Sidmouth: Wednesday 15 April
organised by Vision Group for Sidmouth
District Council Hustings. 7.30 pm for 7.50 start. St Francis Hall, Woolbrook EX10 9XH .
Questions in advance to info@visionforsidmouth.org
East Devon Tories don’t want development in Cranbrook to be controlled by a “politically motivated” town council!
Reading between the lines it seems to suggest that people in Cranbrook will be left to find their own money for their own projects especially as
“The Economic Development Strategy recommends that we work with the community enterprise company [in Cranbrook], because it has greater access to funding, is able to conduct business and enterprise activity more freely than a town council and is not politically motivated.”
So, EDDC Conservatives don’t want development in Cranbrook controlled by a town council – interesting! Seems that polling might have shown that many people in Cranbrook might well not vote Tory or think the East Devon Tory Way!
Or perhaps their strategy is that ALL town councils should be replaced by an “Economic Development Strategy” – maybe on the lines of the Local Plan’s concentration on “high economic growth”.
Source: http://www.theexeterdaily.co.uk/news/local-news/enterprise-development-strategy-cranbrook
‘Peoples’ Voice on Planning’ event has support from all but one Party!
About a hundred people from various parts of East Devon gathered on the lawn terraces at Knowle on Sunday afternoon 12th April to listen to speeches from parliamentary candidates and others about the national planning set-up.
The event was part of a nationwide Day of Action called for by Community Voice on Planning (Covop) and was organised by Covop trustees and Vision Group for Sidmouth.
Parliamentary candidates representing all parties, except the Conservatives ( from both the Honiton and Tiverton and the Devon East constituencies) gave their views on the national planning system and in particular the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
All of them promised reforms, mostly involving prioritising brownfield developments, protecting the countryside and building more affordable homes for local people. Conservative candidates were unable to attend and failed to respond to requests to send a written statement.
The first speaker was ex-judge Ian McKintosh, of East Devon Alliance and Covop. After reviewing the situation nationally and locally, he argued that local communities were being ignored in favour of developers.
Caroline Kolek, Labour candidate for Honiton and Tiverton, claimed that Labour would stop land-banking and prioritise brownfield sites. She shared her slot with Henry Brown, district councillor candidate for St Paul’s ward, Honiton,who made the case for more affordables for local young people.
Paul Edwards of the Green party and candidate for Tiverton and Honiton, said the countryside was our greatest resource and should be protected.
John Kelly, standing in for Andrew Chapman, UKIP parliamentary candidate for Devon East, who was indisposed, argued that the planning crisis was caused by EU regulations.
Stuart Mole, Liberal-Democrat candidate for Devon East, contended that the reforms recommended by the recent Communities and Local Government committtee should be immediately instated, for instance the proposal that all planning permissions be counted towards the 5-year land supply.
Claire Wright, Independent candidate for Devon East, put the blame for the massive increase in inappropriate development squarely on the government’s deregulation of the planning system and on the Local Council’s developer-bias and failure to produce a Local Plan.
Robert Crick, for Vision group of Sidmouth, read a litany of some of the inappropriate developments approved in the district in the past three years together with statistics provided by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. These included the prospect of about a thousand houses a year in East Devon until 2031.
A Covop petition, to be presented to the new government, was handed out along with a short guide to the planning system and suggested reforms. The petition is available online at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/covop2015
Supermarket workers claim £11 billion in benefits
More than enough to cover current losses in the NHS.
So, basically, we taxpayers subsidise the supermarkets, they reap bigger profits, their sharp accountants make sure there are lots of overseas accounts and minimise the taxes they pat.
Nice one – for the supermarkets!
Conservative Party identity crisis: big business, cronies and morality
In today’s Observer leader, Tim Montgomerie, co-founder of lobby group The Good Right is quoted as saying his party is “going through an identity crisis with its association with individualism, cronyism and big business and “survival of the fittest”.
