… according to a UKIP election leaflet being circulated in Frome, which was so riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes a teacher could not resist the urge to mark (and fail) it!
Wouldn’t do at all for tourism providers in East Devon to have their boarders controlled by UKIP!
according to the East Devon graphic and remarks here:
Many people seen in the area of Exmouth Rugby Club, talking animatedly and clutching a lot of Parliamentary Candidate Claire Wright’s election literature. …There was standing room only for late arrivals to this latest in the series of Claire’s public meetings.
So tonight’s PPC hustings, also in Exmouth (Fri 17th April), should be interesting! Glenorchy Church at 7.30 pm. Organised by Exmouth Christians together. Come early to get a seat!
Exmouth: Friday 17 April
Glenorchy Church Hall. Organised by Exmouth Christians Together
East Devon Local Plan and Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule – Consultation on Proposed Changes:
I would like to draw your attention to a public consultation, which East Devon District Council is undertaking, regarding a series of proposed changes to the East Devon Local Plan and to the Community Infrastructure Levy Draft Charging Schedule.
These changes, together with supporting evidence for the local plan and information about our consultation, can be viewed on the council web site at: http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/emerging-plans-and-policies/the-new-local-plan/examination-and-hearing-sessions/
Proposed changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy, as well as supporting documents and forms for comments can be read at: http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/community-infrastructure-levy-cil/cil-examination/
The consultation will run for eight weeks, starting on 16 April 2015. Anyone can comment on the proposed changes and can reply to questions set by the appointed Planning Inspector. Responses must be received by the council at or before midday on Friday 12 June 2015 at the latest.
Responses received will be sent to Mr Thickett, the Inspector and it is envisaged that the first day of hearing sessions will start at 10 am on 7 July 2015 at the Council Offices in Sidmouth. Paper copies of the plan changes, together with supporting documents and response forms will be sent to libraries and Town Council offices in East Devon where they will be available to the public. We will also make paper copies available for inspection at the Council Offices, Knowle, Sidmouth EX10 8HL. Documents will be available during the normal opening hours for offices and libraries.
Congratulations to Vision Group for Sidmouth (VgS) for organising last night’s hustings, in a particularly civil atmosphere, thanks to the VgS Chair, Dave Bramley.
All candidates standing in Sidmouth and Sidford Wards, for election to East Devon District Council, had been invited. ONLY ONE current District Councillor, Christine Drew, turned up, making the absence of all the others appear all the more reprehensible.
Candidates who did take this opportunity to engage with the public were: Dawn Manley (East Devon Alliance Independent,iEDA, Sidford Ward); Matt Booth (iEDA, Sidmouth Town Ward);Cathy Gardner (iEDA, Sidmouth Town); Marianne Rixson (iEDA, Sidford);Christine Drew (Conservative, Sidmouth Rural); David Barratt (Independent, Sidmouth Rural); John Dyson (Independent, Sidmouth Town).
A broad range of topics were raised, including affordable housing; interaction between Town/ District/ and County Councils; current EDDC management style: neighbourhood plans, etc. All were thoughtfully addressed.
Hats off to the iEDA Independents,for their positive message of how together they could improve the way things are done at District Council. Their pooled knowledge of local issues, and individual expertise in such things as sources for grants; tourism and marketing; and most urgently, the importance of encouraging neighbourhood plans, was impressive.
Next VgS hustings, for Sidmouth Town Council candidates, is at Sidmouth College, 6pm, on Tuesday 21 April. Wonder how many candidates will take advantage of this pre-election platform offered to them? We’ll see.
If you haven’t checked that you are registered to vote, time is running out!
The deadlines for registering, and for postal votes, are in this press release (14 April) from EDDC:
Last chance to join the register before polling on 7 May
Residents of East Devon are reminded that there’s just under a week left to
ensure you have registered as an elector and can vote on 7 May. The last day
for receipt of applications is Monday 20 April.
If you are already registered, but want to have a postal vote rather than
going to a polling station on election day, time is also running out. You
must apply by 5.00 p.m. on Tuesday 21 April to ensure you can vote by post.
Details of all the candidates in the Parliamentary election and for district
and parish council wards are now on EDDC’s website at:
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/election-documents
The website also carries information about the opening times and locations
of polling stations around the district.
