Not fiddling while Rome burns but piano- playing while East Devon gets concreted over. Time for playing when our Local Plan is in place, Mr williams – till then, shoulder to THAT wheel rather than an HGV.
30,000 submissions to Freedom of Information Commission
Warship decommissioned after £65m refit in 2014
Can’t blame this one on Labour, Dave!
“HMS Ocean, the “Flagship of the Royal Navy”, is to be decommissioned after a multi-million pound refit.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the move would happen in 2018, when HMS Ocean will have “reached the end of her life”, despite no mention of it in Monday’s Strategic Defence and Security Review.
The Devonport-based helicopter carrier and assault ship, which is Britain’s biggest warship, underwent a £65m upgrade in 2014.
The MoD said it would maintain a “significant amphibious capability”.
It said there would be new Type 26 warships and frigates; two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers; as well as the existing fleet which includes HMS Bulwark.
HMS Ocean is currently deployed in the Mediterranean on a Nato exercise.
EDDC CEO Mark Williams has plenty of spare time now he’s full time again
Or maybe he’s up-skilling for his CV.
And we do hope he had appropriate Health and Safety instruction.
Council in breach of consultation rules when deleting option they did not like
The council [Lambeth] launched a consultation in November 2014, with groups set up to obtain residents’ views.
But Lambeth’s Cabinet member for housing wrote to residents on 26 February saying that even using a best-case scenario the lowest cost for refurbishment was still three times what the council could afford.
Cllr Bennett also said a paper would go before the council’s Cabinet recommending that the refurbishment options should not be consulted on further.
On 9 March 2015 Lambeth’s Cabinet resolved:
That the cost estimate to bring the estate up to the Lambeth Housing Standard (LHS) was £9.4m (an original LHS business plan had included a provision of £3.4m);
That there was then no provision for the cost of a refurbishment-only programme in the council’s LHS programme, and the council had a duty to say what was feasible within budgetary constraints;
To recommend that officers consult further on options for significant regeneration of the estate (as set out in the report) and that a viable regeneration proposal be brought back to the Cabinet in May 2015 with full supporting evidence;
That there was a commitment to work with residents to develop the regeneration proposals.
The claimant, Eva Bokrosova, subsequently challenged the decision to remove the refurbishment options from the consultation. set up to obtain residents’ views.
But Lambeth’s Cabinet member for housing wrote to residents on 26 February saying that even using a best-case scenario the lowest cost for refurbishment was still three times what the council could afford.
Cllr Bennett also said a paper would go before the council’s Cabinet recommending that the refurbishment options should not be consulted on further.
On 9 March 2015 Lambeth’s Cabinet resolved:
That the cost estimate to bring the estate up to the Lambeth Housing Standard (LHS) was £9.4m (an original LHS business plan had included a provision of £3.4m);
That there was then no provision for the cost of a refurbishment-only programme in the council’s LHS programme, and the council had a duty to say what was feasible within budgetary constraints;
To recommend that officers consult further on options for significant regeneration of the estate (as set out in the report) and that a viable regeneration proposal be brought back to the Cabinet in May 2015 with full supporting evidence;
That there was a commitment to work with residents to develop the regeneration proposals.
The claimant, Eva Bokrosova, subsequently challenged the decision to remove the refurbishment options from the consultation.”
The judge found that it was unlawful NOT to consult on the option councillors and officers felt was too expensive and which they had deleted.
Gypsies- not in my back yard says Swire – stick ’em in Neil Parish’s bit of East Devon!
“East Devon MP Hugo Swire has urged a rethink on council plans to locate a large gypsy and traveller site in Cranbrook.
East Devon District Council, which is obliged to provide 37 new gypsy and traveller pitches in East Devon between now and 2034, is proposing in the latest draft of the local plan to create 30 new pitches in Cranbrook – 81per cent of the council’s overall allocation.
Cranbrook Town Council have opposed the plans.
Mr Swire said: “Obviously the easy thing to do is to put the majority of pitches in the same place but that does not mean it is the right thing to do.
There is more to East Devon than Cranbrook and I believe that other areas such as Axminster and Seaton should all take their fair share.
‘This looks to me like a rushed solution as the lack of identified sites is holding up the Local Plan. The majority of my constituents in Cranbrook have no objection in principle to taking on their share of pitches but it is clearly unfair for the town to have to accommodate over 80% of EDDC’s entire allocation.”
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/East-Devon-MP-urges-rethink-Cranbrook-gypsy/story-28231277-detail/story.html
No matter that EDDC itself has said that gypsy and traveller sites should be on arterial road routes.
One can only imagine what our two MPs have to say to each other – if, indeed, they speak at all.
