… East Devon has 663 empty homes, up on the year by 152. …
One can only hope this is a typing error but the Express and Echo is usually reliable on such figures. If it is correct (a) how shocking and (b) Cranbrook perchance?
Category Archives: EDDC
And then watch builders develop in multiples of 50!
Will the government never learn – or perhaps it doesn’t want to:
Will new UKIP and Independent councillors get the support they need?
Thought-provoking article HERE.
Given that EDDC has punished only Lib Dem and Independent councillors for transgressions this year (transgressions that have patently been either minor or those of ALL parties) it seems unlikely.
Still, our council vote is not until May 2015 – along with the General Election if the coalition can keep itself together that long – and it will be one of the yardsticks against which current councillors will be judged.
Hit out only at your opposition, ignore your own failings and one gets the distinct impression that it is fear and jealousy rather than right that are the drivers.
Deputy Leader suspended for sending texts under different names
It wouldn’t happen here would it …. and if it did, would the Monitoring Officer report the offender to the Standards Committee if he were the Deputy Leader of the majority party?
Paul Shotton [Deputy Leader, Stoke council] contributed to debates on BBC Radio Stoke both supporting the council and criticising the opposition over a period of six months. Staff rumbled the councillor after he sent text messages from the same mobile number under names such as Alison, Jean and Dave. He also pretended to be from different areas of Stoke-on-Trent, including Fenton and Smallthorne.
Mr Shotton yesterday admitted sending the texts and will now face a council standards board hearing. He said: “I apologise fully for my actions. They were plain stupid. I will never do anything like this again.”
BBC Stoke presenter Tim Wedgwood warned listeners recently that DJs at the station can see the phone number of people texting the station. A BBC spokesman said: “Audience interaction is an important part of our programmes and we read out texts from listeners in good faith but we are reliant on the audience being up front and honest about who they are. “In this case, we became suspicious after recognising the phone number and then referred the issue to the council.”
The Labour party has now launched an investigation into the incident after suspending the councillor. A spokesman said: “The Labour party takes these matters very seriously. Councillor Paul Shotton has been suspended pending an investigation.”
Mr Shotton is cabinet member for economic development and a ward councillor for Fenton East. He recently fought off a challenge to his position as deputy leader from Janine Bridges, cabinet member for housing.
Mr Shotton was not at a meeting of the council’s cabinet held last night, but it was reported that Stoke-on-Trent City Council leader Mohammed Pervez has taken on his cabinet responsibilities. Mr Pervez, said: “I was informed of the issue yesterday and immediately contacted the Labour party. The Labour party suspended councilor Shotton pending investigation.”
Gerry Clarke, the council’s deputy monitoring officer, said: “We have been alerted to allegations made against the deputy leader of the council. On the basis of information that has been provided, the council will initiate a standards board process to enable the facts of this case to be investigated.
“We understand an internal investigation is also being undertaken by the Labour Party, and it would therefore be inappropriate for the council to comment further until such investigations have been concluded.”
Read more at http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-Trent-deputy-city-council-leader-suspended/story-21164310-detail/story.html#BqgY7xkFw1GVUozr.99
Public access to EDDC accounts
We are once again approaching that time of year when the public have the right to inspect the council accounts for 20 days, full details of which rights can be found at
Click to access Council-accounts-Know-your-rights-July-20132.pdf
This right is a powerful tool and gives exceptional public access to this material, so we are encouraging people, a few weeks beforehand, to seriously think about what accounts information might be useful and how they might use it to their best advantage.
Those who wish to examine any accounts should make their own arrangements, as EDA is not able to make enquiries for other individuals or campaign groups.
When making an enquiry, please try to be specific as possible with regard to the information you want to look at, as the staff need to find what you want, rather than give you a pile of papers to fish around in. The lady at EDDC is most helpful and giving early notice of what you might like to examine is strongly recommended- not least as it gives time for follow up requests before the statutory 20 day period is expired.
The start date is variable, so we will be keeping an eye on the public notices in the local press and as soon as we have confirmation of the dates, we will let you know.
No-one gets paid anything …
Just to reassure EDDC: no-one gets paid anything for posts on the EDA website – see this attempt to stop a blogger in Whitby criticising his local council – they had him investigated by the Department of Work and Pensions but it backfired spectacularly on the council:
http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/private-eye-slams-scarred-borough-council
and no councillor or officer is involved it its ramblings!