Register online
Don’t forget that under the new system of Individual Elector Registration
(IER) it is up to each individual to register, not the head of the household
as before. If you still haven’t registered to vote, you can do so online at:
http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
To get help with registering to vote or to ask for a postal voting
application form, you can also contact the district council’s Electoral
Services team on 01395 517402, or email: electoralservices@eastdevon.gov.uk
With the General Election and local elections now less than a month away,
being registered as a voter is obviously necessary so you can have your say.
But there are other advantages too – like finding it easier to get a credit
card, take out a loan or even obtain a mobile phone.
Don’t delay. Do it today!
who has some interesting insights into pre- and post- election district council makeup:
Eight out of ten low income households in the South West are seeing no sign of improving finances, a study has revealed.
A new survey commissioned by the national charity Turn2us has found that, despite a recovering economy, 80% of low income households across the South West of England have seen no sign of their financial situation improving. …
EDW ran a story earlier in the year entitled – Wainhomes at it again – and indeed they are at it YET again, this time in North Devon – in Westward Ho!
Residents still feel that planning restrictions being ignored, incl foul drainage system plans supposed to be submitted before work starts. It all sounds VERY familiar to Feniton residents – indeed if you just changed the location and name it would be pretty much the same.
Torridge is where our old Chief Planner Kate Little rules the roost – so even THAT’S familiar!
A fresh public consultation on the future blueprint for planning in East Devon will be launched on Thursday 16 April and will run until Friday 12 June.
Planning Inspector Anthony Thickett has advised East Devon District Council of the matters that he wishes to see consulted upon, following the completion of extra work that planning officers were required to do to supplement the previously submitted draft Local Plan.
The Inspector has given the council a list of questions and these will be available for interested members of the public to view online, at Knowle and at libraries and town council offices* across the district for a period of eight weeks.
As before, it will be possible for people to submit comments online or on forms that may be emailed or sent through the post. These will be available on the council’s website and at the various access points around East Devon. The online documents can be accessed at:
In this final round of consultation, the council will be asking residents to comment only on revisions to the earlier version of the draft Local Plan.
The Inspector’s questions that are open for comment will be grouped together in four clusters, plus there will be a fifth section for comment on any proposed changes not covered by the Inspector’s questions.
The four specific clusters concern:
• Housing levels and development in the plan
• Gypsy and Traveller provision
• Site allocations
• Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
CIL supporting documents and forms for making comments can be viewed at: http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/community-infrastructure-levy-cil/cil-examination/
Each access point will have a package of information available, including guidance notes explaining what the Inspector wants to know and how to fill in the electronic forms or paper documents.
Comments must be received by 12 noon on Friday 12 June 2015 at the very latest. The responses received will be collated and sent on direct to the Inspector for his consideration. It is anticipated that the Inspector will be able to reconvene hearing sessions in July.
How can the Midweek Herald announce that it entered a voluntary period of purdah until after the General Election and then run (again) an item on the so-called EDDC Tourism Champion on the “possibility” of Jurassic Coast water- borne transport – a project ruled out last year by ALL partners involved because of the prohibitive cost and the difficulty of constructing appropriate jetties?
Where were the balanced comments of other potential town councillors on this already-buried project?
As you can see on our HOME page, several pre-election hustings are being organised by independent bodies around the District. This evening, there’s one in Sidmouth, where for the first time, every single District Councillor is being challenged by Independent candidates. So, tonight’s hustings is a particularly newsworthy event for the press, who will be there.
St Francis Hall, Woolbrook, will be open from 7.30pm, and the hustings will start at around 7.50pm. Questions in advance, please, to Dave Bramley (VgS Chair) or submit them on arrival, to the organisers.
For details of the meeting, and to contact Dave Bramley, click here: https://www.visionforsidmouth.org/calendar/2015/april/district-council-hustings.aspx
The full list of Sidmouth Election Candidates is on the front page of the latest edition (14 April) of Pullman’s View from Sidmouth. You can’t miss the headline: ‘Independent alliance target Sidmouth’!
All over the country:
Unintended consequences?
Housing associations set to be crippled by Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy policy will launch a legal challenge against the move, they have said.
The Tories announced today that they will force housing associations to sell off homes at a fraction of their value despite warnings that the policy could cause the not-for-profits to go bankrupt.
Tony Stacey, chair of a group of 100 housing associations and chief executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association, told trade publication Inside Housing when the policy was first mooted in March that he would “definitely” launch a challenge.
“I would definitely challenge it legally. This is so fundamentally critical to us. It would shoot up to the top of our risk map if it was confirmed. We are duty bound morally to fight it in any way we possibly can,” the Placeshapers chair told the publication.
