Tyrannosaurus Exe still not listening. Franksy.
Angry cries of “Boycott Fords” at Sidford meeting
BOYCOTT FORDS!’ CALL AT ANGRY SIDFORD MEETING
There was standing room only at Sidford Social Hall last night at a meeting called by local residents to “Say No to Sidford Business Park”.
Feelings ran high as speaker after speaker condemned this “monstrosity of a project” on road safety, environmental, and flooding grounds.
Notable comments included:
a plea from a Director of the Norman Lockyer Observatory “not to kill” astronomy in Sidmouth with the bright lights of a Business Park.
a warning from a governor of Sidbury primary school that increases in heavy vehicles would place schoolchildren in greater danger on the village’s narrow roads which often lacked pavements.
claims from an environmentalist that rare, protected horseshoe bats were likely to be present in larger numbers than estimated in the planning application.
Among many suggestions to mobilise opposition was a mass boycott of Fords of Sidmouth, the applicant.
This was enthusiastically supported, and will be actively considered by the organising committee.
New Facebook Group: Devon United – Doing Democracy Differently
Inaugural Meeting: Tue 4 October 2016 18:00 – 21:30
Newton Abbot Races Ltd
Newton Road
Kingsteignton
“Everyone very welcome – Paul Hilder is coming to talk to us all about localism and retaking democracy and there will be lots of discussion about the next county elections and how we can unite to be a challenge.”
Free tickets can be obtained via:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/devon-united-doing-democracy-differently-tickets-27679676658
“Devon United is a group of local people who want to see a change in the way our elected County Councillors work and represent us and believe that moving beyond party politics is the way to do it.
We will be joined by Paul Hilder, co-founder of OpenDemocracy.net and CrowdPac and former global campaigns director for Avaaz and Change.org who will share his insights on how people can make real change happen.
We are fed up of our communities being sidelined by our councils and having no voice in the decisions that affect our communities. We are being ignored about the loss of our community hospitals, care units and services for our young people, ignored over planning decisions that see enormous estates being built around our small country towns that do not have the infrastructure to cope and are unaffordable to local people, ignored and misled over devolution and enough is enough.
We want to put our communities first and elect accountable, transparent and open County Councillors to represent our views at next years County Council elections.
We will discuss how we would like our politicians to operate, how we can identify the best candidates and how we can work together to campaign and organise in our communities to make plans and find inspiration to make our county work for everyone.”
Come along and let’s Do Democracy Differently
New inquiry into arms for Saudi Arabia under Hugo Swire’s watch
In the week when a new inquiry has been announced into the supply of British arms to Saudi Arabia:
during the time that our MP Hugo Swire was the Foregn Office Minister to that country and somewhat economical with the truth, which we covered here:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2016/07/22/swire-economical-with-the-truth-at-the-foreign-office/
this article about Mr Swire and arms dealing on Colombia (also one of his areas) has been brought to Owl’s notice from September last year:
“I bet you never thought that one of the duties of a Foreign Minister is to act as an arms dealer for private companies to dodgy governments, or that Royal Navy warships act as floating sales offices for arms-deals. But last June, Hugo Swire MP, a Foreign Office Minister, had a week-long trip to Latin America, which included a stop at Colombia to act as an official weapons salesman for arms firm BAE Systems.
The meeting – part of which took place on a Royal Navy ship – was revealed earlier this year. Full details of the event were supplied to me last month under Freedom of Information.
As far as the ethics of selling arms to Colombia goes, they’re not great. According to Amnesty International, Colombia has suffered a “45-year-old internal armed conflict. Leftist guerrillas fight the state and illegal right-wing paramilitary organisations, which often collaborate with sectors of the Colombian armed forces.” As Amnesty notes, “All of the parties to the conflict are responsible for human rights violations”. The Colombian Navy have been involved in such abuses as well as the army. This July, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos sacked the heads of the army, navy and air force following a report from Human Rights watch about Colombian armed forces complicity in extra judicial killings. Despite these problems, Britain has no official bar on selling weapons to Colombia.
