The Signs of Things to Come!
25 days to local elections – today’s picture
The Signs of Things to Come!
Category Archives: EDDC
“Property developers who deliberately demolished a house containing protected bats have been fined £18,000”
Owl says: Good news for East Budleigh, fighting to keep a barn which harbours rare bats which Clinton Devon Estates want to pull down. But then again, a fine of a few thousand pounds will just mean them recouping the cost in even higher property prices! BUT take nore of the last sentence!
“Jenna Kara, 29, and Tina Kara, 34, directors of Landrose Developments Ltd, started tearing down the bungalow in Stanmore, north-west London, in 2016.
The company pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court to damaging or destroying the breeding site.
District Judge Denis Brennan said the punishment for ignoring environmental law would “always outweigh” gain.
The court heard the developers had pressed ahead with the demolition despite an expert reporting the site was home to soprano pipistrelle bats – a protected species in the UK and Europe.
Surveys at the site also indicated the presence of common pipistrelle bats, which are another protected species.
Passing sentence, District Judge Brennan said: “In my judgment, the act of demolition was clearly deliberate and flew in the face of advice and knowledge of the existence of the bat roost.
“The most obvious effect is local but it also has national implications because these bats are an endangered species by the very fact of being protected.” …
The offence is contrary to the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 and means the company will be barred from bidding to do certain projects.
27 days to local elections – today’s picture
(photo: Camping and Caravan Club)
This is Ladram Bay Holiday Park – owned by the high-profile Carter family who also own Greendale Business Park (more on that in a later post).
The photograph was taken in 2015 since which it has grown more. Residents of Otterton are tearing their hair out at the heavy vehicle traffic using its roads to move large caravans and mobile homes on and off the site. DCC independent councillor Claire Wright has tried to help but one EDDC Tory councillor (Tom Wright) nearly sabotaged her latest attempt:
and planning policies for the destination are in tatters:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/09/08/unrest-in-otterton-planning-policies-in-shambles/
First thoughts on election candidates
Paul Diviani (former Tory Leader) still living in Yarty Ward but standing in Broadclyst. Very helpful if Cranbrook extension needs highly localised support.
Stuart Hughes (formerly Monster Raving Loony Party and Conservative (no – not the same thing) ) now standing as “Independent”. still has a few more parties to go through yet!
Disgraced Lib Dem ex-Mayor of Seaton Peter Burrows standing again for District for the same party, along with his wife and 6 other candidates including two East Devon Alliance.
Fair proportion of REAL independents but several suspiciously right-leaning ones who have always followed the Tory line in the past and who seem to easily get on to committees …..
Contested towns and parishes listed but not uncontested towns and parishes (eg Cranbrook, Seaton) whereas uncontested districts are listed.
East Devon Alliance has strong showing, including Chairman Paul Arnott in Colyton.
Town and Parish council election candidates May 2019
List of candidates for local elections on 2 May 2019
Seaside towns: “reinvent or die”
The report can be found here:
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/regenerating-seaside-towns/news-parliament-2017/seaside-report-published/
ITV News summary:
“Seaside towns need to be reinvented to attract tourists and residents and become desirable places to live and visit, a parliament report has said.
The report called on improvements to education, housing and transport links, so seaside towns can “reinvent themselves with a long-term, place-based vision.”
In the Future of Seaside Town report, peers said poor transport links to seaside towns are “severely hindering” opportunities to improve tourism and attract funding.
They warned young people are at a disadvantage because of their limited access to education, especially post 16-education.
The report called on the government to improve digital connectivity, most notably high-speed broadband, saying doing so would provide an opportunity to “overcome the challenges of peripherality in coastal areas.”
Coastal towns which emerged as leisure and pleasure resorts in the 19th century have been neglected for “too long”.
The House of Lords select committee said these places should once again be “celebrated as places that can provide attractive environments for residents and visitors.”
The peers also called for ministers to set out how coastal areas will benefit from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will replace EU funding after Brexit, and to increase resources for the Coastal Communities Fund.
What is needed is a package of strategic initiatives and interventions where national and local government work together to address issues such as transport, housing, post-school education and high-speed broadband.
Lord Bassam of Brighton
Places like Brighton and Bournemouth have shown that the seaside can successfully reinvent itself.
Lord Bassam of Brighton said: “The potential impact of Brexit on these towns, particularly the hospitality sector, also remains an open question.
“A single solution to their economic and social challenges doesn’t exist. What is needed is a package of strategic initiatives and interventions where national and local government work together to address issues such as transport, housing, post-school education and high-speed broadband.”
