A planning application for brand new offices at EDDC’s Manstone Depot turns out to be brand new accommodation for the Estates department. EDDC will now have new or refurbished offices in Exmouth, Honiton and Sidmouth.
Surely this is yet another relocation cost and likely to go over budget, just like every other project this year – some of which have been 70-100% over budget.
East Devon Alliance and other Independent councillors show their mettle – Tories show their inadequacy.
There was a distinct lack of seasonal goodwill last night at the full meeting of East Devon District Council which was well attended by the public.
Four speakers from Exmouth lambasted the council for the mega-shambles emerging over the development of Queen’s Drive.
There was anger that the wishes of local people for a town centre upgrade and a modest refurbishment of the seafront had been ignored. Replaced, without consultation, by a grandiose council project to commercialise the seafront with shops, a cinema and blocks of flats.
Two Sidmouth residents kept up the pressure. One questioned the financial competence of the Council with relocation costs spiralling: £600,000 more for Exmouth Town Hall, £400,000 more for Knowle.
Another asked the Chief Executive to warn planning committee councillors against bias in favour of any future application to develop the Knowle because it would advance the relocation project. This seemed to have happened at the December 6th DMC meeting, but the CEO was unconcerned.
When councillors came to quiz council leaders it was noticeable that not a single Conservative asked a question.
But there was a barrage from Independents and Lib Dems. The refrain was that the leadership never gave straight answers to questions about its accounting for public money; it was incompetent in keeping costs under control, and it kept councillors in the dark about what was happening.
East Devon Alliance Independent councillor Megan Armstrong prised out of Philip Skinner, Exmouth “regeneration” portfolio holder, the admission that there would be no independent public consultation on Queen’s Drive which over 4000 Exmouthians had voted for in a Town Poll.
Nonetheless, EDDC would be spending over £60000 to get renewed planning permission for the development.
East Devon Alliance Independent Councillor Cathy Gardner grew increasingly frustrated at Leader Paul Diviani’s failure to answer questions. Why was the contact with Pegasus life for the sale of the Knowle kept secret? Why was the project manager of the Queen’s Drive affair not sacked for “ineptitude”? And what action would be taken against the same officer who had publicly expressed personal frustration at the refusal of the Pegasus Life planning application for the Knowle?
Eileen Wragg (Lib Dem) questioned where the £3million to move the roadway in Queen’s Drive was coming from. She knew that County did not have funds ear-marked. The Chief Executive admitted that applications had gone out for funding, but nothing had been agreed yet.
Rob Longhurst (Independent) said the leadership seemed to think £600000 more on Exmouth Town Hall was “small money” that didn’t require detailed accounting. “I like to see numbers”, he added. Support came from fellow independent Roger Giles who quoted an earlier Council Leader Peter Halse who said when it came to costings it was not good enough for the council leaders to say “Just trust us”.
Finally, Cllr Longhurst, seconded by Independent Ben Ingham, proposed an amendment that councillors should be updated every six months with detailed costings of the council’s projects.
“Unnecessary!” chorused a succession of Tory councillors. They said leave it to the internal auditors Southwest Audit Partnership, forgetting, perhaps, that SWAP was strongly criticised in 2013 for an “anodyne” report on the governance implications of the Graham Brown affair which suggested it was in too cosy a relationship with Council leaders.
A vote on the amendment was lost with 30 Tory councillors voting in a block against it.
Bleating sounds could be heard coming from a member of the public!
Does anyone recall a government minister of the past (Norman Tebbit) telling young people that, if they wanted a job, they should “get on their bikes” and go to where the jobs were most prevalent?
What happens if you want to own your own home? Where do you go if you are on an average wage? The cheaper homes are largely in the north, but that is also where there are fewer well-paid jobs and, if you are from the West Country, that’s where family and friends are.
So, you rent where homes are expensive to buy, but where the jobs are and where your friends and family are. In this situation, not only will you never be able to own a home (unless you have a bank of mum and dad), you will also probably be paying nearly double in rent what you might have paid on a mortgage (see post below)!
