Anyone see a pattern here (see post below this one):
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/17/city-watchdog-chief-quits-fca-george-osborne
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!
Lord Falconer concerned about missing voters
Too Many People Are Not Registered to Vote – And It’s About to Get Worse
Too many people are not registered to vote. The reasons for this vary – they don’t have the time, they are disillusioned with party politics, they don’t see how voting will make any difference to their lives. But the result is the same: they are not getting heard and the future of our country is being decided by an increasingly narrow section of society.
And it is about to get worse. This week, the government decided to bring forward by a year the end of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, removing millions of people from the electoral register and ignoring the advice of the Electoral Commission.
This raises serious concerns for our democracy and is the latest in a long line of deeply partisan moves by a government intent on stifling democratic scrutiny and rigging the game in its favour.
The Electoral Commission has warned that 1.9million people could fall off the register if the transition deadline is brought forward.
We know what kinds of voters are more likely to be missing: they are private renters, members of the BAME communities, those who live in built up areas or towns with a high student population. Perhaps the greatest divide is between the older and younger generations: some 95% of the over-65s are on the electoral register, yet only around 70% of 18 to 24-year-olds are estimated to be registered.
The register is the beating heart of our democracy. The coming year will see a significant number of elections, which makes it even more important for the register to be as complete and accurate as possible.
But it also performs a wider function. It provides the foundation for the boundary review, which determines parliamentary constituency boundaries. The next review is due to start early in 2016 and the registers published in December 2015 will be used as its basis.
David Cameron has decided to push ahead with an arbitrary reduction in the number of MPs from 650 to 600, despite warnings that this could lead to constituencies that do not reflect local communities.
Now he is proposing to do so on the basis of a severely depleted register with missing voters concentrated in certain communities and parts of the country – a clear move by the Government to give the Tories an electoral advantage and one that would call into question the legitimacy of our democracy.
This of course has to be placed in the context of a government who after severely restricting access to justice and reducing the ability of charities to challenge government policy in the last Parliament, has, barely two months in the job, promised to limit Freedom of Information powers, scrap the Human Rights Act, create two-classes of MPs by the backdoor and only this week published a Bill to stifle legitimate rights to take industrial action.
David Cameron’s Government may claim the one nation mantra but their politics are divisive and partisan. We will not stand by and allow millions to lose their voice.
Lord Falconer is Shadow Lord Chancellor and the shadow secretary of the state for justice
Source: Huffington Post UK
Government plans to water down Freedom of Information Act to homeopathic levels
Tory Health Minister questions publicly-owned free health service
“The idea that the NHS can remain taxpayer-funded and free needs to be re-examined as costs rise”, a Conservative health minister has said.
The Conservative Party Manifesto for this election promised a free high-quality health service.
Added to which, the cap on cost of residential care promised for 2016 has been delayed until at least 2020:
Tory MP can’t manage on his salary: has to “scrimp and save”
…”Mr Ellwood, who lives with his solicitor wife in a £700,000 converted barn in a Dorset village and rents a London flat, said the pay rise was well overdue and much needed in his case.
He wrote: ‘I know I speak for the silent majority (who are not millionaires) to say this increase is well overdue. I never expected to be watching the pennies at my age and yet this is what I now have to do. …’
Bet the people who voted for him in his Bournemouth constituency really feel for him, poor thing.
Hospital closures: the spin – and where are Hugo Swire’s comments?
“…County Councillor Claire Wright said: “It’s an absolute travesty. We heard that 11,000 people signed petitions to save the hospitals and they didn’t answer my question as they said they didn’t have enough information on how much a health hub would cost. The CCG say they are saving £500,000 but they haven’t costed in how much it will cost to create a health hub, which in Budleigh Salterton cost £800,000 and they haven’t costed how much home-based care will cost. It doesn’t stack up financially as they say that’s detail and are using numbers to their own advantage.”
Should East Devon District Council twin with Guildford Borough Council?
Letter: Guildford Borough Council –
Where Democracy Goes to Die
I attended for the first time on Tuesday evening (July 7) the monthly Guildford Borough Council meeting. I was expecting debate on Guildford’s key issues and I wanted to experience first-hand how the elected officials that hold Guildford’s future in their hands go about safeguarding it.
What I experienced was the worst kind of self-congratulatory, derogatory, tribal politics where power grab was pretty much the order of the day.
