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12 Mar 2015

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Democracy, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, EDDC HQ, General Election, Grant Thornton, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Latest news

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Relocation…the key question

..was asked tonight by Sidmouth Cllr Graham Troman. Speaking at the special combined meeting two Committees ( Overview & Scrutiny, and Audit & Governance), he was bold enough to put the essential question “Could the contract (for sale of the Knowle) be signed before the election?” . “Yes”, said Chair-for-the-occasion, Cllr Tim Wood.

Later in the meeting, it was also confirmed that the sale contract could be signed within the so-called ‘purdah’ pre-election period.

Further report on tonight’s session, which became rather heated at times, to follow soon.

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12 Mar 2015

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Two questions to Cabinet last night

One was asked by Dr Cathy Gardner, a member of East Devon Alliance, who found a discrepancy in figures in the external auditors’ report. Her question to Head of the Relocation Project, Richard Cohen, was: “In paragraph 2 of the report from Grant Thornton and GLEES, the annual maintenance cost allowance is £145,000 per annum, but the maximum spend over the past five years was around £65, 000. How do you explain this?
The answer, from Mr Cohen and three of his colleagues, seemed to confirm there had been managed deterioration of the Knowle buildings (a familiar practice, some might say).

The next question came from possibly the youngest person ever to speak at an EDDC meeting, and who received a round of applause from the public present:
Here’s what she confidently said:
“Good Evening,
My name is Gemma Manley, I’m a Sidmothian, I am 16 and I am currently studying for my A-levels.
When it comes to the relocation project, like many others I am completely against it. However my question tonight is not why East Devon District Council think it is appropriate to refuse to prove to the public why this building is not fit for purpose. Nor why East Devon District Council feel it is appropriate to borrow millions to fund their absurd move. Nor even how they can sell one of East Devon’s greatest assets. But I want to simply ask, “Can the Leader of the council justify making the final decision on the project just weeks before the general and district elections? Does he honestly believe that this is the most democratic timing, especially when councillors will be asked to vote just BEFORE a Tribunal ruling on whether more documents, which EDDC wants to keep secret, should be revealed.
Thank you.

In case you missed our earlier post on the Cabinet meeting, you’ll find it here: https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/03/12/a-very-noisy-group-of-people-in-sidmouth-have-irritated-cllr-tim-wood/

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12 Mar 2015

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General Election, NHS (local)

What is the top election priority for 18-24 year olds recently interviewed?

BBC poll of 1,000 18-24 year olds and what’s their top priority?

For 42% of them?

Not the voting age, not under-30s jobs, not housing,

the NHS.

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12 Mar 2015

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Democracy, EDDC, Freedom of Information Act, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Transparency

Not what EDDC does, only what EDDC says …

If, as (current) Leader Diviani believes (as he has recently said, that the consultants reports of 2013 on relocation were “not relevant” to current meetings (and their rescheduling to end hours before the Information Commission’s decision on said disclosure) –

Why has EDZdC spent £10,000 plus on legal advisers to attempt keep them secret?

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12 Mar 2015

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Austerity cuts, DCC

Devon Libraries to become mutually owned

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-31846907

But, of course, if money is being saved, it has to come from somewhere. Volunteers (although dedicated, already fully stretched it communities and unfortunately inherently unreliable due to age and other committments) will need to run their local libraries on a shoestring, opening when they can be found rather than when the service is most needed.

Buildings will presumably be retained by DCC. If not, this will be an insurmountable problem for some libraries in older, outdated buildings, which will soon close or move to smaller and smaller and cheaper and cheaper premises until they gently disappear into the night with ne’er a trace.

When will this end? When we pay our community charges for no services, just to keep councillors and officers in meaningless jobs or( in EDDC’s case) to finance plush offices where all they do is service developers.

And, of course, if libraries do fail, they are on prime development land …

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12 Mar 2015

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“A very noisy group of people in Sidmouth” have irritated Cllr Tim Wood

True to form, East Devon District Council’s all-Conservative Cabinet tonight voted unanimously to press on with relocation from the Knowle.

There were two questions from the public, from Dr Cathy Gardner of East Devon Alliance, and from 16-year-old Gemma Manley. (We’ll post details later)

Five Sidmouth Ward members were present (no sign of Cllr Hughes).