Yet here in East Devon, and in the county as a whole, our housing policy is to build lots of bigger, more expensive houses in the most desirable and expensive places.
Ah, you say, but what about that wonderful new town of Cranbrook? Well, what about it? Cranbrook is turning out to be a mecca for buy to let landlords – perpetuating the high rent scenario that stops young people with low wages getting on the home ownership ladder, unless they are lucky or unlucky enough to be a two-wage childless couple with a bank of mum and dad.
How did we get here? By successive governments putting their faith in the free market and developers. And legislating for them in Local Plans (devised by those self-same developers!).
Social and truly affordable homes have been abandoned to greed.
EDDC could, if they had wished, have turned the Knowle over to a Community Land Trust which could have built affordable homes for local people. A CLT could have taken out a 40 year loan to pay back EDDC, the proceeds of which could have paid back THEIR 40 year loan for their new HQ. Instead EDDC is taking out a 40 year loan on a new HQ in Honiton which WE, the taxpayers, pay back and for which we get – nothing except mega-luxury retirement housing.
Though it is still not too late … with the PegasusLife planning application turned down, perhaps it is time for EDDC to do some of that “systems thinking” that they endlessly trumpet.
Don’t hold your breath.
And what is the government’s answer? Build nore expensive homes to buy!
“The number of 25-year-olds who own their own home has more than halved in the last 20 years as soaring prices and a generational shift have knocked young people off the housing ladder.
Research by Savills for the Local Government Association found that 46pc of all 25-year-olds owned their home 20 years ago, compared to 20pc now. It is not just young people who have been left out of home ownership, which has fallen among people of all ages 6.8pc since the peak in October 2004, and it now stands at 64.1pc.
This fall has been caused by the high cost of living, which has grown at a faster rate than wages. While renters pay an average 34pc of their total household income on rent, and social renters pay 29pc; the average homeowner pays just 18pc their income on a mortgage.
Average house prices are now at 7.9 times average earnings, with the need for a high deposit creating an impassable barrier for some young aspiring homeowners. …”
“Ministers have been accused of launching an “unlawful” consultation on the second part of the Leveson inquiry meant to investigate corrupt dealings between the press and police, as well as new legal costs provisions.
Two victims of press intrusion and an investigative website have filed a claim for a judicial review of the decision to consult on two remaining aspects of the Leveson inquiry, set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
Former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames, online news publisher Byline Media, and an anonymous phone-hacking victim have jointly filed the claim against the lawfulness of the consultation exercise, claiming to be “particularly affected by any decision to resile from the promises made”.
The claim against the culture, media and sport department and the Home Office states that the 10-week consultation seeking the public’s views is “misleading and unbalanced in fundamental ways, which render it plainly unfair”.
It argues that the consultation launched by the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, is unlawful because both Leveson part two and the controversial section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 concerning legal costs were previously promised, and because the consultation document itself is biased. …
…Evan Harris, joint executive director of Hacked Off, said: “This legal challenge is no surprise, given the shameless conduct of the government in breaking its promises to victims, intervening to frustrate the will of parliament, and issuing a consultation paper so biased that it could have been written by the Daily Mail or the Sun.” …
“The pay bill for the Conservative party’s special advisers will total an estimated £7.9 million this year, Government records show.
Theresa May will keep 32 advisers in Downing Street, the same number as David Cameron, but has reduced the number across Government from 95 to 83.
The lower number of “Spads” means the total bill for their salaries has fallen by £500,000 from its level of £8.4 million under David Cameron.”
“Japan is a scrapping an experimental reactor which has worked for just 250 days of its 22-year lifespan and cost $9bn (£7.2bn).
The Monju reactor, in western Japan’s Fukui city, was designed to burn most of its own spent fuel, eliminating the need to deal with the nuclear waste.