American philosopher Michael Sandel is also quoted: “Who does the economy serve?” he asks and “welcomes more discussion on morality in politics and public discourse”.
Well, there is plenty of talk in East Devon about Big Business, cronyism and morality in public life!
EDDC and the Case of the Mysterious Numbers
An article in ine of today’s newspapers is about health and the figures for Body Mass Index and cholesterol ( Sunday Times). It makes the point that figures for “healthy” BMI and cholesterol were picked arbitrarily and based on little firm evidence and may be quite wrong.
Rather like EDDC’s old AND new annual housing figures.
Several readers have made the point that they can find no evidence at all for the figure of 950 houses a year for the next 18 years in any of the latest Local Plan documents. All sorts of figures are mentioned for all sorts of scenarios but 950 does not seem to be one of them.
Perhaps this is why Mr Thickett, the Inspector who is usually so quick at responding to EDDC, has yet to reply to EDDC’s submission of the new draft which they sent to him on 18 March 2015 (with Community Infrastructure Levy rate information sent on 30 March). He usually replies witin a few days.
This new draft must be giving him much food for thought.
Surely not yet another enormous blunder that will allow a developer free-for-all to continue well beyond the life of this (currently) Conservative-controlled district council with its “economic growth” at all costs mantra?
East Devon Alliance: candidates on You Tube
EDA candidate videos now going on Youtube.
Just search for East Devon Alliance and there they are!
They will also be linked from the candidate pages on their website.
eastdevonalliance.org.uk
Twenty-first century technology for twenty-first century candidates!
Protest meeting tomorrow at Knowle 3 pm Community Voice on Planning
Many speakers including local prospective parliamentary candidates – see links in Dates for Your Diary for more information.
A Good Day Out! And the more placards the better!
UKIP says cycle lanes discriminate against older people
… because most of the people using them are young!
They obviously haven’t cycled around East Devon – where many of the cyclists could hardly be described as young! Still, at least they haven’t blamed the EU! And they haven’t blamed people on mobility scooters for traffic jams.
“Meet the public” – no public allowed – or pay to listen!
Claire Wright’s public meetings are open to everyone. She has been visiting people in the constituency for months, she IS out on our streets pretty much every day, true public meetings are frequent, questions are not chosen, no charge is made, though individual donations are welcome. Compare with the following:
“Each of the “public meetings” I have attended have required people’s names to be on a list to get in. I saw a woman showing her passport to those running the door at Tony Blair’s event in Sedgefield.
In Dudley, Ukip were charging their pre-screened audience £5 a ticket, for the privilege of submitting any questions they may wish to ask to a moderator, who selected the ones he liked and declined them even the opportunity of being allowed to read them out themselves.
On a vast deserted building site in Watford, sanitised even of construction workers, we looked at Clegg looking at some architect’s drawings. Then we drove to Cardiff and waited outside a factory test kitchen while he made a pancake. …
… But surely the ultimate positive example of politicians going walkabout somewhere real is last year’s Scottish referendum. I didn’t cover that, but those who did, and friends who were there, tell me the leaders and big beasts were out on the streets and available for interaction. Can it be a coincidence that the campaign invigorated politics in a way many had imagined impossible?
Yet it feels a million miles away from the current electoral offering. At many Tory events, specially selected activists are made to stand behind Boris or Cameron or whoever is speaking, holding aloft campaign slogans. In the still pictures which make the news, it looks as though the politician’s speech is rousing a crowd of supporters to wave placards with riotous approval. In real life, this dynamism is a sham. The supporters are static, posed in bizarre tableaux vivants, their arms presumably getting more and more tired.
The effect of this, and indeed of all the parties’ stagey micromanagement, is to do a terrible disservice to the spectators, who are, after all, the voters. Placed in these ultra-managed situations they cease to really be people. They become people-effect wallpaper. Meanwhile, politicians withdraw from civic spaces in favour of their own kitchens. Unless this way of doing business is radically altered, we are reaching a stage where it would be less embarrassing or absurd to green-screen elections.”
