Here’s a taster, from iEDA Chair Paul Arnott, on the theme of ‘EDDC and Tower Hamlets compared’: see Paul’s ‘video intro’ at http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/candidates/coly-valley/paul-arnott/
P.S. Lots more video introductions now available for other candidates, on the same website. And more in the pipeline…
In 1993, the electorate were fed up of “same old” and all over the area the old guard of dinosaurs were trounced:
In Cornwall the Liberal Democrats won 13 extra seats to take control by three seats. Independents, who traditionally dominated the council, lost four seats, leaving them with 21.
In the early hours of Friday the Liberal Democrats also looked as if they would take control of Devon but finished two seats short of an overall majority. The number of Conservative held seats slumped from 55 to 18, making it the third party behind Labour.
Liberal Democrats gained 29 seats and Labour did well in both Plymouth and Exeter.
The biggest surprise in Cornwall was in Liskeard, where the Honourable Robert Eliot, the county’s Masonic leader, lost his seat after representing the town for 16 years. The county’s Conservatives will now have to find a new deputy leader.
http://www.lgcplus.com/west-country-establishment-swept-away/1658279.article
Many will remember Ted Pinney, who ran East Devon District Council Council and Chairman of Devon County Council with an iron hand whilst simultaneously running his Sidmouth construction company ……
And note Stuart Hughes was an Independent then, though originally a Monster Raving Loony and most recently a Conservative and now:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/04/24/when-is-a-tory-not-a-tory/
now it’s anyone’s guess – a real chameleon!
It’t time – again – for change. Vote for REAL Independents
eastdevonalliance.org.uk
No pussyfooting or being nice to developers here!
and is not impressed. Fortunately, he isn’t the Returning Officer for South Somerset where things seem to be runnung more smoothly – so far!
http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/east-devon-one-man-three-jobs-what-can.html
But remember that “affordable” means 90% of market rent.
Why not a Community Land Teust for 100% affordable housing for lical people as has been done in other areas. And what about self-builds?
And surely these political decisions did not take place behind closed doirs during the Purdah period?
And it will be SO interesting to see which housebuilder they pair with!
But still the old guard at EDDC totally ignore it (except at election time when they lead out Councillor Kerridge for one of her very rare appearances to flog the dead horse of water-based transport or if it involves ex East Devon Business Forum members who are coincidentally housing developers):
No compromise: pay higher charges for a full service or leave your sheltered accommodation:
We have to hope that compassion will return to EDDC after the elections on 7 May 2015.
For those of you (like us) who enjoy this sort of thing, here is the 200 page judgment on the corruption and abuse of power that took place in Tower Hamlets recently. In parts it reads like a fiction thriller – if only it were.
This has led to the Electoral Commission promising to have a good hard look at the processes of dealing with corruption in local authorities, and not before time:
In particular, it shows that the whole process of postal voting is very open to abuse and needs to be strengthened.
Though, presumably, he has already committed this to memory:
“Planning and organisation: Local government elections in England and Wales: Guidance for Returning Officers”
Postal vote issue and opening staff
2.34 You should identify staffing requirements for your postal vote issuing and opening sessions. The following staff may be required:
specially trained supervisory staff
clerical staff
IT staff
2.35 Your decision on whether to do a combined or separate issue of postal votes may have an impact on the number of staff required for the issuing (if this is to be done in-house) and opening of postal votes, and you will need to plan for this accordingly.
2.38 Even if you decide to outsource all or part of the postal vote issuing process you should designate a member of the project team to monitor outsourced work and the work of the contractor, and specifically to attend those parts of the issuing process that have been contracted out. This person should monitor the work of the contractor, which should include carrying out tasks such as spot checks to ensure that the postal ballot packs are being correctly collated and that those postal votes that need to go overseas are being prioritised. Further guidance on managing contractors and suppliers can be found in Section 4, below.
Postal vote issue and opening staff
3.14 You should make arrangements for the briefing of all postal vote issue and opening staff. Briefings on the particular procedures to be followed may be provided to postal vote issue and opening staff immediately prior to commencement of the issuing or opening processes. All staff should, however, be provided with guidance notes in advance.
3.15 Also, you should consider training supervisory staff a day or two in advance of the issuing or opening session so that they are fully aware of their duties and what will be expected of them.
3.16 Whether you are issuing in-house or have contracted out the issuing of postal votes, you should ensure that supervisory staff are appropriately trained to carry out the required quality assurance checks.
3.17 Supervisory staff at postal vote openings should be trained to ensure that the opening procedures and the verification process are correctly followed and an audit trail is maintained.
Click to access LGEW-MAY-RO-Part-B-Planning-and-Organisation.pdf
This story was broken by East Devon Watch.
We can find lists for Mid-Devon
Click to access polling-station-list.pdf
and Exeter
http://www.exeter.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=15946&p=0
but none for East Devon
Well, quite a determined, well-qualified and varied team, judging from their VIDEO INTRODUCTIONS, (14 available now…and more in the pipeline) on the Candidates’ pages on http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk
Seems a dialogue with the East Devon public has started in earnest, at last!
That’s clearly the style of the IEDA candidate for the Exe Valley, who’s set up a new twitter account: Erin Whitcroft@ExeValleyVoice
… has still not been published, but in the meantime, this decision on Information Commissioner v Cardiff City Council is very pertinent and could be the case law or basis of future Freedom of Information requests about council-owned buildings and a council’s refusal to provide timely information.