Graham Troman spoke out against the loss of Sidmouth jobs; the rising asset value of the Knowle site; and of the potential better use of the 1980s purpose-built offices.

Peter Sullivan asked if the Town Council would get a pay-out from EDDC to help maintain the gardens. Richard Cohen replied that a deal would probably be struck with them.

Frances Newth wondered how much the local ‘hubs’ would cost ( Cohen  said “Hubs” (his own term!) “is a bit of a misnomer” . EDDC would provide services, using existing sites where possible, but this would become clearer “when we know what the needs are”.

Cllrs Drew and Kerridge didn’t have any questions, as “Everything’s been asked”.

Ward member for Exmouth, Cllr Tim Wood congratulated the Sidmouth members “for fighting so well on behalf of Sidmouth”, and said they had got “an extraordinarily good deal. “I get annoyed”, he said,”When we are told we are abusing Sidmouth’s heritage”.  (Was he referring to the SVA publication, ‘A Stately Pleasure Dome’ ?).

But Cllr Pook reminded his colleagues that the relocation build costs “were going over our  budget”, and that he would rather have a “break even situation” . (EDWatch note: Yes, whatever happened to “Cost neutral”?)  “I take on board your challenge to keep costs down”, promised Richard Cohen.

Cllr Ian Thomas seemed to have overstepped the mark with his long list of concerns. The Leader impatiently chided him, saying  “How many questions are you going to ask?”  One of those questions was about risk, and what the consequences would be  “in the event that no planning permission was given”.

Rounding up the debate, Cllr Diviani acknowledged that £7-8million for Knowle “was not the best deal I thought we might have got” . There was “a blight on it from the planning application that got turned down”, he claimed, putting the blame for the low price entirely on Save Our Sidmouth!!!

 

 

 

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11 Mar 2015

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Democracy, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, EDDC HQ, General Election, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Latest news, Local Plan, Mark Williams CEO EDDC

Unseemly haste leads to confusion at EDDC

Frantic rearrangement of EDDC’s schedule (“Nothing to do with the election” , said Cllr Paul Diviani at  this evening’s Cabinet meeting) has prompted a correspondent to send us this:

‘I trust that when the next set of EDDC councillors control the army of Knowledge communications officers, the EDDC website will continue to provide as much amusement (and possibly a bit more information) for local residents. See eddc-press-release-manageable-growth ‘

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11 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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Some of us are in it together, some of us aren’t

The post below, in which Independent councillor and potential Parliamentary candidate Claire Wright speaks of people having to choose between “eating and heating” reminds us of this post which appeared in November 2013 (NOT, of course, an East Devon Watch post!) at the time o the MPs expenses scandal was at its height.   He had become Minister of State at the Foreign Office on 4 September 2012.

It is believed that Mr Swire currently pays his own energy bills from his £100,000+ salary.

Swire Energy

Source: http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/mp-energy-expenses-fuel-poverty.html

Note:

Ministerial salaries:

Click to access m06.pdf

and here is a list of ALL their perks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaries_of_Members_of_the_United_Kingdom_Parliament#Current_permitted_salary_and_benefits:_Commons

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11 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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INDEPENDENT CLAIRE WRIGHT STILL GAINING ON CONSERVATIVE HUGO SWIRE IN DEVON EAST

Press release:

The Independent Claire Wright is making ground fast in the race to represent Devon East after the next General Election. Her odds, originally quoted at 66/1, have improved and now stand at 9/2 according to William Hill. Hugo Swire’s odds have deteriorated again. In late February, he was standing at 1/12 and is now at 1/6. This further confirms Claire Wright’s position as the main challenger to the Conservative who has held the seat since 2001 but who has been widely criticised for neglecting the constituency. UKIP remain in third position, at 18/1, followed by the Liberal Democrats at 40/1. Labour trails in last place at 100/1.

Claire Wright, already regarded as the independent with the best chance of success in the election across the whole of the UK, welcomed the latest confirmation of her position.