Lies,, damned lies – and Party Manifestos!
Interesting discussion on the Today programme about Party Manifestos and promises.
Three well-known historians agreed that they count for nothing and should be seen at best as aspirational and at worst as fantasies.
Is this aspirational or fantasy?
Is the Party cat going up the the stairs or down or Photoshopped!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/10/cat-upstairs-downstairs-photo_n_7040446.html
If you can’t whip ’em, try seduction! Fifty shades of blue?
Usually well-informed sources tell us that Paul Diviani and Andrew Moulding have been seen together being very, very friendly and obliging to an independent candidate.
Now why should that be, when, as Tory Whip Phil “I’ve never whipped anyone in my life” Twiss memorably said: Independents never do anything useful for their electors?
Is it remotely possible that Paul and Andrew are desperately trying to nobble a few new recruits to make up the Tory losses expected on May 7th?
Sidford business park
Whilst it is true that, at EDDC, it was Councillors Troman (in particular) and Hughes (in general) who helped to get the ridiculous Sidford Fields business park deleted from the draft local plan, it was the constant work of EDA members in Sidford, Sidmouth and beyond, that kept the issue at the forefront of the discussions and publicity that led to the change:
The remarks of CEO Mark Williams about that change are mind- blowingly insulting. He said:
“The inspector has already heard everything we have said and is yet to tell us what his view is on that part of the application. He may recommend that this site is not suitable and should be removed. It’s his decision now, not yours.
“It’s your funeral if you want to take it out.”
What he did not add is that, entirely without consultation or reference to any committee, except the Development Management Committee on the day, FIVE extra business parks, closer to Exeter, had been added to the draft recently.
A massive number of changes have been made to the latest draft, yet this one amendment, made by democratic decision in a transparent way, is the only one Mr Williams was worried about.
The Sidford Fields site was added AFTER public consultation on the first draft local plan, with no explanation whatsoever for its inclusion, as noted in a letter in this week’s Sidmouth Herald.
Councillor Mike Allen, in the same article, laid the blame squarely on Councillor Andrew Moulding:
“Cllr Moulding was accused by Cllr Mike Allen of being the person responsible for the allocation’s original inclusion in the plan.
“Cllr Allen said: “There’s no demand, no economic case and it would damage the tourism industry in Sidmouth. There’s no justification for keeping it. Please could we get rid of this site once and for all.”
Anyone making a Freedom of Information request for correspondence or meetings about inclusion/exclusion of the site?
Daily Telegraph shows East Devon as a marginal seat
(note: this link takes a long time to load on slow broadband)
East Devon Alliance Press Release
Just two months ago the East Devon Alliance announced that it would form an umbrella group to support candidates wishing to stand at the District Council election on May 7th 2015. Yesterday, nominations closed.
Of the 29 wards to be contested, 24 will be fought by Independent candidates. A total of 37 Independent candidates have come forward to stand across the district, of whom 22 will be “Independent East Devon Alliance” on the ballot papers, and 15 will be Independent.
57 Conservatives will be standing, 19 Liberal Democrats, 6 Labour and 5 Greens. Despite free national news coverage every day for the last year, Ukip can only raise 9 candidates. For the first time ever the number of Conservative candidates – 57 – is overshadowed by the number of non-Conservatives – 76. In an historic first, the people of East Devon now have a genuine free choice at the election to entirely change the guard at their district council.
In the lead up to nominations a Conservative councillor, Phil Twiss repeatedly scaremongered the local electorate by absurdly suggesting the Independent movement was an alliance of left of centre groups. Yesterday this was shown for the false assertion it always was. Between them, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Greens are fielding no fewer than 30 candidates of their own, who will rightly feel insulted by him.
