Author Archives: transparencyforeastdevon
Stop Press: The missing 6,000 voters – EDDC Chief Executive Mark Williams called before Parliamentary Select Committee to explain himself next week
EDA exclusively broke the story of the district’s 6,000 missing voters in July this year and on the fiasco that followed (where very-belated attempt to recruit 10 house-to-house canvassers resulted in only 2 taking up the offer)
According to
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/calendar/?d=2014-10-13#cal41011
and here:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/news/voter-engagement-13th-evidence-session/
EDDC CEO Mark Williams (also the district’s official Returning Officer)has been called to give evidence on
13 October 2014
to the
Parliamentary Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform
who are investigating “Voter engagement in the UK”.
Extract from site here:
Political and Constitutional Reform:
Voter engagement in the UK 5:15 pm
Witnesses: Mark Williams, Chief Executive and Electoral Registration Officer for East Devon District Council and Kevin Finan, Chief Executive, Mid Devon District Council; Roger Casale, Chair, New Europeans and Samia Badani, New Europeans
This committee appears regularly on the UK Parliament Channel on TV and Chris Ruane Mp, who has taken a keen i terest in our district, does not pull any punches. And, since he has been extensively briefed about the situation in East Devon, we do not anticipate that Mr Williams will receive an easy ride.
If it is not televised, a transcript of his performance and that of the CEO of Mid-Devon (also heavily criticised by the Electoral Commission) will be available a few days later.
Watch this space yet again!
And to remind you of what Mr Williams said in response to a public question about this, see:
THE MISSING 6,000 VOTERS: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE FROM AN EDA BLOG COMMENTATOR
http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/07/
where the (in)famous quote: … “in any major change process it is not where you start from that counts but where you end-up” was uttered by the CEO as an explanation of why the lack house-to-house canvassing of missing voters in the previous three years led to the loss of more than 6,000 voters on the register of electors at the recent European Parliament elections.
Has the government abandoned the idea of a 5/6 year land supply?
An interesting perspective from an experienced planning lawyer:
“You can tell there’s an election coming. Even though ministers and their advisers are well aware that there is an urgent need to release land, including Green Belt land, to meet the requirements for housing land, De-CLoG has issued a statement in which they once again trot out the old mantra that, once established, Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional cases.
Eric Pickles is quoted as saying: “Protecting our precious green belt must be paramount. Local people don’t want to lose their countryside to urban sprawl, or see the vital green lungs around their towns and cities lost to unnecessary development.” [Translation: “We know the NIMBYs are wrong really, but they might go and vote for UKIP, so at all costs we are going to say and do whatever it takes to get the Tory defectors back into fold, even though it makes a complete nonsense of our pledge to get more houses built. Getting ourselves re-elected has to come first.”]
Uncle Eric and his friends have suddenly re-discovered ‘Localism’ and are claiming that “Local Plans are now at the heart of the reformed, democratic planning system, so councils can decide where development should and shouldn’t go in consultation with local people.”.
Planning officers can naturally be expected to take a more objective view of these matters, because they have to work out a way of planning for the housing needs of their localities, but this had led them (unsurprisingly) to recommend to their authorities that some Green Belt land will have to be released in order to meet objectively assessed targets (even though these are no longer set by central government.) But to counter this, the government’s on-line guidance has been amended to read that assessing need is just the first stage in the preparation of a council’s local plan, and that in assessing the suitability of land to meet the identified need for housing over the plan period, they “should take account of any constraints such as Green Belt which indicate that development should be restricted and which may restrain the ability of an authority to meet its need”.
This makes it quite clear that having objectively assessed housing need in their area, LPAs should feel free to ignore it, if is politically inexpedient to release green field sites (and particularly some parts of the Green Belt) in order to allocate sufficient land to meet their housing need. If this advice is to be taken at face value, it would appear that the government is abandoning the requirement that LPAs must demonstrate that they have a five-year housing land supply, plus a 5% margin (six years’ supply in cases where council’s have failed to produce sufficient housing land in the past, in the form of committed schemes) if they can excuse themselves by pointing to constraints such as the Green Belt (or any other plausible excuses). It also seems to let them off the hook of having to co-operate with neighbouring authorities in the provision of housing land, even though the 2011 Act requires them to do.
