But Phil Twiss said that I would be upstaging Claire WRIGHT …..!
Merry Christmas to all our readers
We shall be back in the New Year …
… oh, how we shall be back – inquiring, rummaging, uncovering, challenging, snooping … call it what you will …
… for us, the not-so-silent majority in East Devon.
Knowle? Me? What do I know? Ask her!
It’s official: Swire backs Claire Wright on Knowle and Diviani ignores both of them!
The commonsense call from Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Cllr Claire Wright, to put EDDC’s office relocation project on hold, has now somewhat belatedly been echoed by the current East Devon MP, Hugo Swire.
Despite this, the New Year message about Knowle from EDDC Leader Paul Diviani is all too clear, as reported here: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/knowle-relocation-project-prudent-thing.html
Another “Twiss” moment
New HQ: a design idea for Mr Cohen
Cabinet Agenda 5 January 2015 at 5.30 pm (Knowle)
Wednesday 5 January 2015, 5.30 p.m. Knowle
Much about Cranbrook, Exmouth seafront, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, beach huts and next year’s budget.
Details to follow but one little paragraph may be of interest:
“Members have been presented with the Medium Term Financial Plan estimates showing a budget deficit in the order of £2.8m by 2020/21. This figure is an estimate which will continually vary and will also need to reflect on the messages in the recent Autumn Statement of continuing reductions in public spending, but what this position clearly indicates is a significant projected gap between what the Council is spending and the resources it will have available to it.”
Click to access 070115-cabinet-combined-agenda-public-version.pdf
Well, fancy that: South Somerset District Council has similar problems to ours
We share a Chief Executive and now, of course, we share a Monitoring Officer:
Local Plan – officers make decisions? No, no, no!
Does anyone recall seeing this letter, issued before the Local Plan inspection? Officers said they did not have the authority to make amendments to the plan – the Inspector disagreed VERY strongly.
Click to access letterinsp-eddc-insp5.pdf
What are we to make of this?
North Devon District Council on the move too
One interesting fact is that they estimate that it would cost £2m to demolish their current building.
It seems VERY fashionable these days to move HQ after a few years – wonder how long Honiton and Exmouth would be declared not fit for purpose?
http://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/news/civic_centre_exit_is_on_schedule_1_3884759
Councillor pecuniary interests: how they handle them in Dorset
So does he or doesn’t he …?
Several very reliable sources have said that current MP Hugo Swire heartily disagrees with EDDC’s current relocation plans to the point where he will go into print about it, rather than just talk about it as he apparently did last week in Sidmouth.
But still no sign of his views on his website or elsewhere – though the site does include a very interesting page that lists all the things a constituency MP COULD do for us if he were not so terribly busy at the Foreign office and rushing around the Middle East and Looking after Proctor and Gamble:
Rural Services Network Manifesto
Too late, too late … the nag has gone!
It belatedly appears Hugo Swire has suddenly realised that spending £11m plus on a new HQ is an EDDC Tory folly.
Councillor Troman, who has announced this, though there is yet no confirmation from Mr Swire, now only has to persuade all his other Tory councillors (including those from Sidmouth) to follow suit.
What a pity Mr Swire has not been on board since 2011 when this project was announced (indeed since 2007 when it was apparently first mooted by the Tory majority). And no peep from him as we tried to get access to the figures on the move (culminating in EDDC appearing at Exeter Magistrates Court, dragged there by the Information Commissioner) and nvo help at all when we pointed out the folly of an HQ on Exeter’s doorstep rather than in the middle of his constituency.
However, there is a General Election looming, so U-turns seem to be the order of things now.
But OUR loyalty goes to those brave Independent councillors (particularly Claire Wright, Ben Ingham and Susie Bond) who have pointed out these follies consistently and tried to right the wrong – to the rude and arrogant derision of the majority of Tory councillors.
What a pity they fail to see the stupidity of spending vast amounts of our money on themselves in a time of austerity and at the same time selling our silver. And what a pity it came only hours AFTER the full cabinet endorsed the move. When the announcement could have carried so much more weight if it had been made before the event. Whilst the stable door was still on its hinges, so to speak.
But, the ballot box awaits and we can have our say then – thank goodness!
Advanced draft neighbourhood plans are a material planning consideration according to Eric Pickles
Sidmouth Town Council unhappy with Chair of Development Management Committee for ignoring councillors
This letter, in the public domain, has been passed on to us:
It seems that ward councillors, even those of her own party, just don’t count in Mrs Parr’s world – where she appears to have become very regal …
MP to call for Knowle relocation to be put on hold?
EDA hears on the grapevine that this is East Devon MP Hugo Swire’s intention. Any truth in this rumour?
If so, Cllr Claire Wright has pipped him to the post (possibly not for the last time), at last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting…as reported on the front page of today’s Sidmouth Herald (Fri 19/12/14).
“Cullgate” spreads through the blogosphere thanks to “The Independent”
East Devon’s recent “cullgate” affair has reached the national newspapers, in this snippet from ‘Andy McSmith’s diary’ headed Misplaced Tory sensitivities
‘I am sorry I missed the recent fun in Devon over the meaning of the word “cull”. It centres on an independent councillor from Ottery St Mary named Claire Wright, who plans to run against the incumbent Tory MP for East Devon, Hugo Swire, next year.
Last month, a member of the public wrote a comment on her blog, saying: “Cull all Tory councillors.” It is pretty obvious to almost anyone that this was a call to throw the Tories out of office at the next election, but the secretary of the Tory group on East Devon council, Phil Twiss, interpreted it as a “highly offensive and threatening” incitement to mass murder.
He demanded Wright remove it from her blog, which she did – and then he complained to the police, who have, understandably, decided to take no action.
I wonder how Twiss would have reacted if he had been alive in the 1830s, and had been introduced to the MP for Pontefract, Sir Culling Smith. I imagine he would have run away screaming in terror.‘
Advice from relocation advisors
Government “special advisers” cheaper than EDDC!
“The cost of ministers’ special advisers has risen to £8.4m following a rise of more than £1m in the past year.
There are now 103 “spads” employed to give advice over and above the work carried out by civil servants, up from 98 last year, official figures show.
They include a total of 26 working for David Cameron in Downing Street and 20 working for Nick Clegg.”
But it doesn’t seem so much when one adviser is costing EDDC upwards of £10,500 per month to provide relocation expertise (which led to hundreds of thousands of pounds being abortively spent on the Skypark project).
At that cost Ministers could only have afforded 70 special advisers rather than the 103 they actually employed!