“My team and I have been working hard to show that I have the best chance of unseating Mr. Swire. The local press has been full of supporting letters, not least in refuting some of my opponent’s ridiculous and patronising claims. For example, he wrote about independents ‘popping up’ and being ineffective in Parliament. I am delighted to have ‘popped up’, just like Mr Swire. We are both exercising our democratic rights. His claim that, effectively, a vote for anyone but him would lead to chaos, is preposterous. If independents can do nothing in Parliament, I cannot understand how a vote for me could lead to chaos!

“I started my campaign last June and my manifesto was launched in January. It was based on my experience as a town, district and county councillor and also on a survey that I undertook to find out what concerned local people. Since then, in many hundreds of conversations with local residents and representatives from local businesses, several key points have emerged repeatedly.

“Many voters are tired of the main parties, the system under which they operate and the absurd claim that ‘we are all in this together’. As I meet elderly people, now denied readily available hospital beds or local buses, I become angry.

“Eight supporters have given the Conservative party £12.2 million so far during this Parliament. Is it right that so much is given to so few to rule so many?

“I find it offensive that in this country, which has the fifth largest economy in the world, some people have to choose between heating and eating. It is clear to me that voters want significant change. They are angry and frustrated with Conservative-led government at central and local level. They want to be represented by someone who lives in the constituency, knows about its problems and will always be free to speak and free to act. If I am fortunate enough to be elected, I can promise that I shall listen to my constituents and work hard for them in Parliament.”

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11 Mar 2015

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The “new” and “improved” EDDC website – new but DEFINITELY not impproved!

From a correspondent. Imagine if you are a new “silver surfer” when EDDC says most of its services will be offered online only!

“I started to look for where the minutes for the last Overview and Scrutiny meeting and agenda for the next one could now be found.

Answer – Nowhere!!!! Or at least not at first sight.

On the home page as it is displayed you can go to:
Planning
Recycling & rubbish
Licensing
Environmental maintenance
Council Tax
Benefits and support
Under this list is a full width slider with colour photographs advertising:

View a planning application (on your mobile)
Countryside education
Countryside volunteering
Local and Community Nature Reserves
Home safeguard
Open for business (a self-advert for this new website)
and below that some links to News and Events items.

Could I find ANYTHING about Committees? Heck no.

But eventually I found a “Show A-Z of more Services” line which when I clicked gave me some more headings:

Building control
Business and investment
Cemeteries
Community safety
Consultation and surveys
Council and democracy
Countryside
Customer services
Dogs
Elections and registering to vote
Emergency planning
Environment
Feedback and complaints
Food hygiene and safety
Freedom of Information and Data Protection
Grants and funding
Health and safety
Homelessness
Housing
Jobs and careers
Noise
Parking
Parks, gardens and recreation
Pest control
Property services
Public toilets
Regeneration projects
Seaside
Sidmouth folk week
Visit

Did you spot it? No sign of the word Committee – but with some intelligent guessing I clicked on “Council and democracy” (“Find out who your councillor is, how the council operates and agendas for meetings”) and then “Committees and Meetings” and then “Overview and scrutiny committee” and then “Minutes” and then the date and hey presto, like magic (a very slow, and unimpressive type of magic though) there they were.

What exactly does this say about the importance of councillors and the meetings they attend which make the decisions when they are buried like this. And I am pretty Internet savvy and yet I had difficulty finding the link – so how will people who are not experienced with navigating websites hope to find it???

Of course I could have put “overview scrutiny” in the search box and found the O&S Committee quickly by that route. And some people will use search immediately. But some doddery old fools (like me) will try to navigate to the page and have significant difficulties in finding it when it is hidden and so many levels down.

The “old” web site may have looked tired, but the alphabetic index at the top was intuitive and enabled you to find what you wanted fairly quickly. By comparison, this “new” website may be built on new technology, but is ease of use is very poor indeed.”

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11 Mar 2015

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Democracy

Suffolk Tory county councillor refuses to resign after moving to USA

And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

All he has to do is attend one full council every six months – although even if he doesn’t, provided his colleagues accept his reason, he can still continue and get his £10,000 allowance plus expenses (which theoretically might cover his airfare and maybe even hotel accommodation). He can do this till 2017 when county council elections are next due.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-31832177

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11 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, Environment (local), General Election, Hugo Swire

River Otter beavers are healthy and can stay for at least 5 years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-31831665

Thanks to Independent Councillor and Parliamentary candidate Claire Wright who campaigned to keep them from the very beginning and liaised with Defra and Devon Wildlife Trust to ensure that, in line with local public opinion, they would be allowed to stay, if healthy.