I was expecting to see the Conservatives, having won an unprecedented 35 out of 48 seats, through no effort of their own but because of the coincidence of the general election and the fact that local election results follow national trends, being magnanimous in their victory.
Instead I witnessed contempt for the other parties, especially for the Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG), whose only fault was to challenge the status quo and win three seats from the Conservatives.
No wonder young people are switched off politics when a number of white, middle-aged men are only interested in their own opinion and congratulating each other for the fantastic job they believe they are doing without any regard for what would be best for the borough they represent.
During the pompous proceedings there was complete disregard for all opposition, ignoring the fact that the opposition are elected members representing thousands, the majority actually*, of the borough’s residents.
Request for transparency by the GGG was denied on the questionable grounds of data privacy.
But worst of all was the election of councillor representatives for a number of charities across Guildford.
A number of concerns were raised as to how or why candidates were put forward. In any fair selection, you would expect at least a small biography from each candidate explaining why they are best suited to the position in question as well as allow the candidates to state their case for nomination.
Not in Guildford Borough Council. There is no time for anything non-partisan in there. As long as a Conservative is chosen we can dispense with such niceties.
In a vote that can only be described as a farce, the council did not explain why these people were chosen as candidates nor allow the candidates to explain to the electorate, their fellow councillors, why they were best suited for the position and its requirements.
The explanation for this? There was not enough time and the councillors would stay there for a few more hours if such proceedings were allowed. Guildford’s citizens must be proud to know that their elected representatives, in their one monthly meeting do not have enough time for democracy to take its course.
Why waste time, when the outcome is predetermined and unless you are a Conservative, you won’t be voted in?
Two cases stand out: Cllr Angela Gunning’s removal from the Guildford Waterside Centre as well as Cllr Julia McShane’s removal from the Westborough and Park Barn Community Centre.
In a move that represents the nasty approach the Conservatives plan to follow for the next four years, prior to the meeting Cllr Iseult Roche [Con, Worplesdon] notified Cllr Gunning [Lab, Stoke], against whom she was standing, of her intention to withdraw her nomination.
Then, during the proceedings, Conservative Cllr Roche decided to withdraw her withdrawal whilst at the same time making a small speech as to why she was the most appropriate candidate for the position, the only speech allowed.
Lo and behold, she was voted in with Conservative councillors voting, as throughout, almost en bloc.
Similarly, Cllr McShane [Lib Dem, Westborough], a long-standing councillor for her ward was voted out of the Westborough and Park Barn community centre in favour of the two Conservative councillors in the ward, who had stood as “paper candidates”. One of them had not even turned up for the council meeting.
In a council where the leader proclaims the importance of re-building the council’s damaged reputation, yet sees no issues with remaining in business with a convicted forger and deceiver, we should only expect the council’s resources to be used in favour of the narrow-minded Conservatives’ political agenda instead of the well-being of all of Guildford borough’s citizens, to improve living standards right across the borough.
At the same time, the opposition can be ignored and held in contempt throughout.
As the elections held that night showed, there was no concern for the needs of the external organisations, only the needs of the Conservatives. The next four years will deteriorate Guildford’s standard of living for most residents unless they happen to support the Conservatives.
The council meeting clearly showed that in Guildford Borough, local politics do not transcend party politics and petty behaviours. No wonder it switches people off.
George Dokimakis is a member of the Labour Party.
*47%, of those that voted in the recent GBC elections, voted Conservative.
Fracking will be allowed on Sites of Special Scientific Interest
“Government makes ‘outrageous’ U-turn over fracking in precious wildlife sites”
“There are 4,000 SSSIs in England, more than 1,000 in Wales and 1,425 in Scotland.”
“Fracking will still be excluded from national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, the Broads and world heritage sites, under the new plans, though shale companies will be allowed to put a rig outside a national park and drill horizontally underneath it.
Some of the SSSIs will fall within the borders of those other protected areas, but even so the RSPB believes thousands of SSSIs could potentially be affected.
Matt Williams, a policy officer at the RSPB, said: “The government has reneged on its commitment to rule out fracking in some of our most important wildlife sites.
“Despite promising in January to exclude fracking from SSSIs, today’s announcement ignores any such commitment, leaving some the UK’s most valuable wildlife sites exposed to risk from future fracking.”
SSSIs are described by government officials as the “best of our wildlife, geological and physiographical heritage”.
