From Gaeron Kayley of Save Clyst St Mary campaign group:
‘Please be aware that a number of people are having difficulties logging their comments onto the EDDC website. The website suggests your comments have been successfully submitted, yet they never appear. If this has happened to you too, please notify: icthelpdesk@eastdevon.gov.ukIt will help if you can include the application on which you were commenting, along with the approximate time and date you submitted your comments.’
Category Archives: EDDC
Task and Finish Forum Budget Scrutiny – suspicion about inadequate resources and Local Plan
Highlights:
(4) that there should be greater transparency in the Council financial information (including the Budget and Outturn report) in detailing the use and costs in obtaining external legal services and external consultancy services;
(5) that consideration be given to increasing the resources, possibly in conjunction with neighbouring authorities, for the further development of a coherent strategy and plan for the maintenance and improvement of the economic well-being of the district. (There was a suspicion that inadequate resources devoted to this activity had, amongst other things actually contributed to extra costs and delay in the production of a convincing local plan)
(7) That an annual audit review of the cost and effectiveness of external consultants is undertaken.
…As regards the wider matters of economic development, the budget has clearly been reduced considerably over the years, particularly on tourism promotion, which is now confined purely to the premises costs of some tourist information centres.
20% of East Devon parking tickets cancelled in 3 months
According to BBC Spotlight story aired this evening.
And that’s only the ones challenged – could be mors if more people did challenge their fines.
Treeconomics
The value of trees was a major theme at last night’s Sidmouth Arboretum AGM (held in the Annie Leigh Browne Room, Old Unitarian Church).
Guest speaker AONB Manager Chris Woodruff, gave an informal but very informative presentation on the aesthetic, social, environmental, and economic benefits of trees.. He spoke of the value to the local economy of modifying the woodland environment ((for example, the profitable provision of family attractions at Haldon Hills). Wood for fuel is in increasing demand, and local woodburning stove company, Stovax, saw sales rise by 50% last year. But England has a surprisingly low percentage of sustainably managed woodland, (barely half) compared with the other UK countries. Another surprise Chris Woodruff mentioned, is that hedges, i.e. “vertical woodland”, are not included in such surveys.
Meanwhile, Sidmouth Arboretum now has a Transatlantic link! It is working in partnership with the American organisation, Treeconomics, on a tree survey being specifically adapted for our local environment. Following Sidmouth’s lead, two other towns (Crawley,and Lewis, in Sussex) are currently establishing a civic arboretum.
The value of trees is increasingly being recognised….!
More info here http://www.treeconomics.co.uk/
National Audit Office report on conflicts of interest
Particularly recommended reading to all those majority party councillors at EDDC who think that there is no such thing as a conflict of interest just meddling Independent councillors making a mountain out of a molehill. And the Standards Committee which continues to drag its heels on this issue.
Well, the National Audit Office appears to side with the Independents – surprise, surprise.
*** Save Clyst St Mary Village from Inappropriate Development ***
East Devon Watch has been sent this update on what’s happening at Clyst St Mary:
‘A massive thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign to unite Clyst St Mary in opposing inappropriate development within our village. Our aim is to ensure any future building is sustainable and in accordance with the emerging Neighbourhood Plan so that the village’s unique identity can be maintained and its green sites preserved. We are incredibly grateful to the hundreds of residents who turned up at the Village Hall last Tuesday to voice their concerns regarding proposals for developments at Cat’s Copse, Winslade Park and Oil Mill Lane. Thanks in part to the generosity of residents, the Parish Council has now been able to hire a specialist planning consultant to help us fight these proposals. The next crucial meeting is on 5th February at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
As you may already be aware, yet another planning application has now been received which, once again, threatens to destroy the character of our village with the development of not only 40 houses (which is in addition to the 93 village homes for which planning permission has already been granted) but also the demolition of an existing family home in the heart of Clyst Valley Road to provide road access into the existing well established, incredibly quiet residential estate. The proposed site, currently owned by the Plymouth Brethren, is the large field adjacent to our football ground.Although it has been labeled ‘Land off Clyst Valley Road, this is in fact misleading since there is no existing access from this road. Nor, at the time of writing, is there any sign of the plans on display in close proximity to the home the developers want to demolish; the only references are situated on the boundary fence between Winslade Park Avenue/A376 and our village football ground.