There were no such worries on the menu when Hugo Swire arrived in the beautiful city of Cartagena on the northern coast of Colombia and had “dinner at restaurant in the historic walled city with representatives from BAE Systems and the Colombian Navy”. The Minister’s date included a “walk” through the “historic old city”.
BAE Systems wanted to sell “Ocean Patrol Vessels” to the Colombian Navy. These are “90 metre versatile and affordable ships” made to work along the coast. BAE emphasise their use in anti-drug trade missions. The ships have a flight deck suitable for a “medium-sized helicopter” which is capable of engaging in warfare as well as drug trade interdiction.
It isn’t just the Minister acting as a salesman for BAE: The Royal Navy got in on the act too. HMS Portland, one of the Navy’s frigates was on a three-day visit to Colombia last June. The papers released to me describe this as “defence cooperation”. The Royal Navy itself put out a press release about the ship celebrating “Armed Forces Day while on a brief visit to the Colombian port of Cartagena” at the time. As well as British sailors taking part in the pomp and ceremony, and the HMS Portland crew playing a football game against the Colombian crew of the ARC Caldas, the warship was acting as a floating sales office for an arms-trade party.
The documents say the ship was there for “defence and security exports”. With help from the UK’s government run arms sales unit, called “UK Trade and Industry Defence & Security Organisation”, Hugo Swire used the ship to push the proposed deal. In the papers released to me, The British Ambassador to Colombia, Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby says, “the visiting HMS Portland gave a spectacular setting for an evening reception for senior members of the Colombian navy and defence ministry”. At the meeting, “The minister highlighted a proposal by BAE Systems to supply Ocean Patrol Vessels to the Colombian Navy”.
There is a long history of British Minister’s pushing arms sales. Most famously Mrs Thatcher saw this as a key part of her job: Thatcher called it “Batting for Britain”, and made great personal effort to promote the massive Al Yamamah arms deals with Saudi Arabia in the 1980s – a deal which also involved BAE Systems. However, from the 1990s onwards the huge problems of corruption in Al Yamamah and other arms deals encouraged to Government ministers to take a lower profile in promoting individual arms sales. The government has remained involved in arms trade promotion through the Defence Sales Organisation, renamed the Defence and Security Organisation. However, Ministers themselves have tended to have a more subtle approach to directly flogging weapons. During the Blair years, Labour were a bit tied up between Tony’s love of doing business and Foreign Minister Robin Cook’s “ethical foreign policy”.
It looks like that the newly confident Conservatives are abandoning any subtlety and going for a more direct approach.”
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/a-british-defence-minister-acted-as-an-arms-dealer-to-colombia-849
Hugo Swire and his drain obsession …
First it was Ottery St Mary just before the General election,
Now, it’s Exmouth:
“East Devon’s MP has vowed to deal with the issue of flooding in Exmouth during a visit to the town.
Hugo Swire promised residents overgrown vegetation by Bradham Bridge would be removed.
He said: “It was good to meet with a number of residents, local councillor Brian Bailey and two officers from the Environment Agency to discuss this ongoing problem.
“The Environment Agency has confirmed that it will clear the overgrown vegetation upstream of Bradham Bridge and we will see if this leads to an improvement. If it doesn’t, then we will have to revisit this issue.”
http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/east_devon_mp_addresses_flooding_issues_1_4689096
Unfortunately, in Ottery, arrangements had been made long, long before Hugo’s intervention to have drains cleared and it just happened to be around the time of the election – might this be the same in Exmouth with the EA already scheduled to make its call?
Still, it’s always good to know that wherever there is a stink in East Devon we will find him dealing with it.
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“Sidford business park: call to ‘fight the details’ “
Just the sort of thing our constituency MP shoyld be fighting for …
“A raft of fresh objections have been lodged by residents and civic leaders against plans for a 9.3-acre business park – with warnings a single building could ‘dwarf everything’ in the Sid Valley.
Town councillors were told they have to ‘fight the details’ as they debated Fords of Sidmouth’s amended plans for the site between Sidford and Sidbury.
Members will urge district chiefs to impose restrictions on the scale of the buildings and call for a cycle path linking Sidbury and Sidford to be built before any other construction work goes ahead.