Daisy Sands, head of energy at Greenpeace UK, said: “With a few days before recess, this looks like nothing but a blatant attempt to bypass democracy to sneak this deeply unpopular policy in through the back door while no one is looking. Ministers have given concerned citizens up and down the country no opportunity to voice their opposition to the plans that could ruin the countryside, contaminate the water supply and have a devastating impact on the climate.”
The draft regulations, which will be debated in September, also said that fracking would be allowed under protected groundwater source areas, where drinking water is gathered.
Even under the most sensitive of those groundwater areas (SPZ1s), fracking will be allowed so long as it at depths of more than 1,200 metres. A limit deeper than that would “hinder the exploitation of potentially valuable shale gas reserves”, the regulations said.
No public consultation was held on either the dropping of SSSIs from the list of protected areas from where fracking would be excluded, or how deep the groundwater limits should be set.”
Beds cut by 30% in East Devon to make remaining hospitals “more resilient”
You couldn’t make it up!
“Dr Jenner said: “Of course we understand that some people will always want to have community beds in their own area and this decision may disappoint them but making sure everyone has the same level of access to services is very important.
“We are looking to continually improve services to support people in their local communities whether they are cared for at home or in hospital and this is one step forward on that journey.”
Dr Jenner blamed health provider, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust which runs North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple and a series of community hospitals in east Devon, for putting extra strain on such hospital because of staffing issues.
He said: “Over the last few years the hospital provider Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust has had to temporarily close some community hospital inpatient units due to staffing issues.
“Consolidating from 10 to seven units means we will have much more robust staffing at our hospitals in the future.”
“This will improve the resilience of care at our community hospitals in the face of financial and workforce challenges.”
http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Hospital-beds-slashed-30-East-Devon-make/story-26915985-detail/story.html
So, all you people in Axminster and Ottery don’t worry – you will be cared for in your own home by staff they don’t have.
Ottery and Axminster hospital beds will close
Announced on Spotlight and also closure at Crediton. 11,000 petitioned for them remaining open. They will now have “health hubs” – but no-one knows what these are or how much they will cost. Closures will start in the autumn.
RIP the National Health Service in East Devon.
Tories accept voting register with nearly 2 million people missing – ignores Electoral Commission advice to spend a further year working on it
Labour accuses David Cameron of manipulating electoral system:
http://gu.com/p/4am25?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Well, that will please Mark Williams – the Electoral Registration Officer who “lost” 6000 voters in East Devon, was heavily criticised for it in Parliament and refuses to apologise for his mistakes:
Broken parking machines lead to massive increase in trade
After thieves smashed all four parking machines in Cardigan’s main car parks last month, custom in local stores soared by up to half. Council can’t find £22,500 repair bill, allowing drivers to park as they wish.
Dept of Works and Pensions fails audit for 26th consecutive year
Tories accused of “nationalising the planning system”
… “Tony Travers, director of the political research group LSE London, pointed out that the changes seemed to be “closer to nationalising some planning decisions than we’ve seen in the past, which is an interesting shift away from localism”.
Plans to build retirement properties on ” protected land” in Ottery
Ruud Jansen Venneboer, of Mazzard Farm, said: “Surely Ottery must have gone far beyond its housing stock [allocation]?
“It could not be in a worse spot, with no access and in a place that I thought was more or less safe from any further development.
“It is not close to any access roads. Anyone getting there would have to go through the already congested Ottery roads.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/homes_planned_for_worst_possible_spot_1_4146462
And, unable to learn from past mistakes, town councillors met with developers behind closed doors.
How will Ottery town and district councillor handle this – given that he has asked for his own land to be included in the Local Plan and he is a member of EDDC’s Development Management Committee.
His register of interests is here:
Being in charge of elections at EDDC means never having to say sorry and blaming your staff
Anyone else think this press release is another whitewash, hogwash, brainwash spin cycle.
Elections watchdog report confirms that complexity of polls contributed to errors
East Devon Returning Officer welcomes Electoral Commission comments and confirms improvements to service
The Electoral Commission has today (15 July) published its review of the multiple elections that took place on 7 May 2015 – an unusual occurrence, where for the first time since 1979 the General Election, District, Town and Parish Council elections all took place on the same day. To put this into context, in East Devon, election notices were published for a total of 119 elections covering four local authority boundaries (East Devon, Exeter, Mid Devon and West Devon).
