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Austerity cuts, EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Skypark

Council vanity projects

Putting in the words “council new offices vanity projects” brings up SCORES of entries for councils all over the country wanting to spend millions and millions of pounds on themselves. Here are just a few entries from the first couple of pages. All of these examples have taken place in the last 5 years during which we have had a dreadful recession and austerity cuts and there are many more examples:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/deprived-newham-watches-bemused-as-council-ponders-move-from-110m-building-after-just-three-years-8836972.html

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/streathamnews/9606243.Lambeth_Council_office_plan_branded__vanity_project_/r/?ref=rss

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/new_town_hall_plan_for_tower_hamlets_branded_expensive_vanity_project_1_1940016

http://insidecroydon.com/2013/01/11/140-million-the-cost-of-our-councils-secrecy-and-vanity/
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics_2_480/coastal_new_council_offices_could_cost_millions_1_3158985

It’s rather ironic when pensioners are told to heat only one room because they can’t afford their heating bills to see councillors being profligate with our money because they want their taste of luxury.

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What constitutes “proper consultation”? The Supreme Court may tell us next week

Definitely one to watch for!

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20532:supreme-court-to-hand-down-key-ruling-next-week-on-consultations&catid=56&Itemid=24

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Democracy, EDDC, Voting

Our missing 6,000 plus voters: a frightening report

Electoral Ommission

A really hard-hitting report about the failure of the Electoral Commission to get to grips with administrative bungling, fraud and blatent “looking the other way” to avoid responsibility. This 60 page report makes frightening reading about a subject we already find worrying enough with a Chief Executive who reports to himself not being at all worried that he lost 6,000 plus voters at the European Elections and finding Parliamentary scrutiny about it an irritation.

Fortunately, he does not have to worry about local scrutiny as the Overview and Scrutiny committee majority party members agreed to do what he said and refuse to deal with the matter – on the casting vote of its majority party Chairman.

Here is its introduction:

“This study reviews progress seven years after the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s 2007 Report and poses five main questions:

How inaccurate is the electoral register? To what extent is administrative failure responsible for any inaccuracies that occur?

What is the extent of voting fraud in the UK?

Has the Electoral Commission implemented the main recommendation of the
Committee on Standards in Public Life, that the Electoral Commission should focus on administering elections rather than policymaking and on promoting participation?

Are the delays being considered by the Electoral Commission in implementing individual voter registration and in introducing the requirement for voter identification at polling stations justified and acceptable?

Are measures being taken by the Cabinet Office to improve the accuracy of the electoral registers for the May 2015 General Election adequate?

The four main conclusions of this report are:

The administration of elections in the UK remains dangerously inefficient and seriously open to fraud.

There remains within the various bodies responsible for electoral administration a culture of complacency and denial.

The Electoral Commission has taken too few meaningful steps to address the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life that it focus on its regulatory role.

There is an emerging danger of partisan divisions between the two main political parties about whether or not to tolerate this situation. Too often, a bogus dilemma has been cited between the aims of encouraging voting by members of socially disadvantaged groups and guarding against fraud.

Too little has changed since the Committee on Standards in Public Life published its report into the Electoral Commission in January 2007.4 The main change between 2007 and 2014 is that the headline statistics show that the problems of inaccuracy in the electoral registers, already serious in 1981 and worse in 2007, have continued to amplify.

Good electoral administration is a regulatory matter requiring determined administrative action. Yet the bodies responsible for such administration – local government authorities, the Cabinet Office (currently responsible for electoral matters at central government level), and the Electoral Commission – have too often failed to act. It is too easy to blame sociological factors and voter disengagement for what are administrative shortcomings.”

Source: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/publications/electoral%20omission.pdf

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Misc

Devon vision for NHS seems to be at odds with the national vision

New Vision for NHS says small local hospitals will remain

Setting out his vision for the next five years, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said that the health service would have to break out of its “narrow confines” and promote healthy lifestyles.

Entirely new models of care, which could include GP surgeries clubbing together into federations to replace many services currently carried out in hospitals, will be set up across the country.