Planning committee chairman Cllr Ian Barlow told Wednesday’s packed meeting in Sidford: “I’m not defeatist – I’m a realist. We’ve fought this for years and years and years but now it’s in the Local Plan. Now we need to fight the details. If we have to have it, we don’t want buildings more than seven metres high, and we don’t want any bigger than 500 squares metres – we don’t need a huge distribution centre.”
He urged objectors to get their partners and children to write in, too, and send letters to East Devon District Council (EDDC), Fords and landowner Sir John Cave. There are already 153 objections online.
The town council originally opposed the application due to the impact on roads, flooding and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the lack of demand for the 300 jobs forecast to be created by the business park.
Fords’ amendments include relocating the proposed cycle path further from the A375, and redesigning the flood attenuation ponds to better fit in the environment. It also submitted ‘design codes’ – revealing that buildings would have a maximum height of 15 metres, and no one building would cover more than a quarter of the 5.8-acre southern field or the 3.5-acre northern site.
Critics at Wednesday’s meeting said such a building would ‘dwarf everything’ in the Sid Valley.
Cllr Michael Earthey said: “I said before, it will be a carbuncle on the landscape. Now we know the scale of it.”
Resident Ian Scott, who worked as an architect for 30 years, suggested hope was not lost. He said: “The Department for Transport can overrule the fact it’s in the Local Plan.
“I don’t think we should give up and say it’s inevitable.”
Town clerk Christopher Holland said if councillors did not object to specific details at this stage, the developer was being handed a ‘blank sheet’.
“This is your chance to put some red lines down on what you wish to see and what you wish not to see,” he added.
Members agreed to write to EDDC saying, if the business park does go ahead, the following conditions should be imposed:
● The maximum ridge height of the properties should be seven metres and the eaves should be no higher than five metres. There should also be no flat roofs.
● The cycle track should be built before any development goes ahead.
● The bat habitat should not be disturbed; specifically an ‘ancient’ hedgerow in Laundry Lane.
● Light and noise pollution should be restricted.
● There should be no retail under any circumstances on the site.
● A new traffic management report should be drawn up, and a traffic assessment will be requested.
● No one building should be more than 500 square metres in area.
For advice on commenting on the application, contact the town council on 01395 512424.
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/sidford_business_park_call_to_fight_the_details_1_4689850
“East Devon car parking machines have taken more than £32,000 as a result of not giving change”
“Statistics released by a Freedom of Information request showed East Devon District Council introduced a new system which meant drivers overpaid an extra £16,946 in 2014/15 and £15,066 in 2015/16.
While, in 2013/14, there were no overpayments as ticket machines were programmed to give the appropriate time for the money inserted.
In the last three financial years, the council has made more than £3,100,000 per year in car parking revenue in Exmouth, Sidmouth, Honiton, Axminster, Budleigh Salterton, Beer, Seaton, Colyton, Lympstone and Ottery St Mary. …
… council spokeswoman said introducing the parking permits had meant customers could not buy parking time in 10p increments because there was not enough memory available in the current machines, so they introduced 50p increments.
This was because the number of ticket prices, which would be a new price point for every six minutes, to allow 10p increments, would be too much to continue alongside the new permit options.
To compromise, they introduced 50p increments on the same tariff, meaning customers would need to purchase parking in 30-minute periods rather than the previous six-minute increments – the minimum payment of 50p did not change. …”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/east_devon_parking_machines_take_32k_in_change_1_4689391
Well, maybe that will pay for a CEO’s platinum tea service and a Leader’s Gold ipad case.
Renewed interest in petition to cease schools monitoring service by Babcock
In May 2016 East Devon Watch reported on a 38 Degrees petition which sought to remove the armament manufacturer Babcock from a contract to monitor attendance in Devon schools:
The post has been re-read many times in the last few days and the petition has begun to gain more signatures again, which gives the impression that there is perhaps a new disquiet about the 7 year contract.