Mr Pickles LOVES citizen bloggers and is doing his best to make life easier for us!
http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/eric-pickles-to-use-law-to-open-up-town/
Voter dissatisfaction: direct action – what WE could do
Here a council must change from the tight-knit Cabinet only model (as EDDC has) where a Leader appoints his own Cabinet for a Committee model where committes make binding decisions and are made up in proportion to the parties voted in:
Some background to this is given here:
http://www.rottenborough.org.uk/RachelBattersby.html
And here a town is petitioning to leave one local authority to join another:
and the background to this is here:
Seaton to West Dorset, Axminster to South Somerset, Cranbrook to Exeter City, Exmouth to Teignbridge, Budleigh Salterton to Kensington and Chelsea (sorry, got carried away there!) – interesting!
Progress of Local Plan: anyone know the difference between “could and should” and “can and will”?
It is almost an embarrassment to publish the latest correspondence between EDDC and the Local Plan Inspector, Mr Thickett. The letter from EDDC with its “action plan” is so vague and indeterminate that it is simply a “wish list” (could and should) rather than an “action plan” (can and will).
You can almost hear the irritation in Mr Thickett’s reply. However, he at least does try to set some sort of timetable (October/November) for the next stage of the process.
Interesting that the whole process will take us up to election time – so developer free-for-all will probably continue till then.
The correspondence:
Letter from EDDC:
The “action plan”
and Mr Thickett’s reply
All correspondence and details of information provided for the Local Plan is HERE
Latest briefings on Knowle Town and Village Green application
Setback for council austerity cuts
Letter on Express and Echo website: listen to the people
IS it so surprising that the electorate is disaffected and is rejecting the traditional parties? Had there been more elections in rural districts last week there would surely have been an even greater protest vote.
And it is interesting to note that last Friday a non-party-political Community Action Group in Formby, Lancashire, campaigning against over-development, convincingly won a councillor seat from a “safe” Labour councillor.
And why is this? Since the inception of the National Planning Policy there has been a relentless attack on our countryside, on our small towns and villages and our green belt, by developers in league with local politicians pursuing housing policies promoted by the main political parties.
The result has not been “affordable” homes nor housing for social need, in which large developers are not interested, but a rash of expensive and unsustainable housing development, much of it sold as second-homes or investment properties.
This, encouraged by the Right-to-Buy scheme, has only increased the price of housing and created a housing bubble.
And whatever happened to the coalition Government’s vaunted “localism”?
It is now exposed as a sham because individual communities have, in fact, ended up with less power and restrictions on their democratic freedom of speech; while there are fewer checks on the rapacity of greedy developers, and the myth of inflated housing figures goes unchallenged.
Our advice to all the main parties is to listen: the people who gave power to politicians will soon have the chance to take it away. We need and deserve representatives who will protect our environment and heritage.
Michael and Beryl Temple , Sidmouth
Read more at http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Reader-8217-s-Letter-Protest-votes-surprise/story-21153254-detail/story.html#GAk2u6uiSy9s3m7i.99
EDDC finally bites the bullet on the Thelma Hulbert Gallery – or does it?
Thank you an eagle eyed reader for pointing out that the Cabinet Agenda for 4 June 2014 also seals the fate of the constantly loss-making Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton.
On page 92 of the 93 pages of the agenda and under the part where discussion is in private it recommends:
That Cabinet agree in principle to a transfer of the Thelma Hulbert Gallery to the LED Leisure Trust, and that the transfer takes place
subject to
(i) successful grant applications which mean the Gallery can still function with a reduced financial support package from the Council.
(ii) satisfactory detailed transfer arrangements being agreed between the Council and LED, with delegated authority being given
to the Chief Executive, in conjunction with the relevant portfolio holder to approve them, and subject to further legal, financial and
valuation advice as required.
Questions to be asked:
Why is EDDC still subsidising this little-used facility? Perhaps its collection could be moved to the new Beehive Community Centre (which EDDC has so generously funded). Or perhaps to Skypark!
LED is itself subsidised by EDDC so surely this is simply removing the subsidy to a less transparent area (though we have not been allowed to see the operating figures for this gallery on which EDDC decisions have been made).
What exactly does LED have in mind?
What will be the basis of the Trust? Will EDDC still be underwriting its losses?
If LED cannot make a go of it, what happens to it then? Who “owns” it in those circumstances?
The people of Honiton might well wish to ask a few questions.
The report ends with this sentence “The Gallery helps achieve the priorities under Enjoying this Outstanding Place in the Council Plan as well as supporting the economic objectives of the Council”
Oh that the council REALLY understood what “Enjoying this outstanding place” REALLY means!
Trust in politics and business
In her speech to the Inclusive Capitalism conference, Christine Lagarde, head if the International Monetary Fund, recommended income and property tax changes to reduce inequality, attacked the financial sector for not changing its behaviour quickly enough and said that inequality in the UK was at levels not seen for almost a century.