The report, Five Year Forward View, which has been produced by NHS England along with other national NHS bodies including Public Health England and the Care Quality Commission, throws down the gauntlet to the next government on the long-term future and funding of the NHS in England.

It sets out a wide-ranging vision for the future of the health service, with reforms in almost all key areas of care, For example on Hospitals:
Hospitals Care and surgery for many serious conditions – such as stroke, heart disease and some cancers – to be concentrated at specialist centres. However, small local hospitals will remain, and in some places could be taken over by new, GP-local care organisations led groups. Large hospitals in big cities could take on responsibility for leading community care and GP services in their area.

Read Full Article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/firms-to-receive-nhs-cash-to-reward-staff-for-losing-weight-in-radical-model-for-health-care-9811782.html

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Democracy, EDDC, Local Plan, Skypark

Infrastructure: the elephant on the highways of East Devon

Currently only highly localised infrastructure can be constructed when developments take place – they must be tightly linked to that development, though in some cases even that is not completed: developers strike down all affordable housing and don’t put in attenuation tanks unless threatened.

We have no local plan so we cannot charge developers “Community Infrastrructure Levy” – an extra charge based on the site and size of the development that, if in place, they could not avoid.

As a result, for example, East Devon has woeful public transport. This has bedn highlighted by the planned community hospital closures. How do you get from Ottery to Seaton or from Axminster to Budleigh Salterton without a car – if you do not qualify for ambulances? The answer is: you get a taxi there and back. Let’s say a very conservative £20 -£30 per round trip.

Most people as inpatients or visitors to our community hospitals are elderly. Many, if they can drive, cannot drive at night. What do they do if they cannot afford the luxury of taxis to visit relatives?

And let’s not get started about how we all get to Skypark!

Blame? Buck stopping? Our district council. More interested in helping developers to build more houses for more people needing more services, no interest at all in dealing with the fallout.

Our only remedy? The ballot box in May 2015.

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“Whistleblowers are pursued and persecuted”

That’s the situation in the NHS, according to Dr David Drew (author of Little Stories of Life and Death), in his BBC Radio 4 interview broadcast this morning.
The councillors (coincidentally none from the ruling Party) who have been hounded by EDDC, may identify with the situation the NHS whistleblowers are in. The latest to be bullied is Axminster Town Councillor, Paul Haywood, whose letter to the press is copied below. It was published in Pullman’s View from Sidmouth this weekend.

‘On the evening of Monday 13th October, during a public session of Axminster Town Council, I was subjected to an uncalled for attack on my personal character by Cllr Andrew Moulding of such enmity and vitriol that it took my breath away. Supported by Cllr. Graham Godbeer, he claimed that I had brought the town council into disrepute, and caused acute embarrassment to his County Council colleagues, by way of my use of Facebook to show support for the campaign group seeking to retain Axminster library.

With regards to the spurious basis of his diatribe, and his claim that I had breached the Councillors Code of Conduct and should thus be reported to the Standards Committee at EDDC, I have no option but to await a formal complaint against me, something which should be done in a proper, and pre-determined manner according to the rules laid down for such complaints.

However, as Cllr Moulding and Godbeer now steadfastly believe that disagreements between Councillors – be they Town, District or County – can be reasonably aired in public, I would ask to be allowed to put a question to both of these gentlemen via your publication.

Are both of you content and happy at the way in which Axminster is being treated by all and sundry?

Having already lost DCC funding for our youth service, having our library chronically underfunded, our hospital at risk of losing its beds; we now find ourselves further adrift from the District Council, which seems intent on moving its HQ as far as humanly possible from Axminster, without adequate transport links being put in place. There is no Local Plan in place, the DC has been taken to court by the ICO for failing to divulge information under the FOI Act, our Chief Executive is summoned to Westminster to explain his failings in improving voter registration number and is accused of breaching electoral law.

Draconian public speaking restrictions are scheduled that will prevent both members of the public and town councillors alike from objecting to unnecessary and unsustainable planning and development in our town.