The £125 million contract was described thus by the company:
https://www.babcockinternational.com/News/Babcock%20awarded%20Devon%20schools%20contract
The 38 Degrees petition:
made the following claim:
“Babcock International is a weapon manufacturer operating around the globe. They are also contracted by Devon County Council to monitor and produce reports on school attendance.
After ten sessions (five days) of “unauthorised absence” they send this letter threatening a fine of up to £2500 and/or three months in prison.
The letter is sent to hundreds of parents each year, causing disproportionate distress for what, in many cases, is a single case of illness or forgetting to inform the school in time.
Children become worried that their mum or dad might go to prison. Parents worry their children might be taken into care, that they might lose their jobs, businesses, dignity and freedom.
The threat, and potential fine and imprisonment, disproportionately affects single parents and poor people, who are less able to pay a Fixed Penalty Notice within 21 days (after which it doubles).
I have personally supported a single mum who was working full time, raising two children, starting a business and having to comfort her children who thought that Mum was going to prison.
Babcock’s business is in fear, not in children’s education.”
The petition currently stands at nearly 800 signatures.
David Cameron has resigned because he can’t operate as a back bench MP …
…. so is Hugo Swire going to emulate him?
Surely East Devon is now much too small for his big … brain?
Opening hotels, judging dog shows, eating canapes with councillors, having tea with pensioners … just not what you are used to … especially when it’s not in Mauritius, which SO misses you.
The world needs you Hugo. We would do our best to manage without you.
Crowdfunding for high court case on third party objection to inspector planning consents
“A Lewisham resident is seeking to crowd fund a case concerning whether those affected by a planning inspector’s decision may challenge it without a full High Court action.
Louise Venn has raised £5,432 towards her £30,000 target, with 49 days to go.
In an explanation of her decision to launch the initiative, Ms Venn said: “The UK is completely ignoring basic minimum standards of environmental justice under European law. It is actively preventing the public from being able to challenge illegal and environmentally damaging decisions by its own national planning inspectors.”
Her concerns centre on applications that have been rejected by a local planning authority but permitted by an inspector on appeal. “The only way to correct [this] is through a High Court case against the secretary of state,” she said.
“This is almost impossible, as I discovered, because you become liable to pay the other side’s legal costs as soon as you bring a case. These costs generally run into tens of thousands of pounds.”
Ms Venn claimed this meant inspectors could act with impunity knowing only the wealthy could challenge them.
Her lawyer, Dr Paul Stookes of Richard Buxton Environmental and Planning Law, said: “The Government admitted to the Court of Appeal in 2014 that it had intentionally left a loophole in the law, preventing challenges to its own Planning Inspectors (but allowing such challenges to local planning decisions). In Venn v Secretary of State [2014] the Court of Appeal held that the claim fell within the scope of the Aarhus Convention, and ruled the UK was non-compliant with the Convention. But because the government had left the loophole intentionally, the Court did not intervene.
“Some two years on and the problem still persists. Added to this, the United Nations Aarhus Compliance Committee has repeatedly found that the UK is non-compliant with its international obligations – something the government simply ignores.”
Voluntary sector demands to be involved in devolution bids
Dream on people – you are seen as a cost not a benefit or asset to our “growth led” devolution bid.
“A group of more than 30 voluntary sector leaders has set out a statement of principles for devolution across England that includes a call for greater involvement of voluntary organisations in local decision-making.
At a summit held in London on 7 September, the group set out steps that should be taken to put people at the heart of devolution in England.
Among the 16 points – covering voice and advocacy, financing devolution, and public service reform – was a call for an agreement between devolved authorities, elected officials and the voluntary sector around the design, commissioning, funding and delivery of public services.
Under the government’s devolution programme, combined authorities have reached a series of deals with Whitehall that will see them take on more powers over services including transport, planning and skills. These deals are in place in Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Liverpool and the Tees Valley, although a deal for the North East Combined Authority was rejected by four of the seven councils involved last week.
At the Devolution and the Voluntary Sector Summit, leaders said devolved areas must be given the time and resources to create new democratic methods. The summit was convened by Charity Finance Group, Children England, Locality and the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action.
