Oh dear I went to a EDDC meeting (YAWN)

Yes true I went along to speak to the council about the probable loss of footfall in Sidmouth with the subsequential loss of trade in nthe town if EDDC relocate to Sky Park. i was one of many who spoke against the move but I hold little hope that we will be even considered as anything but a neusance by the Councillors The meeting was a very long drawn out affair that was rminiscent of the Dibley Parish council but run by Dad's army with Cpl Jones in the chair Even the Councillors failed at times to keep up with the meeting indeed when a recorded vote on the budget for the coming year was taking place one of the members was so fast asleep that he had to be prodded to briong him back in order to vote for the motion whatever it was he obviously had no idea of what had been said and so must have voted the way that he had been  programmed pre meeting.
Oh my what a way to run a Council, the ability to sleep though a debate and still vote the right way must bring some browny points at leas for representing the elctors asnd defending their interests so wellt!
I was so bored that I left long before the end after 2 1/2 hours I needed to get away ito some sort of fresh air and to redeem my sanity. i shant be going there again in a hurry but next monday at the Town hall Exmouth the regen and gp committee will be considering the motion that was removed from the council agenda last week to adopt thye structure on nthe Strand I have already had som econversations with Councillors about this and there is another cahnge of their stance It is no longer to keep people dry rather the structure is to protect the electrics and eencillors say that the 80 grqnd is earmarked for exmouth and it must be spent here or it goes to Honiton or somewhere like that Wy is this so important after all we are in recession and money spent in one place provided it is not frittered away is not detrimental to another where the project for which it would have been spent is not wanted by the public! Far better use for any money would be to us it as apothole filler here in Exmouth or to refill the youth fundacross East Devon, which is being slashed by DCC.

sorry I have been missing

With all of the toing and froing to the Hospital this blog has been neglected of late Now that it looks as if I am stabilized no doubt I can find a little more time and energy to get more posting done One of my big problems has been that medication makes me feel like death warmed up, I couldn't stay awake and completely out of touch with reality Now that the tablet dose is being reduced with a bit of luck it will all reset itself quickly I HOPE.
In the meantime there is to be an information fair on the Strand on Easter saturday from 10 to 5,30 local organisations are invited to set up a stall to pass on infgo or raise funds for their own organisations There will be a ban on any sales of food or drink that are to be consumed as soon as sold to safeguard local businesses.So far I can tell you that there are the following organisations in attendance Force cancer Charity, friends of Yarty (ELF) Exmouth and Lympstone Hospice care, National transplant register (Organ donors) Some of the Farmers market stall holders are expected to come as well as the scouts guides etc All day kink music will be provided by Bay fm.

Elizabeth hall to Premier Inn WHAT INN?

A request for information made by a local resident under the Freedom of information act through www. whrt do they know .com has come back with a funny reply which you can see via the link provided https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/elizabeth_hall_site_exmouth#incoming-331496

It is surprising to find that after all the agro EDDC have allowed Whitbread PLC. (Owners of Premier Inns) to take control of the Hall site and demolish the building without having been paid for it. strikes me as another instance of poor management and like the old swimming pool quite likely to still be hanging about for years to come. So much for the iconic development that we need on the Sea front!
What if Whitbread decide that it is too costly to build on the site because of the sand on which they will have to put their building Will EDDc build or have built a replacement hall or will the site be re advertised and sold to the highest bidder who may well or probably will be a residential developer with whom they are friends?

next Town Council meeting to consider the budget and set the precept for thew next Year.

 aper to the councillors setting out three options Option1 is the only acceptable one as it propses a standstill precept although because of the increase in property numbers and values there will be rise in the amount of local (precept) tax raised.
option2 is a slightly greater precept proposal but again is not acceptable in the financial climate which exists in the town and country in general Option 3 is an outlandish proposal to lift the precept by a very large amount in order to bring the purchasing power back to where it was some time ago.
There is no supporting paperwork which shows any justification for the budget headings in the proposals which indicates a view that money is being raised for the sake of it and with a view to satisfy the idea that many councillors have ("If we raise the precept we can do more")
But what more? Surely the people must be asked what they want rather than to be told what they are going to have(get)
I made  a freedom of information request to get a breakdown of the budget proposals but it was refused because the clerk said that the document doesn't exist!Apparently this is not true as is explained in the minutes of the last Council meeting because at the time that the information was requested the paper was still in draft form and having approved the budget it is now a definative document which is so I am told is available to be seen by the public!

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Tourism

Most people will have read about the offer made by Daryl Nicholas to front up an investigation on how a new Tourist information service can be implemented in the town Town councillors were at the council meeting keen to stress that they were not looking top pick up the costs of this new service although they have agreed to accept the offer to investigate and report back in April, with full costings.

Council spin or Bull Sh1t!

the Town council were given the first draft of next years budget for consideration at this weeks TC finance meeting The debate was mainly to decide how they viewed the historical records rather than to ,look at the projections for the next year, although it was said that to keep services at the current level an increase in the precept of 4 pence per annum would be needed. This despite a loss of the central funding that has been withdrawn. A motion put by one of the opposition members that an investigation by sub committee was not well supported by the ruling party although it was resolved to refer it to the next council meeting for a full debate despite the mayor making the point that the agenda for that meeting is already very long and the meeting may have to be extended to 11pm to complete.
Ity strikes us that the council is being run to suit the councillors rather than to conduct its business in a businesslike manner. If meetings every six weeks are not enough then they should beheld monthly After all the majority of the councillors are not actively circulating amongst the electorate and holding surgeries so an extra meeting or two will not unduly inconvenience them and if they don't like that then they should stand down, there are certainly a number of alternative independent candidates who would stand up and actually work for the Town.
Stepping back to the budget it has not been publicised very well but a historic record of the precept from the first days of the TCc reformed in 1997 to date is posted on the new TC website. Ity shows just how much the increases have been over the years.
the first year a precept of £12 raised a little over £14k and the same precept in the following year raised an extra £2k  Successive years when the TC was growing and a Town Manager was employed caused an increase in precept over the next 8 yeas to fund that and the music and arts festival until the 2007 precept which grew to £21.88 allowing for functions that EDDC told the clerk they would no longer be able to fund could be taken on by the TC even though just before the elections in May of that year the dc suddenly found the cash to carry on Many think that to have been a very deliberate move to deceive the electors into believing that the LD members of the TC had put up the precept for no reason.
History has a habit of repeating itself and it is clear that the present leadership want to raise the precept again despite the fact that since they came to power the increases have been very considerable 9.92% in 2008 and  25.63% in 2010 are just two years The average over the 6 years they have been in control is a mighty 6.04% which is far above the annual cost of living increases that are published by the bank of England

How a blog can get through to a council

It has been brought to our attention that Exmouth Town clerk who is supposedly so overworked has time to read on line public blogs to read about the things which are of a concern to the people. What a pity however that he and his immediate superiors do not appear to take any notice, but then he cannot be that overworked if he has the time to go web searching. It may be that he is extra sensitive about what the public think about his periods of holiday that would look like as if he spends most of his time away from his desk. Rather that investigating the possibility of appointing a deputy would it not be more efficient if the clerk were on the job for more hours and spend less relaxing on leave? I recall that his predecessor took very little time way from the job but all of the work was completed but then he although allowed a deputy declined and so an appointment of an office manger was made.