Category Archives: Transparency
Not-so-secret secret meetings – and the very secret Asset Management Forum
Those of you who are as eagle eyed as the Owl may have spotted that EDDC have now started publishing the agendas and minutes for some of its less well known meetings such as:
- the Tree Task and Finish Forum (TaFF), of which Claire Wright was previously a member and prime mover;
- the Arts and Culture TaFF, a pet project of Paul Diviani and his partner (and co-councillor) John O’Leary, which has spent a lot of money on our behalf on the Thelma Hubert Gallery in Honiton;
- the Grounds Maintenance TaFF (yawn);
- the Garage Management TaFF (from 2012 – double yawn)
etc.
But just in case EDDC decide to crow about this being an example of how they have decided out of the goodness of their hearts to voluntarily be more transparent, we should mention that:
- EDDC are actually doing this because of the persistence of a local resident and East Devon Alliance member who has complained to the information Commissioner that EDDC are not publishing what ALL councils are already required to publish (i.e. agendas, reports and minutes of all standing forum meetings – see Definition document for principal local Authorities page 7); and
- EDDC has still to publish the papers for perhaps the most important of their secretive meetings, the Asset Management Forum.
EDA members and councillors are continuing to fight to have EDDC be fully transparent, so we can all see the full set of documents behind their more controversial decisions.
Anyone got £30 to spare for a good cause?
Sidmothian Jeremy Woodward (who began the Freedom if Information process that East Devon District Council lost in court about secret relocation meetings and papers) is, as of this moment, only £30 away from raising the £660 needed to begin another challenge to EDDC.
This time it is about appropriation of Knowle parkland to enable developers of luxury retirement homes to have a larger outside space.
https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/save-knowle-parkland/
Anyone who thinks this is a good cause is urged to donate the remaining amount. As mentioned before – this is NOT just about Sidmouth. This is about EDDC favouring developers over its own citizens and could happen anywhere in the district where EDDC own land.
The myth of “transparency”
“The manufacturers of controversial pesticides took part in a key meeting on whether a Europe-wide ban on their chemicals should be lifted in the UK, according to newly published documents. The record of the meeting of the UK government’s expert committee on pesticides (ECP) had previously been suppressed.
Neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used insecticide, have been linked to serious harm in bees, including a drastic reduction in queens, and were banned across the EU in 2013. Bees and other pollinators are essential for many crops but are in decline due to the impact of pesticides, loss of habitat and disease.”
Council launches review of polling districts and stations
“East Devon residents are asked for their views and suggestions on polling stations ready for council to consider in December
East Devon District Council is due to launch a review into the district’s polling districts and polling places and is seeking feedback from the public.
The council will be pleased to receive views from anyone, but particularly stakeholders, such as electors, parishes, political parties and councillors. It will also be grateful for comments from people and organisations with expertise in access for people with disabilities.
Anyone who would like information about a particular parish or part of the district should contact us either by e-mail (elections@eastdevon.gov.uk) or telephone (01395 517550).
East Devon District Council’s Chief Executive, Mark Williams, said:
“Over the years, the locations where voting takes place in East Devon have remained the same, except for occasions where a building is no longer available. Following the recent election we now need to review the existing situation.
“If anyone thinks we should be looking at alternative locations to the polling stations that were used in May this year or have comments on the stations that were used, please could they let us have their views as soon as possible.”
Views and comments should be made in writing, setting out any alternative suggestions, by no later than Friday, 25 September 2015 to the Electoral Services Manager, East Devon District Council, Council Offices, Knowle, Sidmouth EX10 8HL
The Chief Executive will make proposals to the council, taking account of all the views and comments that are received. The council meeting where the recommendations will be considered will be held on Wednesday 16 December 2015 and will be open to the public.”
If you have any reservations about locations or access to polling stations do let Mr Williams know. It is a very long time since these locations were first chosen and some of them may now be inappropriate.
One assumes that locations in the ownership of or linked closely to serving councillors will not be considered appropriate.
How can we believe anything our politicians say?
From “The Sun” expose on Baron John Sewel, 69 — Deputy Speaker of the Lords:
One of the girls claims she met the peer in a strip club in London’s Soho in 2012.
As a member of the Lords, he is involved in legislating on sexual offences acts, prostitution and brothel-keeping laws.
As Deputy Speaker he would also be expected to demonstrate higher standards of moral behaviour than ordinary peers.
Sewel helped draw up a code of conduct which insists peers act with “selflessness, integrity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership”.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6560352/Baron-John-Sewel-drug-binges-with-prostitutes.html
Who do you get to review Freedom of Information? Those who benefit most from destroying it
Like the NPPF that was designed by a group of developers.
Like the Food Standards Committee made up of food industry representatives.
And like public speaking at EDDC being reviewed by the Council’s majority party Executive Committee.
At this rate, the Human Rights Act will probably be reviewed by prisoners found guilty of war crimes at the International Criminal Court!
EDDC Freedom of Information overload: it’s all the fault of heir hunters!