But it suffered its first problems months after it went live, and has not worked properly since.
It would now need billions more for safety upgrades to be restarted.
“We have decided to decommission Monju because restarting it would require significant time and cost,” chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
But officials are not giving up altogether, as it had been hoped the reactor would prove to be the solution for Japan’s scant natural energy resources.
They are understood to be seeking another fast reactor to replace Monju, despite opponents saying Japan should give up the programme and shift to direct burial of spent fuel as waste.
According to the Japan Times, Monju will cost at least 375bn yen ($3.2bn; £2.6bn) to decommission and will only be fully dismantled by 2047.
Local officials oppose losing Monju, which rakes in subsidies and provides jobs.”
Consultants £1,430,867
Agency staff £477,119
Total £1,907,986
A full list of payees appears with the appendix. Relocation supremo Steve Pratten (Aecom) takes up a large chunk.
But what is the £11,000 paid to Monitoring Officer and Legal Officer Henry Gordon-Lennox as “Legal Services Retainer”? Surely he is not employed by an agency?
Click to access item-10-consultants-fees-with-appendices.pdf
“One of Jeremy Corbyn’s most persistent critics is to quit as a Labour MP and take a job in the nuclear industry, triggering a three-way fight for his marginal northern seat with the Conservatives and Ukip.
Jamie Reed, the MP for Copeland in west Cumbria since 2005, told the Guardian he was resigning because he believed he could achieve more for his community in his new job, working for the nuclear processing site Sellafield, than on the backbenches.”
Translation?: I am being offered shedloads of money in my new job and so stuff you lot!
A commentary moved to post:
“So the Budleigh Hospital opens as a Hub – the first hospital in Devon to have no beds.
“A Hub, according to its website, is a term used to describe a place where many different services and organisations are based. This usually has a focus on a building, but can be virtual – internet or literature based.” [I don’t think they mean Jane Austen – just bumf].
“[At the Budleigh “health hub”] It is anticipated that a range of activities, such as arts, sport, dances and other social events will provide opportunities for people to socialise. There will also be an internet café, public WiFi and cinema space screening educational productions as well as films.”
“Staff at the centre will be able to refer people onto other services if required, meaning that waiting times are reduced, and you will be able to access support as and when you need it.”
According to the Oxford Dictionary a hospital is an institution providing medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for ill or injured people. Welcome to the brave new post truth world where words mean what you choose them to mean (Alice in Wonderland). [I bet “access support” doesn’t mean what you think either].
Oh and another thing – the Friends are reported to be donating c. £200K to pay the rent to NHS Property Services (a private limited company currently 100% owned by the S of S for Health) who are now charging economic rents for the property. But remember where this property came from. The Budleigh Hospital, like many others, started as a charity but was absorbed into the NHS in 1948. Looks like donors are having to pay twice over!
“A consultancy firm has apologised to the government for the “disruption” caused by a leaked memo that suggested ministers had no plan for Brexit.
Deloitte said it regretted the publication, adding it had proposed a plan “to put this matter behind us”.
The Times reported this included an agreement not to bid for government contracts for six months.
Downing Street dismissed the memo when it was published last month, saying it had been unsolicited. The document claimed “well over 500 projects” were being undertaken by Whitehall departments to implement Brexit, creating the need for up to 30,000 extra civil servants, and highlighted “divisions” within government over the strategy.
Its publication in The Times generated a backlash from No 10, which said it “wholeheartedly” rejected the comments it contained, and Deloitte played down the memo’s significance. Five weeks on, the company has said: “Deloitte regrets the publication of the two-page note, and has apologised for the unintended disruption it caused government.
“The note was for internal audiences and was not a Deloitte point of view. We have put forward a plan for working with central government to put this matter behind us.”
Downing Street did not dispute The Times’ report that the agreement involved Deloitte not bidding for government contracts for six months, but the the company declined to comment on any withdrawal from such bids.”