This is bad news for house-builders, and it is bad news for first-time buyers. It also makes a nonsense of recent legislative and policy changes which were directed at securing the provision of adequate housing land. But then, as I said, we are now in the run-up to the General Election, and I did predict a major U-turn sooner or later in this pre-election period. This latest ministerial statement seems to herald that U-turn, and there will no doubt be more to come, as an increasingly panic-stricken Tory Party thrashes about trying to find something, anything, that might secure a few more votes and get them across the winning line next May.”
Source: http://planninglawblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Ottery Community Hospital: does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?
No knowledge of “The Knowledge”
So where’s last week’s edition of the EDDC councillors newsletter “The Knowledge” usually published each Friday? No sign of it so far.
Or is it another thing that is now being kept secret from the public?
Source: http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/the_knowledge
And late on Tuesday evening, lo, it appears – just needed a little nudge perhaps?
Who passed the planning application for the Conservative Party notice board in West Hill?
Current MP Hugo Swire and prodpective candidate Claire Wright have had a spat about who said what about the local heealth service changes in East Devon
As can be seen from comments, it was suggested that she puts her riposte in the same place (by the local shop) so people can judge for themselves who said what. However, Councillor Roger Giles pointed out that is was a Conservative Party notice board so it is unlikely that she would be allowed to post a reply on it.
Try as we may we have been unable to find any planning application for this notice board on the EDDC website Planning Applications Online service.
Can anyone pount us to the planning application number and details of where the siting of this notice board was agreed, when, by whom (was it by officer delegation, for example or by committee) and what conditions, if any, were placed on it?
Is it owned by the shop or someone else?
EDDC and transparency: the government sets its cats against EDDC pigeons!
The Government has just published an FAQ on the new transparency rules that come into effect om 7 November 2014. One or two of the questions and answers perhaps need to be highlighted to EDDC – particularly questions and answers 47, 66 and 81 below:
Q 23: How will the Code be enforced?
The Information Commissioner’s Office will not monitor compliance with the Code: it will react to complaints from the public under existing frameworks – the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations7. In order to ensure that authorities fulfil their obligations:
anyone can make a complaint to the Monitoring Officer of a local authority and remind them of their duty;
the public can use the local authority’s complaints procedures;
it may be possible to make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman where
other local authority complaints procedures have been exhausted;
the authority could become subject to judicial review;
the public can make a Freedom of Information Act request. Where the local authority
does not respond positively to the Freedom of Information request, members of the public can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office under the existing Freedom of Information framework. As well as any issues related to a request, the Information Commissioner’s Office will consider whether the matter under the Code aligns with Freedom of Information obligations.
Q 37: Does publication of expenditure transactions exceeding £500 include all individual salary transactions?
Salary payments to staff normally employed by the local authority should not be included. However, local authorities should strongly consider publishing details of payments to individual contractors (e.g. individuals from consultancy firms, employment agencies, direct personal contracts etc) either here or under contract information. Furthermore, there is a separate set of requirements to publish details of senior salaries in paragraphs 38 and 39 of the Code. And, we think it is important that local people are aware of how much, in total, is being spent on salaries: the Code recommends that this information is published at least quarterly.
Q 47: How can my authority publish details of contracts given they are commercially sensitive?
Where local authorities are disclosing information, they must ensure that they comply with all existing legislation. However, the Government has not yet seen any evidence that publishing the details specified in the Code about contracts entered into by local authorities, breaches any obligations to maintain commercial confidentiality. Local authorities should make potential contractors aware that details of any contract will be made public under the Code to avoid any problems.
Q 57: Isn’t there a risk that the requirement to publish contractual information might deter suppliers from bidding for contracts?
The Government has not seen any evidence to suggest that this is the case. Whilst the point was made during consultation, no evidence was presented to demonstrate that suppliers will be deterred from bidding for contracts. And, local authorities must continue to abide by all data protection and privacy requirements.
Q 66: Is there a minimum size of site or asset for which information should be published?
No, there is no de minimis for the size of site or asset on which information should be published. Small tracks of land can be high value assets because, for example, they provide access to larger developable land.
Q 81: Should contractors employed by the local authority be included in organisation charts, published senior salary details etc?
The Code does not prescribe whether contractors’ should be included. Authorities must ensure that the information they publish gives local taxpayers a clear and accurate picture of the way their workforce is organised and how public money is spent on senior pay and reward. Within that context, it is for each authority to strongly consider whether to include contractors.