These new methods should not be tied to pre-existing structures and processes. There also needed to be a commitment to local and specialist voluntary organisations to help engage people and communities in devolved decisions. Of particular focus in this endeavour should be disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups.
The group expressed the view that no financial settlement should be agreed with an area until there had been an opportunity to map and assess the local needs and resources (including voluntary and private sector assets). Ahead of the government’s implementation of full business rates localisation, the summit also called on ministers to develop a method of distributing resources post-devolution that ensured that inequalities were not locked in.
The statement called for devolution to be based on the principle of subsidiary, as well as highlighting the need for an agreement between devolved authorities, elected officials and the voluntary sector about the design, commissioning, funding and delivery of public services.
Services should be commissioned on the basis of long term social outcomes rather than short term financial pressures, the group stated. Meanwhile, central government must articulate at the beginning of the process how it is accountable for services that will be devolved.
Caron Bradshaw, chief executive of Charity Finance Group, said the vision for devolution could reset the high-profile devolution drive with full involvement of the voluntary sector as an active partner to support communities.
Locality chief executive Tony Armstrong added: “There is a clear opportunity for devolution to harness the capacity and ideas of local people and organisations to transform their communities. But there is a risk that the devolution agenda is missing this potential.
“The devolution summit has been an important moment for us to come together as a sector, and think about what good devolution looks like and the principles that are essential for making this happen.”
One planning law for EDDC, another for the rest of us …
If an ordinary citizen started building work before receiving planning permission, they would be stopped. Not our council. As it decides for itself about Knowle, it is safe to say that they are confident they will grant themselves permission whatever:
“East Devon District Council (EDDC) is carrying out the work, expected to take around 38 weeks to complete, as it prepares to relocate some of its offices to the town hall from Knowle, Sidmouth. [Do these works would need planning permission?]
The town council will be moving to 44 Rolle Street, from where it will continue to provide its usual services. [Does this building work need change of use?]
The council’s telephone and email contact details will remain unchanged.
The council of voluntary service will be moving to Ground Floor, Unit 15, Dinan Way, with its telephone and email contact details also remaining unchanged.
The Devon Registration Service will then leave the town hall on November 26, moving to Larkbeare House, Topsham Road, Exeter, with its telephone number also unchanged.
The town hall will remain open while the work takes place to allow EDDC to offer its housing needs, council tax and housing benefits services, which will be available between 9am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Citizens Advice will also continue to operate a drop-in service from the town hall, between 10am and 12.30pm and between 1.30pm and 3.30pm, Monday to Friday.”
Knowle redevelopment: the imagined and the real
Speak for themselves – developer’s imagination first, then the reality:
Franksy’s Thought For Today
There have been dolphin sightings over the years in the Exe estuary. We have something precious here and worth celebrating in its own right. Franksy.
Exmouth “regeneration”
“Just wanted to share these photos with you. They were found on the fencing of Jungle Fun’s premises about lunch time today.
The messages on these banners are pretty clear. I’d say a resident/some residents are behind this who feel completely ignored and devalued by East Devon District Council, and who also want to share their support and solidarity with the owner and staff of Jungle Fun/Crazy Golf, during this truly heartbreaking time.”
A small selection of the 22 photographs – all available to anyone to share.
Fast broadband for Blackdown Hills but not other parts of rural East Devon
From a correspondent:
“Come to the Blackdown Hills in East Devon, Taunton Deane and Mid Devon where Gigaclear are bringing ultrafast broadband (Up to 1,000Mbps up as well as 1,000Mbps down) to 2,000 properties without a penny of public money. Villages in the area will become the first “Gigabit Villages” west of Bristol – better than any broadband service available in Exeter or Plymouth.”
See https://sites.google.com/site/upotterywebsite/broadband-1
More rural broadband – for Dorset
“DOZENS more communities in Dorset are to benefit from the roll-out of superfast broadband.
More than 26 per cent of customers in the Superfast Dorset area have already chosen to take-up the service, triggering a “Gainshare” award under the terms of the contract with BT to be used to further extend the fibre roll-out.