Our pavements are a disgrace, there are weeds on every road and in every car park, the wall outside the Guildhall remains collapsed, the additional dog bins remain uninstalled, the town centre remains an eyesore – sadly mentioned by all visitors – and has been so for decades despite years of your stewardship at all levels of local government. Axminster has no town centre regeneration plan in place at EDDC and yet you, Cllr Moulding, inexplicably sit on the regeneration board for Exmouth!

Our young people have so very few job prospects presently, but when another 1000 houses are built to the north and east of town, what is the plan for employment then? ; According to you both, the answer lies West! Get on the train to Cranbrook, to Skypark, to SciencePark, to Exeter… that is your local plan, and the bedrock of the proposed local plan for the whole of East Devon.

If you are both happy with this state of affairs, and stand firm in your belief that the people of Axminster should pay their taxes AND deliver the services as volunteers too, and if you believe that a polite cartoon poking fun at a professional, well paid politician who showed the utmost disrespect and disdain to the people of Axminster, our MP and our Town Council is more important than the long term interests of the people of this town who you claim to represent, then I think it is time that you have a long, hard look in the mirror and decide who you really represent – the public, or your party… because you can’t serve them both!’

Other cases of dissenting councillors being harrassed by EDDC, will be the subject of another EDA post soon.

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This week’s “View from “…editorial in full

Does politics work for locals?

IN all the years I have been doing this job (too many according to my critics out there), I can’t remember a time when there was so much dissatisfaction with local government. Why is this?

You won’t be surprised, but I have a theory.

When I first started covering rural and borough councils in East Devon and occasionally Devon County Council, 50 years ago, politics had very little to do with it. We were all aware that East Devon was predominantly blue but the focus was very much on serving the electorate.

Councillors got little or no expenses and the officers were not paid such exorbitant salaries. Debates were not dominated by groups of politically affiliated councillors, with members of other political shades marginalised, and there were no grand titles such as “portfolio holders”. Matters were dealt with by committees where all councillors had an influence.

With the exception of town councils, being an elected representative today is as much a career as it is a service for many. I am not denying the amount of hours our councillors at district and county level put in, or questioning their commitment to their communities, but generally they are compensated for their efforts, especially the more capable and ambitious members who climb the political ladder. Some of them receive far in excess of the average weekly wage in this area.

I’m not talking about every councillor. I noticed when Googling councillors expenses, when I started thinking about a theme for t his week’s column, that one long serving councillor claimed only £12.50 last year.

Times change and the reorganisation to create the current three-tier system (county, district and parish/town) back in 1974 was deemed necessary. Like it or not, local government is in the politics game and it will always be that way.

This became clear to me last week after I compared the different interpretation being put on the summoning of EDDC chief executive Mark Williams to a Commons Select Committee to answer question on electoral procedures. Having read the Hansard transcript of proceedings, it didn’t seem to me that it was a wholly enjoyable experience for Mr Williams.

One district councillor emailed me to say he was “mildly disappointed” with the view I had taken but then, incredulously, went on to criticise the “tame” spin put out by his own council’s communications team. His words, not mine.

Talk to most people and they have no real interest in local government (it was ever thus) but those who have are pretty disillusioned. Controversy rages in most of the towns in Pulman’s Country at the moment but there is little faith in the ability of our elected representatives to find solutions.

I think there is also a degree of frustration among a number of long serving councillors, with some of them having already decided not to seek re-election when we go to the polls next May. The big question is: will their replacements do any better?

http://www.viewfromonline.co.uk

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EDDC, Misc, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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Seaton Heights Hotel complex: is it ready to start building?

The developer says yes:

http://lymebayleisure.co.uk/seaton-heights/

but EDDC says no: the site is listed as “awaiting decision” because no Section 106 agreement has yet been signed.

These can take months so perhaps Seaton should not bring out the champagne just yet.

