Whilst they are possibly suspended the 13 or so officers will still be counted towards full staff even if they are not operational:
Category Archives: Misc
Officers rule OK!
The following article appeared in Private Eye:
“A surreal lesson in how democracy works – or doesn’t – from Herefordshire.
County councillors were unanimous earlier this month in reversing a cut imposed by the council’s cabinet in the provision of free school buses for hundreds of children across the county. Even the cabinet members voted against their earlier decision. Yet days later the council announced: “This… does not change the policy position for home to school transport set by cabinet in December, which will take effect in September 2014.”
Officers told gobsmacked councillors the cuts would go ahead without any further reference to them. They explained that under local government legislation the decision of the cabinet, once made could not be un-done.”
Even in parliament members can overturn a decision of the cabinet. Why can’t councils?
Prince of Wales asks tourists to donate to his charity
“A healthy democracy is a well-informed democracy”
Says Jeremy Paxman explaining, on the BBC 2 anniversary programme, why he asks straight questions even if he doesn’t usually get straight answers.
Best not to ask those questions at council meetings in East Devon, Jeremy!
Has the Local Plan Inspector lost his patience with EDDC?
Just one day after EDA asks: where is EDDC’s response to the Local Plan Inspector, it appears online dated that same day! Good job we reminded them!
And immediately Mr Thickett sends his reply (page 2 of the document is his speedy reply):
Is it our imagination or is Mr Thickett losing patience with EDDC? He seems to have needed to give them a “Local Plan Revision Class for Dummies” the gist of which appears to be (paraphrasing): pull your fingers out, do as you are told, provide a timetable – and if you think you can get away without consulting again: forget it:
EDDC cannot (will not) tell us which officers make which decisions
Several Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, on the secret meetings about EDDC relocation, have been made by Jeremy Woodward of Sidmouth (See links given below, to the whatdotheyknow website).
This is the latest mindblowing correspondence where EDDC says it does not note which officers deal with which decisions:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/appeal_against_ico_decision_re_e#followup
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/unredacted_minutes_and_reports_o#incoming-501069
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/appeal_against_ico_decision_re_e#followup
Jeremy has kindly provided this background summary:
‘ My first formal request for the full unredacted Minutes of all the ‘Relocation Working Parties’ was made to the District Council on 27th November 2012: It was turned down by Denise Lyon on 13th May 2013.
> I contacted the ICO asking for my complaint to be pursued on 19th May 2013. The ICO case officer decided on 10th March 2014 that the unredacted Minutes should not be released but that the full reports from consultants Davis Langdon should be made available.
> The ICO case officer said:
In reaching a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies in this case, the Commissioner has attached particular weight to the fact that no formal decision had been made at the time of the request, the need to avoid any impact on the decision making process by premature disclosure of the requested information, and the lack of compelling public interest arguments in favour of disclosure.
> EDDC decided to appeal against the ICO’s Decision Notice on 13th March – ie, to go against request from the ICO to release the full Davis Langdon reports.
> I have been advised by the ICO to contact the Tribunal which will be considering the EDDC appeal – that I should ‘join as a party to the appeal’ at the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights). However, I have been advised that the Tribunal is unlikely to meet before early August – which will be after the full EDDC Council have voted Yes to buy the land at SkyPark at their June meeting.
> It is my contention that, although my FOI request was made before a ‘formal decision had been made’ back in November 2012, a decision has clearly been made to relocate since then:
> 17th July 2013: District Council Cabinet:
EDDC Office Accommodation – key decision
RECOMMENDED
(1) that Council agree that the costs of maintaining, refurbishing or building new offices on the Knowle site are not sustainable and EDDC must therefore look at alternative locations for a new headquarters;
(2) that the Deputy Chief Executive – Development, Regeneration and Partnerships be given delegated authority to enter into formal conditional negotiations on the acquisition and/or development of a suitable site for EDDC’s new offices;
(3) that a future recommendation be made for consideration by Cabinet and determination by Council that EDDC relocate from the Knowle to a new location and premises subject to a satisfactory and financially viable proposition;
(8) that a New Office Project Executive Group be set up comprising selected Cabinet members, senior officers and Project Manager to oversee project progress;
(9) that wider engagement with members be sought through a Leader’s Think Tank on Relocation.
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/cabinet_mins_170713.pdf
> This was followed on 24th July 2013 by the full Council’s adoption of the resolution: that the Cabinet’s minutes be received and the recommendations approved.
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/council_mins_240713.pdf
It is clear from the minutes that the Cabinet is ‘determined’ to relocate; moreover, it has decided to enter into formal conditional negotiations on the acquisition and/or development of a suitable site. I would claim that this does indeed amount to a ‘formal decision’ to relocate.
Furthermore, to add to the difficulty of discovering which decisions have made and by whom, there has been a proliferation of further working parties: a New Office Project Executive Group and a Leader’s Think Tank on Relocation.
> 5th February 2014: District Council Cabinet:
The preferred option of Skypark was unanimously supported by the Cabinet.