It’s Happy-Clappy Midweek Herald day again – all the local good news (apart from shed burglaries) until we get to page 25. There we find a story that EDDC wants to recruit an extra officer to deal with Freedom of Information requests.
Yes, you might think, they certainly need one after two high-profile run-ins with the Information Commissioner recently, one of which led to EDDC appearing in court (in a case which they lost) and one which criticised them for not offering basic guidance on what was needed for them to comply with a request. Both cases involved serious questions about relocation from the Knowle.
But no, it isn’t planning issues (which, from the whatdotheyknow website form a large part of their enquiries), it’s:
companies asking questions about council contracts
and
heir hunters asking about public burials and next of kin!
Now, this raises a fair few questions.
Why are there so many requests from companies asking about council contracts? We know from Information Commissioner v EDDC that the general public are certainly not allowed to see contracts – commercial confidentiality is always cited as the reason not to provide information. But it seems that companies may be getting information we don’t get.
And surely heir-hunters are seeking information already in the public domain.
Whitewash, hogwash and brainwash – with all the washes being given a fast spin by EDDC’s poorly-named “Communications” Department.
“Clean, green and seen” or still “Pale, male, stale”?
Eight meetings advertised in the current Knowledge e-newspaper from EDDC. 5 of the meetings are secret – just as well Diviani didn’t give a “clean, green, seen” speech:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/07/18/clean-green-seen-or-pale-male-stale-you-decide/
this time around!:
Manor Pavilion Steering Committee
Recycling and Refuse Board Partnership
Finance briefing for all councillors
Joint scrutiny event (East Devon, Exeter, Teignbridge)
Asset Management Forum
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/1214693/the-knowledge-10-july-2015-issue-9.pdf
East Devon District Council and “dark rooms”
At yesterday’s local plan hearingss Natural England spoke of mitigation strategy and associated habitats assessment discussions which should not take place in “in a dark room”.
What on earth could they mean!
The Asset Management … Group … Forum … bunfight … secret society …
This comment from Paul Freeman to an earlier article has been bumped up to a post because of its great importance in the Battle for Transparency:
“Ah, how I dream that the Asset Management meetings were actually a Committee – as indeed it really should be.
Committees are subject to legal transparency requirements – they need to be open to the public, they need to have published agendas and minutes.
But in its infinite wisdom – or as I call it hypocrisy – the council leadership have decided that the group of people who will manage the councils assets with meet in a Forum rather than a Committee, because then they don’t need to allow the public to be at the meetings and don’t need to publish agendas and minutes.
See if you can find Asset Management on the council meetings web page
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/
But if you look here:
Click to access mtg-prog-201516-matrix.pdf
you can see the dates for the Asset Management meetings.
But if you read the EDDC Constitution which can be found at:
Click to access constitution-2014-october-.pdf
(something that the council leadership apparently doesn’t bother to do), then on page 31 it states “A Panel or Forum will normally sit in public.” (It also states “They will be an important vehicle for ensuring the involvement of the community in policy development and review”, so it is difficult to see how a closed meeting without published agendas or minutes meets this objective.)
Indeed, since it is not a committee, they don’t need to make the Asset Management Forum membership proportional to the number of councillors in each political group either. According to the minutes of the annual council in May 2015 which can be found at:
Click to access annual-council-270515-combined-mins-with-apps.pdf
on page 16 it says that the full members of this Forum are Andrew Moulding (Con.), Phil Skinner (Con.), Ian Thomas (Con.), Geoff Pook (Ind. come Con.), with Paul Diviani (Con.) and Stuart Hughes (Con.) as ex-officio members. So, despite holding 25% of the seats, there are no Independent Group councillors on this Forum at all.
Turning the Asset Management Forum into a formal Committee was a stated Aim of the East Devon Alliance candidates, and I imagine is still an objective if they can ever achieve it.
Is it any wonder that the more informed residents of East Devon think that there is a need for a fresh start at EDDC?”
EDDC Cabinet agenda – 15 July 2015
All 203 pages of it:
Click to access 150715-combined-agenda.pdf
Far too many important discussions to mention here – best look at the papers though pages 175-177 on Local Government Ombudsman complaints (particularly those upheld in different local districts) make interesting reading. And then the report on Freedom of Information requests from page 178 -180 is an almost whitewash analysis of current difficulties.
The situation with the Information Commissioner (who recently called East Devon unhelpful and discourteous and of submitting misleading documentation, is discussed under the heading of “Review of recent request for information decisions” – itself perhaps somewhat misleading!
Basically the report is whining, self-serving and contains no insight whatsoever as to the council’s failings. No-one is named (only designations) and EDDC’s correspondence reveals a total lack of admission of responsibility for massive failings of all kinds.
The only recommendations are that EDDC needs a second FoI officer and when they are deciding if a matter should be kept secret another EDDC officer should read the documents and comment!
EDDC’s Transparency Code
But HAVING a Transparency Code doesn’t make you transparent – BEING transparent makes you transparent!