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Just in case our Overview and Scrutiny Committee don’t understand what they are supposed to do …

… here is a brief outline from Wikipedia, together with the relevant laws, that give Overview and Scrutiny Committees great power to scrutinise members and employees of the council and representatives of other organisations and the freedom to discuss “any issue which affects the local area, or the area’s inhabitants, whether or not it is the direct responsibility of the Council’s Cabinet“.

Please do note that Chief Executive Mark Williams cannot bend or break these laws – YOU have the power here, not him.

“Holding decision-makers accountable

“Overview and scrutiny committees are empowered to question elected members who sit on the council’s Cabinet and council employees,^[5] and representatives of certain other organisations,^[6] and to make recommendations to those people. Committees are able to investigate any issue which affects the local area, or the area’s inhabitants, whether or not it is the direct responsibility of the council’s Cabinet^[7]

By law, Overview and Scrutiny must have the right to ‘call-in‘^[8] decisions – i.e. ask the decision-maker to think again, or to refer the decision to the full council if it is believed that the decision-maker has taken a decision in contravention of the council’s budget or policy framework.^[9] To be called in, decisions usually need to be “key decisions”.^[10]”

Notes:

4. “2012/13 Annual Survey of Overview and Scrutiny in Local Government” (CfPS, 2013), http://www.cfps.org.uk/publications?item=7334&offset=0
5. s9FA(8) and (9), Local Government Act 2000, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/schedule/2/part/1/enacted
6. s9FF, s9FI, Local Government Act 2000, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/schedule/2/part/1/enacted
7. s9F(2)(d) and (e), Local Government Act 2000, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/schedule/2/part/1/enacted
8. s9F(4), Local Government Act 2000
8. s9F(4), Local Government Act 2000
10. Ones which have a particularly significant financial impact or which affect several council wards, Regulation 8, Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/2089/regulation/8/made

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_and_Scrutiny#Overview_and_Scrutiny_in_England

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Honiton/ Gittisham

25% of Homebase stores to close – rumours include Honiton store

Rumours abound on the internet that this includes stores at Honiton, Tiverton, Barnstaple, Bodmin, Plymouth and Taunton, though some stores may re-open quite quickly as “The Range” stores.

Source: http://www.diyweek.net/news/news.asp?id=16058

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EDDC, Local Plan

Any progress with new Local Plan?

EDDC has not updated the Local Plan Inspector since the end of August 2014.

Memo to EDDC: he might appreciate an update from you.

Or are you afraid that, because you are obliged to publish any correspondence with him straight away, there are things you would rather the public didn’t know?

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Cranbrook, EDDC, Skypark

Cranbrook now part of Exeter according to Stagecoach

“… The Exeter Megarider zone is being extended to include the new town of Cranbrook, with the cost of a daily ticket falling from £5.50 to £3.60 and the cost of a weekly ticket reducing from £20 to £14, savings of 35 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

….. Stagecoach South West’s managing director, Michael Watson, said: “Exeter is a real success story with the city growing at an exponential rate and more and more towns forming part of the catchment area.”

So, if people from other parts of East Devon want to work at Skypark and use public transport to get there, they will pay substantially more than the people of Exeter or Cranbrook to get there.

“Economic growth” – well, for some, yes, for others – not a chance.

Source: http://www.cranbrookherald.com/news/stagecoach_announce_cranbrook_bus_fare_reduction_1_3813376

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EDDC, Feniton/ Talaton, Flooding

Too much time in warm rooms with closed doors …

In hindsight, might Council Leader have done better than appear on TV in Feniton on a cold, very wet and very windy day dressed in a lightweight suit? And where the BBC presenter had to shelter him under her umbrella.

While other outdoor contributors were dressed in fleeces and wellies and had on sensible rainwear, he must have felt extremely miserable.

He appeared to have just got out of his car without a thought for what the outdoor weather was like.

That’s what comes of running a council from warm offices where most of the time doors are firmly shut because most of the endless meetings are secret!