Indeed, the final paragraph of this case states:
62. We have concerns about the way this appeal has been pursued by the Council, and its merit. The Tribunal is considering making an order for costs against the Council under rule 10(1) of the GRC’s Rules of Procedure 2009 because it would appear the Council has acted unreasonably in bringing these proceedings. We wish to provide the Council with the opportunity to make written representations as to why we should not make such an order and as to the amount of costs or expenses to be paid, if such an order is made, within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision. We would also invite the Commissioner to make any representations he wishes to make in relation to an order for costs and the amount of costs and expenses under rule 10(6), again within 35 calendar days of this decision.
Click to access City%20of%20Cardiff%20Council,%20EA-2014-0309.pdf
Wouldn’t you think with a situation as serious as this (postal voting information wrong and all postal voters in East Devon being contacted to re-cast their postal votes if necessary see below for stories) there would be press releases and high-profile information on the East Devon District Council website?
Not a bit of it – nothing so far in local, regional or national newspapers either by press release or news items.
“Red telephone boxes, sunlit Beefeater parades, smiling royals: London’s postcards can be misleading. South London artist Gram Hilleard has created a series of postcards showing the city as he sees it: grey skies, soulless skyscrapers and boarded-up shops. The series, entitled Developers Up Yours, attacks the capital’s rapid gentrification. “My family’s been in this area of London for the last 200 years,” says Hilleard, “but now the indigenous Londoners have been moved out. The city is so overwhelmed by money that Londoners themselves don’t count any more.” The postcards are at the Offsite gallery, London WC1, until 31 May.”
Here’s a taster:
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/New-Ikea-set-open-late-2016/story-26392411-detail/story.html
Surely an Environmental Impact Assessment was needed and these things were spotted? A site such as this with the Estuary close by would have had one wouldn’t it ……
After all, EDDc does know what its doing and protects the environment doesn’t it?
Aah, spotted the flaw …..
The explanation:
“All the District Elections and Town/Parish Council elections are administered by the Returning Officer for the relevant Constituency up until after the Constituency votes have been separated from the District and Town/Parish votes and the number of votes cast and spoilt papers, etc. has been reconciled with the Polling Station or postal voting accounts. At that point, the District and Town/Council votes are re-sealed into ballot boxes and transported to the relevant District Council on Friday 8th May for counting by the Returning Officer (Mark Williams) for the East Devon District Council.
So the postal voting instructions for East Devon Constituency were prepared by Mark Williams. The postal voting instructions for Tiverton and Honiton were prepared by Mid Devon Returning Officer and the postal voting instructions for Central Devon Constituency were prepared by West Devon Returning Officer.
So, it seems only Mark Williams (who has been the Returning Officer for East Devon for at least 9 years and maybe longer) made mistakes in the postal voting instructions. Therefore, the correction letter is only going to the multi-seat wards within the East Devon Constituency.
Mr Williams has presumably been the Returning Officer since he started at East Devon District Council – we are not sure how long he has been CEO and Returning Officer but we have traced it back to at least 2006!
From a correspondent:
“This is news hot from the East Devon election workers at the Knowle (today Sunday!).
They say they have had dozens of phone calls about the discrepancy between the “Instructions for voting by post” (i.e. vote ONCE only on Green ballot paper) and the Green ballot paper itself (where the instruction is to vote for the number of votes according to the number of seats).
The election worker at the Knowle is contacting all the people who left messages about the discrepancy in the instructions, to say the following action is being taken urgently:
1. A letter is being sent to all postal voters in the East Devon Constituency (NOT the Tiverton and Honiton or the Central Devon Constituencies).
2. The letter will explain that votes should be cast according to the instructions on the Green ballot paper, not according to the written “Instructions for voting by post”
3. If a person has already voted not in accordance with the instructions on the Green ballot paper, they should call Knowle and request a new ballot paper to be issued, which will be substituted for their vote already returned.”
Will the head of the instigator of this cock-up have to roll? It belongs to CEO of East Devon District Council (and Returning Officer) Mark Williams, so who knows? He got off scot-free after his appearance before the Parliamentary Commission on Voter Engagement last December where he was heavily criticised and singled out in their report for failing to do enough to register missing voters, so maybe the Teflon coating will remain – especially if the “same olds” remain in power at EDDC.
What will now happen if some people who had followed the instructions on the WHITE (wrong) paper do not cast new votes on the GREEN (correct) paper and the seat can only be decided by a handful of votes fewer than the number of incorrect postal votes for that ward?
NB: seeking clarification as to why workers state remediation letters are going out only to the “East Devon Constituency” as East Devon District Council covers THREE Parliamentary constituencies – East Devon (currently Swire), Tiverton and Honiton (currently Parish) and Mid-Devon (currently Stride). It seems unlikely that wrong instructions went out only to the “East Devon constituency” when the district elections are not governed by Parliamentary Constituency boundaries but by Local Authority boundaries which are very different.
Now, if incorrect voting instructions are confined only to the East Devon Parliamentary Constituency, that would need some explaining as separate instructions would have been produced for different areas of East Devon!
Anyone who’s been to the new town of Cranbrook lately, will be interested in this link: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/where-we-live-now-new-town-home-town.html
Was it Churchill who once said, we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us…
East Devon Watch 