“Major housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon may be forced to spend millions compensating home buyers locked into unfair leasehold contracts, following a warning by housing minister Gavin Barwell.
Amid accusations in the House of Commons of “the PPI scandal of the property sector”, Barwell ordered developers to halt future sales of leasehold houses or face government action next year.
He also told developers to come up with solutions for householders already stuck in homes where soaring ground rents have made their property virtually unsaleable.
“There is a widespread problem here that needs addressing. These practices are not illegal but it seems to be one of those cases where there is a gulf between the letter of the law and our sense of what is right.
“The secretary of state and I are clear that it is not just a matter of stopping this practice going forward, but it is also about addressing hard working people who believe they have bought their home but actually they are in a position where they may find they are unable to sell that home down the line.”
A series of reports in Guardian Money has revealed how developers have been selling detached and semi-detached houses as leasehold, with clauses which allow the ground rent to double every 10 years. The freeholds are then sold on to private companies which extract the ground rent, charge high fees if a homeowner wishes to make alterations, and refuse to sell the freehold except for a huge premium.
Homebuyers have been left with houses they cannot sell as lenders will no longer offer mortgages against them because of the ground rent clauses. …”
Owl will not be passing on Leader Diviani’s full-blown Christmas message, just the most choice ten phrases from it so you can add your own comments.
And this is the picture that the Communications Department chose to go with the press release, just in case anyone has forgotten what he looks like:
1. Relocation and evolution of efficient, innovative services remains a priority for district council …
2. Improving and we will continue to improve …
3. We will continue to face financial pressures …
4. How we can deliver our services in new and innovative ways.
5. We must evolve from being service providers and instead become enablers …
6. Support communities to come together so they can do more for themselves …
7. We will also be focusing on a more commercial approach to delivering our services …
8. We must deliver the £2.6m savings that central government require us to make …
9. Outstanding council, which works together with local people to create great value services and an outstanding community, economy and environment for East Devon, both now and for future generations.
10. Everything we do is aimed at making East Devon a place where people want to live and work, as well as a top destination for visitors.
“Topsham Library is set to be converted into a multi-purpose community hub for Estuary League of Friends after the group was awarded a
£778,100 grant.
The charity, which works to improve the quality of life for the vulnerable in and around Topsham, has raised 85 per cent of the
£1.95million needed
to fund the development after receiving the grant from the Big Lottery Fund. …
… Estuary League of Friends’ home will be converted into a two-storey complex with a day room, community café and kitchens, fitness rooms, improved library facilities along with other rooms.”
http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/778_000_to_turn_library_into_community_hub_1_4821439
Richard Cohen has not had a good year (well, actually he has, as he remains Deputy CEO and Relocation Manager for EDDC).
He came under fire last week for saying (twice) that the DMC had “stymied” relocation plans – though actually if anyone stymied anything it was PegasusLife putting in a planning application that was unfit for purpose.
Just so show this wasn’t a one-off, let us remind ourselves of this is transcript of part of a speech by a well-known Sidmouth businessman with experience of property development, made at a Sid Vale Association Meeting at the Unitarian Church, Sidmouth, 9th December 2014.
The speech begins with a discussion of Cohen’s estimate of total relocation costs at about £10 million.
“The numbers are completely, hopelessly and scandalously wrong. They are useless, they are terrible and have to be challenged vigorously and strenuously. These numbers are rubbish. They don’t include the green travel plan, they don’t include compensation for the staff, they don’t include the cost of the move itself, they don’t include the costs of hubs the other towns and, most importantly, they don’t include the cost of officer time and members time that is involved in all of this.
The expert, Mr Steve Pratten from Davis Langdon, he is going to cost £1million or more on his own. It doesn’t include the legal costs in all this. I say to the District Council that I have estimated the real costs to be £20million. That figure was not disputed – Richard Cohen did not say it was exaggerated – he said he didn’t recognize the number. What that means is that I was bang on the money.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are trusting Richard Cohen to mastermind this whole process and we are assuming that he’s accurate in the mathematical calculations. This is the same man who measured the Knowle 40% smaller than it turned out to be! He got it wrong by 40%. Robin Fuller had to write a paper, he was rubbished in the press and it turned out that he was correct. The Knowle is 40% bigger than Richard Cohen thought it was.
