“Six English councils – Breckland, Devon, Hinckley and Bosworth, South Northamptonshire and Sedgmoor – have seen their income from fees, sales and charges rise by more than 100% in the past three years, while Derbyshire, Westminster, Bristol and Shropshire, were the biggest risers in real terms, taking tens of millions of pounds more each year.”
Category Archives: DCC
UK ” moving backwards” with climate change
With so many jobs now cut in Devon due to cuts in green energy projects we stand to suffer more than most from them.
“The UK has given up its leadership role at the UN climate talks in Paris and is “moving backwards” with a string of cuts to green domestic policies, according to Prof Anne Glover, the former chief scientific adviser to the European commission.
Her comments were endorsed by business people, NGOs, an ex-diplomat and two former ministers who are worried that the government is squandering the UK’s international standing on climate issues.
David Cameron told a gathering of world leaders at the Paris climate talks last week that they would have to answer to their grandchildren if they failed to agree a deal that stopped dangerous warming. But since taking power in May his government has been criticised for taking the axe to a series of green policies.
“The UK does not have a leadership role, nor is it regarded to have a leadership role in Brussels,” said Glover, who is vice-principal of the University of Aberdeen. “If we don’t lead, who does? To me it looks like we’re moving backwards.”
Ed Davey, who was energy minister from 2012 to 2015, told the Guardian: “No wonder the UK is being criticised in Paris – it’s the worst possible moment to undermine the UK’s strong record on leading the global climate change debate.”
See how Devon County Council wholeheartedly supported these cuts yesterday in Claire Wright’s blog here:
Councillors: are you sure our LEP and your council are operating properly?
If not, read this:
Click to access bis-14-1241-local-enterprise-partnership-LEP-national-assurance-framework.pdf
Just a couple of examples:
the LEP and councils should:
…. publish their arrangements for making, and recording decisions, and for ensuring that papers, decisions, minutes, agendas etc are published in line with existing local authority rules and regulations [access to information, Schedule 12A of the LGA 1972, as amended by the FOI 2000];
and they should:
….. ensure that there is appropriate local engagement – both with public and private stakeholders to inform key decisions and with the general public around future LEP strategy development, and progress against delivery of the SEP, including key projects and spend against those;
Juicy judicial review material!
Devolution: Independent DCC Councillor Claire Wright and East Devon Alliance express grave concerns on the process
Councils across Devon and Somerset are on the verge of submitting a bid to government on devolving control and funding for some services to a local level.
On Thursday Devon County Council will debate a broadbrush bid that is set to be signed off by cabinet tomorrow.
This might sound like a very positive move, however, there are concerns. Mainly around transparency and consultation.
The government has decreed that the process must be “business led” which means that the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been heavily involved in discussions on what will be included in the bid to central government.
The LEP meets in private and does not publish its minutes or agendas.
Councillors have not been involved in the process, save for the forthcoming agenda item coming to full council on Thursday.
There has been no public consultation.
In the paper that goes to full council on Thursday, the list of topics to be included in the bid are:
– Health, care and wellbeing
– Connectivity and resilience
– Housing and planning
– Employment and skills
– Business support
What is always true in my experience is that the devil is in the detail.
The bid must be with central government by 18 December.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Here’s a press release from the East Devon Alliance, which is also unhappy about the process.
