Well, quite a determined, well-qualified and varied team, judging from their VIDEO INTRODUCTIONS, (14 available now…and more in the pipeline) on the Candidates’ pages on http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk
Seems a dialogue with the East Devon public has started in earnest, at last!
That’s clearly the style of the IEDA candidate for the Exe Valley, who’s set up a new twitter account: Erin Whitcroft@ExeValleyVoice
… has still not been published, but in the meantime, this decision on Information Commissioner v Cardiff City Council is very pertinent and could be the case law or basis of future Freedom of Information requests about council-owned buildings and a council’s refusal to provide timely information.
Indeed, the final paragraph of this case states:
62. We have concerns about the way this appeal has been pursued by the Council, and its merit. The Tribunal is considering making an order for costs against the Council under rule 10(1) of the GRC’s Rules of Procedure 2009 because it would appear the Council has acted unreasonably in bringing these proceedings. We wish to provide the Council with the opportunity to make written representations as to why we should not make such an order and as to the amount of costs or expenses to be paid, if such an order is made, within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision. We would also invite the Commissioner to make any representations he wishes to make in relation to an order for costs and the amount of costs and expenses under rule 10(6), again within 35 calendar days of this decision.
Click to access City%20of%20Cardiff%20Council,%20EA-2014-0309.pdf
Wouldn’t you think with a situation as serious as this (postal voting information wrong and all postal voters in East Devon being contacted to re-cast their postal votes if necessary see below for stories) there would be press releases and high-profile information on the East Devon District Council website?
Not a bit of it – nothing so far in local, regional or national newspapers either by press release or news items.
Final chance to make up your mind or change your mind!
Remember, East Devon Conservatives say it is too close to call – your vote REALLY WILL COUNT this time round!
Sidmouth: Tues. 28 April 2015
VGS General Election Hustings 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm start.
Questions to be submitted in advance to info@visionforsidmouth.org
Cranbrook: Wednesday 29 April 2015
St Martin’s School – opposite Younghayes Centre
7.30 pm for 8.00 pm start 9.30 pm finish
“Red telephone boxes, sunlit Beefeater parades, smiling royals: London’s postcards can be misleading. South London artist Gram Hilleard has created a series of postcards showing the city as he sees it: grey skies, soulless skyscrapers and boarded-up shops. The series, entitled Developers Up Yours, attacks the capital’s rapid gentrification. “My family’s been in this area of London for the last 200 years,” says Hilleard, “but now the indigenous Londoners have been moved out. The city is so overwhelmed by money that Londoners themselves don’t count any more.” The postcards are at the Offsite gallery, London WC1, until 31 May.”
Here’s a taster:
It doesn’t seem to have changed since at least 2014 but today we have this WONDERFUL NEW IMAGE ON THE HOME PAGE!
Seems they haven’t yet heard about the stupendous fisaco with postal votes in East Devon (see posts below) but then it is a safe seat for our former MP and our currrent councillors isn’t it!
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/New-Ikea-set-open-late-2016/story-26392411-detail/story.html
Surely an Environmental Impact Assessment was needed and these things were spotted? A site such as this with the Estuary close by would have had one wouldn’t it ……
After all, EDDc does know what its doing and protects the environment doesn’t it?
Aah, spotted the flaw …..
Or are they so sure they will be re-elected they aren’t bothering much?
We haven’t seen any pictures of Hugo Swire and Paul Diviani together either …
Hugo Swire has a link on Twitter so you can find out what his party has planned for our area:
https://www.conservatives.com/yourarea.aspx
Unfortunately it forces you to put your postcode and email address – you can’t search for “East Devon” or “Sidmouth” anonymously so the data collected knows where you live within a few yards AND it signs you up to receive Conservative Party propaganda and fundraising emails until you opt out!
We chose not to use it! East Devon Watch likes its privacy!
The job is SEPARATE to any other post and each Returning Officer receives a fee for doing the job (often in excess of £20,000 per election) and a budget. It seems Mr Williams had a budget of more than £121,000 in 2010 to run this procedure:
“The specified services are—
(a)conducting the election;
(b)discharging the returning officer’s duties at the election; and
(c)making arrangements for the election.”
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/830/made
He got it wrong in 2011 too:
Here are the Performance Standards for Returning Officers – standard 1 on page 12 appears to have been breached:
Click to access Part-A-Returning-Officer-role-and-responsibilities.pdf
The explanation:
“All the District Elections and Town/Parish Council elections are administered by the Returning Officer for the relevant Constituency up until after the Constituency votes have been separated from the District and Town/Parish votes and the number of votes cast and spoilt papers, etc. has been reconciled with the Polling Station or postal voting accounts. At that point, the District and Town/Council votes are re-sealed into ballot boxes and transported to the relevant District Council on Friday 8th May for counting by the Returning Officer (Mark Williams) for the East Devon District Council.
So the postal voting instructions for East Devon Constituency were prepared by Mark Williams. The postal voting instructions for Tiverton and Honiton were prepared by Mid Devon Returning Officer and the postal voting instructions for Central Devon Constituency were prepared by West Devon Returning Officer.
