Well, it is the silly season:
Category Archives: Misc
Don’t miss the chance to enter the East Devon Photo Competition!
Please send in entries by this Friday! Details below:
Photo competition
This book (front cover shown above) is being created for publication in December 2014, in support of the East Devon Alliance. There is a competition for original photos to be included in it (See http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/05/25/launch-of-photo-competition-for-new-book-on-east-devon/
Precise information about the photo competition is given here: PHOTOGRAPHY appeal details
Please submit images before 15th August 2014, to photocompetition@mtapublications.co.uk
Lies, damned lies – and employment statistics
Under the headline “Sharp drop in unemployment in Cornwall and Devon in the last year” we have the following remarks:
“Some 15,020 people were on the dole in the two counties in July, 7,805 people fewer than the same month last summer, according to the Office for National Statistics.”
Followed later in the article by:
“The wider measure of unemployment in the greater South West – which records all those out-of-work, not just on JSA – increased by 10,000 in the three months to June. It was the largest jump of any UK region.”
Pays your money, takes your choice!
Argos director appointed new Chairman of Planning Inspectorate
2 days a month for £20,000 a year:
“Sara has considerable experience from her executive and non-executive career to date that is directly relevant to the Inspectorate and its strategic goals. She has an extensive background leading successful, customer focused, private sector organisations, culminating in 7 years as Managing Director of Argos, where she led the expansion of the company’s business on the high street and online. She now holds a number of directorships across the private and public sector, including being on the Board at Lloyds Banking Group and United Utilities.
Sara is also the Lead Non-Executive Director at the Department of Communities and Local Government. This gives her an excellent understanding of the context in which the Inspectorate operates.
The Planning Inspectorate’s Chief Executive, Simon Ridley, said: “I’m delighted that Sara Weller has agreed to join the Inspectorate as its first ever independent Chairman of the Board. Sara brings a wealth of relevant experience to our organization. Having an independent Chairman provides an important line of separation between my role as Chief Executive, in which I am accountable to DCLG, and independent support and challenge to our strategic direction.”
One has to wonder how independent she can be given that she also works for the Department of Communities and Local Government … and puts “economic growth” as her main priority.
If you want to return to freedom for the public to speak at council meetings …
… it may be that you should consider standing as an Independent or other minority group candidate as it seems highly unlikely that a new council made up of the same people (who were described as MPs as “pale, male and stale”) would ever agree to a return to people being given a full opportunity to speak without having to jump first through several red tape hoops and thereafter to take part in a lottery for the ability to make their views known.
Fracking to be allowed in AONBs, National Parks and World Heritage sites as long as it is done “sensitively”!
Drilling wells disguised as trees? Lorries disguised as dragon flies? Has anyone seen a sensitively-located coal mine or a sensitively-located car plant?
Full story HERE
… About half the UK is open for licensing, including parts of National Parks. But applications there will only be accepted in “exceptional circumstances and in the public interest”, said the government. The same rules apply for the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites. …
Unfortunately, we are in a district where our council refused to consider the creation of a new national park alongside Dorset as it meant they would lose control of planning.
Also interesting how organisations like the National Trust have interpreted it as a safeguard and not what it is: a loophole. Councils will use “economic growth” as the reason to allow it – rather like the NPPF uses the word to justify housing on AONBs and Green Belts.
If the Coalition had NOT wanted fracking in these areas, they would have explicitly banned it.
Would Sir John Betjeman have joined EDA?
From the poem, The Executive, by Sir John Betjeman
… I do some mild developing. The sort of place I need
Is a quiet country market town that’s rather run to seed
A luncheon and a drink or two, a little savoir faire,
I fix the Planning Officer, the Town Clerk and the Mayor.
And if some Preservationist attempts to interfere
A ‘dangerous structure’ notice from the Borough Engineer
Will settle any buildings that are standing in our way –
The modern style, sir, with respect, has really come to stay.
Sir John Betjeman
Click to access sir_john_betjeman_2004_9.pdf
Though, when he read it out aloud in 1975, as seen on this You Tube clip, the last line of the first quoted verse is “I nobble half the council, the banks, town clerk and Mayor” …!
Further comment from Paul Arnott on post below re EDDC, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and disgraced ex-Councillor Brown
Paul Arnott here. I requested this FoI disclosure, and thank the police for their response, made on the twentieth day of the 20 allowed them in law.
I would also like to make clear that this matter ought to be cleared up quickly and if anyone is hanging under an unjust cloud their good name ought to be restored.