• To most people ‘devolution’ implies greater local involvement: local democratic power
• The process being followed for the ‘Heart of the South West’ devolution bid has no democratic element at all:
o No public consultation
Input has been sought from the business community but not the public or elected representatives
o No consultation with elected Councillors regarding the process or on the content of the bid
The information submitted so far has the logos of the Councils and implies endorsement that has not been explicitly sought or given
Nolan Principles not followed
o It has been suggested that government guidance is to keep devolution planning confidential
o The Heart of the South West LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) meetings, including those on the devolution bid, are not open to the public or press; agendas and minutes are not published
o The Electoral Reform Society are concerned about the lack of democracy and public engagement in the devolution process of England
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/press-releases
• Timing is extremely tight, the final ‘bid’ is due to be submitted on Dec 18th with a deal expected to be agreed with central government in March 2016
• EDDC Joint Overview and Scrutiny committee and Cabinet on Dec 2nd are being asked to give delegated authority to the Leader to sign off on the bid – the draft of which has not been shown to Councillors
o EDDC full Council have not and will not get to debate the bid (or the benefits and risks of the proposal)
o Information suggests that this situation is being repeated in Devon County Council with limited information or opportunity for debate
• Past history of unelected bodies delivering services and economic benefits does not bode well: East Devon Business Forum
Click to access scaring-the-living-daylights-final.pdf
and Connecting Devon and Somerset (broadband)
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/11/23/broadband-for-devon-and-somerset-the-fantasy-saga-continues/
• EDA calls for:
o The Heart of the South West devolution planning process to be more open and democratic from now on
o The public and elected representatives to be regularly consulted
o Decisions involving the use of public funds (e.g. business rate revenue) to be made in public by accountable, elected representatives
Exmouth Town Council unhappy about Dinan Way Section 106 fait-accompli
Honestly, some of Exmouth’s town councillors are also majority party district councillors (including Councillor Maddie Chapman). You would think that the left hand ought to know what the right hand is doing! However, she IS on the EDDC Scrutiny Committee, so she might like to ask them to have a look at how this happened!
“Exmouth Town Council’s planning committee this week considered amended plans for 98 homes at Higher Marley Road.
But during the debate, councillors criticised a Devon County Highways statement saying that ‘Section 106’ money from the developers could be used to fund the completion of Dinan Way, between Hulham Road and the A376, and possible traffic calming works. Devon County Council later denied any wrongdoing.
During the town planning meeting, town mayor Councillor Maddy Chapman said: “I would like this council to object to the fact that a county council department is making deals with developers, behind the planning authority [East Devon District Council] and the town council’s back, by saying that Section 106 money can be used for traffic calming in Higher Marley.
“It’s not up to the county council to decide. [Section 106] is supposed to be community infrastructure, not spent on roads.”
Councillor Cherry Nicholas said: “What disturbs me is that they’ve already calculated, if they end up with 98 residential buildings, a contribution amounting to £5,000 per dwelling, ie £490,000, would be appropriate and consistent with the amounts required under a Section 106 agreement which can be applied to the Dinan Way extension.
“I just think that it is rather morally reprehensible that they’ve already jumped that far ahead.”
Town councillors voted to oppose the planning application – an outline application seeking approval for access only – with concerns also raised about overdevelopment, the loss of part of a Devon bank and a lack of community infrastructure. East Devon District Council will decide on planning permission.
A Devon County Council spokesman denied that the authority had gone behind the council’s back, and added: “Ultimately, Section 106s are a matter of negotiation between the county and district councils, because those authorities are responsible for highways and local planning, and the developer. But there’s no reason why the town council cannot suggest what it thinks the priorities for Section 106 contributions may be.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/homes_opposed_amid_dinan_way_funding_dispute_1_4335249
Conflicting views on Devon/Somerset devolution
Tories gung-ho on the prospect of East Devon being am ” economic powerhouse”
“An EDDC spokesperson said: “If a successful bid is negotiated with the Government, then it is likely that the strategic importance of East Devon as a prime location for growth, jobs and housing will be recognised and we will see more investment into our local economy.”
Indie more cautious:
“Councillor Matt Booth has urged caution on rushing into any deal. The independent ward member for Sidmouth Town told the Herald: “It’s a huge ask and a huge task – it has to fit in with the financial plans of 16 other local authorities.
“I’m not for it. I think that it is just another way for central government to wash its hands of its responsibilities.
“If central government did its job properly, there wouldn’t be any need for devolution.
“But if we do go ahead, then as councillors we need to find a way to keep the process open and a way to bring it back to members.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/economic_powerhouse_promise_of_devolution_1_4326893
EDDC special meeting on devolution tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3 pm
Thanks to Martin Shaw of Seaton Matters for this important information. Why schedule it for a time when many people will, of necessity, be at work?