Of more significance to him and his party comrades is that two of the most outstanding Independent candidates are well-respected members of the EDDC Audit and Governance Committee, who have honourably resigned from the Conservative party in order to stand as Independents in their areas, with the real expectation that they will be re-elected on May 7th.
East Devon Alliance Chairman Paul Arnott said, “Taken together with the unstoppable rise of 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 change in democracy than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.”
Express and Echo on East Devon elections
The Express and Echo today reports today that “the surge in Independents going for the seats can be attributed to the East Devon Alliance campaign group, which has transparency and openness at its heart, re-launching itself in February as an umbrella organisation for prospective independent councillors.
The aim was to give independents who share the objectives of the alliance, the opportunity to explain to voters who they are and what they stand for, ensuring they have equal opportunity of notoriety as their party specific counterparts.
In order to comply with electoral law the group had to register as a party with the Electoral Commission.’
Is Claire Wright attracting bigger audiences than David Cameron?
A quick headcount seems to reveal about 80 people (including one assumes some party apparatchiks). Claire Wright had around 120 attendees at her meeting in Sidmouth last week.
Fracking and its effects on the countryside
Statement from East Devon Alliance Chairman, Paul Arnott
“Nominations for the East Devon District Council closed on April 9th, and a published list of candidates is at the link below. The headline news is that there is a genuinely historic representation of Independent candidates. No fewer than 24 of the 29 wards are being contested by an Independent. 37 Independents in total are standing. And 22 of them are standing under the East Devon Alliance banner.
In a comic twist, Conservative councillor Phil Twiss – who was in the local papers again this week trying to characterise Independents as Reds-Under-The-Bed – will have to explain to the public why two of the Independent candidates were, until their honourable resignation from his party, serving Conservative councillors. Like so many of us, they’d had enough. The phoney war is over. Now let’s make every day count.”
Read more at: http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/
Parish council elections: many councils returned unopposed and some with too few councillors
The following town and parish councils WILL have elections in May 2015 there being more nominees than seats:
Axminster Town, Budleigh Salterton, Clyst St George, Dalwood, Exmouth Brixington, Exmouth Halsdon, Exmouth Town, Exmouth Witycombe Raleigh, Gittisham Village, Honiton St Michaels, Honiton St Pauls, Kimington, Lympstone, Membury, Offwell, Ottery St Mary (Tipton St John), Plymtree, Seaton, Sidmouth North, Sidmouth Primley, Sidmouth West, Stockland, Yarcombe.
The following councils will not face election run offs either because they have the same number of councillors as seats, or too few people have put themselves forward for nomination, so all will be returned uncontested. In some cases, too few people have put themselves forward and there will need to be co-option, or failing that, further elections.
All Saints, Awliscombe, Axminster (Raymonds Hill), Axminster Weycroft, Axmouth, Alyesbeare, Beer, Bicton, Brampton Speke, Branscombe, Broadclyst, Braodham, Buckerell, Chardstock, Clyst Honiton, Clyst Hydon, Clyst St Mary, Colaton Raleigh, Colyton, Combpyne/Rousden, Cotleigh, Cranbrook, Dunkeswell, East Budleigh, Exmouth Littleham, Farway, Feniton, Gittisham kVale, Hawkchurch, Luppitt, Monkton, Musbury, Newton Poppleford (Harpford), Newton Poppleford (Venn Ottery), Northleigh, Otterton, Ottery St Mary North, Ottery St Mary Town, Ottery St Mary West Hill, Payhembury, Poltimore, Rowe, Rockbeare, Shute and Whitford, Sidmouth East, Sidmouth Salcombe Regis, Sidmouth Sidbury, Sidmouth Village, Sidmouth South, Southleigh, Sowton, Stoke Canon, Talaton, Uplyme, Upottery, Upton Pyne, Whimple, Widworthy, Woodbury Exton, Woodbury Woodbury Salterton, Woodbury Woodbury.
