Information Commissioner v EDDC: are press releases and FAQ web pages “public consultation”?

Readers will be aware that only 2 “public consultation” events have ever neen organised regarding Knowle relocation – a very brief and rather uninformative event in Sidmouth and a highly stage-managed “stakeholders meeting” at Exeter Airport.

However, it seems that EDDC believes that highly stage-managed press releases with only good news and a highly stage-managed Frequently Asked Questions page on their website where they choose all the questions is all the public consultation required.

Why are we not surprised?

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Decision-East-Devon-District-Council-publish/story-25781816-detail/story.html

Relocation costs: what about Turk’s Head junction in Honiton?

The “major supermarket” which pulled out of the Honiton Heathpark site would surely have had to contribute to changes at the Turk’s Head jubpnction – already heavily congested and about to get worse with the construction of the Premier Inn on the site of the old motel.

An EDDC building will add even more to the severe congestion. S106 payments are meant to compensate a local community for such changes. Their car park will not be much smaller than that which would have been built by the supermarket.

Will EDDC be contributing to changes? If not, why not? And if so, how much will changes cost? And are they included in current costs?

Judicial Review slams “fundamentally flawed” mathematics of council

Torbay Council has been landed with a massive bill because they underpaid care homes by hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In a judgment that should send shivers down the spines of EDDC councillors, a judge said:

“Accountants commissioned to report on the council’s workings agreed with TQCF’s claim that the authority had made “illogical mathematical errors” and TQCF won a judicial review at the High Court in London.

The judge agreed that the calculation it used was “fundamentally flawed”.”

That’s what can happen if you don’t get your sums right …

East Devon District Council or the Vatican?

Here are the “15 ailments of the Curia” that the pope recently identified.

How many apply to EDDC?

1) Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable. “A Curia that doesn’t criticise itself, that doesn’t update itself, that doesn’t seek to improve itself is a sick body.”
EDDC Translation: impotent Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

2) Working too hard. “Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously.”
EDDC: No comment! Try getting some people on a Friday!

3) Becoming spiritually and mentally hardened. “It’s dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful.”
EDDC: Cry WITH us – no way!

4) Planning too much. “Preparing things well is necessary, but don’t fall into the temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan.”
EDDC: Freedom of speech at committees!

5) Working without coordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. “When the foot tells the hand, ‘I don’t need you’ or the hand tells the head ‘I’m in charge.’”
EDDC: Today Skypark, tomorrow Honiton …

6) Having “spiritual Alzheimer’s”. “We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord … in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.”
EDDC: Vanity projects! Secrecy!

7) Being rivals or boastful. “When one’s appearance, the colour of one’s vestments or honorific titles become the primary objective of life.”
EDDC: Putting party politics before people.

8) Suffering from “existential schizophrenia”. “It’s the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It’s a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people.”
EDDC: Couldn’t put it better! Information Commissioner v EDDC.

9) Committing the “terrorism of gossip”. “It’s the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people’s backs.”
EDDC: Private and secret meetings behind closed doors for the privileged few.

10) Glorifying one’s bosses. “It’s the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honour people who aren’t God.”
EDDC: Williams, Cohen and Diviani

11) Being indifferent to others. “When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him.”
EDDC: hatred of common sense from those with different political views.

12) Having a “funereal face”. “In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity. The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes.”
EDDC: Joy is limited to the Press Office otherwise fear and insecurity rules!

13) Wanting more. “When the apostle tries to fill an existential emptiness in his heart by accumulating material goods, not because he needs them but because he’ll feel more secure.”
More, bigger, new offices NOW.

14) Forming closed circles that seek to be stronger than the whole. “This sickness always starts with good intentions but as time goes by, it enslaves its members by becoming a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body and causes so much bad scandals especially to our younger brothers.”
EDDC: The Executive Committee, the private groups behind closed doors.

15) Seeking worldly profit and showing off. “It’s the sickness of those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than others.”
EDDC: trashing those of other parties and trying to destroy their reputations.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/22/pope-francis-scathing-critique-vatican-officials-curia-speech

The Pope speaks!

…” …overwhelmingly male, clerical bureaucrats are a ” sick body” … Among their sins [is] an addiction to power: “It’s the sickness of those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than others”.

Sound like East Devon District Council? Sort of – Pope Francis on the problems he faces at the Vatican!

Wright and Swire v Diviani goes regional

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tory-rift-costly-council-relocation-plan-Devon/story-25774575-detail/story.html

It’s official: Swire backs Claire Wright on Knowle and Diviani ignores both of them!

The commonsense call from Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Cllr Claire Wright, to put EDDC’s office relocation project on hold, has now somewhat belatedly been echoed by the current East Devon MP, Hugo Swire.
Despite this, the New Year message about Knowle from EDDC Leader Paul Diviani is all too clear, as reported here: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/knowle-relocation-project-prudent-thing.html

Cabinet Agenda 5 January 2015 at 5.30 pm (Knowle)

Wednesday 5 January 2015, 5.30 p.m. Knowle

Much about Cranbrook, Exmouth seafront, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, beach huts and next year’s budget.

Details to follow but one little paragraph may be of interest:

“Members have been presented with the Medium Term Financial Plan estimates showing a budget deficit in the order of £2.8m by 2020/21. This figure is an estimate which will continually vary and will also need to reflect on the messages in the recent Autumn Statement of continuing reductions in public spending, but what this position clearly indicates is a significant projected gap between what the Council is spending and the resources it will have available to it.”

Click to access 070115-cabinet-combined-agenda-public-version.pdf

Well, fancy that: South Somerset District Council has similar problems to ours

We share a Chief Executive and now, of course, we share a Monitoring Officer:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/greenpolitics/planning/11304901/This-housing-free-for-all-is-scarring-our-most-precious-countryside.html

Local Plan – officers make decisions? No, no, no!

Does anyone recall seeing this letter, issued before the Local Plan inspection? Officers said they did not have the authority to make amendments to the plan – the Inspector disagreed VERY strongly.

Click to access letterinsp-eddc-insp5.pdf

What are we to make of this?

So does he or doesn’t he …?

Several very reliable sources have said that current MP Hugo Swire heartily disagrees with EDDC’s current relocation plans to the point where he will go into print about it, rather than just talk about it as he apparently did last week in Sidmouth.

But still no sign of his views on his website or elsewhere – though the site does include a very interesting page that lists all the things a constituency MP COULD do for us if he were not so terribly busy at the Foreign office and rushing around the Middle East and Looking after Proctor and Gamble:

http://www.hugoswire.org.uk/what-can-mp-do-you

Too late, too late … the nag has gone!

It belatedly appears Hugo Swire has suddenly realised that spending £11m plus on a new HQ is an EDDC Tory folly.

Councillor Troman, who has announced this, though there is yet no confirmation from Mr Swire, now only has to persuade all his other Tory councillors (including those from Sidmouth) to follow suit.

What a pity Mr Swire has not been on board since 2011 when this project was announced (indeed since 2007 when it was apparently first mooted by the Tory majority). And no peep from him as we tried to get access to the figures on the move (culminating in EDDC appearing at Exeter Magistrates Court, dragged there by the Information Commissioner) and nvo help at all when we pointed out the folly of an HQ on Exeter’s doorstep rather than in the middle of his constituency.

However, there is a General Election looming, so U-turns seem to be the order of things now.

But OUR loyalty goes to those brave Independent councillors (particularly Claire Wright, Ben Ingham and Susie Bond) who have pointed out these follies consistently and tried to right the wrong – to the rude and arrogant derision of the majority of Tory councillors.

What a pity they fail to see the stupidity of spending vast amounts of our money on themselves in a time of austerity and at the same time selling our silver. And what a pity it came only hours AFTER the full cabinet endorsed the move. When the announcement could have carried so much more weight if it had been made before the event. Whilst the stable door was still on its hinges, so to speak.

But, the ballot box awaits and we can have our say then – thank goodness!

Advanced draft neighbourhood plans are a material planning consideration according to Eric Pickles

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/december/pickles-refuses-appeal-for-100-homes-on-site-not-allocated-for-development-in-emerging-neighbourhood-plan/

Sidmouth Town Council unhappy with Chair of Development Management Committee for ignoring councillors

This letter, in the public domain, has been passed on to us:

image1

It seems that ward councillors, even those of her own party, just don’t count in Mrs Parr’s world – where she appears to have become very regal …

MP to call for Knowle relocation to be put on hold?

EDA hears on the grapevine that this is East Devon MP Hugo Swire’s intention. Any truth in this rumour?
If so, Cllr Claire Wright has pipped him to the post (possibly not for the last time), at last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting…as reported on the front page of today’s Sidmouth Herald (Fri 19/12/14).

Government “special advisers” cheaper than EDDC!

“The cost of ministers’ special advisers has risen to £8.4m following a rise of more than £1m in the past year.

There are now 103 “spads” employed to give advice over and above the work carried out by civil servants, up from 98 last year, official figures show.

They include a total of 26 working for David Cameron in Downing Street and 20 working for Nick Clegg.”

But it doesn’t seem so much when one adviser is costing EDDC upwards of £10,500 per month to provide relocation expertise (which led to hundreds of thousands of pounds being abortively spent on the Skypark project).

At that cost Ministers could only have afforded 70 special advisers rather than the 103 they actually employed!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30541478

EDDC’s relocation project….let’s take a close look

Last night’s Full Council gave the all clear for deputy Chief Executive Richard Cohen’s team to press on with the sale of the Knowle site, and the relocation of Council offices.

“At what cost?” is the burning question still unanswered, and unlikely to be any clearer for many months yet. As acknowledged at yesterday’s Full Council meeting,  it may not established before next May’s elections.

Another kind of reality check is possible, though. See photos below:

The first shows Exmouth Town Hall (energy rating ‘C’) , and the second, Honiton’s (energy rating ‘D’) East Devon Business Centre. These are to be refurbished, together with some newbuild council offices, to the tune of £10,000,000.

ExmouthHQEDDCBusCen

In contrast, at EDDC’s current HQ at Knowle, pictured below, (energy rating ‘C’), employees and visitors currently enjoy ample cost-free parking and a short pleasant walk into Sidmouth town centre (where there is regular bus service to other parts of the District). Save Our Sidmouth has long argued that the former hotel on the site could be sold off, possibly for flats, with no loss of the peaceful parkland. Does the planned decimation of a typical site that makes East Devon a place with a special identity, add to the highly questionable costs of the Cabinet’s “ambition”?

Knowle, Sidmouth

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