Wonder what EDDC councillors in Axminster and Seaton think?
Pwtition on hospital bed closures delivered
“Health campaigners in Devon are due to deliver a 10,000-signature petition to the county council calling for action over the closure of community hospital beds
The petition calls for a debate of the full council over the funding of rural hospital provision.
The union Unite said the recent closure of beds at Bideford and Ilfracombe hospitals left Barnstaple as the only major town in north Devon with hospital beds.”
Social rent cuts will cause Devon job losses
How odd that social rents are being cut but private landlords can charge more than mortgage payments would cost (if our young people earned enough for deposits):
Broadband for Devon and Somerset – the (fantasy?) saga continues
As we said before, if Devon and Somerset can’t work together on this, how on earth can they hope to work together successfully on anything else? And DEFINITELY things here for DCC’s Scrutiny Committee!
Press Release from Graham Long
Chairman, B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset)
This open letter has been emailed (November 22nd), to all Devon & Somerset MP’s, from B4RDS (Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset), prior to an MP’s meeting in Westminster, Nov 25.
Dear Member of Parliament,
Open letter to all Devon & Somerset MP’s concerning Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS).
It is my understanding that Keri Denton and CDS Board Members Cllr Andrew Leadbetter plus others will be meeting with Devon & Somerset MP’s on or about Wednesday Nov 25th in Westminster.
You will be told how well the CDS broadband programme is going and be encouraged to secure more money for CDS. You will also be enlisted to help them get special EU State Aid (GBER) approval because of their failure to meet the June 30 umbrella state aid deadline .
THIS PROGRAMME IS OUT OF CONTROL. The attached two B4RDS press releases will give you the background.
Questions you need to ask CDS and CDS Board members are:
1) Why did Keri Denton say “How long is a piece of string?” when asked what the current Phase 2 programme schedule is by the DCC Place Scrutiny Committee on Nov 16? Devon & Somerset are now THE ONLY counties in England not to have a Phase 2 contract in place after they abandoned negotiations with BT in June and then missing the June 30 deadline for EU State Aid approval. CDS are currently unable to give DCC Scrutiny a firm schedule for when they will have a Phase 2 programme in place outside of the two National Parks.
2) Will Phase 2 be completed by the end of 2017? Cameron, Vaizey and Whittingdale have all committed to 95% superfast broadband coverage, nationally, by the end of 2017. There is now a snowballs chance in hell of that deadline being met in Devon & Somerset. On Nov 16, Keri Denton told DCC Scrutiny that she hoped to have Phase 2 in place by the end of 2016. This will mean that having spent two years trying to find suppliers they will give the companies awarded Phase 2 contracts, only 12 months to complete the project. This will not be achieved.
3) Why have CDS & DCC not secured committed Phase 2 match funding from Devon District Councils? When Phase 2 negotiations with BT collapsed in June 2015, CDS was only offering BT £35M for a contract that BDUK estimated would cost £41M to deliver, as shown on the BDUK website. For DCC & SCC to claim that negotiations collapsed because BT was not offering value for money is at best disingenuous and at worst a lie. (After deducting the £4.6M National Parks Airband contract from the fully matched £45.5M [=2x£22.75M] BDUK allocation, £40.9M should have been available to BT, not £35M). Each Somerset District Council committed an average of £500k each but not one Devon District Council committed a penny. As a result the project has stalled. Somerset District Councils now have a seat on the CDS Board as a result, but Devon District Councils remain unrepresented. County and District Councils in every county in the UK have managed to work together on this, with the exception of Devon! Devon & Somerset’s “Devolution Statement of Intent” (Slide 6) has the gall to describe the CDS programme as one of the two counties successes!
4) Why have CDS not obtained any Phase 1 clawback monies from BT? In July the government announced that a total of £129M in clawback payments were being paid back by BT to county run broadband programmes. Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgshire have already obtained £5.3M, £3.9M, £1.1M and £5.3M respectively in clawback payments from BT. CDS is the largest county run such programme in England and to date has obtained nothing in clawback from BT, which Keri Denton confirmed to DCC Scrutiny on Nov 16. Based on NAO and PAC reports during 2013 & 2014, it is calculated that CDS is due over £9M from BT which can be claimed in advance of reaching the 20% threshold, provided it is reinvested with BT. This is enough to connect another 60,000 properties under Phase 1. In response to the Nov 16 Scrutiny Committee, Keri Denton says that BT have offered to pay back £4.5M to CDS but she then said she did not know how the money was calculated! She must know how it is calculated! – It is in the Phase 1 BT/CDS contract! Even more worrying, the CDS Board Action notes of October 6 (attached – see highlighted text) state that the Board decided not to claim clawback from Phase 1 until after a Phase 2 contract is secured at the end of 2016. WHY? In September, Cllr Andrew Leadbetter told DCC Scrutiny that CDS could do a better job now they do not have the June 30 state aid approval deadline to work to! Do they not understand that people in rural communities are desperate for fast broadband NOW. If there is more money to expand Phase 1 coverage now, why wait until the end of 2016 to claim it? DCMS have shown that the ROI on superfast broadband investment is 20. On HS2, it is 1.7. Investment in broadband is a no-brainer!