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EDDC, Flooding, Uplyme

Beware “self help” when funding is cut

Today’s Midweek Herald carries a story that the residents of Uplyme, with the help of East Devon District Council, did work along a stream to lessen the risk of flooding. Unfortunately, although this has helped, it may now mean that they will find it hard or impossible to apply for grants for major works to improve the situation further.

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Cranbrook, Democracy, EDDC, Freedom of Information and EIA

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EDDC councillors start to wake up

Rather like Sleepimg Beauty some previously somnolent EDDC councillors appear to be waking up after spending most of their time during this current council asleep.

They are popping up at parish council meetings (particularly to support current planning applications) and their photographs are appearing like a rash in local newspapers.

It wouldn’t have anything to do with council elections getting closer and still no six year land supply would it?

Would this also explain the sudden decision to extend Cranbrook by a further 25% from 6,000 houses to 7,500?

Speaking of which, a new wheeze seems to have made an appearance. We have heard of a local councillor asking EDDC for details of pre-application advice to an applicant and being refused and told to submit A Freedom of Information request – the due date for which would mean the answer (if indeed there was one) would arrive after the application had been to the Development Management Committee!

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EDDC, Environment (local), Feniton/ Talaton, Flooding, Graham Brown

Feniton and Wain Homes on “The One Show” yesterday

Still available on iPlayer.

Basically, Wain Homes say they have not installed the attenuation tanks that should have bedn installed BEFORE any home was occupied because they want to install different ones. Six houses are now occupied, likely to increase to 15 by Christmas.

Why have the tanks not been installed?

Because Wain Homes intend to extend the site with more houses and to do so will need bigger or more tanks.

Just one problem: they have not submitted further plans for more houses and the Planning Inspector recently ruled that only the current number was sustainable (in part because of the tanks) in the village.

Wain Homes refused to allow the BBC reporter on their site and refused a comment.

A Google search on Wain Homes will show that this is by no means the first time that they have courted controversy … particularly in Cornwall.

Thank heavens the district councillor for Feniton is hard-working Susie Bond and not its former incumbent disgraced ex-councillor Graham Brown, under whose watch huge numbers of houses were planned for the village with no apparent discouragement from him – indeed he was often absent from crucial meetings and did not speak up for residents at council meetings where they were discussed.

At the time he was Chairman of the East Devon Business Forum and had been Chairman of the first Local Plan Panel (2007-2011) whose work was thrown out by the incoming council in 2011 only to see their plan similarly thrown out earlier this year by the Planning Inspectorate.

Had we had a Local Plan in place it is unlikely that the current situation would have happened at all.

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The “View from” local newspapers – the voice of the people … and how they roar!

It is hard to choose from the articles and letters in this week’s FREE “View from” publications. Simply Google “View from” and Honiton, Ottery, Seaton, Sidmouth, Axminster, Colyton etc and you will get the full digital edition on your computer.

The editorial from its editor, Philip Evans, is one of the best we have ever read, bemoaning the fact that, once in the dark and distant past, the political colour of district councillors was an almost total irrelevance – all councillors doing their best for the district and the particular towns they served. He points out that now it is simply politically-charged wrangling and insults with more insidious behaviour too – the destruction of public speech and accountability and a sense of some councillors doing the job more for the money than as a public service.

Elsewhere the newspaper reports on issues such as the hospital bed closures in Axminster, the new governance of the Beehive in Honiton and the still-pervasive sewerage issues in Ottery St Mary.

The Letters page is an absolute cracker too – stinging criticism of the reduction in public speaking at planning committees, a riposte from one Axminster councillor to another when Councillor Moulding accused Councillor Heywood of bad conduct on a personal Facebook page where he dared to make comments about the state of play in Axminster at the moment and a condemnation of the new parking extension for the main Seaton car park to serve the new visitor centre which destroys several mature trees on a green space.

If you do not have a copy rush out and get one – it is a beacon of what true local journalism should be – unafraid and unbowed.

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Hugo Swire, Voting

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Hugo’s hole in the head

East Devon MP Hugo Swire appears to be out of favour.

This tarnished image is displayed in his own constituency: