OK, we now refer to the ruling group at EDDC as
“TiggerTories”
a coalition of a mix of western-side “Independents” with western-side Tories.
And the Tiggers couldn’t even find ONE of their “independents” to chair the Development Management Committee!
Tory Mike Howe now holds the casting vote if the committee splits 50/50 on anything …
Unbelievable!
No representation at all for East Devon Alliance members, except Val Ranger for symbolic appountment as Deputy Chairman. Lib Dems totally excluded too.
Stuart Hughes (Tory) voted in as new Chairman – unopposed and nominated by Independent Ben Ingham and seconded by Tory Phil Twiss!
Says it all really …
Vice-Chairman Val Ranger – EDA
New Leader – Ben Ingham – Independent Group, Exmouth
New deputy leader – Susie Bond – Independent Group, Feniton
Committee chairmen:
Overview – Nick Hookway – Independent Group, Exmouth
Scrutiny – Alan Dent – Tory, Budleigh
Housing Review Board – Tony McCollum – Independent Group, Honiton
Strategic Planning Committee – Susie Bond – Independent Group, Feniton
Development Management Committee – Mike Howe – Tory, Clyst Valley
Audit and Governance – Sam Hawkins, IndeGroyp, Cranbrook
Standards – Stuart Hughes – Tory, Sidmouth Sidford
Interviewing (chief officers) – Ben Ingham, Independent Group, Exmouth
Employment Appeals – Susie Bond – Independent Group, Feniton
Licensing and Enforcement – Paul Jarvis – Independent Group, Budleigh
So, first day – sold out.
Owl knew it had to keep an eye on this lot …
A bad, bad day for East Devon.
“Oxford City Council is to be the first UK local authority to establish a citizens assembly to help address the issue of climate change, and consider the measures that should be taken in Oxford.
The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned that the current global target of 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 is not enough to avert catastrophic temperature change. It said it’s essential that global temperature change is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius and that rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society are required to ensure this.
Next week the UK’s independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) will publish its advice to the UK Government on tightening Britain’s carbon reduction targets. This will lead to new minimum requirements for us all.
In January, Oxford City Council members unanimously declared a climate emergency and agreed to create a citizens assembly in Oxford to help consider new carbon targets and additional measures to reduce emissions.
The citizens assembly will involve a randomly-selected representative sample of Oxford residents and will meet in September. It will be the first citizens assembly in the UK created to consider climate change.
The City Council will be commissioning research to develop options and timescales for carbon reduction in areas such as housing and transport, which will be put to the citizens assembly. In addition, it will hear from a range of independent contributors. The citizens assembly’s recommendations will assist the City Council in its final decisions on adoption of carbon abatement measures and targets. …”
Rewilding would (according to the Environment Secretary) focus on:
Native woodlands
Salt marshes
Peat bogs
Ponds and lakes
Meadows and grasslands
all of which we have in abundance in East Devon.
Perhaps it is now time to revive the idea of a Jurassic Coast National Park (West Dorset would be an already-enthusiastic partner) which was squashed by the previous council because they feared losing their cosy relationship with housing developers …
And, as part of our climate emergency, make rewilding an integral part of all future neighbourhood, district and Greater Exeter development plans.
Elections for various posts will take place at the Annual Council meeting on WEDNESDAY (Blackdown House, Honiton, 6pm) where Leader, Chairman etc will be revealed.
Then the interesting bit.
How representative will the new cabinet be of different types of independents?
Jobs for the boys/girls or best man/woman for the job?
Will Greens or Lib Dems get a seat at the table?
Will it be loaded geographically to one side of East Devon or spread out equally?
Who will lead the influential Development Management Committee?
Who will represent EDDC at Greater Exeter Strategic Plan meetings?
Who will the MINORITY Conservative leader be?
Who will chair the Scrutiny Committee?
So many questions!
Exeter – minor changes on 2 May (new Green Councillor, first Independendent councillor) but Labour still in control
Mid Devon – now no overall control (Lib Dems, Indies and Greens outnumber Tories)
Teignbridge – Lib Dems won control
East Devon – now no overall control (Indies, Lib Dems and Greens outnumber Tories)
Oh dear, looks like GESP may have to go back to the drawing board …
UNLESS the previous (unelected) councillors controlling it (Diviani for East Devon) and their bossy officers stitched it up before the falls from grace …
Owl still a bit mystified why East Devon Lib Dems want to go it alone … they would surely be a force for good countering the effect of pseudo-independents…
“The Liberal Democrats and Independents have joined forces to take control of Torbay Council.