So, it seems only Mark Williams (who has been the Returning Officer for East Devon for at least 9 years and maybe longer) made mistakes in the postal voting instructions. Therefore, the correction letter is only going to the multi-seat wards within the East Devon Constituency.
Mr Williams has presumably been the Returning Officer since he started at East Devon District Council – we are not sure how long he has been CEO and Returning Officer but we have traced it back to at least 2006!
From a correspondent:
“This is news hot from the East Devon election workers at the Knowle (today Sunday!).
They say they have had dozens of phone calls about the discrepancy between the “Instructions for voting by post” (i.e. vote ONCE only on Green ballot paper) and the Green ballot paper itself (where the instruction is to vote for the number of votes according to the number of seats).
The election worker at the Knowle is contacting all the people who left messages about the discrepancy in the instructions, to say the following action is being taken urgently:
1. A letter is being sent to all postal voters in the East Devon Constituency (NOT the Tiverton and Honiton or the Central Devon Constituencies).
2. The letter will explain that votes should be cast according to the instructions on the Green ballot paper, not according to the written “Instructions for voting by post”
3. If a person has already voted not in accordance with the instructions on the Green ballot paper, they should call Knowle and request a new ballot paper to be issued, which will be substituted for their vote already returned.”
Will the head of the instigator of this cock-up have to roll? It belongs to CEO of East Devon District Council (and Returning Officer) Mark Williams, so who knows? He got off scot-free after his appearance before the Parliamentary Commission on Voter Engagement last December where he was heavily criticised and singled out in their report for failing to do enough to register missing voters, so maybe the Teflon coating will remain – especially if the “same olds” remain in power at EDDC.
What will now happen if some people who had followed the instructions on the WHITE (wrong) paper do not cast new votes on the GREEN (correct) paper and the seat can only be decided by a handful of votes fewer than the number of incorrect postal votes for that ward?
NB: seeking clarification as to why workers state remediation letters are going out only to the “East Devon Constituency” as East Devon District Council covers THREE Parliamentary constituencies – East Devon (currently Swire), Tiverton and Honiton (currently Parish) and Mid-Devon (currently Stride). It seems unlikely that wrong instructions went out only to the “East Devon constituency” when the district elections are not governed by Parliamentary Constituency boundaries but by Local Authority boundaries which are very different.
Now, if incorrect voting instructions are confined only to the East Devon Parliamentary Constituency, that would need some explaining as separate instructions would have been produced for different areas of East Devon!
Anyone who’s been to the new town of Cranbrook lately, will be interested in this link: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/where-we-live-now-new-town-home-town.html
Was it Churchill who once said, we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us…
Four new candidate videos have been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed from the following candidate pages:
Mark Daugherty – Exmouth Brixington
Val Ranger – Newton Poppleford and Harpford
Matt Coppell – Ottery Rural
Steve Horner – Yarty
This brings the number of videos available to watch up to 14, the other candidates being:
Robert Crick – Exmouth Littleham
Les Cotton – Budleigh
Megan Armstrong – Exmouth Halsdon
Rob Longhurst – Woodbury and Lympstone
Marianne Rixson – Sidmouth Sidford
Geoff Jung – Raleigh
Dawn Manley – Sidmouth Sidford
Cathy Gardner – Sidmouth Town
Martin Shaw – Seaton
Ben Ingham – Woodbury and Lympstone
Read more at: http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/change-log/20150425/new-candidate-videos-available/
If they are Conservatives you know almost nothing, unless it is Stuart Hughes in which case you probably know too much!
If they are East Devon Alliance Independent candidate you will know their key issues, priorities, motivation and background and be able to consult a video, blog, gallery and contact information
http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/
Transparency and true localism – knowing exactly what they stand for and why and what they intend to DO without party political interference at district level – that’s the name of the game … but it seems some people in some old parties haven’t yet grasped this.
Probably for the same reasons that Swire should be afraid of Claire Wright!
http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20150425/281487864894772/TextView
Good to see a member of the judiciary recognises this problem, even if political parties and the police don’t:
“Last year Mawrey repeated his warning that postal voting enabled electoral cheating on an “industrial scale”. …
…”Challenges should be governed by simpler, modern and less formal rules of procedure allowing judges to achieve justice in the case while having regard to the balance between access and certainty,” it proposes. …
” … In his 200-page judgment on Rahman, Mawrey pointed out that although the election court is a civil hearing, “the criminal standard of proof, namely proof beyond reasonable doubt” is applied. Candidates, unless “a mitigating factor is established”, are deemed responsible for the acts and omissions of their agents. …
“Dr Toby James, senior lecturer in politics at the University of East Anglia and author of Elite Statecraft and Election Administration, said the long delay between last May’s mayoral vote in the east London borough and the election court’s ruling this week highlighted the need for a more speedy resolution process in electoral disputes.
“Imagine what would happen after the general election in two weeks’ time when you have disputes arising from a couple of constituencies and very close party results,” he told the Guardian. “It’s a Victorian procedure. Election justice should be quicker and then we would see if there’s more signs of fraud.”