Community hospital closures
Our area health group have said they will not cut community hospital beds until people have adequate alternative care provided:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29501588
So, looks like those cuts will (should) never happen or at least not for a very, very long time.
Historic and market towns will have vast identikit expansion says heritage chief
Growth? For whom?
Conservatives told to use secret clubs to mask donations
Today’s Sunday Telegraph reveals that Conservative MPs have been told to use private business clubs for donations so that they do not have to reveal the identity of the individual donors. They have received more than £1.7m by this route including £815,000 from the United and Cecil Club (which has in the past donated money to the East Devon Conservative Party). If you give more than £1,500 to a local party it has to reveal your name to the Electoral Commission but if it is given to a club this rises to £7,500 before an individual has to be named.
The guidance is said to have been drawn up by the Conservatives Compliance Unit and was handed out at last week’s Tory Party Conference. It also advises that funds for MPs should be channeled this was too rather than to the individual MP and then handed on to the MP by the local party.
The advice is also said to include advice against wording invitations [to donate] in such a say that it implies that businesses which make donations can lobby ministers and MPs, which can be illegal.
The peasants of Devon are revolting!
What a GREAT time to be an Independent candidate!
Grassroots rebellion over arrogant leadership in Devon and Cornwall
By Western Morning News | Posted: October 05, 2014
By Phil Goodwin
Westcountry councils face a growing rebellion from a grassroots movement weary at being ruled by an out-of-touch and “arrogant” leadership, the Western Morning News on Sunday reports today.
Campaigns have sprung up across the region in opposition to a perceived centralisation of power which has left many voters feeling removed from the democratic process.
A revolt in Cornwall has seen parish councils form an alliance against the “emerging dictatorship” of the unitary “super council” and threaten to picket County Hall in protest.
In Mid-Devon, a petition has been launched against the cabinet-style of government, where decision-making power is confined to a handful of senior Conservative figures.
In East Devon a quasi-political pressure group has been formed to unify opposition after a series of controversial planning issues. Paul Arnott, chairman of the East Devon Alliance, said chief executives and unelected officers wield excessive influence and are answerable only to a powerful political elite.
“What we see now is a kind of corporate CEO mentality which is just not appropriate at a district council,” he added. “This not Wall Street – it is East Devon, and we are supposed to be following a localism agenda.
“The effect is setting a tone of unelected arrogance – we would like to see a return to the wise and kindly town clerk approach of days gone by.”
Labour’s Local Government Act of 2000 introduced modifications to the old committee system, including the cabinet and leader model, which is common throughout Devon and Cornwall. This allows the ruling party to populate the cabinet with its own members, regardless of the make-up of the council.
In Mid-Devon, where the Conservatives hold a 57per cent majority of the 42 seats, the Liberal Democrats and Independents have no representation and all of the senior power is concentrated in nine Tory councillors.
The same set-up can be seen at Devon County Council, where Tories hold 61per cent of the seats but all the cabinet posts, and at East Devon District Council, where a 71per cent majority holds 100per cent of the cabinet posts.
The Campaign for Democracy in Mid-Devon hopes to collect the 3,000 signatures required to force a referendum on the style of governance.
Nick Way, a Lib Dem member at the authority, supports a return to the committee system. “I think it is more democratic, particularly for a small authority like us,” he said.
“The current system is almost like a dictatorship of the majority – at the end of the day they have a majority but a change would make it easier for their back-benchers to have more of a say and influence policy.”
Harvey Siggs, a Somerset county councillor and vice chairman of South West Councils, says he understands the frustration given the cuts but disagrees with claims of a democratic deficit.
“In Somerset we spend a lot of time trying not to be remote,” he added.
“A good cabinet does its absolute best to be as transparent as possible and we still have to be accountable to the full council.
“With the pace of life and all the things that need to be dealt with, I don’t think the committee system is fit for purpose.
“All too often the disaffected people are around planning. There are winners and losers but mostly, the losers don’t complain.”
In Cornwall, representatives of 15 parish councils packed a hall in Chacewater last week in a bid to rally all 213 town and parish councils to join a revolt against Cornwall Council.
The gathering came in response to the infamous “Chacewater Letter” which branded the unitary authority an “emerging dictatorship”.
