Definition of sovereign in Oxford English dictionary:
NOUN
“supreme ruler”, especially a monarch: as in:
the Emperor became the first Japanese sovereign to visit Britain
Emperor Diviani … hmm … perhaps we shall soon see him in a toga with a laurel-leaf crown.
But beware the Ides of … May 2015!
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sovereign
It appears that all members staff of the University of Exeter were informed of the joint agreement on Exeter City Council, Teignbridge and East Devon working together at the same time that EDDC councillors who had been kept in the dark were told.
If you were an EDDC councillor, not in with the top boys and girls, would you be somewhat annoyed? But will the non- whipped majority party be able to keep a lid on such annoyance?
Time to choose: Leader and his message and his coterie or community, your own voice and service!
“Buck of the Millenium” awards go to:
Leader Paul Diviani – Leader, that’s a clue! He led his fellow-councillors up the Skypark creek and dropped them in their supermarket boat without paddles.
To the members of the Relocation Working Party for … well for nothing- wasting public money perhaps? Councillors Bloxham, Buxton, Cox, Diviani (of course), Elson, Gazzard, Hull, Moulding, Newth, Stott and Twiss. Particular mention here for Councillor Newth who, as a Sidmouth councillor, allowed the Knowle and all its employees to slip away on her watch.
Special mentions must go to the Chief Executive Mark Williams and particularly to the Deputy Chief Executive Richard Cohen who managed to make the whole process so secret that no checks and balances could take place, let alone consultation. It is possible that the fatal flaws would have been spotted much earlier had they been in the public domain so why … .
And, last but definitely not least, let us not forget “embedded” Relocation Manager Steve Pratten, hired out from Davis Langdon for a huge fee to provide us with …. er … pass.
To all these we would really like to say ….. goodbye.
A statistic: the amount of money spent on this failed project would have paid a good part of the upgrade costs of the Knowle.
It appears most EDDC councillors of all political persuasions were not aware of the signing of the agreement for joint working between East Devon, Teignbridge and Exeter.
Those councillors may wish to reflect on Mr Diviani’s acceptance speech when he was made Leader:
“Whilst the election results speak for themselves, we need to enable better lines of communication. The cynical view of the last Government – decide, consult, do it all anyway – is not my approach. Obviously, we won’t all agree on everything but my path is one of consensus and inclusivity.”
Whoops.
Why does (Un)Beloved Leader Paul Diviani have an 0845 telephone number – 0845 3285788
Is it cheaper or more expensive for us to call him than a Blackdown Hills 01404 number?
https://new.devon.gov.uk/democracy/councillor/paul-diviani/
http://www.payhembury.org.uk/important-information/
http://www.tivertonhonitonconservatives.co.uk/person/honiton-st-pauls-cllr-paul-diviani
According to this Wikipedia article :
“0845 numbers offer the called-party the chance to collect a premium of up to 2 pence per minute. Only a very few fixed line telephone companies include 0845 numbers in bundled call allowances, in which case the onwards revenue share payment is subsidised by the Originating phone company.”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-geographic_telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom
and see this article:
Costly calls aren’t right – why TSB has ditched 0845 numbers
(April 2014)
http://conversation.which.co.uk/money/tsb-costly-calls-03-0845-win-paul-pester/
and here is the “Which” magazine campaign
… “The companies that use 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 phone numbers can theoretically share the revenue from each call with the phone service operator – Virgin Media or Orange, for example – so the longer you stay on the line, the more the companies earn. ”
East Devon Watch 