With the deadline for letters of objection only weeks away (4th February 2015) please can we strongly urge you to continue supporting the village by emailing/writing to East Devon District Council to voice your objections to this most recent proposal. Issues you may wish to consider with regard to this specific development include: an increase in population for which the village does not have the infra-structure; the loss of the existing residential estate’s unique, tranquil character; substantial loss of light and privacy to residents whose bungalows back onto the site (the proposed homes are 2 or 3 storeys in height); an enormous (and potentially dangerous) increase in traffic travelling through the estate – very few public facilities are available within walking distance; a potential increase in congestion both through the main village and onto the Exmouth and Sidmouth roads (the Church Lane entrance to the estate, the site of 21 road traffic incidents in recent years – one of which was fatal – will be particularly affected); an increase in already high levels of pollution, especially at the Clyst St Mary roundabout ; concerns regarding potential flooding which would be exacerbated by the loss of further green spaces; existing wildlife habitats would be destroyed; it would be setting a precedent – which village field, park or site, on either side of the A3052, would become the next target for destruction?
When drafting your objections, the planning reference you should quote is ‘Land Off Clyst Valley Road: 15/0072/MOUT’. A selection of sample letters are given below * and will be available to download from our website http://www.saveclsytstmary.org.uk within the next few days – please feel free to adapt these as required. They can be sent by post or email (planningwest@eastdevon.gov.uk)
Please do note the aforementioned meeting regarding this planning application on 5th February 2015 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall where, once again, your support is essential.
Finally, please can we remind local residents that they are still able to contribute towards the on-going costs of employing Charlie Hopkins, our planning consultant. Payment can be made via the website or at Clyst St Mary Post Office. Please be assured that money will be used for no other purpose than to help pay Mr Hopkins; anyone assisting this campaign is doing so voluntarily and all costs such as printing and banners have been paid for by those volunteers. Do visit our website regularly as we are endeavouring to keep it as up to date as possible. A series of rare historical maps of our area are one of the most recent features which may be of interest.Feel free to suggest any further features you would like to see added.
– As we have stated previously, the challenge ahead of us is not easy – but together, we really can do it!’
*15 0072 MOUT ( Land off Clyst Valley Road, Clyst St Mary
*Land off CVR letter
*** STOP PRESS: new planning application for another solar farm in the area – *** please see website for further details
Save our Sidmouth: grave reservations on costings and the lack of understanding councillors have of decisions taken in their names
Chairman and Leader administrative support costs soaring
… “Concern that civic expenses had increased again for the second year in a row, relating to employee costs of the administrative time required for the Chairman and Leader of the council; other members felt that with the workload was significant for both positions.”
Seems Councillors Diviani and Godbeer need lots and lots of officer help, the poor souls! And isn’t Chairman of the Council a largely ceremonial position? What sort of help is Councillor Godbeer needing more of?
Minutes of Overview and Scrutiny Committed of 14 January 2015:
West Country tourism needs help
Well we know one district where it isn’t getting it – East Devon, which Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw recently named and shamed as doing nothing. A bit of the £700,000 plus already spent on just talking about relocation of EDDC’s HQ could have had great impact here.
Name that Tourism Champion at EDDC and find anything he or she has said about tourism. But we don’t count the next 3 months when usually silent councillors and MPs suddenly find their voices and manage to get their photos in all sorts of odd places!
Which committee will scrutinise the fiasco of the Draft Local Plan?
Seems Overview and Scrutiny are loathe to overview and scrutinise anything, especially now the elections are looming. Audit and Governance don’t seem too concerned. about it, now they have been panicked into dealing with the relocation scandal. The Development Management Committee seems content to spend all its time dogging their hats to developers large and small and so has no time or interest, relying in “updates” that update nothing.
No guards and therefore no-one guarding the guards.
Lamentable AND shocking.
“New and relevant information” – no, says Monitoring Officer
A follow-up email from Sandra Semple see post yesterday):
“Thank you, East Devon Watch for achieving what I could not do alone. This morning an email came from the Monitoring Officer: no, my information was neither new (which it was) nor relevant (which I still believe it was).
My response: we shall see!
