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Who scrutinises the scrutinisers scrutinising the scrutinisers?

The “Centre for Public Scrutiny” set up a National Overview and Scrutiny Forum:

“A National Overview and Scrutiny Forum was set up in 2007 to help develop Overview and Scrutiny in England and Wales. Each English region sends one officer representative, and one councillor representative, to the Forum. Wales sends one officer and one councillor representative as well.

The Forum is convened and facilitated by the Centre for Public Scrutiny but controls its own work programme and is driven by the needs and interests of O&S practitioners.”

So how effective has this Forum(remember, made up of councillors and officers) been in the run- up to local and general elections?

“At its meeting in April 2014, the Forum decided that it would take a break from meetings in person until after the 2015 General Election.”

Now, why would officers and councillors shut down a forum on overview and scrutiny 10 months before elections?

Wow, I would love to see the minutes of THAT meeting! So I click on the link for them:
http://www.cfps.org.uk/nosf-minutes-agenda

Whoops, nothing since 2013 but no fears there is a link from this archive page:

http://www.cfps.org.uk/?location_id=363

which takes you back to the earlier page in a loop where you start again … and again! This is SO like EDDC!

However, a note at the bottom says to call someone in the organisation. No reply.

Request for the minutes has now been made by email.

Transparency? Hmmm!

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EDDC masterclass on how not to answer questions!

Questions:

How long has the current monitoring officer been in post?
Was the monitoring officer vacancy advertised prior to the current monitoring officer taking up the post, and if so where was it advertised? What are the monitoring officer’s qualifications?

Answer:

The post is currently a shared post with South Somerset District Ccouncil and this person is a qualified local government solicitor

Question:

In the last five years (February 2010 to February 2015) how many permanent vacancies have arisen?
How many of these have been advertised?
How many have been advertised on your website?
How many of these vacancies have not been advertised at all and on whose authority (job title)?

Answer:
This information is not tracked.

Source:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/transparency_5#incoming-626302

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Knowle Public consultations, EDDC-style

An early example of EDDC’s valiant effort to engage the public was flagged up on the SIN blog https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/spot-the-knowle-consultation/

Click here for news of the most recent one : http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/03/13/public-consultation-was-limited-to-two-ads-in-the-sidmouth-herald-admits-eddc-legal-officer/

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Has EDDC already designed its new HQ?

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/246652/response/615352/attach/html/4/Doc%202%20office%20re%20location%20comparative%20study.pdf.html

in answer to request:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cost_and_value_of_proposed_headq#incoming-615352

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Even Pope Francis wants election transparency!

Speaking in Argentina, he said that:

“Because many interests come into play in financing of an election campaign and then they ask you to pay back, so, the election campaign should be independent of anyone who may finance it.”

He went on to say:

“Many interests get into the mix, and then they send you the bill. Perhaps public financing would allow for me, the citizen, to know that I’m financing each candidate with a given amount of money”.

Everything, according to the Pope, “needs to be transparent and clean.”

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Reminder: National Day of Action event at Knowle (12 April)

Details here: April 21 National Day of Action CoVoP Poster

The Knowle event is being organised by two East Devon Alliance members, Ian McKintosh and Mike Temple, who have joined the National Community Voice On Planning (CoVoP) as trustees.

CoVoP is constantly working for reforms in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), as this latest message shows:

‘Two letters from our members have appeared in the Telegraph this week – both were edited to remove references to CoVoP National Day of Action (12 April), but both expressed the key message that the Government is not listening to communities on planning. References to the 5 year plan supply have also been removed. The full text for both letters is here: letters to the Telegraph