It was highly political, quoting Pope Francis, John F Kennedy and Winston Churchill.
It was also a demand for the players at the top of business and politics to understand that “trust arrives on foot and leaves in a Ferrari”.
Capitalism needs to change its ways, she said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27588394
Yes, trust arrives at Knowle on a bus and leaves with BMWs at Skypark too perhaps!
Transparency – a foggy issue
In response to the post below where EDDC is trying to keep information secret by claiming that a consultant was “seconded” to EDDC so his information should be secret (although his report was written under his employer’s name and he continued to be paid by said employer) even though the Information Commissioner has said that it should be published a correspondent writes:
It does make one angry that EDDC engage external private “consultants” without transparency stating that such vested interest is somehow considered in-house. Some senior officers are so partisan they seem to believe they and their “stakeholders” friends have a political mandate to operate behind closed doors on behalf of the electorate. Some like the EDDC Economic Development Manager and his EDBF developer chums seem to think the public were voting for them. They fail to appreciate such insider trading with private enterprise is highly suspect and lacks democratic accountability and responsibility. We unfortunately live in the “Age of Shopping” but all this quick-buck culture of privatising and selling-off of the public assets which our more civilised grandparents generation established after two world wars is deeply disturbing.
EDDC Overview and Scrutiny Committee – it’s not too late …
…to include an agenda item of the next O and S committee in June on the “Business Task and Finish Forum” investigating the creation, running and administration of the East Devon Business Forum and its effect on planning and the Local Plan debacle. You know, the one you kicked into the long grass for as long as possible.
Oh, and where is Mr Harrison – EDDC Economic Development Officer – these days? Since his job as Hon Sec of EDBF finished he seems to have gone totally silent when, in the past, he had such a lot to say about individual developments, particularly those of EDBF members.
And just when “economic development” is an even hotter topic.
What exactly are we paying (and paying handsomly) this person to do?
EDDC – Knowle relocation secrecy – important update
Following a Freedom of Information request in November 2012 for the full minutes of various ‘relocation working parties’ on Knowle and for the full, unredacted reports from the Project Manager, Sidmouth resident Jeremy Woodward was told by EDDC officials that if he wanted these publishing, he would have to go to the Information Commissioner – which is what he duly did. And last month, they ordered EDDC to release the full reports on the plans to relocate from Knowle
See: http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/office_relocation_freedom_of_information_battle
EDDC have now appealed, and the case (number EA/2014/0072) is now before an Information Rights Tribunal – and will probably be heard in early August.
See: https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/tribunals/information-rights/current-cases/register-cases.pdf
EDDC have meanwhile submitted further documentation – and they are absolutely determined that the reports on the relocation project should not be published.
In the original ‘decision notice’ where the Information Commissioner tells EDDC to publish the reports, they make it clear that the Project Manager of the firm appointed as consultants produced documentation for EDDC as a third party – and being from an outside consultancy, Davis Langdon, they should be made available to the public. EDDC will be making the case that the Project Manager was producing material which is commercially confidential and that he worked as an ‘insider’ – so his reports should be treated in the same way at the minutes of the ‘relocation working parties’, which the Information Commissioner has said should not be published.
See: http://ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/decisionnotices/2014/fs_50498100.pdf
In the meantime, there have been new, separate Freedom of Information requests made for the full minutes of these working parties – now that EDDC, a year and a half on since the original request, have clearly made the decision to leave Knowle and relocate to Skypark.
See: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/knowle-relocation-project-further-foi.html
With this Tribunal, together with the further delays over Rights of Way and the Village Green application at Knowle, EDDC will have their hands full as they try to prevent anything from derailing their ‘relocation project’.
Science Park gets £1m grant for “infrastructure”
Exeter Science Park is close to the Skypark development and also part of the “East Devon Growth Point” as is Skypark. Here is an article on progress of the site about progress so far and how proud they are to have recieved a £1m grant to provide “infrastructure” to the site which seems to mean that it is for faster broadband facilities.
and here is an interesting paragraph in that article:
Exeter Science Park is part of the £2 billion Exeter and East Devon Growth Point development programme, where a number of strategic projects are set to deliver over 20,000 new homes and over 25,000 jobs by 2026.
A date for your 2026 diary perhaps. And where will all the homes be by then? Will any of them have been “affordable”?
Somehow you know when something is a puff job rather than a fact and here the giveaway is that it is not boasting of tenants to come but of having received a £1 million grant.
Which begs the question: how much will a similar connection to Skypark cost – bearing in mind all the work that officers are going to do out of their offices at “touch down” places in the area because residents cannot get to Skypark with any ease (unless they live in Exeter or Cranbrook).