More than 800 premises in 31 areas have just been added to the Superfast Dorset roll-out plans for next year as a result of the high take up and efficiencies in delivery, which together are worth more than £1million. …”
East Devon chose not to join a consortium to bring broadband to its rural areas, preferring to go it alone. It was turned down for grants because its bid duplicated the consortium bid.
If you are unhappy about this state of affairs, contact EDDC councillor Phil Twiss, the council’s rural broadband champion, who is the non-mover and non-shaker of this particular non-project:
ptwiss@eastdevon.gov.uk
In the past, Councillor Twiss has been quick to comment on this blog, we look forward to his comments on this topic.
‘Say NO to Sidford Business Park’, PUBLIC MEETING on Monday 12th Sept September 10, 2016
“A public meeting organised by Sidford & Sidbury residents, with the support of East Devon Alliance, will be held at Sidford Social Hall, Byes Lane, on Monday 12 September. Doors open at 6.30 pm for 7.15pm start. Coffee and teas available on arrival. Information displays to browse.
Sidmouth Town Council have already expressed serious objections to the height of buildings ‘up to 15 metres tall’ in Fords’ planning application.
Imagine a London bus of equivalent height, to get some idea of the scale.
There’s more information on http://www.facebook.com/saynotosidfordbusinesspark
‘Say NO to Sidford Business Park’, PUBLIC MEETING on Monday 12th Sept
Where’s Hugo? Judging a dog show in Parliament
Do you have a dog show you want judging in East Devon? Hugo Swire is your go-to man.
John Crace’s political diary for last week in The Guardian:
“At last something Labour can win. For years now, the title of Westminster dog of the year has been a safe Tory seat, but Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds’ two labradoodles,
Clinton and Kennedy, managed to see off a strong field to be crowned 2016 champions. “I speak for everyone in the Labour party when I say it’s about time we won something, so we might as well accept this,” Reynolds said.
Mind you, Clinton and Kennedy did have an advantage as the competition seemed to be rigged in favour of the bigger dogs: the assault course jumps were twice the size of Clem, the diminutive shih tzu owned by Labour MP Anna Turley.
Despite there being two Tories on the judging panel – Andrea Jenkyns and
Hugo Swire
the owners of last year’s winners – the result wasn’t well received by some Tories, who felt Reynolds’ pooches should have been marked down for not being sound enough on Brexit.”
The Chinese way of doing business?
Our LEP and the Government need to keep their eyes wide open if Hinkley C goes ahead according to this report!
” … China’s growing industrial sector has been hard on the aluminum producers in the United States. In 2000 there were 23 smelters operating nationwide, now there are only five.
So when an aluminum executive named Jeff Henderson got wind of a giant stockpile of Chinese aluminum just below the U.S border with Mexico, he decided to commission a plane to check it out.
What did they find?
Six percent of the world’s aluminum, worth some $2 billion and enough to make 77 billion beer cans, according to the Journal’s fascinating report.
The revelation led to tensions between U.S. trade authorities and China, as U.S. industry executives insist that the metal is linked to Liu Zhongtian, who runs China Zhongwang Holdings, an enormous industrial aluminum company.
U.S. industry officials allege the metal got there as part of a scheme to evade trade restrictions. The idea was to move aluminum through Mexico into the U.S. where it could benefit from provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“These things have nothing to do with me,” Liu told the Journal, although the results of the investigation cast doubt on that claim.
Aluminum manufacturing is subsidized in China, and so Chinese firms were able to undercut U.S. producers; the United States responded by setting up tariffs to make domestic aluminum more attractive.
Routing Chinese aluminum through Mexico was a way to get around those tariffs.
Things went awry when a one of Liu’s alleged business partners Po-Chi “Eric” Shen, started to gain attention over some of his erratic practices, which the Journal report highlighted and included spending fortunes on dubious expenses like $70 million worth of red diamonds and rare Ferraris.
The relationship allegedly deteriorated quickly — Shen made headlines in 2014 when he wrecked Liu’s sports car while vacationing in Italy, and was rescued by Rowan Atkinson, of Mr. Bean fame.
The metal may never make it to the United States, in fact there are currently plans to ship it back to Asia, this time Vietnam.”