Another member has written to Messers Betts, Pickles and Lewis expressing similar frustration.
“Dear Honourable Members
The NPPF is NOT working for local communities!
Further to the recent press release by the Communities & Local Government Select Committee on the operation of the NPPF I would like to draw your attention to further evidence that the NPPF is not protecting important local landscapes from inappropriate development and that Planning Officers appear to be ignoring sustainable planning principles outlined in the NPPF.
South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) planning officers regularly emphasise the ‘presumption in favour of development’ to their Planning Committee while failing to mention that all planning applications (even those for allocated sites in a Local Plan), must comply with core planning principles in the NPPF. These are outlined the NPPF (219 paragraphs) which also states (several times) that these sustainable planning principles are ‘material considerations’ when assessing planning applications.
At an SLDC Planning Committee meeting last December (attended by six out of 17 members), a planning application for a prime green field site, in the middle of Grange-over-Sands’ Conservation Areas, was granted. Committee members did not bother to discuss major infrastructure problems (drainage and roads), or the likely adverse impact on the town’s tourist economy. These problems had been raised at the meeting by local residents and Town Council representatives who also drew attention to the relevant paragraphs in the NPPF. No wonder people are losing faith in local planning procedures. This feels like a District Council dictatorship; not a local democracy.
We believe that District Councils are being ‘threatened’ with appeal cases by developers that they claim will be resolved in favour of granting planning permission. Also, we have evidence that our planning officers are also being pressurised into putting planning applications before the Planning Committee, due to perceived time constraints, even when the developer has not provided all the evidence needed to support their application such as an adequate flood risk assessment that considers the potential for flooding elsewhere.
We need more homes in areas where there are good employment prospects and good public transport links. We do not need them in areas with poor employment prospects, poor public transport links and inadequate infrastructure or where they will become second homes and have an adverse impact on Conservation Areas that are important to the local tourist economy.
I realise that you cannot do anything about specific issues raised above but I hope that the next Parliament will rectify some of the problems highlighted as a matter of urgency!
At the moment many of us do not know who to vote for at the next election because none of the main political parties have robust proposals for dealing with these serious planning inadequacies.
Yours sincerely”

We need to shout more loudly! Please demonstrate your frustration on 12 April.

Best wishes
Julie

Chairman of CoVoP
admin@covop.org

Community Voice on Planning
A National Alliance to provide communities with an effective voice on planning
http://www.covop.org’

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Relocation…the key question

..was asked tonight by Sidmouth Cllr Graham Troman. Speaking at the special combined meeting two Committees ( Overview & Scrutiny, and Audit & Governance), he was bold enough to put the essential question “Could the contract (for sale of the Knowle) be signed before the election?” . “Yes”, said Chair-for-the-occasion, Cllr Tim Wood.

Later in the meeting, it was also confirmed that the sale contract could be signed within the so-called ‘purdah’ pre-election period.

Further report on tonight’s session, which became rather heated at times, to follow soon.

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Two questions to Cabinet last night

One was asked by Dr Cathy Gardner, a member of East Devon Alliance, who found a discrepancy in figures in the external auditors’ report. Her question to Head of the Relocation Project, Richard Cohen, was: “In paragraph 2 of the report from Grant Thornton and GLEES, the annual maintenance cost allowance is £145,000 per annum, but the maximum spend over the past five years was around £65, 000. How do you explain this?
The answer, from Mr Cohen and three of his colleagues, seemed to confirm there had been managed deterioration of the Knowle buildings (a familiar practice, some might say).

The next question came from possibly the youngest person ever to speak at an EDDC meeting, and who received a round of applause from the public present:
Here’s what she confidently said:
“Good Evening,
My name is Gemma Manley, I’m a Sidmothian, I am 16 and I am currently studying for my A-levels.
When it comes to the relocation project, like many others I am completely against it. However my question tonight is not why East Devon District Council think it is appropriate to refuse to prove to the public why this building is not fit for purpose. Nor why East Devon District Council feel it is appropriate to borrow millions to fund their absurd move. Nor even how they can sell one of East Devon’s greatest assets. But I want to simply ask, “Can the Leader of the council justify making the final decision on the project just weeks before the general and district elections? Does he honestly believe that this is the most democratic timing, especially when councillors will be asked to vote just BEFORE a Tribunal ruling on whether more documents, which EDDC wants to keep secret, should be revealed.
Thank you.

In case you missed our earlier post on the Cabinet meeting, you’ll find it here: https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/03/12/a-very-noisy-group-of-people-in-sidmouth-have-irritated-cllr-tim-wood/

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Not what EDDC does, only what EDDC says …

If, as (current) Leader Diviani believes (as he has recently said, that the consultants reports of 2013 on relocation were “not relevant” to current meetings (and their rescheduling to end hours before the Information Commission’s decision on said disclosure) –

Why has EDZdC spent £10,000 plus on legal advisers to attempt keep them secret?

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“A very noisy group of people in Sidmouth” have irritated Cllr Tim Wood

True to form, East Devon District Council’s all-Conservative Cabinet tonight voted unanimously to press on with relocation from the Knowle.