Secret meetings are not transparent and secret reports are not transparent, fighting the Information Commissioner when she says you must be transparent isn’t being transparent either!
Local Government Transparency: a new House of Commons Briefing PPer
A House of Commons Briefing Paper on Local Government Transparency in England was published on 24 June 2015 – see link below.
Amongst other things it specified that the following MUST be provided to members of the public in a format that can be easily understood:
“The Code requires the publication of specified categories of data, and recommends the publication of additional data, under the headings below
Individual items of expenditure exceeding £500;
Data on the land and buildings held by the authority
Information on invitations to tender, and every contract or purchase order, with a value of over £5,000;
Details of every transaction on a Government Procurement Card used by the authority;
Grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise
organisations: dates made and amounts granted;
The authority’s organisation chart, covering the top three levels in
the organisation, including salary bands;
Details of trade union facility time: number of representatives and
spending upon them
The number of controlled parking spaces within their area;
Data on the value of the authority’s social housing stock;
Data on senior salaries (see section 3 below);
The pay multiple (see section 3 below);
The authority’s constitution;
Details of counter-fraud work;
Details of waste contracts;
Data on parking revenues.”
For more information, see
Changes to the judicial review process
The (only, expensive) way of allowing members of the public to bring councils and developers to justice:
Roger Giles (Ind) polls highest vote in District Council elections
We’ve had further feedback from today’s election of East Devon District Councillors, when Independents gained considerable ground. Here are some highlights:
– The voters’ favourite was Roger Giles, the seasoned Independent Councillor for Ottery St Mary Town Ward, with 2087 votes.
– Paul Diviani, Leader of the Council) retained his seat at Yarty. He received 776 votes. But votes against him totalled 795.
– Cabinet member, Ray Bloxham (525 votes) lost in Raleigh Ward to IEDA candidate, Geoff Jung (950 votes).
– IEDA Leader, Ben Ingham successfully held Woodbury & Lympstone, where he and IEDA colleague, Rob Longhurst, defeated David Atkins (Con).
– The most significant cull of Tory Councillors was in Sidmouth, with Independents now in control:
There was a surprise defeat for Graham Troman, who ironically has often stood up alone for Sidmouth, without the backing of the other local councillors.
Stuart Hughes is the sole remaining Conservative, sharing Sidmouth-Sidford with Dawn Manley and Marianne Rixson, both IEDA.
Sidmouth Town Ward is in the hands of Cathy Gardner (IEDA), Matt Booth(IEDA) and John Dyson (Independent).
The Sidmouth Herald reporters were quick to pick this up: http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/election/eddc_independents_oust_tories_in_sidmouth_town_1_4066681
For complete election result information, go to http://eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/elections-2015/2015-district-council-elections-results/
Tribunal’s decision, on Knowle ‘secret’ papers, featured on Radio Devon News.
An interview with Jeremy Woodward ,whose Freedom of Information (FOI) request set in motion a chain of events which has led to the Tribunal’s decision yesterday against EDDC, can be heard here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02q2k4d#auto at 3mins 30secs. It was broadcast again an hour later, at about 1hour 3mins.
Immediately following the Tribunal’s report, another FOI request on the subject of EDDC’s office relocation was sent,this time by Chair of Save Our Sidmouth, Richard Thurlow. Details at this link: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/knowle-relocation-project-progress.html
“Is the Deputy Chief Executive fit for purpose?”, some are now asking
EDDC’s press release today (see our previous post) speaks of ‘lessons to be learned’ from the Tribunal’s scathing report, though it overlooks the fact that the criticism was “unanimous”, and not solely from the judge. There is no reference to the reportedly “discourteous” manner exhibited by EDDC , though the Council regrets that the Tribunal found it at times “unhelpful”.
To compare this press release with the one posted earlier today from Save Our Sidmouth (which contains the the Tribunal’s devastating comments), go to these links:
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2015/05/council-prepares-to-release-documents-that-sparked-tribunal/
and http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/05/05/sos-press-release-on-tribunal-decision/
EDDC “apology”: too little, too late, too insincere
… and, as usual, light (featherlight) on facts about HOW they intend to change.
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2015/05/council-prepares-to-release-documents-that-sparked-tribunal/
No, change has to be forced upon them: we cannot trust them to change themselves.
A “discourteous” and “unhelpful” Council….Leader sets the tone
See this exchange between Cllr Susie Bond (Ind) and EDDC Leader Paul Diviani (Con). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZN2L_v6Js
EDW footnote: The Council had agreed to conduct an independent inquiry once the police investigation into ex-Councillor Graham Brown (following the Telegraph’s ‘Councillor for Hire’ sting, March 2013) had ended. Cllr Bond (who took the Feniton and Buckerell seat with 87% of the vote, after Graham Brown’s resignation from it), asks if the Council will conduct its own investigation, as decided.
The Leader’s response (with backup from Chair Graham Godbeer (Con) , heard in the background saying Cllr Bond was not asking a question ) is fairly typical of what has been regularly observed by the public at Council meetings.
East Devon Watch 