What it DOES reveal is that the Monitoring Officer appears to be not just toothless, but gumless, jawless and possibly headless, as, it seems, he can do nothing about anything except where it concerns a councillor of a minority party, in which case a Monitoring Officer (the previous one so far) goes in with all guns blazing. Hmmm.”
Real Zorro: Twissing the knife
“Quite honestly, we have fallen flat on our face” with the relocation project, warns Honiton Councillor, Peter Halse
At last night’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee senior Tory councillor Peter Halse lashed EDDC’s Relocation Project. He said it risked the Council’s reputation for financial prudence. “At the time (the relocation project) looked OK, but now, with hindsight, it looks pretty bad….Quite honestly we have fallen flat on our face!” He was sceptical about Deputy CEO Richard Cohen’s claimed energy savings, and said employees based in the newer 1970/1980s building, “can’t see any reason why they’d want to move”. He concluded “It’s not just the leadership who are responsible. We need to look this thing full in the face. We can get out of this”.
Sidmouth resident Richard Eley, had already mauled Richard Cohen’s assumptions on future energy cost savings which were “way out of line” with those predicted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Mr Cohen in response welcomed the fact that auditors would now be taking “a useful look under the bonnet, as it were”. In the meantime a preferred developer had now been selected for a mix of care home and residential properties at Knowle. The planning process would have to be gone through by the developer and further attempts to delay the Knowle sale have been factored in to the costs, he added.
When Independent Cllr Claire Wright expressed concern that EDDC’s planning committee would be under extreme pressure to grant permission to develop the Knowle because the whole relocation project depended on it, she was accused of casting doubt on the integrity of councillors.
Independent Councillor Roger Giles didn’t get a clear answer from Mr Cohen about where his 10% annual energy inflation figures came from, only that they were “conservative”! And there was no answer to Cllr Giles’ second question about how much extra the renovation of Exmouth Town Hall would cost.
Tory Cllr Graham Troman (Vice Chair of the OSC) said the Knowle site was an appreciating asset while refurbished offices or new-build on an industrial estate (e.g. Heathpark) would not recoup the money spent on them.
Tory Cllr Sheila Kerridge urged her colleagues to show transparency and “not to be seen to be doing things underhand….Put the matter on hold until we know the figures”. (echoing Cllr Claire Wright’s proposal voted down a few weeks earlier.
Chair Tim Wood concluded that all would be examined in great detail by the auditors so there was no cause for alarm.
The second burning issue was the suggested reform of Task and Finish Forums.
A proposal from a Democratic Services Officer (advised by CEO Mark Williams?) that the scope of TAFFs should be proposed by officers, seemed pretty well acceptable to the obedient majority – though it is going to be thought about first by one of Cllr Bloxham’s Think Tanks.
The controversial Business TAFF will continue with the same members as before, but without too much embarrassing looking back at relations with the East Devon Business Forum whose demise seemed to be lamented by Deputy Leader Andrew Moulding. He assured everyone that the TAFF will now have perfectly respectable relations with the new East Devon Business Group which genuinely represented the District’s entrepreneurs.It was time to turn the page, he said, and stop attacking the perceived influence of the EDBF on crucial planning decisions. The representative from Axminster concluded,fittingly, that he was not “trying to sweep anything under the carpet!”
EDDC Monitoring Officer and complaints
We have received the following email from Sandra Semple. This is a personal view only and does not necessarily represent the view of this blog:
“May I point out that the district council spokesperson, who has said in a recent newspaper report that “As far as Mark Williams, chief executive of East Devon District Council is aware, there is no new and relevant evidence that would give cause to reopen either the Councillor Twiss or Councillor Wragg cases” is incorrect.
I submitted new and relevant information on one of these cases in December 2014 in two specific areas relating to the Council’s Code of Conduct and the Council’s Media Policy. In early January 2015 I urged that the Monitoring Officer to give me his decision on this new and relevant information in good time so that, if this information did indeed matter, it could go to the late January 2015 Standards Board Meeting which was then about 3 weeks away.
To date, I have heard nothing from the Monitoring Officer and my 2 complaints are not included in those dismissed, unless he has dismissed them without letting me know.