That said, what was most noteworthy in the police reply was the confirmation that although the Monitoring Officer made a minuted pledge to provide a joint statement on the status of any investigation absolutely none was ever made, or, it seems, attempted. (I put in an identical FoI to EDDC on this “joint statement” issue. They have two and a half hours to meet their own legal obligation to respond within 20 days)
Did anyone think this could all drift for eighteen months in silence? Did the Monitoring Officer’s boss, or the Leader, or the Cabinet, not wonder about this?
Last night, Cllr Susie Bond asked a number of clear questions about the status of this investigation. The line from the top desk was, the police haven’t told us anything … and, er ….
The other interesting detail in the police reply is about the inital, risible call to the Action Fraud hotline, which it is now confirmed by police was followed up by an EDDC call to local police, and the eventual passing of the file to a former policeman, now the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary’s Senior Fraud Investigator.
What we don’t know is if any actual complaint was ever made, or by whom, or whether there is a vital “crime number”, or whether this investigation has even been entered as an investigation in the Devon and Cornwall Police Public Sector Corruption Register – as should be the course.
Ultimately, a year and a half on, this guarded Freedom of Information response is all we have from our regional police force, of a piece with last night’s three wise monkeys routine from East Devon Council.
What we do know is that this is NOT sub judice., but to deduce that you have to read between the lines. A simple “No it isn’t” would have covererd it.
Don’t know really. Is that the cheese in my fridge going off in the hot weather, or is this growing whiff coming from somewhere else?
Boles moved in Cabinet reshuffle
Can we hope for a better replacement? PLEASE!
Nick Boles (moved)
Nick Boles has been appointed as minister of state at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education. David Cameron said part of his brief will be equal marriage implementation.
“Jurassica” £60 million competitor for £4 million Seaton Visitor Centre?
EDDC Councillors strongly divided on changes to public speaking
See recent voting record noted at https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/warning-full-council-on-23-july-is-when-changes-to-public-speaking-may-be-approved/
One particularly assiduous District Councillor has found that overall public question time takes up very little of the Council’s planning meetings (average of 4.5 minutes per meeting over the past year).The problem of overlong meetings clearly lies elsewhere.
If you missed our earlier post, here’s the link: http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/07/13/curtailment-of-public-right-to-speak-at-eddc-meetings-your-chance-to-stop-this/ .
To view a copy of an EDA member’s letter sent to his local councillors, see http://saveoursidmouth.com/2014/07/14/letter-to-councillors-re-decision-to-be-made-at-full-council-23rd-july-on-new-rules-for-public-speaking/
Insult to injury?
This is the picture and headline that EDDC has used on its latest e-magazine to the general public:
As most will recognise, this is a picture of the Knowle with the title “East Devon – an Outstanding Place”
Well, they couldn’t use a picture of Skypark for that we suppose!
Local government and transparency: the rules
In advance of the controversial meeting of EDDC that will attempt to curtail public speaking, and bearing in mind the increasing secrecy in which decisions are being made at EDDC, it is perhaps timely to remind everyone of the requirements that councils must adhere to in these circumstances:
Click to access Your_councils_cabinet_-_going_to_its_meetings_seeing_how_it_works.pdf
and to note this comment from that document:
It is a criminal offence if, without a reasonable excuse, a person who has in his or her custody a document10, which the national rules require to be made available to the public, refuses to supply the whole or part of the document or intentionally obstructs any other person/s from disclosing such a document.
If a person is found guilty of such a criminal offence, he/she can be fined up to £200.
Scrutiny – the reality: officers answer on Chair’s behalf without telling her!
“THE woman chosen by councillors to scrutinise their decision-making processes has complained she felt “undermined” in her role.
Cllr Jenny Roach, who represents Silverton told a meeting of Mid Devon District Council said she had been shocked to find that questions asked by another councillor last month had been answered on her behalf by council officers without the courtesy of the responses being sent to her first.
The council leadership said to try to improve the “smooth running” of council business, officers would regularly answer technical questions which elected chairs of committees were unable to answer themselves.
Cllr Roach told members: “As chairman of the scrutiny committee, I have felt several times I have been undermined. I didn’t expect to answer the question myself but I did expect that the answer would be run past me before it was sent out in my name.
“The scrutiny committee is a very important role, sadly I have felt undermined and alone. This sort of situation should not be happening in a democratic and well-run council. ” Cllr Linda Holloway said she was shocked that question to a chair of a committee could be answered without the response going through the chair of that committee. “What else do our briefing papers say that isn’t true?”, she queried.