“Our county and district councils are steaming ahead with proposals for devolution in the daftly named ‘Heart of the South West’ (that’s Devon and Somerset to you and me) to be agreed on 18 December and then submitted to Government. They hope it will all be done and dusted by March. Apart from an odd piece in the local press, what do most people know about this? I’d always thought that ‘devolution’ was about more democracy, not less.
On
Wednesday 2nd December, at 3pm,
EDDC has scheduled a special extra meeting of Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the sole opportunity for the press and public to be present at a devolution discussion.
This will prepare the ground for the Cabinet Committee at 5.30pm when EDDC Leader’s delegated powers for ‘Heart of the South West’ are expected to be pushed through.
http://seatonmatters.org/2015/11/30/sw-devolution-when-do-we-have-our-say/
Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership – in their own words
This is the unelected and unaccountable body that wants to run Devon and Somerset
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/
and this is what it wants to do:
“Our ambition is to maximise our area’s assets and inspire innovation and entrepreneurship to create long-term economic growth. We want to see our urban centres fulfil their capacity for growth whilst ensuring that our rural areas flourish through enterprise and improved competitiveness.”
This is their ” vision” for our area:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/current-priorities
This is what it is currently spending our money on:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/current-activities
These are the unelected people running it:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/chief-executive-and-non-executive-directors
including our own Paul Diviani, who will be in charge of housing for Devon and Somerset if this comes off (hope you won’t be needing a Devon and Somerset Local Plan guys) and Andrew Leadbetter (DCC councillor in charge of the rural broadband omnishambles).
Most of their current money (around £65m) has already been pledged to their favoured projects and most of the leg-work of who does what appears to have been pretty much sorted out.
Makes the East Devon Business Forum look like nursery school! Oh look, it has its own Business Forum:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/heart-south-west-business-forum
Time to re-read “Brave New World” and “1984” Owl thinks!
“Local councils warn of critical funding crisis as £18bn grant is scrapped”
“Town halls are facing a £4.1bn a year black hole in their budgets that not even the closure of every children’s centre, library, museum and park could fill, council leaders have warned.
George Osborne’s decision to axe the central government grant to councils over the next four years came in a comprehensive spending review that the Local Government Association (LGA) chairman, Gary Porter, a Conservative peer, described as a tragic missed opportunity to protect the services “that bind communities together, improve people’s quality of life and protect the most vulnerable”.
Broadband omnishambles – campaigner and DCC spokesperson on Radio Devon tomorrow am
Graham Long of B4 RDS will be on the BBC Radio Devon Simon Bates show tomorrow morning (Weds 25 Nov, from 7.30am)talking about broadband. After him, they will interview Cllr Andrew Leadbetter of Devon County Council (DCC). DCC are responsible for the work of Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS).
DCC and EDDC and other Devon district councils not working together has been cited as one reason for Devon and Somerset rural broadband losing out on funding that could have been applied for.
It will be interesting to hear Councillor Leadbetter explain his way out of this one as Mr Long os way more experienced about these matters than Mr Leadbetter seems to be.
Broadband for Devon and Somerset – the (fantasy?) saga continues
As we said before, if Devon and Somerset can’t work together on this, how on earth can they hope to work together successfully on anything else? And DEFINITELY things here for DCC’s Scrutiny Committee!
Press Release from Graham Long
Chairman, B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset)
This open letter has been emailed (November 22nd), to all Devon & Somerset MP’s, from B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset), prior to an MP’s meeting in Westminster, Nov 25.
Dear Member of Parliament,
Open letter to all Devon & Somerset MP’s concerning Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS).
It is my understanding that Keri Denton and CDS Board Members Cllr Andrew Leadbetter plus others will be meeting with Devon & Somerset MP’s on or about Wednesday Nov 25th in Westminster.