It seems unlikely that they were amongst those dismissed as I wrote to him recently saying that if he did not make a decision on my new and relevant information before the next Standards Board scheduled for March 2015 it would be likely that we would not know the outcome of these complaints before district council elections.
As the Monitoring Officer has cleared so many complaints he obviously has time to deal with these outstanding complaints now, although as he still appears to work full-time for Mark Williams sister council in South Somerset, perhaps he is not finding it easy to deal with his workload in East Devon.”
OSC draft minutes: “remaining inaccuracies”, and “a little more for the record” from EDA.
Councillor Tim Wood, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC), has been copied in to this e-mail just sent to EDDC from EDA Chair, Paul Arnott. (This evening’s OSC meeting begins at 6.30pm at Knowle.)
‘ I note that Tim (Wood) as Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in question, has removed the falsehood that Mr Williams had been “accused” by me of “meddling” with the police investigation. It is regrettable that EDDC published this in draft form online, and an apology from the council would be usual in the circumstances.
As you have already sent out the amendment, there is little point in my further commenting on its remaining inaccuracies. I will take the Chairman’s thanks for my taking time in transcribing the recording and pointing out the errors in the minutes as read.
However, it seems worth saying just a little more for the record, for Tim to consider in his role as Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny. As a former MP his experience in these matters carries much weight in the district.
Mr Mark Williams’ own published account and recorded statements in November disclose that very early in the timeline of the investigation – in the Spring of 2013 – he offered prejudicial opinions to the police in relation to the motivations of those who may have wished to give evidence in this matter.
Then, on the conclusion of the matter in November 2014, he repeated this course, and attempted to heap more blame on these same people, to their material disadvantage. It was an open effort by him to discredit councillors and public alike.
In summary, Mr Williams sought to do reputational damage both before and after the investigation. He then interfered with the course of any further internal investigation by attempting to eliminate a named councillor from the process.
In his November 2014 statement, sent to every councillor before your last meeting, he then falsely smeared the East Devon Alliance, of which I am chairman.
For your information, the EDA was not even constituted until some months after Mr Williams’ own colleague, Ms Denise Lyon, freely decided to report Mr Brown to the police, presumably with his knowledge and tacit approval.
If Mr Williams was keeping a cooler head he would understand that the East Devon Alliance was constituted after the event, and well after his own council had decided it must involve the police.
Many independent-minded, experienced council tax payers considered at the time that from that point on the whole process would require strong independent scrutiny. This is a function which the East Devon Alliance, amongst others, has performed valiantly, I’d suggest, on this and a range of other key district issues. They deserve greater respect than inaccurate and arrogant assertions from the man whose wage they pay.
On a personal note, just to be very clear indeed, I have never had any knowledge of Mr Brown, and had only ever heard his name mentioned, prior to the Telegraph report in March 2013, when local councillors, particularly my ward member Cllr Helen Parr, stated privately that they believed him to be one of a small number who had brought the planning system into disrepute over many years. Who could disagree with her?
These opinions were being freely offered years before Cllr Claire Wright, for example, was even a councillor. Perhaps they never came to Mr Williams’ ear.
I and many others consider that Mr William’s attack on Cllr Wright (and others) – both through the document he published before the November O&S, and indeed his disgraceful attack on Cllr Roger Giles during that meeting (which does not seem to have been seen as noteworthy enough to make the minutes) – were astonishingly ill-judged for one in his position. A matter for scrutiny, perhaps?
As to the police investigation into this matter, let it be recorded that it accomplished nothing other than to provide six hundred days political cover for EDDC to refuse to openly debate and make amends for its mistakes in Planning policy.
Any sincere and rigorous internal investigation carried out by councillors supposedly keen to get to the facts in Spring 2013 would have ranged from the inappropriate influence of the EDBF to the real narrative behind the catastrophic failure to implement a Local Plan in a timely fashion. This failure, predicted by many, leaves us without any protection for our district from opportunistic and unsustainable development. There is no gain in this for the residents of East Devon; the gain is plainly elsewhere.
With hindsight, it appears that the public interest in this matter would have been for Ms Lyon not to have made a report – not an allegation, it should be noted – to the police, but instead to have put extra impetus and urgency into the TAFF set up to look at matters in this area. Instead, this TAFF was put on ice. Tonight we shall learn of its refreshed remit, and precisely who the Chairman of O&S, and the officers he has consulted, deem helpful to sit on it.