Hugo Swire merely noted on his website that he was pleased to hear the news they might be allowed to stay.

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11 Mar 2015

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Misc

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Local newspapers … and in praise of bloggers!

Naming no names, but have some of them heard there will be local elections in May? Some obviously have and are closely covering the issues and the candidates. Others? Newspapers are supposed to cover NEWS. Are elections not news?

The (unofficial) newspaper “purdah” period will start in early April, when newspapers voluntarily agree to keep election information unbiased and balanced.

This is similar to, but not the same as local authority purdah when councils avoid controversial decisions which would bind the next council. Hence the undue haste for the decision on Knowle relocation. The majority party (Conservative) dare not risk leaving it to the next council to decide – even though they will be bound to the decisions and costings. Maybe they know something we don’t … nothing new there!

But, with some newspapers, we really won’t notice the difference.

Thank heaven for bloggers!

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11 Mar 2015

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Information? What’s that? EDDC’s “new” website

From a computer-savvy correspondent:

This morning is when EDDC are making another attempt to switch over to their new and improved (??) web site.

We should expect several things:

1. Links to documents on the old site will now be broken;

2. Links to documents on the new site before the switch over may now be broken;

3. A whole lot of information will no longer be available online – even relatively recent items (like minutes from over 12 months ago) and no longer available online – you will have to go cap in hand to (un-)democratic services to get hold of them.

Which is just what democracy needs in the run up to an election – an absence of the information needed to hold the current administration to account.

There was a warning on the old web site for a few days that it would be down from 10am, but they appear to have ignored that and started early.


Note: how (in)convenient that this should take place just before major meetings and local elections?

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11 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Local Plan, NPPF

Community Voice on Planning adds its plea for planning reform

The planning system is in urgent need of reform

SIR – How many communities across the country have fought hard and continue to fight against inappropriate development only to be swept aside by a planning system that is now so heavily weighted in favour of developers and development? The Government’s complacent response to the Communities and Local Government Committee’s (CLG) recent report on the operation of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) seems to reject the suggestion that there are problems.

One particular concern of ours is the over-harsh application of the presumption in favour of development, when according to the Government many councils do not yet have an up-to-date local plan in place and are deemed not to have a five-year land supply. The Government believes that this will force all councils to accelerate their local plans and to a certain extent this is true, but at the same time they badly misunderstand local party politics. Councils do not suffer from rampant opportunistic exploitation by developers; it is local people and communities who suffer, but little is currently being done to protect them or the environment, pending the adoption of a new local plan.

The CLG supported our concerns, saying that “the NPPF is not preventing unsustainable development in some places” and that “inappropriate housing is being imposed upon some communities as a result of speculative planning applications”.

A key recommendation was that “the same weight is given to the environmental and social (dimensions) as to the economic dimension”. Whilst not agreeing with every aspect of the CLG committee report, we can at least see that it did understand the need to reform the operation of the NPPF. The Department for Communities and Local Government completely disregarded the point and clearly thinks that everything is going well.

In the run-up to the general election we are asking all political parties to publish their manifesto position on planning and, in particular, to state their position on the CLG recommendations. We also invite them to say whether, and how, they will protect people and communities from inappropriate development.

Above all we urge voters to vote only for party candidates who support proposals to rebalance the planning system.

Signed by COVOP members
covop.org

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10 Mar 2015

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EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation

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Combined Overview and Scrutiny/Audit and Governance agenda published – highlights

Comments from Grant Thornton:

Overall, our review found the expected governance arrangements to be in place and working effectively, with only 3 areas for improvement identified. These points have been discussed with and accepted by management as follows:

1) Although evidence was seen of the Council’s intention to have a Terms of Reference for the Officer Working Group, no formal record of this was found at the time of the audit. There are no concerns over the effectiveness of the Officers Working Group or the decision making processes within it. The structure and operation of the Group reflects and supports the Executive Members Group, (where a Terms of Reference had been formally agreed and documented.)