It follows the elections two weeks ago where no party won enough seats for outright control.
The Conservatives are the largest party, but now the Lib Dems with 13 seats and Independents with eight are linking up.
They say they have shared values and will work together on their priorities of housing, helping deprived areas and regeneration.”
What do Lib Dems want in Devon?
They don’t seem to know!
Independents and Lib Dems are working together in North Devon:
https://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/news/north-devon-council-annual-meeting-2019-1-6055299
They are considering it in Torbay:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/independents-consider-alliance-liberal-democrats-2865164
In East Devon Lib Dems say no:
https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/east-devon-liberal-democrats-coalition-decision-1-6046826
Perhaps THIS is why EDDC ex-Tory Leader Ian Thomas left the party (though Owl is STILL waiting to hear his explanation).
Imagine the debates at EDDC as Twiss and Skinner have to argue for it!
“The British government will renationalise the management of probation services in England and Wales five years after a heavily criticised programme of privatisation was deemed to have put members of the public at risk.
The supervision of about 200,000 low and medium-risk offenders will be removed from part-private companies and taken over by the government when the current contracts end in December 2020, said Justice Minister David Gauke.The existing model was intended to drive down re-offending levels when it was introduced but the chief inspector of probation, described the system last month as being “irredeemably flawed”.
The probation watchdog had previously found thousands of offenders were being managed by a brief phone call once every six weeks. Some prisoners were being given tents on their release from jails, an inquiry into homelessness published in March found.
“Delivering a stronger probation system, which commands the confidence of the courts and better protects the public, is a pillar of our reforms to focus on rehabilitation and cut reoffending,” Gauke said.
The U-turn marks a fresh embarrassment for Transport Minister Chris Grayling, who introduced the shake-up when he was justice secretary and has been dubbed “Failing Grayling” by the British press.
In his current job, Grayling awarded a 14 million pound contract for companies to ferry in essential supplies to Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit to a company that owned no boats.
The decision to partially privatise the probation service was heavily criticised at the time.
Companies including France’s Sodexo, the United States’ MTCnovo and British firms Working Links and Interserve have been given contracts to oversee probation services.
The government has already announced it would abolish the use of handing out of new contracts to private companies to run government projects after reviews revealed little evidence of financial benefits.
It has also moved to strip some companies of their contracts because of poor performance or due to financial trouble.
Last month, the government announced it was taking over the running of a Birmingham prison from private operator after inmate violence made it unmanageable.
Last year the collapse of Carillion, one of the biggest beneficiaries of such privatisation contracts, forced the government to step in to guarantee services ranging from school meals to roadworks that the company had previously provided.
A few months later, it renationalised the rail route between London and Edinburgh, taking back the line from a private company after it over-estimated profits.”
“There is a complete lack of transparency over the government’s handling of local authorities with governance issues, MPs have warned.
A damning report from the Public Accounts Committee has called on the government to strengthen audit and governance of the “complex and fast-moving” environment that local authorities find themselves in.
The cross-party group of MPs warned that local authorities are now pursuing shared services and taking on commercial risk, but are simultaneously dealing with a “significant” reduction in resources.
The report noted that while some authorities have robust arrangements, others are under strain and have “audit committees that do not provide sufficient assurance, ineffective internal audit, weak arrangements for the management of risk in local authorities’ commercial investments, and inadequate oversight and scrutiny”.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s oversight of local authority governance has until now been “reactive and ill-informed”, the report said. However, it noted that the department has now committed to improving its oversight.
MPs said that MHCLG lacks reliable information on key governance risks and relies on weak sources of information, meaning it has “no way of pinpointing at-risk councils”. They also said that the department is not focused on long-term risks to council finances.
“There is a complete lack of transparency over both the department’s informal interventions in local authorities with financial or governance problems and the results of its formal interventions,” the PAC said.
The report claimed that taxpayers have a right to know if there are problems with their councils’ finances. It cited the demise of Northamptonshire County Council, which it said was an ‘open secret’ but only for those in the sector.
PAC chair Meg Hillier said: “On the rare occasions a local authority fails, the impact on local citizens is severe. Residents facing decimated services get no comfort from being told that their council’s dire finances were “an open secret”.
“The government needs to recognise the extra pressure that squeezed budgets and increased commercial risks are having on local government and make sure it is monitoring the risks effectively so that it can be alert to the impact of changes on local government.”
MHCLG has been contacted for a response.”
Appearing before the PAC in March:
CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman called for an improvement in local government audit.”
“Ninety-three per cent of construction industry suppliers think the relationship between the ill-fated firm and its auditors, KPMG, was “too cosy”, according to a poll of construction industry leaders.
A further 57% of respondents believed that reforming the ‘big four’ audit firms – PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte – is a necessary step.
The poll, which surveyed more than 50 senior managers across the construction sector, found that 76% believed the Financial Reporting Council was too timid in its challenging of questionable financial information.
Mark Robinson, chief executive of Scape Group, which carried out the poll, said: “We need to be able to have faith in company accounts and the work auditors are carrying out, especially when public sector contracts and people’s livelihoods are at risk.
“Greater oversight and closer management of auditing practices [is needed] in the search to rebuild trust in the industry, but we also need to make sure we are putting in place sensible reforms that do not put increased cost pressures on an industry that is already contending with the cost of materials and reduced access to labour.”
The report from Scape Group also found that 64% of respondents thought that Carillion’s downfall was owing to debt mismanagement, acquisitions and long payment terms, created by a focus on revenue rather than profit.
The Competition & Markets Authority recently suggested that the ‘big four’ separate their audit work from the rest of their consultancy work. This move, CIPFA said, could have implications for local government.
KPMG and the FRC have been contacted for comment.”
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/05/carillions-relationship-auditors-too-comfortable
Independents by their nature are a funny bunch! With no party politics to bind them (a VERY GOOD thing!) what else can bind them?
The East Devon results are particularly interesting: a very cohesive group for the eastern area based on Exmouth, but with a smattering of Lib Dems and Greens, a very cohesive group for the whole of the Axe Valley and Yarty and a bunch of mostly newbies literally in the middle (Ottery St Mary, Cranbrook, Feniton).
Might we see a new way of doing things this time around – geographically rather than party politically? But might that have its own dangers as each area vies for scarce resources? Or, can the three different areas blend and share resources equitably and be seen to be doung so? The values of independents suggests they could if the will is there.
Now that would be interesting …..! It would certainly keep the now somewhat raggle-taggle mostly Honiton-based minority Tories on their toes and fighting their now very,very much smaller corner!
Interesting times … interesting times!
“Discussions over the formation of the district council are ongoing according to the leader of the Independent East Devon Alliance (IEDA).
Paul Arnott, councillor for Coly Valley, has welcomed the decision by the Liberal Democrats to ‘support the formation of an independent-led administration’.
There are now 11 IEDA councillors at East Devon District Council and a partnership with the independent group, which has 20 councillors, would give the coalition overall control of the council.
The Liberal Democrats said they are not interested in forming a coalition with any other parties or groups.
Mr Arnott said: “We were very pleased to be told by the Liberal Democrats that they would be prepared to support the formation of an Independent-led administration.
“As Independent East Devon Alliance councillors we have principles based on accountability, democracy and transparency.
“We believe we were all elected to run the council to the highest standards while also reforming its governance from the outset.
“We are currently in discussions with other independents about how best to deliver this.”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/district-councillor-formation-talks-are-ongoing-1-6047103?
“New figures show that the district will have one of the highest ratios of retirement-age residents in England.
Economic experts say higher taxes or lower spending will be needed to cope with the costs of the UK’s ageing population.
According to the main population projections done by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) there are currently 43,082 people of pension age in East Devon and 77,786 of working age.
The ratio, produced by the ONS, takes into account migration from overseas and other parts of the UK, based on trends for the past 10 years.
It’s predicted that by 2026 there’ll be 574 people eligible for a state pension for every 1,000 still working.
Previous projections show the current rate is 554.
It also considers the gradual increase in the retirement age introduced by the Government. By 2026 it will reach 67.
David Sturrock, research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the ratio provided a useful measure for the pressure an ageing population will place on society.
He said: “We think there needs to be some response to demographic pressures, either through spending reduction, tax rises, or some combination of both.
“Some steps have been made, such as raising the state pension age, but on current trends the ageing population will continue to grow, and it will demand action from politicians.”
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said: “Many will be surprised by how much older people contribute to society including a great deal of knowledge, skill and energy. Whether they are volunteers, informal carers or paid employees, many are redefining what it means to be ‘an older person’.
“Our creaking social care system has been chronically underfunded for years and will simply not be able to cope with the extra demand that an ageing population will bring unless substantial funding is found.
“We also need to create age friendly communities that offer a good quality of life across the generations, by designing environments that are safe and pleasant to live in, with good local facilities and open spaces.
“If we can get this right it will help to sustain the health, well-being and quality of life for everyone, regardless of age.”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/rising-age-of-east-devon-residents-predicted-to-grow-1-6042090
No evidence so far … Although LEP control is mostly with DCC, EDDC has an LEP role. Now we have a different councillor mix at EDDC we might get some answers about our LEP’s finances …..
“The National Audit Office has reported a significant improvement in the financial transparency of England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) after section 151 officers were given extra responsibility for ensuring that key data is publicly available.
But the public-spending watchdog has warned that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s unwillingness to evaluate the impact of the £9bn in Growth Deal funding channelled through LEPs since 2015 means it is unable to learn lessons on what has worked well. A total of £12 bn is committed to the fund by 2021.
Set up to drive economic growth as part of coalition government reforms introduced from 2011, there are now 38 LEPs in England, tasked with bringing together business and political leaders in a patchwork of sub-regional areas.
In its first report on their progress for three years, the NAO found a leap in the level of openness displayed by the partnerships, following concerns about financial transparency levels explored by the Ney Review, in 2017.
The NAO said that in 2016 only 13% of LEPs published financial data such as salaries on their websites, while only a third published their annual reports online.
As of February this year, 84% of LEPs were publishing their annual reports online and all gave financial information on the projects they funded.
The NAO said the improvements had followed an MHCLG and CIPFA drive to “set out stronger expectations” of the role of section 151 officers in assuring good financial governance of LEPs.
Section 151s now sign off monitoring information reported to the department.
Sign-off is also required for local assurance frameworks that confirm a LEP’s governance arrangements.
The drive came after the Ney Review’s 17 recommendations and is one of a series of initiatives addressing its findings.
Despite the improvements in transparency, the NAO report said MHCLG’s ability to make the most of opportunities presented by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – created to replace EU economic development funding post-Brexit – would be hampered by its lack of understanding of LEPs success with the Growth Deals.
“We have previously reported that the department opted not to set quantifiable objectives for Growth Deals, including, for example, the number of jobs created,” it said.
“The absence of robust evaluation means the department and LEPs are less able to learn from what has worked well and ensure that this is reflected in the design or objectives of the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”
The report observed that that there was an “inherent tension” in the government’s need to develop a system of governance for a finance model that devolved funding and new responsibilities to ad-hoc business-led partnerships.
“While the assurance framework is stronger, backed up by checks on compliance, it is not proven yet whether these measures will be effective in detecting and responding to governance failures over significant sums of public money,” it said.
“The department’s accounting officer is accountable for the Local Growth Fund delivered through LEPs.
“However, the department has made no effort to evaluate the value for money of nearly £12bn in public funding, nor does it have robust plans to do so.
“The department needs a grip on how effectively these funds are used. It needs to act if it wants to have any hope of learning the lessons of what works locally for future interventions in local growth.”
Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier said MHCLG had to ensure that huge sums of public funding were not wasted as it presses ahead with its devolved approach to delivering economic growth.
“It is too early to tell if the ministry’s remedial actions will get its governance up to scratch,” she said.
“Worryingly, the ministry also does not know if the funding is being used effectively to benefit local communities and businesses as intended.”
Last year the PAC called on MHCLG to implement the Ney Review recommendations and strengthen transparency and governance arrangements at LEPs following failings at the Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough LEP.
Concerns included the LEP’s relationship with local developers, and how it managed conflicts of interest. GCGP LEP went into voluntary liquidation in December 2017 after the department withheld funding from it.
This week’s NAO report notes that MHCLG “acknowledges that it cannot mitigate entirely the risk of a failure similar to the GCGP LEP”.
Boosted s151 officer role ‘significantly improves’ LEP transparency
“… Launching a major, long-term strategy to tackle flooding and coastal change, Environment Agency Chair, Emma Howard Boyd has said ‘we cannot win a war against water’ by building higher flood defences and called for a new approach to ensure communities are resilient to the threat of flooding posed by climate change.