As a layman, it would not be difficult to reach the conclusion that the police role as this story played allowed the council to keep this whole matter in the long grass. It can also be fairly commented that the police did not seem in any great haste to retrieve it.
all best wishes
Paul
‘
Allegedly misleading draft minutes of OSC amended…in part.
From EDDC to EDA Chair, Paul Arnott, this afternoon:
The Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny Committee has provided the following words for proposed amendment to the minutes of the 13 November 2014 meeting.
Minute 47 (page 4) second paragraph be replaced with:
‘Mr Paul Arnott spoke from the floor putting some critical questions regarding the work both of the police and the Council in the investigation of a former councillor. He claimed that “the chief executive of the compromised authority did what he could to meddle with the internal investigations” and also asked the police and crime commissioner, Mr Hogg, if he found it coincidental that something like six hundred days after a report was made from this authority to the police about the conduct of a former councillor, five hundred and ninety-nine days later, and one day before he appeared before the committee, the police finally announced that there would be no further action. Mr Hogg did not comment at the time but later, in response to questions to Mr Hogg and senior police officers, it was made clear by Superintendent Perkin that the police investigation had been long and complex and that they did not think the senior investigating officer would have been aware of this meeting.’
Minute 54 (page 12) 8th paragraph from the start of the minute be replaced with:
‘Councillor Claire Wright commented on the recent circulation of a letter of the East Devon Alliance. She went on to state that any attempt to eject her from the membership of the Business TaFF would send a message to the public that the Council had something to hide.’
These proposed amendments have been circulated to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, for their meeting this evening (6.30pm, Knowle).
For EDA’s response, see next blogpost….
Business TAFF under new stranglehold?
Lots of new rules being instigated at EDDC recently (a possible unseemly distraction from the focus of getting a new Local Plan in place?). Interesting that priority has been given to drawing up new rules for task forums (fora?). http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/changes_proposed_for_east_devon_council_task_forums_to_avoid_risk_of_hijack
Which makes us all wonder about the crippled Business Task and Finish Forum (Business TAFF). It was originally set up by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s then Chair, Cllr Stuart Hughes, who was rapidly replaced by Cllr Tim Wood. The latter seems to have no enthusiasm for the Business TAFF’s purpose which was to undertake “an in-depth” investigation into EDDC and business (inevitably including the group formerly known as the East Devon Business Forum, co-founded by Cllr Paul Diviani, and described by EDDC Chief Executive Mark Williams as a “joint body” with EDDC.). No “in-depth investigation” is known to have been done, and key players such as EDDC’s former Economic Development Manager, Nigel Harrison, who had a dual role as the EDBF’s Honorary Secretary, have not been available to answer questions.
If the Business TAFF does at last continue, will its scope have been altered, for what reasons, and by whom? One assumes that EDDC’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chair and Vice-Chair have complete and independent control of the matter, without any officer interference. This evening’s meeting may or may not confirm that.
For a timeline for the Business Forum, try the SIN archive: https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/the-business-taff-drags-on/
OSC draft minutes may be ‘unacceptable in law’, as they stand.
Further to yesterday’s East Devon Watch blogpost* about alleged misrepresentation in the Overview and Scrutiny draft minutes:
From EDDC to EDA Chair, Paul Arnott today, by e-mail:
The Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny has read your request and has decided that some small changes will be made but not exactly as you have requested. He has advised me that he is working on a rewording of that section of the minutes to take into account your request.
Paul Arnott’s e-mailed reply: ‘..it is unacceptable in law to place on the public record an endorsed minute wrongly stating that someone has spoken at a meeting and “accused” the Chief Executive (the implication in the wording being that this is the CEO of EDDC) of “meddling” in a police investigation.’
*https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/01/22/serious-misrepresentation-in-overview-and-scrutiny-committee-draft-minutes-eda-requests-amendment-at-todays-meeting-22012015/
New offices at nil cost to the public…? ‘fraid not
The latest edition of Private Eye has a cautionary tale. EDDC Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting this evening (6.30pm, Knowle) please take heed.
East Devon Watch 