The letter, in July, criticised Cornwall Council’s lack of communication, its savings plans, planning policy, arms lengths organisations and highly paid officers.
At the highly charged meeting on Tuesday, fellow parish councillors agreed and declared change at Cornwall Council must happen.
More militant members called to draft in the local government ombudsman, for the formation of an alliance of parish councils and even for protests at the doors of County Hall.
Truro City councillor Armorel Carlyon, who chaired the meeting despite her own council not endorsing the criticism, told those gathered she could see the “democratically elected members being airbrushed out of the picture” by non-elected council officers.
Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Grassroots-rebellion-arrogant-leadership-Devon/story-23044099-detail/story.html
Revolt in the shires
Tomorrow the Western Morning News has a story on
“Westcountry councils face a growing rebellion from a grassroots movement weary at being ruled by an out-of-touch and “arrogant” leadership.
Campaigns have sprung up across the region in opposition to a perceived centralisation of power which has left many voters feeling removed from the democratic process.”
Watch this space – and get a copy of the newspaper for posterity!
Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Revolt-shires/story-23044181-detail/story.html
By far our most popular recent post
http://eastdevonalliance.org/?s=gizza
The more we read the job specification at our sister council in South Somerset the more it sounds utterly perfect for our departing Economic Development Manager and ex-Hon Sec of the East Devon Business Forum, Nigel Harrison.
But perhaps the large number of hits was other EDDC officers seeing an escape from the problems of our Local Plan? Oh no, that can’t be right: they haven’t got one either!
Oh, Tesco: please don’t go giving EDDC any ideas!
After all, should they move to Skypark, they will practically be on the runway of Exeter Airport so our Leader might think he needs one of these (going cheap, of course):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29488777
But beware (from the same article):
“There is a theory that when big companies splash out on new headquarters or other lavish items, their demise is waiting around the corner.
RBS moved into its huge new headquarters outside Edinburgh just before the financial crisis in 2007. Something similar happened to Lehman Bros, Anglo Irish Bank, Enron and Andersons.
Hubris at the top of an organisation can be fatal in business terms as it signals that the hunger that got that firm to the top is waning.
Tesco will hope that its move to swiftly sell all five of its private jets will ground the company and its ambitious executives in the reality of the task that faces them.
The days of unstoppable growth and profits are over thanks to Aldi and Lidl. The days of frugality, hard work and no private jets await.”
NPPF caused Cash to defect to UKIP
“Judging by the attention the Chancellor and David Cameron gave to tax cuts at the Conference, they think the economy is their vote-winning card. But they miss the point of why people, such as I, choose to live in rural areas. My home is in the countryside for aesthetic rather than economic reasons – for the “quality of life” that goes with the unspoilt countryside of AE Housman, which is now under daily siege from developers, whether it be solar farms, industrial pig farms, social housing or wind farms. Countryside voters – from the whole of England – are sick of being at war with their own communities.
The Tory-led Coalition’s claims for “localism” are a fiction from a Tom Sharpe novel. The reason I have taken up the invitation from Nigel Farage to be his heritage spokesperson is that I was always taught by my father’s example that if you believe in a cause enough – passionately, from the iron part of one’s soul – then you cannot remain playing wine-bar politics, but have to stand up and be counted.”
…”But there’s another argument. And it goes like this. Perhaps, as I suspect, the Tories have wholly underestimated the extent of rural anger. What if the disgust that people feel ends up driving a stake through the heart of English country life to the point that people there can no longer support the Tories? There are 12 million rural voters and a very great many I know have had enough. And they are not switching to Labour.”
Time for change?
Many council(lors) operating under the Cabinet system (where a handful of councillors – 9 at EDDC – all appointed by the Leader) make all the decisions are now battling to change to the Committee system.
So strong is this movement – mostly started by councillors of sll parties, including the majority party tired of being simply “rubber stampers” of policies they have no involvement in – that the Local Government Association has produced a report on how to change things.
It is called “Rethinking Governance” and is introduced as follows:
“The importance of good governance
The difficult funding situation for local government means that councils are increasingly having to make decisions that will have profound, far-reaching implications both for the way that they and their partners deliver services, and on the lives of local people. These changes will involve a permanent shift in people’s expectations of what local government does, and does not, do. They will also involve a shift in the way that councils work with others in their areas. Whether this is by an expansion in commissioning, pooling and aligning of budgets with partners, decommissioning of services, major transformation or all of these, local people need the confidence to know that decisions made in their name are high-quality, evidence based and considered openly and accountably.