Opening an 8-week consultation on the new strategy, Emma Howard Boyd said that the Environment Agency is preparing for a potential 4°C rise in global temperature and urgent action is needed to tackle more frequent, intense flooding and sea level rise.
Among the recommendations in the strategy, the Environment Agency has committed to working with partners to develop consistent standards for flood and coastal resilience across the country. To achieve these standards, communities should have access to a range of tools which give them control of how they prepare for and respond to flooding and coastal change, based on the challenges or flood risk that particular location may face.
These could include traditional defences, temporary barriers, natural flood management, sustainable drainage systems, effective flood warnings and emergency response, alongside designing and adapting existing properties and new development so they can recover quickly from a flood. …”
Cranbrook Town Council Facebook page – the first major headache for the 3 new district councillors:
“CRANBROOK TOWN CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS
The Town Council is very aware that there is considerable interest in the town centre and many demands to deliver it. There is an assumption that the Town Council, East Devon District Council and the Developer Consortium should be delivering shops and cafes.
But this is not how a town centre is delivered. The Developer Consortium owns the land but beyond that delivery of commercial activity and some buildings depends on commercial interest. With around 1,900 occupied dwellings in the town we understand there is not yet the level of footfall to attract a great deal of commercial interest from large stores, supermarkets and others with the ability to build commercial properties.
In addition the Consortium are not currently required to have provided such development as the triggers have not yet been reached which are set out in the legal agreements which were signed when Cranbrook first received planning permission.
So the question is what is being done?
Members of the Town Council are meeting weekly with East Devon District Council’s planning team, the Exeter and East Devon Growth Point, the Developer Consortium and their architect.
The aim is to identify particular uses which can be delivered and strategies for their delivery. Importantly uses which are being discussed are the town hall, health and wellbeing hub, children’s centre, youth centre, town square and a market hall.
The work will lead on to ways of unlocking funding for this infrastructure and that is very much linked to the development of the expansion areas. Without that investment there would not be sufficient funding within the current legal agreement (“Section 106”) terms to deliver what the town requires in key buildings.
The challenge is to design and create a town for the 21st century. We are all aware of the pressures on high streets, especially from competition by on-line retailers. What we do not want is a town centre which is designed on traditional grounds which could result in empty premises.
Cranbrook is a 21st century town and we need a town centre which delivers what we cannot do online and a town centre which complements and enhances online business rather than competes with it. The town centre should incorporate social and green space as well. This is a massive challenge but one which we are meeting.
We will communicate updates when progress has been made.”
The suggestion when you move home is to change the locks. This lock can’t be changed so maybe an independent locksmith should examine the locks …
“KPMG has been fined £5m and “severely reprimanded” by the financial regulator for a series of failings in its audit of the Co-operative Bank at the height of the financial crisis a decade ago.
Andrew Walker, a partner at the big four accountancy firm who still works there, was fined £125,000 and also severely reprimanded. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued both fines for misconduct that occurred shortly after the Co-op Bank’s disastrous takeover of the Britannia building society in 2009, which ultimately led to the discovery in 2013 of a £1.5bn black hole in the bank’s accounts.
In the second penalty imposed on KPMG in just over a week, it will only pay £4m of the fine as it did not fight the penalty, as well as £500,000 for the FRC’s legal costs. Walker’s fine has been reduced, to £100,000 in the settlement.
The Co-op Bank’s acquisition of Britannia and its risky loan book a decade ago brought the Co-op Bank close to collapse. It ended its 40-year auditing relationship with KPMG in 2014 and appointed EY – another big four firm along with PwC and Deloitte.
KPMG and Walker both admitted that their conduct “fell significantly short” of auditing standards in two areas – valuations of commercial loans acquired from Britannia and the audit of valuations and liabilities under a series of loan notes purchased from Britannia.
The FRC said KPMG and Walker did not obtain enough audit evidence, failed to show “sufficient professional scepticism” and failed to tell Co-op Bank that the disclosure of the expected lives of the loan notes was not adequate.
KPMG said: “We regret that some of our audit work around specific elements of the bank’s fair value adjustments did not meet the appropriate standards. The work in question was conducted almost a decade ago and we have significantly enhanced our procedures and training around the areas in question since then.”
Barry Tootell, the former chief financial officer and chief executive of the Co-op Bank, admitted misconduct in 2016 and was excluded from membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for six years. He agreed to pay £20,000 for the FRC’s investigation.