More young people in poverty than over-65s
“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 1.7 million people aged 16 to 24 are in poverty compared with 1.4 million people aged over 65.
Chief executive Julia Unwin said the young are being “locked out” of well-paid jobs and affordable homes.” …
Exmouth ” phased development” – pull the other one!
Just love the last sentence in this article from Exmouth Journal website! Councillors now totally redundant ( see also post below on Knowle redevelopment).
Exmouth Fun Park, in Queen’s Drive, is in the area East Devon District Council (EDDC) wants to redevelop with new buildings and leisure facilities – the so-called Splash.
Redevelopment of the fun park was not scheduled to occur until ‘phase three’ of this plan, earmarked for a later date.
However, EDDC now says it needs to fill in the park’s two boating lakes sooner, in order to create a site compound for contractors working on phase one of the redevelopment – the realignment of Queen’s Drive.
The plan to move the road is in a separate planning application, which was backed by a majority of members of Exmouth Town Council’s planning committee – although some said it was premature with detailed plans for the whole area not yet revealed.
However, considering an application to fill in the lakes, councillors voted to defer until legal action regarding the site had been concluded, and a public consultation could be carried out.
Councillor Maddy Chapman said: “I ask this be deferred until after the court cases, and until we know what’s happening, and we can go out to public consultation and we all know what we’re doing.”
Councillor Steve Gazzard said: “The whole idea, as I understand it, was to see what the people of Exmouth would like to see on that site.
“If you are going to fill in two ponds, I take it, rightly or wrongly, that a decision has already been made. I don’t like that.”
An EDDC spokesman said: “The applications considered by Exmouth Town Council have been submitted to ensure that the relocation of the road and car park can move forward at the earliest opportunity. We are currently going through a legal process with the fun park tenant and it would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this stage.”
EDDC planners will decide on permission.
Pegasus to exhibit plans for Knowle
And no doubt to do a bit of marketing. Interesting that they have done test drilling and these plans before getting planning permission … just the little matter of councillors voting to decamp to Honiton.
Surely they all have a prejudicial interest and it should be called in? Not that it will help … Wonder how many apartments will be affordable – LOL!
“A spokesperson for the developer said: “We wish to consult with the local community before progressing our proposals and are holding two public consultation events, the first in November, to give local residents an opportunity to view and comment on our initial scheme.”
Representatives from the firm will be at the Woodlands Hotel, in Station Road, on Tuesday, November 24, between 2pm and 7.30pm, and again on Wednesday, November 25, between noon and 7.30pm.”
SW home buyers need 130% pay increase to afford homes
“Home buyers would have to increase their salary by 130% to afford an average home in the South West, a new report into housing affordability crisis has found.
An average house in the region now costs £240,427 – over 10 times the local average salary of £23,832, the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) Home Truths report has shown.” …
East Devon Business Forum RIP
Anyone remember this?
The Economic Development Manager (and Hon Sec of the East Devon Business Forum which dissolved after the Graham Brown affair), Nigel Harrison, has of course quietly moved on.
And now it is discreetly noted, amongst many other things in the minutes of the 3-hour-long Overview Committee (22 Sep 2015), that “The Business Taff was no longer considered to be required or the best way to improve communication with business in East Devon”.
(See last line on page 4, Item 12, Economic development, at this link http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/1366334/171115-overview-agenda-combined.pdf )
So whatever was all the fuss about?
Should we allow foreign billionaires to buy UK property for investment?
It is astonishing that we allow, for example, millionaires in Singapore to buy land and property in Britain, but Singapore bars British and other foreign nationals from buying in their country.
Denmark prohibits non-EU nationals from buying a home unless they have lived in the country for five years – and, like Finland and Malta, is allowed by the EU to restrict EU citizens from buying second homes in the country. Australia has dramatically cracked down on foreign buyers who have pumped the property market in Sydney and Melbourne to absurd levels. Only Britain leaves the doors almost completely open.