This is the same man who was responsible for four attempts to compose the economic impact assessments rejected by his own planning committee. He can’t get simple mathematics right. This same man tells us that energy prices are going to go ahead for the next 20 years at 10% over inflation. He is alone in the entire world in thinking this. Nobody else believes that including your energy companies who will fix your energy costs for the next four years. That instantly takes £1.5million out of all the savings that are supposed to be made by moving, so he hasn’t even bothered to explore that possibility.
He is also the man who shifted the southern boundary of the Knowle to include the second tier of parkland without telling anybody and in contradiction to the specific instructions of the Development Management Committee. I was told this would not be investigated because the Inspector would look at it, which he would not do because it was not in his remit. So that has never been investigated by anybody at the Knowle.
He did it without managing to record that process; without managing to record any conversation with any individual, without writing a single email, or keeping a single note or sending any kind of correspondence to any third party. Because I made a freedom of information request, and there was nothing there.
He did it unilaterally, on his own, secretly, and he didn’t tell a single soul, and I only found out by accident.
This is not the kind of person I would trust to do these calculations. Now when he says it is going to cost £15.9million to refurbish the Knowle, I would tell him that that’s a load of bunkum. This relates to the entire building, which nobody advocates retaining. Why is anybody working in a bathroom when the Knowle is two and a half times the size of the building EDDC says it needs? How can that be possible? Mr Cohen in his calculations also asserts that there is nil chance, not 1% chance of local government reform in the next 20 years.”
“Eileen Doyle, who was appointed interim Chief Operating Officer at North Middlesex Hospital in May, is on twice the Prime Minister’s salary. …”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hospital-chiefs-300000-year-pay-9476332
From a correspondent:
Eight things exceptional bosses tell their employees – applied to EDDC
1. I have total confidence in you – EDDC do NOT believe that the public knows best – they do not have confidence in us.
2. “This is what I want us to accomplish…” – EDDC keep most of their their agenda secret and do not inspire the public with a vision based on reality.
3. “What can we do better next time?” – EDDC are never willing to admit mistakes and so never learn lessons.
4. “I want to play to your strengths.” – EDDC do not put the best councillors up for each job regardless of party.
5. “What is your opinion?” – In other words, consultation. Need I say more.
6. “How can I better support you?” – I can’t imagine Mark Williams asking, say, Matt Dickins if he needs help – but who knows – stranger things may have happened.
7. “Let me know if you have any questions.” – Answering questions is not EDDC’s forte.
8. “Good work.” – Giving plaudits to others is a great trait – blowing your own trumpet on the vaguest premise of success or even the vaguest promise of success isn’t the same thing.
EDDC Score: 0/8
http://www.inc.com/elle-kaplan/8-things-exceptional-bosses-constantly-tell-their-employees.html
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative, Bridgwater and West Somerset):
… But the MP – a descendant of Queen Victoria – blames “utter incompetence” at Avon and Somerset Police and plans to raise the matter with Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Mr Liddell-Grainger has even accused police of blaming the Government for the delay.
He said: “When I mentioned the fact that I was a MP it was suggested that if the Government gave the force some more money they might be able to get these things done more quickly.
“Forgetting to check and renew a licence in time is a simple mistake that anyone can make – and I make mistakes like everyone else.
“I’ve told the police I am handing the guns in for safe keeping and they are happy with that.
“But I cannot believe how long it’s going take to deal with a simple renewal of an existing certificate.
“I’ve got the form and I’ve filled it in but you cannot simply hand these things in at your local police station anymore, they have to be posted off.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger said the 16-week timeframe to renew a licence is unacceptable.