You will be told how well the CDS broadband programme is going and be encouraged to secure more money for CDS. You will also be enlisted to help them get special EU State Aid (GBER) approval because of their failure to meet the June 30 umbrella state aid deadline .
THIS PROGRAMME IS OUT OF CONTROL. The attached two B4RDS press releases will give you the background.
Questions you need to ask CDS and CDS Board members are:
1) Why did Keri Denton say “How long is a piece of string?” when asked what the current Phase 2 programme schedule is by the DCC Place Scrutiny Committee on Nov 16? Devon & Somerset are now THE ONLY counties in England not to have a Phase 2 contract in place after they abandoned negotiations with BT in June and then missing the June 30 deadline for EU State Aid approval. CDS are currently unable to give DCC Scrutiny a firm schedule for when they will have a Phase 2 programme in place outside of the two National Parks.
2) Will Phase 2 be completed by the end of 2017? Cameron, Vaizey and Whittingdale have all committed to 95% superfast broadband coverage, nationally, by the end of 2017. There is now a snowballs chance in hell of that deadline being met in Devon & Somerset. On Nov 16, Keri Denton told DCC Scrutiny that she hoped to have Phase 2 in place by the end of 2016. This will mean that having spent two years trying to find suppliers they will give the companies awarded Phase 2 contracts, only 12 months to complete the project. This will not be achieved.
3) Why have CDS & DCC not secured committed Phase 2 match funding from Devon District Councils? When Phase 2 negotiations with BT collapsed in June 2015, CDS was only offering BT £35M for a contract that BDUK estimated would cost £41M to deliver, as shown on the BDUK website. For DCC & SCC to claim that negotiations collapsed because BT was not offering value for money is at best disingenuous and at worst a lie. (After deducting the £4.6M National Parks Airband contract from the fully matched £45.5M [=2x£22.75M] BDUK allocation, £40.9M should have been available to BT, not £35M). Each Somerset District Council committed an average of £500k each but not one Devon District Council committed a penny. As a result the project has stalled. Somerset District Councils now have a seat on the CDS Board as a result, but Devon District Councils remain unrepresented. County and District Councils in every county in the UK have managed to work together on this, with the exception of Devon! Devon & Somerset’s “Devolution Statement of Intent” (Slide 6) has the gall to describe the CDS programme as one of the two counties successes!
4) Why have CDS not obtained any Phase 1 clawback monies from BT? In July the government announced that a total of £129M in clawback payments were being paid back by BT to county run broadband programmes. Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgshire have already obtained £5.3M, £3.9M, £1.1M and £5.3M respectively in clawback payments from BT. CDS is the largest county run such programme in England and to date has obtained nothing in clawback from BT, which Keri Denton confirmed to DCC Scrutiny on Nov 16. Based on NAO and PAC reports during 2013 & 2014, it is calculated that CDS is due over £9M from BT which can be claimed in advance of reaching the 20% threshold, provided it is reinvested with BT. This is enough to connect another 60,000 properties under Phase 1. In response to the Nov 16 Scrutiny Committee, Keri Denton says that BT have offered to pay back £4.5M to CDS but she then said she did not know how the money was calculated! She must know how it is calculated! – It is in the Phase 1 BT/CDS contract! Even more worrying, the CDS Board Action notes of October 6 (attached – see highlighted text) state that the Board decided not to claim clawback from Phase 1 until after a Phase 2 contract is secured at the end of 2016. WHY? In September, Cllr Andrew Leadbetter told DCC Scrutiny that CDS could do a better job now they do not have the June 30 state aid approval deadline to work to! Do they not understand that people in rural communities are desperate for fast broadband NOW. If there is more money to expand Phase 1 coverage now, why wait until the end of 2016 to claim it? DCMS have shown that the ROI on superfast broadband investment is 20. On HS2, it is 1.7. Investment in broadband is a no-brainer!
Seaton to lose its Voice?
Yet another example of East Devon District Council cherry-picking which assets it sells and which it keeps.