He added: “The committee is confident that if our recommendations are pursued, seaside towns can once again become prosperous and desirable places to live in and visit.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The Government is determined to ensure our economy works for everyone and every place.
“We are on track to invest £200 million in the Great British Coast by 2020 and recently announced a £36 million package of support to projects in coastal communities through our Coastal Communities Fund and Coastal Revival Fund.
“We have also made a commitment to support towns to harness their unique strengths to grow and prosper through the £1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund.
“We recognise the challenges facing our seaside towns and will carefully consider the committee’s recommendations to build on the significant steps we have already taken to help coastal communities thrive.”
https://www.itv.com/news/2019-04-04/action-urged-to-reinvent-struggling-seaside-towns/
28 days until local elections – today’s picture
This is EDDC CEO and Electoral Officer (extra pay for that) piano playing with Streetscene workers on one of those “look at me I’m just like you” PR stunts.
You know, the bloke who “lost” 6,000 voters and hasn’t got the mechanism for online checking of where you should go to vote working. The one who was hauled before a parliamentary committee to explain himself:
Time for all sorts of changes to the status quo.
[Apologies for Owl’s poor maths -28 days to voting today – it needs to have a refresher course at Hogwarts]
“Flybe confirms ‘base restructuring’ amidst rumours all Exeter flights could be scrapped”
Owl says: what the hell is happening? One minute we are told of new routes (including Flybe) and the next the talk is of all Flybe routes being cancelled! Would the airport (into which DCC and EDDC are pouring money into for infrastructure improvements) then be viable?
“Exeter-based airline Flybe has confirmed it is undertaking a ‘base restructuring’ after reports this morning that all jet-plane flights from Exeter, Cardiff and Doncaster are to be scrapped.
In a statement on the reason 27 Flybe flights were cancelled this morning the airline confirmed that ‘base restructuring’ is part of the reason.Pilots and cabin crews are believed to have been called into meetings since 4am this morning to be told the news, which has added to the delays.
According to UK Aviation News pilots have been told the decisions comes after a “critical review of the business performance”.
If true it means jet flights will cease operating from Exeter this summer, leaving the company to operate just Dash 8 Q400 planes – the type that makes shorter journeys such as Exeter to London.
Flybe this morning confirmed ‘base restructuring’ was under way, and said that is part of the reason a number of flights were cancelled on Wednesday.
UK Aviation News says the move could be ‘potentially devastating’ for Exeter Airport. …”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/flybe-confirms-base-restructuring-could-2715437
“East Devon house prices are around £70k more than five years ago”
“The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the average property in the area sold for £303,162 – significantly higher than the UK average of £228,147.
Across the South West, property prices have risen by 0.5 per cent in the last year, to £253,926. The region underperformed compared to the UK as a whole, which saw the average property value increase by 1.7 per cent.
The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland. …”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/east-devon-house-prices-1-5970301
Want to know where you vote on 2 May? Tough, EDDC won’t tell you
The website where you put in your postcode and it tells you which ward you are in and which polling station you go to isn’t working.
Strange that …..
EDDC: Consultation on affordable housing (but not social housing)
Owl wonders if this is appropriate during the run-up to local elections in May – a time when only non-controversial and non-political issues should be brought up.
But, more importantly, surely there are two words missing from the document?
Shouldn’t it be “SOCIAL AND Affordable Housing Policy?
“The draft Affordable Housing SPD and accompanying documents are being published for consultation, available through the links below:
Draft Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document
Click to access affordable-housing-spd_approved-at-spc-26319.pdf
Draft Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document – Screening report for Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations
Click to access ah-spd_screening-assessments_sea-hra.pdf
Draft Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document – Equalities Impact Assessment
Click to access affordable-housing-spd_eqia.pdf
If you would like to comment on the draft Affordable Housing supplementary planning document and/or the accompanying documents (Environmental and Habitats screening reports, Equalities Impact Assessment), please email us at planningpolicy@eastdevon.gov.uk or post comments to Planning Policy, East Devon District Council, Blackdown House, Border Road, Heathpark Industrial Estate, Honiton, EX14 1EJ.
The consultation period runs from Thursday 28 March until Friday 10 May 2019 (at 5pm).
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/housing-issues/affordable-housing/
Axminster: find out what your REAL housing NEED is!
Cranbrook featured (negatively) on Radio 4 today
EDDC made it onto Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ this morning – complaints about price hikes for green spaces maintenance in Cranbrook…
Local Tories panic at last minute – and ask what you think (too little, too late!)
The Local Tories are asking the electorate at the 11th Hour! (A BIT TOO LATE!).
Why?
Because they know they have let us down, while Independent councillors have been fighting our battles, not them!