There were two questions from the public, from Dr Cathy Gardner of East Devon Alliance, and from 16-year-old Gemma Manley. (We’ll post details later)

Five Sidmouth Ward members were present (no sign of Cllr Hughes).

Graham Troman spoke out against the loss of Sidmouth jobs; the rising asset value of the Knowle site; and of the potential better use of the 1980s purpose-built offices.

Peter Sullivan asked if the Town Council would get a pay-out from EDDC to help maintain the gardens. Richard Cohen replied that a deal would probably be struck with them.

Frances Newth wondered how much the local ‘hubs’ would cost ( Cohen said “Hubs” (his own term!) “is a bit of a misnomer” . EDDC would provide services, using existing sites where possible, but this would become clearer “when we know what the needs are”.

Cllrs Drew and Kerridge didn’t have any questions, as “Everything’s been asked”.

Ward member for Exmouth, Cllr Tim Wood congratulated the Sidmouth members “for fighting so well on behalf of Sidmouth”, and said they had got “an extraordinarily good deal. “I get annoyed”, he said,”When we are told we are abusing Sidmouth’s heritage”. (Was he referring to the SVA publication, ‘A Stately Pleasure Dome’ ?).

But Cllr Pook reminded his colleagues that the relocation build costs “were going over our budget”, and that he would rather have a “break even situation” . (EDWatch note: Yes, whatever happened to “Cost neutral”?) “I take on board your challenge to keep costs down”, promised Richard Cohen.

Cllr Ian Thomas seemed to have overstepped the mark with his long list of concerns. The Leader impatiently chided him, saying “How many questions are you going to ask?” One of those questions was about risk, and what the consequences would be “in the event that no planning permission was given”.

Rounding up the debate, Cllr Diviani acknowledged that £7-8million for Knowle “was not the best deal I thought we might have got” . There was “a blight on it from the planning application that got turned down”, he claimed, putting the blame for the low price entirely on Save Our Sidmouth!!!

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Unseemly haste leads to confusion at EDDC

Frantic rearrangement of EDDC’s schedule (“Nothing to do with the election” , said Cllr Paul Diviani at this evening’s Cabinet meeting) has prompted a correspondent to send us this:

‘I trust that when the next set of EDDC councillors control the army of Knowledge communications officers, the EDDC website will continue to provide as much amusement (and possibly a bit more information) for local residents. See eddc-press-release-manageable-growth ‘

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The “new” and “improved” EDDC website – new but DEFINITELY not impproved!

From a correspondent. Imagine if you are a new “silver surfer” when EDDC says most of its services will be offered online only!

“I started to look for where the minutes for the last Overview and Scrutiny meeting and agenda for the next one could now be found.

Answer – Nowhere!!!! Or at least not at first sight.

On the home page as it is displayed you can go to:
Planning
Recycling & rubbish
Licensing
Environmental maintenance
Council Tax
Benefits and support
Under this list is a full width slider with colour photographs advertising:

View a planning application (on your mobile)
Countryside education
Countryside volunteering
Local and Community Nature Reserves
Home safeguard
Open for business (a self-advert for this new website)
and below that some links to News and Events items.

Could I find ANYTHING about Committees? Heck no.

But eventually I found a “Show A-Z of more Services” line which when I clicked gave me some more headings:

Building control
Business and investment
Cemeteries
Community safety
Consultation and surveys
Council and democracy
Countryside
Customer services
Dogs
Elections and registering to vote
Emergency planning
Environment
Feedback and complaints
Food hygiene and safety
Freedom of Information and Data Protection
Grants and funding
Health and safety
Homelessness
Housing
Jobs and careers
Noise
Parking
Parks, gardens and recreation
Pest control
Property services
Public toilets
Regeneration projects
Seaside
Sidmouth folk week
Visit

Did you spot it? No sign of the word Committee – but with some intelligent guessing I clicked on “Council and democracy” (“Find out who your councillor is, how the council operates and agendas for meetings”) and then “Committees and Meetings” and then “Overview and scrutiny committee” and then “Minutes” and then the date and hey presto, like magic (a very slow, and unimpressive type of magic though) there they were.

What exactly does this say about the importance of councillors and the meetings they attend which make the decisions when they are buried like this. And I am pretty Internet savvy and yet I had difficulty finding the link – so how will people who are not experienced with navigating websites hope to find it???

Of course I could have put “overview scrutiny” in the search box and found the O&S Committee quickly by that route. And some people will use search immediately. But some doddery old fools (like me) will try to navigate to the page and have significant difficulties in finding it when it is hidden and so many levels down.