You might think it was simple: sell those that don’t make money and keep those that do. But it isn’t that simple when it comes to the arts and the community. Money was poured into the Honiton Beehive complex (£300,000 plus and maybe much more gifted, not loaned), the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, also in Honiton, has never made money but we are not allowed to know exactly how much it loses and the Manor Pavilion (Sidmouth) is similarly a financial mystery. EDDC hived off its leisure facilities to Leisure East Devon years ago but we are never too sure how much that company still receives in subsidy – information is scant.
But not so Seaton Town Hall – the town’s only arts and entertainment venue run by local social enterprise company Seaton’s Voice and called The Seaton Gateway. [A social enterprise company is not a not-for-profit company, it is simply a normal company that has a social mission as part of its Memorandum of Association according to government information]
Currently, the Gateway occupies the large ground floor which includes a large hall and bar facilities, the town council has the much smaller first floor and the museum the even smaller top floor. The upper floors are not accessible to disabled people having many stairs for access. The Gateway has three directors who run the venue with a large number of volunteer staff.
For some years, it appears that EDDC was prepared to subsidise The Gateway – which has made a name for itself with regular musical entertainment, live theatre broadcasts and rooms rented out to local groups and societies – EDDC has just written off a £30,000 loan it gave to Seaton’s Voice and was also paying 20% of the building’s utility bills.
Now all has changed. EDDC wants to divest itself of Seaton Town Hall and will only entertain transferring it to the town council and not to Seaton’s Voice.
However, in a twist of fate, at the same time, Devon County Council was keen to get rid of its own building in Seaton – the former Marshlands Centre which has been closed for some time – and for a knock-down price and the town council decided to buy it from them, using its reserves for the purchase, fearing that such an opportunity might not happen again.
This has put Seaton Town Council on the horns of a dilemma: move into its own almost purpose-built accommodation which it would own and run for itself or share an old building where the vast majority of the space is taken up by a private tenant which has been used to being subsidised or keep both buildings and all the financial pressures and problems of owning them both. But at the moment the Council IS saying both rather than one or the other.
It has been revealed that to make the building fit-for-purpose, the town council would need to take out a Public Works Loan of £400,000 plus and The Gateway company would need to fundraise around £200,000 – massive amounts for a small town council and for a small company.
If it keeps the town hall and raises the money, the town council will have a tenant which needs most of the useable and income-producing space but which operates with a shoestring staff of volunteers and which has not been used to operating at full cost and which will presumably also expect some sort subsidy from the town council.
In yet another twist of fate, the company running The Gateway has now said in the pages of the local press that it will not co-operate with the town council on a plan for the town hall now that it is purchasing Marshlands, because the council discussed the purchase behind closed doors without including them, and fearing, presumably and probably correctly, that the town council’s priorities cannot be its priorities.
It seems now that either the town council will decide it does not want the town hall at all or it will take on two buildings with the result that they will of necessity have much less to spend on the Town Hall than if it had been the only building it owned. But at the moment the Council IS saying both rather than one or the other.
So, we have SOME arts and community venues being subsidised by EDDC, and one it doesn’t want to subsidise and wants to slough off onto a small town council which would have to raise its precept in order to subsidise a private business to provide arts and community services.
Well done, EDDC. Still, at least councillors in the new HQ in Honiton will be able to pop to the Beehive and the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in their free time.
If Devon can’t work with Devon on broadband – whither a bigger Devon and Somerset merger?
Press Release from
B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset)
Asked when Devon & Somerset might have a 95% minimum coverage, Phase 2, superfast broadband programme up and running, during the Nov 16 DCC Place Scrutiny Committee hearing, all that Ms Keri Denton, Programme Director for Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS) could reply was: “How long is a piece of string”.
This follows the failure of CDS to secure a Phase 2 supplier for rural Devon & Somerset in June 2015, by when all other UK Counties had put their Phase 2 programmes in place. Only Devon & Somerset now remain without a 95% programme in place meaning that rural properties could now be waiting many more years before their broadband speeds improve.