Whilst our Independent District Councillors have been listening and dealing with local people’s issues and concerns for years the “East Devon Conservative Association” may be waking up to the fact that rather than follow their Central Offices National Policies, they maybe should listen occasionally to what is happening in their local area!
A questionnaire is being distributed by the East Devon Branch of the Conservative Party, just 5 weeks before Local Parish Town and District Elections asking for local people’s thoughts!
There is however a “health warning” on the leaflet in very small print!
“The types of information we may collect about you, will probably include your name, address, and contact information and information about your ethnic origin, political opinions, and religious, philosophical and other beliefs. The data you provide will be retained by the Conservative Party, its Candidates and its MPs”.
Nice to know the Tories want to collate a database on us!
The questionnaire first asks several questions about the ward and then asks
“Are there any local issues or concerns you would like to raise?
Then they ask which of 14 issues are the 3 issues that should be prioritised. Looking at the list most local people would hope that their Councillors were concentrating on ALL of them, but at least the local Conservatives MIGHT spend some time on 3 local issues which is a start!
On the second page it becomes even more amusing!
Q: What Conservative commitments are the most important to you?
“Make a success of Brexit”
(guessing the leaflet was planned some time ago!)
First one on the list is Not really a local issue, but the you would not think that the turmoil in Parliament and Brussels was anything like a “success”!
Q: “Cut the Deficit and deal with our country’s debts.”
This could be translated as: Do you approve of austerity and the selling off of public assets.
Again, not much of a local concern, except for the closing of local hospital beds, reduction in funding for all local services, no spending on our local infrastructure but the Government spending billions on HS2 to connect London and Birmingham and Cross Rail connecting one part of London to the other!
Q:“Continue to increase housebuilding and support home ownership”.
East Devon is already building more than 950 new houses per year, but the Tories want more and more! What local people want is “the right houses, built to the right quality, in the right place, at the right time”. Not what we are getting which are large, expensive housing estates that look like “everywhere land!”.
Q: Cut income tax by raising personal allowances.
If you earn enough to pay tax that’s fine, but the less well off become even further left in crisis with the cutting of social services! And what about all those billionaire donors – some paying no tax in this country at all!
Q: Ensure that pensions continue to rise annually.
Anything to keep pensions in line with inflation is good but reducing public services for the elderly affects their quality of life! And “rising annually” is no good if increases are below the cost of living and savings earn nothing and then go to fund home or nursing home care.
Q: Ensure the welfare and benefit system is fair and rewards work.
Just one comment here “Universal Credit! It’s NOT working!
Q: Continue to increase NHS spending.
Local NHS spending has been and is being cut and all our services at breaking point! Nine hours for an ambulance to turn up for a pensioner with a broken hip in Exmouth! And a CCG that has said it will cut HALF A BILLION pounds more in the next few years.
Q: Control and reduce immigration.
They cannot control migration if they cannot sort out a Brexit deal! And SOME immigration (such as health care workers) is urgently needed. And they have already confessed that immigration will now come from India and the Phillipines rather than the EU!
Q: Protect spending on schools.
Only this week our largest secondary school in the district asked parents to contribute to the funding! And academy schools pay their heads and directors hundreds of thousands of pounds – and then often go bust!
Q: Invest our National Security and defence.
It is a known fact that we are spending less on our armed forces and the police. These cuts can be seen with less police on our streets, crime seemingly increasing and less arrests and weaker sentences for those that are apprehended!
This is Our governing Political Party and our governing East Devon councillors asking these ridiculous questions!
You are asked to tick which 2 are important to you! Again, most people would say they are all important!!
You are then asked what party you voted for last time and which party you may consider voting for this time around, and finally asking you if you want to help or even join the Conservative Party! Remember, all this data on you is kept for later use (or sale).
What’s the alternative?
This questionnaire graphically demonstrates how out of touch this national and local political party is!!
Don’t reply to add to their already large database on you but elect a local INDEPENDENT candidate, already in touch with the electorate and already fighting on your behalf!
“The Mass Sell-Off Of Public Land Is Driving The Housing Crisis”
“A major new investigation by the Bureau Local and HuffPost UK revealed austerity’s dirty little secret: massive funding cuts have been, in part, offset by a mass sell-off of public land. But what’s not being examined is who is buying that land, and what they are building on it. If used appropriately, surplus public land could be an important first step towards solving the housing crisis, but the present fire sale is, if anything, making it worse.