The report – which includes the elections watchdog’s assessment of the performance of Returning Officers – highlights the many administrative issues that arose across the country, ranging from ballot papers issued in error to printing mistakes. But it also confirms that: ‘…the complexity of the polls was a contributing factor: errors were predominantly made in areas where more than one election was taking place…such complexity must be considered as an increased risk factor in the planning and delivery of the election(s).’
A lack of experienced staff was another problem that affected administration efficiency: ‘As most ROs rely on a small dedicated team of staff to organise elections, they rarely have additional experienced staff available to augment the core team to support the management of combined polls or where there are complex cross-boundary issues to resolve.’
However, overall satisfaction was good, as the Electoral Commission’s report found that:
• ‘Nine in ten people surveyed (91%) said the elections in May were well-run.’
• ‘Nearly all (94%) of those who voted in person at a polling station were satisfied with the process.’
• ‘Nearly all (97%) of those who voted by post were satisfied with voting this way. Just over 16% of electors chose to vote by post at the General Election, at the 2010 General Election, the figure was 15%.’
East Devon’s Returning Officer (RO), Mark Williams, is referenced in the report due to his failure to meet two of the Electoral Commission performance standards, as a result of two administrative errors, which may have had a detrimental impact on voters and those standing for election. These were:
1. Incorrect guidance on the back of the postal voting statement that potentially affected a number of postal voters in the district elections.
In response to this comment, Mark Williams said: “Fortunately this matter was identified very speedily and prompt corrective action was taken. I fully accept that the error shouldn’t have happened and I apologised at the time. Even though we issued in excess of 11,000 postal votes, only 14 postal votes needed to be re-issued as a result of the error. It was clear that postal voters used their common sense and followed the instructions on the ballot paper rather than the general guidance on the back of the postal voting statement.
“I know that comment has been made about the cost of the mail-out to those potentially affected by the mistake, but I can assure Council Tax payers that they have not been affected by this, as the cost was covered by ring fenced grants, which we received from HM Government.”
2. The second issue related to a temporary 24-hour arrangement that applied to district council postal votes as a result of concerns raised by a registered political party.
Commenting on this issue, Mark Williams said: “All ROs come under intense pressure during an election period and the Electoral Commission’s report is a timely reminder that we must comply with guidance and legislation despite the pressure of an election. In the case of this matter, it affected 12 postal votes for the district council, all of which were actually included in the count.”
Conclusion
Overall, Mark Williams feels that the 2015 elections were an intense, but successful experience, although he is at pains to point out that he and his team will be redoubling their efforts to ensure that the lessons learnt from these multiple elections are not repeated in the future. “I have a young team who did their very best to provide an excellent service to electors. I acknowledge that we fell short – as highlighted by the Electoral Commission – but when put in context, all 110,000 electors had the opportunity to cast their vote and the election results were robust and not challenged.
“We will be working with the Electoral Commission to identify and implement practical measures that will improve the voting process. Developing the resources of the elections and electoral registration teams is a key immediate priority and we are looking to recruit an additional officer for these services, who will be fully trained in the use of the specialist software that is used for electoral registration and elections. It is important that the high levels of trust that voters place in us are sustained.”
Scrutiny
A report on the issues that arose from the combined Parliamentary, District and Town & Parish Council elections will be presented to the Scrutiny Committee by the Returning Officer Mark Williams on 30 July 2015.
Knowle sold to Pegasus today
http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/07/15/knowle-sold-today-to-pegasus-life/
Interesting that they would take it on without planning permission (or maybe it is an option to purchase dependent on planning permission ) …. but presumably they assume it will be a straightforward formality which will be rubber-stamped when the time comes.
http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/07/15/knowle-sold-today-to-pegasus-life/
Mark Williams early exit from South Somerset
Wonder if there will be a gagging agreement between EDDC and SSDC re their discussions and decisions about Mr Williams sudden and unanticipated early exit as part-time CEO at South Somerset?
South Somerset will be losing over £100,000 on the deal and it seems EDDC is seamlessly doubling the CEO’s hours, costing us a fair old whack too as this will not have been included in this year’s budget.
We will probably never know.
Still, at least Mr Cohen should have much less to do with his boss back in the driving seat full time, which can only be a good thing. He will have time to reflect on the Information Commissioner’s comments that EDDC (under his lead for the relication project) was considered discourteous, unhelpful and misleading at the recent court case and he can think of ways to rehabilitate EDDC’s reputation – something that could take many hours.
