the following actions to provide the strong, united and informed managerial and political leadership that is required:

In the short term, to work with Local Government Association and other parts of the local government family to:

1. Undertake a skills and knowledge audit of all Cabinet Members and key councillors to ensure that they are fully equipped to undertake their roles in the challenging times in which we find ourselves. This will lead to individual support for those members including specific mentoring and placement on appropriate courses and conferences; and

2. Work to bring together the Cabinet and Senior Management to become a unified team which, whilst respecting the different roles of officers and members, can move forward as one body in dealing with the issues faced by the council and its partners. In the first instance this would involve a facilitated Cabinet/SLT awayday and such work as may flow from that.

In the medium term, to:

3. Ask the LGA to undertake a Corporate Peer Challenge in September using leading and respected officers and members from other councils to look at the core of the council and recommend ways forward with a particular emphasis on:

i) Reviewing the member/officer protocol.

ii) Reviewing the Council’s communications strategy in the light of experiences gained with Covid.

iii) Reviewing the procedural standing orders as part of a constitutional review and make all parts of the constitution become clearer, both to the public and members, and encourage more members to participate in discussions & decisions around both the development, and the scrutiny, of those strategies.

iv) Reviewing all safeguarding strategies to ensure the continued protection of our vulnerable residents.

v) Reviewing the relationships between the District Council, the County Council and town & parish councils to ensure appropriate place-based working and the joining up of the public sector and partners to deliver cost-effective and locally relevant services.

4. Ask the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny to conduct, as soon as is practicable, a review of the scrutiny processes to ensure that:

i) The Cabinet and Officers continue to cooperate in the preparation of strategies to ensure that the undoubted professionalism of our staff is supported by the undoubted skills and knowledge of all local councillors from across the political spectrum in the development of those strategies from the outset.

ii) A suite of performance indicators are put in place to ensure that service delivery can be scrutinised by both Councillors and the public and to ensure that modifications can made to service delivery by a due process of review.

5. Ask SW Employers to undertake a review of the training and support needs of the SLT and the methodologies by which the SLT functions as a coherent team.

6. Ask the Council’s S151 officer, in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Assets, to prepare a report outlining the likely costs to the Council of these recommendations  and to ascertain any risks associated with them, both financially and reputationally.

7. Establish a working Group (composed of the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council, the Chair of the Council and other Group Leaders) to support this programme of action and to monitor it and move the improvement agenda forward within the Council in cooperation with the Council’s SMT.

Proposed by Councillor Paul Hayward

Seconded by Councillor Todd Olive

Supported by Councillors John Health, Paul Arnott, Tim Dumper and Geoff Jung

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

17 Jul 2023

Posted under

Misc

Homelessness prevention fund could be scrapped

Devon County Council’s deputy leader says authority “can’t afford” the grants

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

At a Devon County Council cabinet meeting this week, Cllr James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh & Chagford), who’s responsible for adult services,  was probed about the plan to scrap Devon’s £1.5 million contribution to projects which prevent people becoming homeless.

The council insists no decision will be made until a special cabinet meeting scheduled for next month, but Cllr McInnes appeared to suggest there is unlikely to be a change of heart.

“The county council works with the district [and] city councils but we’re not statutorily obliged to deal with homelessness,” he said in response to a question from Labour group leader Carol Whitton.

“[It’s] money that we can’t afford,” Cllr McInnes added. “The only way we could afford it would be [to] take it away from the statutory services which we have a responsibility for. And as cabinet member for adult services I’m not prepared to do that, so I’m very clear.”

The £1.5 million currently pays for contracts with five providers who support around 250 people at any one time.

Their services are provided in multiple occupancy hostels in Exeter, East Devon, Torridge and North Devon, as well as through a countywide support service. None of the money pays for accommodation.

Local charities have hit out at the potential funding cut. YMCA Exeter, which receives £150,000 from the council, says “the consequences for vulnerable young adults will be huge,” while St Petrock’s, a charity in Exeter, warned it could lead to a “homelessness crisis” in the city.

They believe it will end up costing other services such as district councils, the police, NHS and social care “significantly more in the medium to long term.”

Meanwhile, Cllr McInnes also admits “there is a risk that hostels may close,” in a further written answer to Cllr Whitton, “but that is not an inevitability.”

He adds: “Although we do not fund accommodation, in identifying the risk of hostels closing, we have subsequently had informed conversations about how that risk can be averted or managed, including finding alternative funding options, or repurposing or reconfigure existing provision.”

When the proposal was first announced, a spokesperson for Devon County Council also said it can no longer afford the money, diverting it instead towards spending in other areas that support vulnerable children, young people and adults.

A decision is expected to be made at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday 23 August.