Management have agreed to formally approve the Terms of Reference of the Officer Working group at the next meeting.

2) The Monitoring Officer advised that the minutes of the Executive and Officer Working Group should be assessed at the point they are approved to consider the appropriateness of making them available publically. It was not clear from the minutes of these meetings whether this had been formally implemented.

Management have agreed to formally consider the appropriateness of releasing minutes into the public domain at the next Officer Working Group meeting.

3) The Council has responded to queries and requests for information whether raised through the Freedom of Information route or directly to officers. For the later to continue, the Council has recognised that a formal structure needs to be in place to guard against duplication of resource and ensure the information is shared appropriately.

Comments from SWAP:

EDDC have gone to Court to defend their decision regarding the partially upheld decision. The request is in relation to the publication of the project update reports (Numbers 1-6), used by the Officer Working Group. The complainant felt that they should be made available but EDDC considers that they contain commercially sensitive information. The case is currently ongoing.

In January 2014 the Monitoring Officer advised the Deputy Chief Executive and Project Manager that discussions with the Information Commissioner in respect of these cases had been helpful in guiding the Council into making appropriate decisions over the availability of minutes and reports. She commented that she was liaising with the Democratic Services Manager to update the committee report template to prompt the author to assess when a confidential committee report may be considered appropriate to put in the public domain.

The Monitoring Officer further advised that it could be appropriate for the same assessment to be made at the time meeting notes are agreed at the Executive and Officer Group. It was not clear from the minutes of these meetings whether this had been implemented. There is a risk that a consistent approach to the publication of Executive and Office Group meeting notes may not be operating effectively.

and finally:

4.2.4 The conclusions above are based solely on the results of the Model and therefore do not consider any qualitative aspects of the options, and nor have we considered the extent to which the office relocation project will meet the Council’s service or efficiency aspirations/objectives
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/overview-and-scrutiny-committee/agendas/

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10 Mar 2015

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General Election, Transparency

Planning Minister Brandon Lewis in expenses row

Here we go again …
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/brandon_lewis_says_labour_accusations_of_taxpayer_funding_for_political_work_are_completely_false_1_3986627

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10 Mar 2015

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East Devon Tories, Phil Twiss

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Twissgate Two

Great coverage of “Twissgate Two” on Real Zorro!

http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/

Not only could you not make it up – you wouldn’t want to. This should not be happening here: we deserve better. And we can get it – if we vote him and his party out in May.

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10 Mar 2015

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NPPF, Planning System

Town and Coubtry Planning Association says deregulation and demoralisation of planning system is putting country at risk

A leading campaigning group has today warned that consistent deregulation and demoralisation of the planning system is putting the very fabric of our towns, cites and the countryside at risk.

In a pre-election manifesto ‘Building the Future’ the Town & Country Planning Association (TCPA) argues that there is a real danger that the planning system, a vital national asset, essential to the maintenance and well-being of the country, will soon be lost.

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the TCPA said:

“At its best, planning has proved to be a powerful tool to bring forward sustainable growth, and to deliver multiple benefits to our society including certainty and confidence for businesses, democratic rights for communities and protection for our environment, heritage and biodiversity.

“As we continue to battle with the nation’s housing crisis, good planning is needed as never before to plan for and create the homes and communities we desperately need. However the planning system as we knew it is being continually undermined and devalued though significant reforms and deregulation. Planning has lost all sense of the progressive social values that once lay at its core, and unless we are careful, is at risk of being destroyed altogether.”

The TCPA’s position is simple: good planning makes better places. The manifesto calls for action in the first 100 days of a new Government to restore the importance of planning as a key tool in delivering much needed new homes and communities. This includes taking steps such as creating a new legally defined purpose for planning based on sustainable development, the updating and effective deployment of New Towns legislation, and changing the National Planning Policy Framework to place social justice, equality and climate change at the heart of planning decisions. The manifesto additionally calls for better planning for cities, and stronger measures to ensure that councils work together to meet housing need.

Kate Henderson added:

“A new Government must act to restore the prominence of planning as an essential element to create the new homes, communities and infrastructure that the nation so desperately needs. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, planning must be seen as a positive proactive force for good and must be placed at the centre of political debate.”