New Office
(a) that the order of site preference advised in the report and the Office Accommodation Executive Group’s recommendation to decide between Clyst House, Winslade Park or Skypark be noted;
(b) that a preferred site and acquisition costs of Skypark- £986,000 (site) be recommended to Council and for detailed negotiation to begin. (Costs include Stamp Duty Land Tax but exclude VAT);
(c) that, subject to Council agreement, officers be instructed to take forward the agreed option under the continued guidance of the Executive Group, with key future decisions being subject to Cabinet and Council approval;
(d) that formal approval to proceed with the purchase be referred to Cabinet and Council – reports to this effect are anticipated for considered around July 2014;
(e) that, as an immediate action, a marketing exercise be conducted to engage developer interest (for a amount which was disclosed at the meeting) and ascertain the values and variety of proposals for development on the Knowle and Manstone Depot sites;
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/cabinet_mins_050214.pdf
> The District Council disagrees that a decision has been made:
Whilst Members have expressed a preference in terms of their preferred location, this in no way renders the project complete. The matters under discussion remain very much ‘live’.
Paragraph 31 of the decision notice makes clear that the project is unlikely to reach a conclusion until 2016.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/unredacted_minutes_and_reports_o#incoming-501069
> I would assert that, whilst the project is not ‘complete’, very clear decisions have been made: to relocate from Knowle [17th July 2013: District Council Cabinet] and to relocate to SkyPark [5th February 2014: District Council Cabinet]. This is not simply a matter of ‘expressing a preference’.
> I have made a further FOI request asking EDDC which Officers or Members took the decisions to refuse my original request and to appeal against the ICO’s decision:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/appeal_against_ico_decision_re_e#followup ‘
More fears over youth service cuts
Planning Wars
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t include councils like ours whose incompetence, foot dragging, omnishambles is why we don’t have a Local Plan:
http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/apr/14/planning-wars-strangle-new-housing
EDA Weekly News
After the disappointment at the preliminary findings of the Local Plan Inspector, and EDDC’s failure which leaves the district under threat from development for even longer, there was plenty of good news to cheer us all up this week.
Feniton celebrates as the Super Inquiry Inspector throws out 3 planning appeals totalling 200 homes – http://susiebond.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/appeal-decision-in-brief-feniton-super-inquiry/
Newton Poppleford residents are also hopeful, with the highly controversial King Alfred Way application now stalled, after their successful application for a Judicial Review – http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/more-errors-of-judgement-by-eddc-this-time-at-newton-poppleford/
300 Houses planned for Gittisham are currently on hold, as the DMC decided a site visit was essential, after being warned by EDDC’s solicitor that reasons for a refusal had to be defended at appeal -See post 03.04.2014, in monthly archives, on http://www.claire-wright.org
Last Wednesday, a vote on EDDC proposals to restrict public speaking at council meetings was postponed, and the matter referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee – https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/04/10/you-are-going-to-get-a-backlash-full-council-is-warned/
There is evidently some cross-party agreement that councils who have not managed to produce a local plan should be held to account by their residents – https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/04/13/tory-planning-minister-nick-boles-agrees-with-eddc-independent-councillor-roger-giles/
And last, but by no means least, Dame Helen Ghosh, Director General of the National Trust, in a rare move for such a high-profile civil servant, has also waded in to the debate about the adverse affects of the NPPF – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/10763789/Local-authorities-hustled-into-passing-greenfield-planning-permissions.html
strong>DIARY DATES
Sat 19th April – EDA Easter Event in the Strand in Exmouth from 10 am – 5.30 pm – Poster gives details:EDA Exmouth
Fri 16th May – EDA Annual General Meeting at Colyford Memorial Hall from 6.30 – 9.00 pm. Details to follow.
COMPETITIONS
East Devon Writers are running a competition for original stories, up to 500 words long, about events or places in East Devon to win the opportunity to get published in a forthcoming book. See poster for full details: Writing competition Poster (1)
EDA online photography competition – coming soon.
“Politics won’t be cleaned up with Dave, Nick and Ed holding the broom”
says Adam Boulton in today’s Sunday Times (page 27)
… The public is angry with politicians again … once again they look greedy, venal and out of touch … In May 2009, a year before he became prime minister, David Cameron promised radical reform to deal with political corruption. His speech in Milton Keynes foretold a “new politics” of democracy and transparency.
Five years on, he told the Commons that “firing someone at the first sign of trouble … that’s not leadership, that’s weakness”. As for transparency, don’t bother looking for the Milton Keynes speech on the Conservative website. It was expunged when Lynton Crosby took over the party’s communications.
As the prime minster and chancellor spelt out … they expect to be judged on their economic management. But the absence of reform, and the increased levels of toxicity in the body politic, will be one of the coalition’s lasting legacies.
… Cameron warned that “lobbying is the next big scandal waiting to happen”. In response, the government forced through a much-maligned Lobbying Act, which Labour has pledged to repeal. According to the Association of Professional Political Consultants, the act does not cover 99% of contacts between ministers and lobbyists.
… Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, has added her own dash of cold water, pronouncing that the slackness of Commons business means that it fails its own value-for-money standards.