Other housing association chief executives are quoted as saying they “would be surprised” if a legal challenge did not happen because the policy would risk the viability of the entire social housing sector.
Because housing associations are private not-for-profit businesses, forcing the sale of homes at below market value could potentially breach Article 1, Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone the “right to the peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions”.
Industry sources also say charity law would have to be changed to accommodate the move because charities, including many housing associations, are prohibited from selling off their assets at below market value.
Today’s move by the Conservatives was criticised by both the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation, which represent housing associations and the industry at large.
Ruth Davison, the Federation’s policy director, said: “We fully support the aspiration of homeownership but extending right-to-buy to housing associations is the wrong solution to our housing crisis.
“Following 40 years of successive governments’ failure to build the homes the country needs, soaring rents and house prices and the biggest baby boom since the 1950s, ensuring that there enough homes today and tomorrow must be our nation’s top priority.”
A spokesperson for the Federation said they would need to see the detail of the policy before they could say whether they would support a legal challenge.
CIH deputy chief executive Gavin Smart said he feared “the figures simply won’t stack up” for the extension.
“Right-to-buy has already had a huge impact on the supply of genuinely affordable homes, which is being cut at a time when more and more people are in need. The next government should be reviewing the way the policy currently works, not extending it,” he argued.
David Cameron officially announced the policy in a speech today, arguing that it could benefit 1.3 million families and turn Britain into a “property-owning democracy”.
“We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life,” he said.
John Healey, a former Labour housing minister, described the policy as a “cheap Thatcher tribute act” and said it would worsen Britain’s housing shortage.
and more reasons why it is a poorly-thought out policy:
Press release from Claire Wright, Independent Parliamentary Candidate
Devon East, where the junior Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire was the local MP and who had a majority of 9,000 in 2010, is now a marginal seat according to the Electoral Reform Society.
Meanwhile Claire Wright, with substantial local government experience, and backed by hundreds of local helpers, is considered by Ladbrokes to be the Independent with the best chance of success in the general election of any Independents in the whole of the UK. The bookies confirm that Claire’s odds have improved further and faster than any genuine, non-local issue Independent for many years. Now considered to be the outstanding challenger to the previous incumbent, Claire continues to garner support and to attract financial contributions from individuals as she will not accept donations from big business.
The backing for Independents in East Devon is not confined to Claire Wright. It also applies at the level of district council. At present, the East Devon District Council is dominated by Conservatives, as it has been for many years.
Two months ago, the East Devon Alliance, previously a successful pressure group, announced that it would form an umbrella group to support candidates wishing to stand at the District council election. Of the 29 wards to be contested, 24 will be fought by Independent candidates. A total of 37 Independent candidates will be standing across the district and 22 will be “Independent East Devon Alliance” on the ballot papers and 15 will be Independent.
Other parties will be fielding 96 candidates but, for the first time ever, the number of Conservatives, at 57, will be overshadowed by the number of non-Conservatives, which is 76.
Paul Arnott, the chairman of the East Devon Alliance said that “taken with the unstoppable rise of the Independent Parliamentary candidate for East Devon, Claire Wright, this phenomenal offer by 37 Independents to the people of the district proves that East Devon better represents the desire for a change in democracy than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.”
Westpoint has applied for an exemption to its planning permission to allow timed car trials on its site. Obviously this is a concern as it is likely to be very noisy and could potentially cause additional pollution to the area too..
This is the link to the planning application (15/0139/VAR):
https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=NIGLWSGHHHM00
Save Clyst St Mary spokesperson, Gaeron Kayley, says:
“Having spoken to The Parish Council, I can confirm there will be a public meeting in the School Hall on Wednesday 15th April Starting at 19.30″
New kid on the block making the Tories very worried …..
Remember, the Electoral Officer fir East Devon is relying on national publicity only for registration – there will be no special push to enrol voters in East Devon specifically.
If you know someone who has not registered, or you want to do it yourself, it is easy and you can do it here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR A POSTAL VOTE
Make sure you return your postal vote so that it arrives by polling day, otherwise it will not be counted. A Freepost envelope is included in your postal ballot pack. But, if you are sending it from overseas, you will need to pay the postage.
If it is too late to send your vote back by post, you can hand it in on polling day to the returning officer at your local council, or drop it off at a polling station. For further information contact the Returning Officer.