The Bureau’s research uncovered 12,000 public spaces sold into private ownership since 2014/15, ranging from grand metropolitan libraries to small patches of scrub land. Guy Shrubsole and Anna Powell Smith, in mapping landownership in England, discovered that £100million worth of the land sold-off by councils between 2017 and 2018 went to offshore companies. Earlier this year, Brett Christophers revealed that 10% of the UK’s land has transferred from public to private hands since 1979. In 2016, our own work at NEF revealed an alarming spread of sales from central government departments in recent years. The government itself claims to have sold 25% of the ‘core’ property holdings government departments since 2010.
Why are we offloading land at all? Ostensibly it’s to meet the government’s target: 160,000 new homes on previously public land by 2020. But the murky reality is that local authorities, like other public bodies, are selling land to fill the vast funding gaps driven by austerity. And it’s because of this fact that selling public land won’t generate the affordable homes that we desperately need to solve the housing crisis.
Local government funding has been cut in half between 2010/11 and 2017/18, so when government policy dictates selling surplus land, it’s no wonder that councils are using their land assets to plug the holes in their budgets. Birmingham City Council has used £53million from asset sales to balance its books, more than any other local authority in England, with as much as £26million of that revenue used to fund redundancies (also a result of austerity) at the council.
As NEF have shown, a key driver of the housing crisis is the price of land. When the incentive in selling public land is to raise cash to keep vital services afloat, councils inevitably sell to the highest bidder, as quickly as possible. While local authorities are technically allowed to sell at slightly less than the highest value (although many don’t out of financial necessity), central government departments are actually prohibited from selling land at lower than the ‘best consideration reasonably obtainable’. Developers cannot both build affordable housing and make a profit, because the price of land is prohibitively high. Expensive land leads to expensive houses. In this upside-down system, the price paid for land ultimately dictates what gets built when it should be the other way round.
This theory is laid bare in the planning documents that sit behind the sites. In our research on the central government sell off, we’ve come across countless examples of developers securing planning permission with promises of affordable housing, only to wriggle out of their commitments a few months later by claiming they can’t afford to.
Take Runwell Hospital in Wickford. Chelmsford City Council’s affordable housing plan requires that 35% of homes on new developments are affordable. Yet the site’s initial planning permission required only 20% affordable housing provision. Even so, the developer later submitted an application to reduce this further to just 10% on the grounds of affordability – just 61 of 575 homes.
Our research in 2017 revealed that:
Only one is five of the new homes to be built on sold-off public land is likely to be classed as ‘affordable’ (which, at 80% of market rates, is still largely unaffordable to those who need it most).
As little as 6% of new homes are likely to be social housing, and in some cases developments comprise solely of luxury properties.
New homes on formerly public land are dramatically behind schedule. At the current rate, the government’s target of building 160,000 homes will take until 2032 to achieve, 12 years later than promised.
Releasing land into the private market is not delivering the quantity or quality of affordable homes we need. As more land is sold, there is less opportunity to reverse these trends.
The sell-off of public land for hole-plugging cash receipts is not only economically short-sighted and unsustainable, it’s also driving the housing crisis. There is a clear tension between disposing of land to plug funding gaps and developing high-quality, genuinely and permanently affordable housing and other infrastructure. This year we are continuing to get to grips with the effect of the public land sale on the housing crisis. First up is a close look at NHS sites sold in the last year, then in the coming months we will be bringing together central government and local authority land sales to get a truly national picture of the sell-off. Only then can we build a picture of an alternative to the fire sale of public land, that results in the supply of genuinely affordable homes.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/housing-crisis-public-land_uk_5c811055e4b0a135b5199d5d
East Devon’s shoddy new housing: EDDC acts too late and too little
“Concerns about poor standards of house-building by big developers in East Devon have been raised by councillors in a strongly-worded letter to the Government.
East Devon District Council has written asking housing minister Kit Malthouse to fulfil the Government’s pledge, announced in February 2018, to introduce a simpler system for making complaints against shoddy builders.
The proposal to write the letter was unanimously supported by councillors during a meeting on Wednesday, February 27, when the problems facing many East Devon residents were discussed.
In February 2018 the Government said it would introduce ‘as a priority’ a new property ombudsman to streamline complaints against shoddy builders.
But the Liberal Democrat councillor for Axminster Town, Douglas Hull, told the full council meeting the situation with new house-building in the district seemed to be getting worse, with many people buying new homes which turned out to be of a second-rate standard.
He proposed that ‘we call on the Government to fulfil its pledge to provide this much-needed remedy for homeowners, as a matter of the highest priority’.
The motion was seconded by fellow Liberal Democrat Eleanor Rylance, representing Broadclyst. She said tenants of new-build properties were suffering from sub-standard housing, and were worried about complaining to their landlords for fear of losing their tenancy. She added that, even when complaints were made, issues remained unresolved.