The “old” web site may have looked tired, but the alphabetic index at the top was intuitive and enabled you to find what you wanted fairly quickly. By comparison, this “new” website may be built on new technology, but is ease of use is very poor indeed.”

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Suffolk Tory county councillor refuses to resign after moving to USA

And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

All he has to do is attend one full council every six months – although even if he doesn’t, provided his colleagues accept his reason, he can still continue and get his £10,000 allowance plus expenses (which theoretically might cover his airfare and maybe even hotel accommodation). He can do this till 2017 when county council elections are next due.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-31832177

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Information? What’s that? EDDC’s “new” website

From a computer-savvy correspondent:

This morning is when EDDC are making another attempt to switch over to their new and improved (??) web site.

We should expect several things:

1. Links to documents on the old site will now be broken;

2. Links to documents on the new site before the switch over may now be broken;

3. A whole lot of information will no longer be available online – even relatively recent items (like minutes from over 12 months ago) and no longer available online – you will have to go cap in hand to (un-)democratic services to get hold of them.

Which is just what democracy needs in the run up to an election – an absence of the information needed to hold the current administration to account.

There was a warning on the old web site for a few days that it would be down from 10am, but they appear to have ignored that and started early.

Note: how (in)convenient that this should take place just before major meetings and local elections?

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Freedom of Information – not really, if you ask EDDC

Twenty-five Freedom of Information requests appear on just the first page of EDDC’s pages on the “whatdotheyknow” website.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/east_devon_district_council

13 of them (some nearly a month old) are “awaiting classification” and until they are “classified” nothing happens

2 have been successful

1 (recent one) is awaiting a response

9 are “awaiting internal review” (i.e. refused but request made to review it as you cannot go on to complain to the Information Commissioner)

So, more than one-third of requests have been refused. See the link to see what these cover.

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‘Better use of facilities’ at Knowle than making it a retirement community!

EDDC’s announcement in today’s Sidmouth Herald, of its preferred buyer for Knowle, could have massive repercussions, not least at the May District Council election.The plan is to change this prime employment site, and shrink the surrounding historic parkland, to make a residential development exclusively not for young people. The purpose is to relocate the District Council offices, to a much older building (Exmouth Town Hall) requiring major refurbishment, and a not-yet-built office at Honiton.
Here’s just one local conversation on the topic https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/3h3lq15pbi7i/

Photo supplied by https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com

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Council meeting boring, councillor? Try reading a golfing magazine or doing Scrabble

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-councillor-snapped-reading-golf-5270315

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/liberal-democrat-councillor-caught-playing-5281521

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EAST DEVON TORY CULL?

(please note this is a Microsoft clip art cartoon of a sheriff, freely available for download throughout the world and is highly unlikely to be considered as threatening by any police force anywhere – if it is, best take it up with Microsoft – we are assured that no real guns were used in the drawing of this cartoon which depicts a cartoon gun with no real bang and no ability to hurt anyone at all anywhere and it has no connection whatsoever with any prophets anywhere)

We already knew that several Tory councillors have been “de-selected” from the East Devon Conservatives’ list of candidates for the May 7 election, for refusing to toe the party line.

Now we hear from several reliable sources that warning letters have also been sent to another group of cowering Conservatives telling them to “pull their socks up” – or else!

The bearer of this unwelcome news? None other than the weighty Phil “I’ve never whipped anyone in my life” Twiss.

Readers will remember that Cllr Twiss was widely ridiculed last year for complaining to the police that Independent Claire Wright had a comment on her blog calling for – yes!- a cull of East Devon Tories.

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Now we know EDDC’s insipration: “The North Korean School of Management”!

“Many badly run organisations tend towards what can be termed the “North Korean” school of management; a culture of secrecy, with as little information as possible allowed out, and a generally hostile attitude towards anyone from outside questioning the prevailing culture.”

So runs the first paragraph in today’s editorial in the The Independent …

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/a-medical-horror-story-the-failures-at-morecambe-bay-are-shocking-and-must-never-happen-again-but-the-nhs-can-be-restored-to-health-10083710.html?origin=internalSearch

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Government changes to make judicial review harder thrown out

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21977:blow-for-moj-as-regulations-on-judicial-review-and-legal-aid-ruled-unlawful&catid=56&Itemid=24