It was also confirmed during the Scrutiny Committee hearing that the reason CDS failed to agree a Phase 2 contract with BT in June was because not one District Council in Devon was prepared to commit the match funding that CDS needed to draw down £22.75M from central government for the programme, although every District Council in Somerset had committed their match funding contributions. The failure of Devon County and District Councils to work together on this means that not only Devon’s rural taxpayers, but also those in Somerset, have now scheduled date for when their broadband service, often with speeds below 2Mbps might improve. Having committed match funding, Somerset Districts now have their own board representative on the CDS Project Board from which Devon Districts remain excluded. With many Scrutiny Committee members being District as well as County Councillors, Ms Denton asked for their help to get Devon Districts into the programme.
The current best estimate as to how long a piece of string may be seems to be July 2016, which will be over a year after all other UK Counties secured their Phase 2 funding and got the project underway. Government ministers still talk about all the UK having 95% superfast (>24Mbps) coverage by the end of 2017, but by July 2016, CDS will have spent two and a half years trying to put a Phase 2 contract in place and next July they will only give the chosen suppliers 18 months to deliver the project. The end of 2017 now looks like a target that will be missed.
While Devon County and District Councils continue to fail to work with each other on Superfast broadband, businesses prepare to more out of rural areas to the towns because they cannot keep their website shop windows up to date at 2Mbps and rural houses become impossible to sell when prospective buyers learn they will get no more than 2Mbps from their ISP’s.
Note to Editors:
A webcast of the Nov 16 Place Scrutiny Committee hearing is on line at
http://www.devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/178939 (Move slider to 2.40.30 in)
“Broadband a question of haves and havenots”, Councillor Twiss told EDDC Scrutiny.
Report sent to East Devon Watch:
‘More ‘best practice’ was evident at EDDC Scrutiny Committee at Knowle yesterday evening (12/11/2015). From the start, Chair Roger Giles (Independent, Ottery St Mary) insisted that presentations should be brief and not include the reading out of information that had been circulated to councillors in advance. Using questions and answers was a more useful tool for this committee , he advised.
This proved correct straightaway, in the close examination of Devon’s broadband provision. Five stakeholders had been called to speak and answer questions. They were Andrew Moulding, Chair of Devon County Council’s (DCC) Place Scrutiny Committee and Deputy Leader of East Devon District Council (EDDC); Cllr Phil Twiss, EDDC Corporate Services portfolio holder; Paul Coles, BT Regional Manager, South West ; Phil Roberts, Programme Manager for superfast broadband delivery, Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS) ; and Graham Long, Upottery Parish Councillor, with 20 years’ experience with Hewlett Packard, for whom he ran the EU support network.
Questions included one sent, in her absence, from Cllr Susie Bond (Independent, Feniton & Buckerell), asking why the broadband situation in parts of her constituency was “appalling”. Particularly intense questioning came from Cllrs Marianne Rixson (Independent, Sidmouth Sidford Ward ) , and Val Ranger (Independent, Newton Poppleford & Harpford),who had clearly done their homework, both closely referring to the document submitted by CDS, and finding some apparent inaccuracies (e.g. Could the audit done by EDDC’s internal auditors, SWAP, properly be described as ‘independent’?). Cllr Ranger wondered why, of 26 interested parties in 2014, only two had submitted a formal tender.
Phil Roberts (CDS) reported that CDS had decided not to sign a second contact with BT, and that there would now be a different approach to tendering . For the next phase, CDS were currently looking at other providers , as well as talking to BT, he said.
Much of the time, Cllrs Moulding and Twiss looked uncomfortably out of their depth, not least when it emerged that EDDC and DCC had not worked together to obtain maximum funding, thereby missing out on millions of pounds.
Graham Long, “astonished to find how slow broadband is in Devon”, explained that “Fibre is best for reliability, speed and bandwidth. But fibre-to-cabinet works as an urbancentric solution. It doesn’t work in rural areas”. Cllr Ben Ingham (Independent, Woodbury & Lympstone) told the Committee, “I’m really flabbergasted that BT are picking the poor relation of technology”.