Is this yet another cost that residents will have to bear if no grant is forthcoming?
An interesting view on the housing “crisis”
Demand and need are two very different things:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/21/no-housing-crisis-just-very-british-sickness
Former EDDC Tory deputy leader speaks of “ill-thought out and undemocratic move” of EDDC council!
It is not often that common-sense prevails at EDDC so we should celebrate it when it does. Last week EDDC withdrew their planning application for all year round siting of beach huts on Budleigh beach. This may seem a rather parochial matter and had the cabinet listened to ward councillors and common-sense prevailed from the start, EDDC would not have suffered a series of damaging blows to its reputation for competence and there would be no story to tell. But it didn’t and there is plenty to tell.
Ever since beach huts replaced bathing machines in Budleigh they have been overwintered in storage to preserve them from the elements. Last year, however, following a cabinet decision, EDDC wrote to beach hut owners saying they could leave them in place all year round. The claim was that ten hut owners had made a request to do so but, since owners weren’t consulted (see below), many think it was just an excuse to hike up the annual rent by around 50%, netting a mere £20K.
The Town Council, aware of the winter storms that have periodically scoured the beach under the beach hut sites, opposed the idea. The really bad storms of 1950, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 2000 are well recorded in photos, videos and newspaper cuttings from the Journal and have passed into local folklore. The question of planning permission was also raised. Council members recalled that EDDC had required a fisherman to make a full planning application to replace his fishing hut but was apparently giving a free pass to bathing hut owners.
Natural England pointed out that since the site was an SSSI, EDDC could not claim permitted delegated authority to allow the change and planning permission or permissions would be needed.
For over a year EDDC allowed this “planning anomaly” to run, leases to be issued, and the beach huts to stand until six weeks ago when a planning application was submitted for all year siting for 61 EDDC and 94 privately owned huts.
EDDC commissioned a flood risk assessment from consultants which contained the following disclaimer:
“This report gives estimates of likely flood depth, but does not attempt to quantify risk from waves or storm surges. Flooding from the sea is analysed solely on modelled extreme water levels which are assumed as calm.”
However, the assessment concluded that the permanent retention of beach huts was acceptable.
WHAT NO WAVES OR STORMS ON A BEACH!!!!!
This flood risk assessment was dated January. In the first week of February the waves from a combination of spring tides, a deep depression and SSE gale force winds overturned and smashed many of the huts at the western bathing station. A small turn of the compass and the gabions underlying the eastern bathing station would have been ripped open as they last were in the storms of both 1989 and 1990.
Despite this, EDDC continued preparing the planning application which it submitted at the end of March (including specifying a maximum size of beach hut smaller than those redeployed from Exmouth a few years ago!).
The Environment Agency (EA) made its formal comment with the benefit of hindsight in May:
“It is clear that to site beach huts permanently on the beach will significantly increase the likelihood that they will be damaged in winter storms. Given that; a) sea levels are rising and are predicted to rise at an increasing rate; b) that such storms are predicted to increase both in terms of wind speed and wave height (NPPF, Table 5) we recommend that this proposal be refused on the grounds that is not safe, sustainable and puts people and property increasingly and unnecessarily at risk.”
No doubt the EA don’t want to pick up the bill for more irresponsible EDDC decisions, see the article posted here on May 23 entitled: “Environment Agency picks up the tab for EDDC blunder”.
The views of the majority of beach hut owners, especially the local ones, are summed up by the following letter of objection by Ray and Judith Franklin, published on the planning web site:
“……We were dismayed that there was no consultation whatsoever regarding this move. We now understand that a planning application is needed. Surely this will result in additional costs to the council tax payers?
The rent has increased by £242.40 per annum (excl VAT) but we have enjoyed no additional benefit. In fact, ourselves and several of our neighbours were unable to gain access to the huts due to swelling of the timbers and rusting of the locks. Some of our neighbours forced open the doors but then found they were unable to close them. We appreciate that it was a particularly wet winter but these problems would happen during any winter.
………..Speaking with other beach hut owners and renters we have found only one or two who are in support of this ill-thought out and undemocratic move.”
Could this be Ray Franklin one time deputy leader to Sarah Randall Johnson? If so, then we can all think of many more examples of ill-thought out and undemocratic decisions made by him and cabinet members against the wishes of the people of East Devon. Case of the pot and the kettle?
We will file this as an example of an omnishambles.
The South West Euro MPs elected 2014
CON Ashley Fox
CON Julie Girling
GRN Molly Scott Cato
LAB Clare Moody
UKIP William Dartmouth
UKIP Julia Reid
East Devon Watch 