The letter to the housing minister, signed by the council’s chief executive Mark Williams, says: “I think there is now a general view that quality of construction come a very poor second to the pursuit of profit by volume housebuilders. We have know for some time about the failures, both locally and nationally, of the NHBC (National House Building Council) and the House Builders Federation to ensure that all new homes are consistently built to a standard that people buying them can have full confidence in.”
Mr Williams’s letter quotes the motion agreed by the council, and asks Mr Malthouse to ‘let me know what the Government’s intentions are in terms of introducing the promised ombudsman for hard-pressed new home owners’.
A spokesperson for East Devon District Council said there has not yet been a response to the letter.
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/housing-minister-urged-to-act-on-poor-house-builders-1-5953911
EDDC now wants Government to pay for a town centre at Cranbrook
Owl is confused. Don’t you include a town centre in initial “new town” plans – and pay for it with developer contributions? Otherwise, it isn’t a “new town”!
“The government is being urged to extend its £675m Future High Streets Fund to also help create and improve town centres in new towns.
East Devon District Council and Cranbrook Town Council have written to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Jake Berry MP, to request eligibility criteria for the Fund be changed to include new towns.
At a meeting of East Devon District Council’s cabinet earlier this month, they selected Axminster as the town to put forward to try and grab a share of a £675m fund. ..,”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/allow-new-towns-like-cranbrook-2672297
Spare a thought for Cranbrook residents – tied to E.on for EIGHTY years
Cranbrook has a “district heating” system whereby residents are supplied from only one source owned by E.on and everyone in that system is licked in to E.in as their supplier”
“… E.on has an 80-year contract to supply Cranbrook, a new town in East Devon.
Once they’ve bought into a development, residents are locked into a monopoly. They are not allowed to fit solar panels or heat source pumps and, whether or not they use their heating, remain liable for often large standing charges which include maintenance and repair of the infrastructure. …”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/05/district-heating-fuel-bill-regulation
Now Cranbrook residents are forced to take their energy from one of the least popular suppliers:
“Eon, one of the Big Six energy suppliers, is losing customers at an ‘alarming rate’, a new report claims.
Of customers that switched provider last month, 21.65 per cent did so from Eon. On the flipside, just 7.07 per cent switched to it.
This is a net swing of 14.58 per cent, a snapshot of customer switching habits from Compare the Market shows. ..
Seaton Lib Dem Councillor ‘censors’ councillor publicising bus consultation
Astounding that something as neutral (and important) as a consultation on changes to major bus routes to and from Seaton should be censored. And even a pitiful and low-bar excuse of a ‘political post’ (assuming that is the reason) doesn’t hold water as Councillor Shaw is not up for re-election until 2022!
Councillor Burrows, in the other hand, IS up for re-election on 2 May 2019 – even though he had to resign as Mayor, admitted that he had brought the town council into disrepute AND was censured by EDDC – if the Lib Dems can’t find a better candidate! If they can’t, it really doesn’t say much for the quality of their current membership in Seaton!
From the blog of Seaton and Colyton East Devon Alliance DCC Councillor Martin Shaw:
“Seaton EDDC and town councillor Peter Burrows (pictured in his Facebook logo with the late Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown) resigned as mayor in January after self-confessedly ‘bringing the town council into disrepute’ after abusing a ‘Tourist Information Centre’ Twitter account to pursue a personal grudge.
Now, in the very week in which East Devon’s Monitoring Officer has formally censured him on four counts, Burrows and his co-administrator, Tony Antoniou, have abused their positions as admins on a community Facebook group to remove me from the group, as I found when I tried to post details of the Stagecoach bus consultation to the group, to which I’ve belonged for years. No warning was given and neither has responded to requests for an explanation.
This example of arbitrary censorship raises two fingers to Town Council recommendations – in response to Burrows’ January actions and expected to be adopted in two weeks’ time – that councillors should ‘behave responsibly, considerately and professionally’ on social media and should NOT be Facebook admins.
It is laughable for Burrows to call himself a Liberal Democrat. This self-appointed Town Censor has no respect for the idea that a community Facebook group – the group in question is called Positive Development for Everyone in Seaton and was set up after a community meeting – should be open to a County Councillor to post important local information, and indeed for members to express views different from the admins’.
There is a long history of Burrows arbitrarily removing people and posts from different Facebook groups. I have considerable respect for the Liberal Democrats – their members on the County Council are fine councillors and I work with them closely – but Burrows is bringing his party into disrepute. I am reporting him to their regional organisation for his latest antics.”
East Devon Watch 