Cllr Mel Lucas who chairs the council managing the environment policy development group said the way Cllr Roach had been treated reflected poorly on the council. He said: “I am annoyed and dismayed at the conduct of this council I have seen in the last few years a great deterioration in our conduct. This is possibly the last straw. People should not put down answers to questions without even having the courtesy to let the person they are answering for see it first.”
Council chief executive Kevin Finan said the scrutiny had a wide remit and could be asked questions on a wide range of subjects. He said there were tight deadlines in which to respond to questions and committee chairs had to rely on officers for information.
He said; “We are only trying to help the smooth running of the council by answering the questions put to us.
The scrutiny committee exists to consider and review issues relating to the council’s policies and service delivery and can “call-in” decisions made by the council cabinet for further examination. The questions which had been answered without Cllr Roach’s knowledge were raised by Cllr David Pugsley and related to the version of the council’s constitution available to view on the website.
Cllr Pugsley did not attend the meeting of the full council held on Wednesday, July 2 in Tiverton Town Hall, but he did put forward a motion that the council abandon its decision to adopt a ‘strong leader’ governance model which he believed was undemocratic.
Cllr Mary Turner said she did not believe Cllr Pugsley had “chickened out” of presenting his motion to the meeting, reasoning that he liked “stirring things up”.
Cllr John Berry who chaired the meeting said Cllr Purgsley had had not one but two opportunities to discuss this motion but not attended the meetings in question, and he accused him of “bringing the council into disrepute”.
The motion was brought forward in Cllr Pugsley absence but was defeated.
£200m available to south-west businesses
Thousands in the south-west classed as in deprivation
How many beans make 5? In Budleigh – think of a number, any number, except 5!
Budleigh population exceeds that of Sidmouth – Official!
Because of funding cuts imposed by central government a two tier system is being proposed for Devon Libraries. Medium and larger libraries will upgraded to become “Devon Centres” while smaller and less well-used will have to be run by the community, if they are to remain open at all. To separate the well-used from the less well-used, County Hall policy makers are using some very dubious numerical analysis which has been exposed in a letter from an alert Budleigh resident published in this week’s Journal.
Budleigh always thought its library was one of the most heavily used in the county for its size. It has 2,400 borrowers in a town of around 5,000 (48% active borrowers). In comparison Sidmouth has just under 4,000 borrowers for a population around 13,000 (only 31% active borrowers).
Yet in the hands of the bean counters Sidmouth comes near the top of the county pecking order in terms of utilisation rates with Budleigh relegated towards the bottom. The reason is that DCC statistics are calculated on an interesting definition of the catchment area for each library. These are not based straightforwardly on the population of the town in question, nor on the town plus its surrounding villages (which in the case of Budleigh might push its population up to 7,700).
The calculation is much more complicated, adding to the catchment area the population of the postcode of every borrower. So, if a book is borrowed from Budleigh Library by an Exmouth resident (because he or she prefers Budleigh’s poetry section, for example) then Budleigh’s catchment area is increased accordingly. The result is to raise Budleigh’s official catchment area to more than 18,000 (larger than Sidmouth’s) simultaneously reducing its utilisation rating from 48% to a mere 13%!
Budleigh Library seems to have become a victim of its popularity and theand the Mayor, Caz Sismore-Hunt, is quoted as saying “I don’t think using those figures is fair”. We agree.
The message to officials, and councillors for that matter, is that the East Devon Alliance has a team of forensic bean counters always on the lookout to expose any misleading use of data!
It’s official: Planning officers DO make mistakes and should ‘fess up says EDDC CEO
Cabinet Minutes 4 June 2014:
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/cabinet_
….. In response to an issue raised, the Chief Executive advised that the planning team would be advised to consider complaints made more impartially (rather than defensively) and to recognise that approved plans could include inaccuracies that generated complaints.
Pot … kettle?
EDDC officer shake-up
Cabinet Minutes 4 June 2014:
Click to access cabinet_mins_040614.pdf
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest
Richard Cohen, Denise Lyon, Simon Davey, John Golding, Karen Jenkins, Rachel Pocock
these officers left the room when item 25 was discussed:
…..The proposed management restructure would achieve a flatter and leaner structure with 4 strategic leads assisting the Chief Executive and clearer accountability for service delivery being supported by its service leads. The savings that would be achieved from the restructure were included within the report.
RECOMMENDED that the proposed management structure be agreed and that delegated authority be given to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader to fully implement the proposals (this delegation to include the conclusion of consultations, any minor changes and consequential revisions).
REASON This proposal is designed to present a clear management structure which addresses current gaps and recognises the broader remits that staff have already taken on.