The broadband issue is certain to continue. Next Monday DCC’s Place Scrutiny Committee will hear CDS feedback on its recommendations (14h00, County Hall, Exeter). More questions and answers are no doubt being prepared!’
Local Government Department agrees 30% cuts over four years
“Four government departments have provisionally agreed to cut their spending by an average of 30% over the next four years, Chancellor George Osborne is to announce later.
The transport, local government and environment departments, plus the Treasury, have all agreed deals ahead of the spending review on 25 November.
The cuts will help the public finances back into surplus, he will say.
A Treasury source told BBC News the agreements were “really good progress”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34763261
But no doubt our council taxes will remain the same or increase as costs are offloaded from county and district and loaded on to town and parish council precepts.
And there no doubt will still be money to build a new council HQ in Honiton, subsidise the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, pay consultants exorbitant fees and continue to offer free parking to councillors and officers at Knowle.
Some assets won’t sweat quite as much as others.
2,000 senior council officers get private medical treatment paid for by us
Figures obtained by the Mail show that over the past three years, £3.43million of public money has been spent on private health insurance for council staff in England and Wales.
Stuart Hughes’s “Pothole Army” fails to march
“An “army” of people to fill potholes on Devon roads promised last year has been thwarted by legal paperwork and insurance delays.
Last October Devon County Council asked volunteers to help repair the roads to help save money.
Fifty five people applied to become Community Road Wardens but no work has been yet been undertaken.
The council said the scheme was “innovative” and it was taking time to get everything in place.”
“Audit should be citizen led” – that grey area for “Devolution plc” again
As the article points out, devolution comes with dangers:
” … There is a risk that moves towards greater decentralisation of power to newly empowered spaces – institutions of local government – simply replicate on a smaller scale the weaknesses of the national system. With the focus on new models of governance – directly elected mayors and combined authorities – crafted to suit the accountability requirements of Whitehall, it is important that new opportunities to strengthen accountability of decisions to the public space are not missed.
At core, the challenge for democratic institutions is to blur the boundaries between the governed and the government, creating more space for the former to engage with the latter while ensuring equity of participation and access. In practice at a local level there are more opportunities for this interaction – not simply due to proximity enabling direct engagement but because shared space in communities creates a focus for deliberation. There are already examples of local authorities pioneering new approaches, such as Oldham’s Co-operative Borough (as opposed to council), which involves developing the community leadership skills of elected members. The devolution of the entire health budget to Greater Manchester will be an interesting chance to consider how aligning health resource and decision-making more effectively across a place can create greater individual engagement in healthy choices and outcomes. …”
Parking: £14.79 a day or £5 a day – you choose!
Potential car parkers in the Mill Street car park in Sidmouth had charges hiked by more than 300% to £5,400 per year so it’s not surprising that they did not take up spaces which worked out at more than £14.79 per day.
We now hear that DCC are offering landlords, contractors and business owners ( which, of course will include developers) will be able to park on double yellow lines for £5 per day = £1,825 for 365 days of parking.
Mill Street – £14.79 per day
Double yellow lines – £5 per day
Today, the Express and Echo says there will be few checks on the £5 per day charge – indeed without appropriate legislation to define each category it will be impossible to do it at all. A source is quoted as saying “It’s all about the money”.
Yet another example of EDDC plc and Devon County Council plc – grabbing what they can when they can build their luxury HQ (EDDC) or to plug their own party’s funding cut black holes (DCC).
Sheer madness or sheer greed – take your pick.
Park on double yellow lines in Devon for £5 per day – but only if you are a business owner, landlord or contractor
Did anyone else know about this? Is it a Stuart Hughes idea? If not, who? And why? And why hasn’t Stuart Hughes publicised it in a funny suit or video? And why can’t the rest of us avail ourselves of this useful perk? Imagine how much it would save in parking fees.
“Permits allowing drivers to park on double yellow lines for just £5 a day have been made available in Devon. The scheme is open to business owners, landlords and contractors”.
East Devon Watch 