This is why, now more than ever, good governance is vital. Councils have a responsibility to ensure that decision-making is as effective as it can be: decision making should critically benefit from the perspective of all councillors, but also be accountable, and involve the public.
Many councils are making informal changes to their governance arrangements including tightening up existing processes, making sure that avenues exist for all members to get involved in the policy development process (for example, through overview and scrutiny) and putting in place consultation arrangements for particularly contentious decisions. Some councils have decided to go a step further, and revisit their formal governance arrangements, looking at the different decision-making models available to them and taking steps to make a legal change to a different governance system.”
There is absolutely no chance of change in the life of the current council as the Cabinet has a stranglehold on power, operating hand in glove with officers, and current majority party councillors seem to have lost all their fighting spirit, simply nodding through even the most controversial (and expensive) decisions. Even when they know it is against the wishes of those who voted for them.
But if, in May 2015, a raft of Independent and minority party councillors get elected, it could be another story.
If EDDC’s Asset Management Forum has no minutes how does it communicate with the Cabinet
Details of the new council transparency rules
Click to access Local_Government_Transparency_Code_2014.pdf
Here are a few things that MUST be declared. There is a handy chart at the end of the document of required and suggested disclosure.
15.The Government has not seen any evidence that publishing details about contracts entered into by local authorities would prejudice procurement exercises or the interests of commercial organisations, or breach commercial confidentiality unless specific confidentiality clauses are included in contracts. Local authorities should expect to publish details of contracts newly entered into – commercial confidentiality should not, in itself, be a reason for local authorities to not follow the provisions of this Code. Therefore, local authorities should consider inserting clauses in new contracts allowing for the disclosure of data in compliance with this Code.
17.Where information would otherwise fall within one of the exemptions from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community Regulations 2009 or falls within Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 then it is at the discretion of the local authority whether or not to rely on that exemption or publish the data. Local authorities should start from the presumption of openness and disclosure of information, and not rely on exemptions to withhold information unless absolutely necessary.
30.Local authorities must publish details of all land and building assets including:
all service and office properties occupied or controlled by user bodies, both freehold and leasehold
any properties occupied or run under Private Finance Initiative contracts
all other properties they own or use, for example, hostels, laboratories,
investment properties and depots
garages unless rented as part of a housing tenancy agreement
surplus, sublet or vacant properties
undeveloped land
serviced or temporary offices where contractual or actual occupation exceeds three months, and
all future commitments, for example under an agreement for lease, from when the contractual commitment is made.
Parking account
36.Local authorities must publish on their website, or place a link on their website to this data if published elsewhere:
a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account26, 27. The breakdown of income must include details of revenue collected from on- street parking, off-street parking and Penalty Charge Notices, and
a breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account
Knowle relocation and the new transparency rules – trouble ahead?
According to the Department, the Code will require councils to publish udetails of contracts and all land and building assets “they are sitting on” as well as subsidies given to trade unions including so-called ‘facility time’.
Local Government Minister Kris Hopkins said: “Greater power for local government must go hand in hand with greater local transparency and local accountability. Therefore it is only right we give council tax payers the data they deserve to play a bigger role in local democracy.
“This new wave of town hall transparency will empower armchair auditors right across the land to expose municipal waste and ensure councils are making the sensible savings necessary to freeze council tax and protect frontline services.
“For instance, opening up parking profits to the eyes of local democracy will protect residents from the risk of being treated as cash cows by trigger-happy town hall traffic wardens and expose councils using parking policies in an unlawful way.”
In response Cllr Peter Fleming, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Improvement and Innovation Board, warned that bringing forward the deadline for publishing the required information would only add strain and burden to local authorities faced with major cuts to their funding.
“Councils now need a firm commitment that they will receive adequate funding to cover these new expectations,” he demanded.
Cllr Fleming insisted that the sector was already the most open and transparent part of the public sector.
Councils already published information on budgets and revenues, performance, salaries, assets and annual parking reports, he pointed out. “This allows residents to democratically hold them to account and helps drive innovation and efficiencies.”
Cllr Fleming added that the LGA had recently launched its LG Inform online public tool, which is designed to make it easier for councils to generate and publish reports about how their services are performing.
East Devon Watch 