… From energy companies to the press and welfare claimants to top earners, MPs lay down the law for the rest of us. If they are to win public respect they must first follow the proverb from the gospels: “Physician, heal thyself”.
Petition: stop MPs policing their own expenses
ALL MPs, all parties
Petition | Stop MPs policing their own expenses | Change.org
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/number10gov-david-cameron-stop-mps-policing-their-own-expenses
All council meetings that make any decisions affecting budgets MUST have a recorded vote – by law
This is how Trafford Council explains it – and, more importantly, how it was able to incorporate this law into its Standing Orders IMMEDIATELY.
The Regulations
2.1 The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 were passed last week. The Regulations make it mandatory for councils as soon as is practicable after the Regulations are in force, to amend their Standing Orders so as to include provisions requiring recorded votes at budget meetings.
2.2 This will require a recorded vote on any decision relating to the budget or council tax. The purpose of the Regulations is to allow people to see how members voted on the substantive budget motions agreeing the budget, setting council taxes or issuing precepts and also on any amendments proposed at the meeting.
2.3 The regulations will come in to force on 25 February 2014, which is after the proposed date of Trafford’s Budget Council meeting. However, it is the Minister’s expectation that councils will take a recorded vote
on these matters in any event and therefore it is recommended that we amend our Standing Orders to reflect the changes required by the Regulations from the 25 February 2014 and adopt the practice for this meeting.
Has EDDC done this? If so, ALL decisions about the Skypark move MUST be by recorded vote.
Power and how you use it
“David Camerson said that he and not the press should decide who is in his Cabinet. In doing so, he seems to forget that it is the people and not he who decide whether he should even have the right to form a Cabinet. …He failed to realise that it was the public – in opinion polls. letters to newspapers and online comments – who did not back his decision to retain Miller. This was not a press witch-hunt ; it was the people who brought Miller down”
Roy Greenslade, Evening Standard, page 36, 9 April 2104
Neighbourhood Plans – not a panacea but useful
Ottery St. Mary is thinking of setting aside obe-eighth of its precept (£20,000) to produce a neighbourhood plan. “This money is one eighth of the budget,” he said. “Would the neighbourhood plan have had any difference to the 300 houses planned for Ottery St Mary?”
Answer: no. Whilst there is no Local Plan and no 6 year land supply developers have the upper hand.
Once there is a Local Plan, that trumps everything including Neighbourhood Plans, so, at the moment a Neighbourhood Plan counts for nothing.
However, once there IS a Local Plan AND a 6 year land supply, any neighbourhood can then say what it wants to happen to any land not covered by the Local Plan.
It is certainly best if a council then puts together a Neighbourhood Plan because, if it does not, ANY group which has a connection to the area can take responsibility for preparing one, which could mean developers or Sainsbury’s or any other group with a tenuous connection to the area could put one together and might get it agreed.
However, East Devon District Council has the final say in whether a Neighbourhood Plan is acceptable to them – back to Square One! Also, no agreed Neighbourhood Plan has yet faced legal challenge so who is to say that it would carry the full force of planning law – there are many instances of challenges being successful in similar circumstances. Until enough case law is built up we can only hope that a well-researched, well-written Neighbourhood Plan with lots of robust evidence would meet these challenges.
So, an outlay of £20,000 might or might not protect Ottery from some inappropriate or unwanted development so perhaps on balance better to try than not!
Warwickshire County Council makes dawn raid on district councils on unity bid
Today Warwickshire, tomorrow Devon?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-26812512
That would put the wind up a good few local councillors!
And it is only going to get worse says climate change report
The climate change report prepared for the United Nations makes grim reading. For those of us in this area the particular issues are the loss of Grade 1 agricultural land, because much less land is going to be available for us to grow the crops we have been used to, particularly wheat, and flooding – more of it more often.
See a summary of the report here:
“Mafia- style behaviour in the planning system,” says National Trust
A furious Sir Simon Jenkins believes ” the housing problems of Britain will not be solved in the countryside” . This Daily Telegraph report explains his good reasons : http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fearth%2Fhands-off-our-land%2F10730643%2FMafia-style-behaviour-in-the-planning-system-is-traumatising-villages-suggests-Sir-Simon-Jenkins.html&ei=60A5U77NF8ix0AWMyYGoAw&usg=AFQjCNF1FHvnBVNjFNNxgUjVmJimEkMOug&bvm=bv.63808443,d.d2k
East Devon is the developer’s first choice in southern Devon!
According to a local researcher:
The Friday quiz
What geographical area is being described here?
“Our rulers need to understand democracy is not solely about getting a majority of votes in the ballot box … Far beyond that, democracy is a culture of inclusiveness, openness, human rights and freedom of speech, for each and every one, regardless of whichever party they voted for. It is the realisation of the very core of democracy that has been sorely lacking in [this place] today”.
No, not East Devon – Turkey – but it could just as well apply here. Citizens denied a voice at committees, particularly a voice at planning committees, where committees (particularly the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and its Task and Finish group on the East Devon Business Foru,, all of us who are not the favoured few apparently denied a voice before the all-powerful Executive and the Executive in thrall to its Leader and the CEO.