“When I rang the police to see how long it would take to get the new permit I was absolutely appalled,” he said.
“Sixteen weeks to complete one piece of paperwork looks like utter incompetence.
“I told the officer I thought it was an unrealistically long time and he just said the police had lots of other things to do. I could almost hear the shrug down the phone.
“It’s not so serious for me because I only shoot for a hobby. But for gamekeepers or farmers with vermin problems who could easily find themselves in a similar situation 16 weeks is a totally unacceptable delay.
“Every worker employed in public office will have to swear an oath of allegiance to British values under plans to defeat extremism.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said it was impossible for people to play a ‘positive role’ in public life unless they accepted basic values like democracy, equality and freedom of speech. …”
…Mr Javid’s loyalty pledge would be expected to cover elected officials, civil servants, and council workers. …
…The oath could include phrases such as ‘tolerating the views of others even if you disagree with them’, as well as ‘believing in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from abuse … a belief in equality, democracy, and the democratic process’ and ‘respect for the law, even if you think the law is an ass’.
Here in Devon and Somerset, we have no idea what our LEP has spent our money on in the past (only vague headlines), no idea who is spending it on what now. We don’t even know how many staff the LEP has, how much they and board members are paid or even where they work from. They boast about securing “economic growth” yet we have no evidence that they are making any impact whatsoever.
Each member of the LEP board has a post that wants to attract “growth funding” to themselves – be it the Chairman of Midas builders or the MD of Supacat which has designs on getting more involved in the nuclear industry – each one has a vested interest in getting the biggest possible slice of the growth cake and ensuring that, even if they don’t get the biggest slice, that there is no cake left for anyone else.
Here is what the Public Accounts Committee has to say.
Additionally, someone somewhere ensured that our LEP was top-heavy with unelected business people and light on local politicians who could at least be voted out. Whose bright idea was that?
“The Public Accounts Committee has issued a renewed warning over scrutiny in devolution deals, saying the government has still not set out how combined authority mayors will be held accountable for public money.
“MPs called on the government to specify what it is trying to achieve through devolution and communicate this clearly to citizens and service users.
The Devolution in England report said that every pound spent by a combined authority mayor – which will be elected for the first time next May – must be traceable by parliament to maintain transparency and accountability.
For example, the review highlighted the ‘opaque’ nature of accountability for the activities of local enterprise partnerships – designed to bring together the public and private sector – which are currently negotiating a revised round of local growth deals funded to the tune of £12bn over five years.
The Department for Communities and Local Government must also do more to demonstrate the link between devolution and economic growth, according to the committee.
PAC chair Meg Hillier said the government’s devolution plans in England have significant implications for the lives of millions of people. …
… Hillier said the government still has serious questions to answer about the benefits of these proposals as “generalisations about the potential benefits” would not be enough.
“The public care about the future of vital local services; about jobs, housing, education,” she stated.
“They want to know not just who is spending their money and to what end, but also how well it is being spent.
“When things go wrong, they want to know who is responsible and how they will be held to account. And, when they elect their first mayors in May, they want to be confident the government has done all it can to protect their interests.”
According to the MPs, there is a “considerable scope for tension” between local government, which is required to deliver and maintain services within a devolved budget, and central government, which provides funding in areas such as skills and transport, and in Greater Manchester, health.
Central government must not “absolve itself of its responsibility to ensure that devolved areas receive adequate funding for sustainable services”, the report stated, and DCLG in particular must ensure devolution benefits work for all local areas and not just central zones or key cities covered by combined authorities, says the committee.
“The government’s annual report on devolution, published this month, does nothing to address these concerns nor to set out a detailed strategic vision for the programme,” Hillier added.
“Every pound of public money spent by an elected mayor, local enterprise partnership or other body must be a pound Parliament can trace. Spending must face robust scrutiny.”
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2016/12/pac-repeats-warning-importance-devolution-scrutiny
East Devon Watch 