Last week KPMG received a £6m fine and a severe reprimand from the FRC for its audit of an insurance firm, Equity Syndicate Management, more than a decade ago. KPMG’s audits of firms and institutions this year and in 2020 and 2021 will be subject to to an additional review by its internal audit quality team, who will report back to the FRC.”
“What kind of independents are these?
Given that these numbers record only district level and above, they won’t include many of the grassroots independents that have succeeded in record numbers at the community level: town councils and parishes. Notable exceptions will include Herefordshire County and East Devon District Council – the first fully independent council. The majority are more likely to be disillusioned and ashamed Tory and Labour councillors, unwilling to go down with their national party.
However, they are a broadening gateway to something else quite remarkable, and now moving into the space of people’s politics. A new wave of local people who are taking it upon themselves to be responsible for what happens in their local community, how the money is spent and how decisions are made.
Given that over the past three years turnout for local elections has fallen to 33%, leaving 67% technically open to persuasion, the margin for an upset is always large. In 2013 this was the entry point for UKIP. With only one MP and later 2 MPs in the UK Parliament to represent them, they used the power of narrative and social media to characterise this localism as a people’s vote in favour of leaving the EU.
Yet there was no new mechanisms on offer to give people any more agency in the political sphere – even locally – it was all coming from above. After the Brexit referendum they were more or less deserted by their leaders and are now heavily regarded as a spent force.
In hindsight, nevertheless, it is possible to see UKIP and the Leave vote as important moments in the revolution of UK democracy. Not only has there been a weakening of the long-standing duopoly in British politics but it has stirred ambition for a better expressed people’s politics – a genuine alternative to the current political system and culture. Amongst other things, even as a phenomenon to grapple with, it gave birth to The Alternative UK.
The degree to which such a democratic emergency dovetails with the environmental emergency cannot be underplayed. They depend upon each other to achieve the transformation of our society we need to survive. Our own deep dive into this arena for over two years has revealed a substantial movement – appearing in multiple guises – of a new socio-political sensibility that links people to power to planet (I, We, World).
Frome Frome! The Flatpack model picks up speed
Within this, the “values-based” independents inspired by Flatpack Democracy in Frome are causing a storm right now.
The readers of the Daily Alternative, know this political model of citizen-led and participatory politics. The Independents from Frome were also one of the first towns to declare a Climate Emergency. But unlike the UK government, this came with a report of how to get Frome to zero carbon by 2030 and a commitment to deliver locally.
With the added phenomenon of Extinction Rebellion, leading a national and international campaign, becoming independent suddenly takes on another dimension – that of citizens stepping up to save our future, in the face of national-level failure to do so.
How many of the wave of newly elected independents below the district level were Flatpack Democracy aligned candidates, we won’t know for another day or so. In Frome where Flatpack was birthed, former Mayor Peter Macfadyen stood back after two terms to see a resounding 17/17 seats retained for IfF.
In Devon where we have been closely watching and working to create the conditions for the rise of Flatpack politics, remarkable gains were made at District, Town and Parish levels, many of them taking control of their councils.
I spoke to Pam Barrett, former Mayor of Buckfastleigh who reported winning 10 out of 12 councillors; 11/16 in Dartmouth, 9/13 in Chudleigh, 7/14 in Bovey (taking control with 2 non-aligned independents), Portishead 15/16. East Devon has become the first ever independent District Council in the country.
Meantime, members of the Torridge Common Ground, co-founded by XR initiator Jamie Kelsey-Fry, won two further District Council seats alongside their 6 at town level.
Says Jamie: “I’m somewhat rocked in my soul today.. we have a foot in the door and can start to change the way local power operates. We have people’s assemblies, listening, radical inclusivity and the consciousness of acting with the next seven generations in mind, all at the heart of how we do things. It’s impossible not to have hope right now”.
Standing where we have been for the past two and a half years, steadily charting and helping to generate the rise of a new politics, this month feels like a Mexican wave. With first Greta, then the school strike, then Extinction Rebellion, then the Parliaments, then the local independents, all rising to take the headlines in turn. Together they’re generating the sense of something genuinely alternative in the making.
Link rising movements to better practice
But knowing how these waves are designed to start up and gradually fall away, how do we embed them more deeply in the rhythm of our daily lives? How can we maintain the excitement in ways that not only keep the connection between these movements going, but open the door to many more? …”
Election results on pages 2 and 3 … back to normal for Archant!
East Devon Watch 