The Bow Group proposes that foreign residents should be limited to the purchase of a single property, and only in the new-build sector, with penalties if they sell within five years. No new block should be more than 50% foreign-owned, it says. But the report goes further than just hammering foreign nationals – it wants the Bank of England to set a target where house prices average no more than four times income.
Town council forced to disclose legal opinion
“The First-Tier Tribunal has ruled that a freedom of information case involving a town council and relating to charitable land was one of those “rare and exceptional” cases where the public interest favoured disclosure of legal advice ahead of maintaining legal professional privilege (LPP).
In Hewlett v Information Commisioner the appellant had written to Beccles Town Council to ask for a plan of land being registered as charitable land. She also asked for copies of documents mentioned in an agenda, including a barrister’s opinion, advice, map and statutory declaration from Waveney District Council.
The town council provided a copy of the plan but refused to provide the other documents as it argued that they were covered by LPP. After the appellant asked Beccles to check whether the response was correct, the town council stated that the information from the QC was exempt.
Following the intervention of the Information Commissioner, the council said that the barrister’s opinion was exempt under s. 42 FOIA. It also said the appellant could view the document outside of FOIA at the council’s offices provided a waiver was signed.
The appellant said she was still seeking disclosure of the barrister’s opinion, statutory declaration and advice. She acknowledged that unofficial copies (with the exception of the ‘advice’) had been put through her letter box – by an anonymous source – but she wanted to be provided with official copies as she believed that they should be made available to the public.
The Tribunal noted that s. 42 FOIA is a qualified exemption, which means it had to conduct a ‘public interest balancing exercise’, ie consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.” …
Tory MP says we shouldn’t vote until age 25 when our brains are mature enough
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326549/Under-18s-shouldn-t-vote-brains-immature.html
This is as well as the Tory MP who says we shouldn’t give the vote to 16 and 17 year olds because it might cause child abuse:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326549/Under-18s-shouldn-t-vote-brains-immature.html
Best not to let them become soldiers, then. Or pay tax when they work – they would be too immature to understand what it was being spent on, such as a private jet for the Prime Minister.
Government consultation on NHS – but no-one told about it
And only until 27 November to respond – please pass on.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/setting-the-mandate-to-nhs-england-for-2016-to-2017
News from Clyst St Mary
“Since the Bishops Clyst Parish Council Meeting on Monday night (16th November) at the Village Hall, it has come to our notice that some of those who attended the meeting were confused by the presentation on the sports and recreation proposals incorporating the Friends Life site, the Plymouth Brethren site and the Clyst Valley Football Club site, with some residents believing that the Save Clyst St Mary Campaign was responsible for this presentation and were, in fact, in agreement with the options put forward for the future proposals on these three areas of adjoining land that were explored during the evening.
Both the Parish Council in their Emerging Neighbourhood Plan and The Save Clyst St Mary volunteers have worked tirelessly to protect the green field areas owned by Friends Life and Plymouth Brethren and are adamant that these areas should remain unspoilt as they are outside of the Built-Up Area Boundary for the village.
The concept of the land being used for the community as a sports and recreation area is agreeable in principle by both the Parish Council and the Save Clyst St Mary Campaign.
However, the Save Clyst St Mary Campaign have not been party to or participated in any negotiations concerning land swapping by the Clyst Valley Football Club and Plymouth Brethren to facilitate any residential or other development on these green areas and, indeed, we were unaware of such proposals until they were mentioned at Monday’s meeting, when one of our representatives challenged such proposals.
Be assured that our interests lie in protecting this village from inappropriate unsustainable development and the protection of these green areas are paramount and will remain at the forefront of our Campaign and should you wish to discuss any issues please feel free to contact us at saveclyststmary@gmail.com
Save Clyst St Mary
Emerging local plans in jeopardy as status of starter homes unclear
Just another pothole on the way to,a Local Plan for East Devon:
“Local plan examinations in their early stages now run the risk of being caught by this new legislation,” she said. “If just submitted it seems to me likely that these plans will have to be altered to accommodate the 200,000 Starter Homes.”
Speaking on the topic of ‘Delivering new homes’, Cook noted that a lack of clear guidance about whether Starter Homes were classified as ‘affordable housing’ would throw uncertainty on the affordable housing numbers already allocated in emerging local plans.
She continued: “The introduction of Starter Homes casts applications into some doubt. What’s the [section]106 going to look like? How are you going to be designating those Starter Homes?
“You read the Bill and you realise you won’t find the answers to those questions. Quite how the 20 per cent market discount is going to relate to affordable homes will be different in different areas.”
– See more at: http://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/starter-homes-threat-to-emerging-local-plans#sthash.gMmEZM15.dpuf
http://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/starter-homes-threat-to-emerging-local-plans
