Uncategorized
Richard Foord’s new constituency newsletter (do sign up to it)
Richard Foord MP Reporting Back – April 2023
— Read on mailchi.mp/24d47743e527/reporting-back-april-2023
Just 7 days now to get Voter ID – or your vote will have been stolen from you
THERE ARE JUST OVER 2 WEEKS TO THE LOCAL ELECTIONS.
THE GOVERNMENT HAVE DELIBERATELY MADE IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO VOTE, by introducing a completely unnecessary requirement for you to show Photo ID to be allowed to vote.
This discriminates against young people and women who are less likely to have passports and driving licences than older people and men. It’s a deliberate political stitch-up because young people and women are more likely to vote for non-Conservative candidates.
IT’S TO STOP PEOPLE VOTING – SO DON’T LET THEM STEAL YOUR VOTE FROM YOU!
PEOPLE WHO VOTE IN PERSON HAVE ONLY UNTIL 5 pm on TUESDAY 25th APRIL to apply for Voter ID.
- If you’ve got a Passport, Driving Licence of Blue Badge, that is accepted as Voter ID, as are some others (CHECK HERE)
- If you haven’t got one of these forms of ID, APPLY HERE for the government’s new Voter ID, the Voter Authority Certificate.
POSTAL VOTES
If you’re a Postal Voter, you DON’T need Voter ID. Just fill in your forms as usual.
You can only apply for a Postal Vote up until tomorrow, 18th APRIL: GET THE FORM HERE.
ELECTORAL REGISTER
Are you on the register at your current address? If not you must ACT TODAY – APPLY HERE by 11.59 pm tonight.
Modular homes ‘coming soon’ to provide ‘social housing solution’ in East Devon
Modular homes that can be craned into place could play a key role in providing ‘truly affordable’ dwellings in East Devon, says the district council.…
Modular homes ‘coming soon’ to provide ‘social housing solution’ in East Devon
Paul Arnott writes a letter to the Times
His is the first of three, but the others are also worth a read.
Government plans to scrap housing targets
Sir, My authority spends thousands of officer and councillor hours per year trying to ensure that planning permission is granted to quality schemes (“Housing targets scrapped”, Apr 8). Yet the arbitrary housing need number — about 900 homes a year in east Devon — makes this impossible to achieve. Our real problems are not nimbyesque. They concern unfit-for-purpose sewage and drainage infrastructure, the lack of GPs, places in education, transport and local jobs.
When major schemes are approved, experience has shown many to be poorly built, with gardens, at best, the size of a cricket wicket. Meanwhile, any landowner able to ensure their grassy patch is designated as developable will make millions for nothing more than assigning rights.
If councils try to build social homes, there is…
View original post 330 more words
Independent candidate for Beer & Branscombe ward
JOHN HEATH is standing for EDDC as an Independent in Beer & Branscombe ward. This is his message to voters:
‘Hi Everyone in Beer, Branscombe and West Seaton, I am delighted to announce my candidacy to be your East Devon District Councillor. I am a resident in Beer and live in the centre of the village. I am a member of Beer Parish Council and am running as an independent so I will not be influenced by party politics.
I think we all know in Beer that the Jubilee Gardens are a disgrace and EDDC needs to get a grip and restore the gardens to its former glory. Rest assured this will one of my first responsibilities as your district councillor. The children’s playground in Beer also needs restoration and management by EDDC and this can also be rectified as a priority by EDDC. The older children currently have no youth club outlet, and it became clear to me when some of the boys took the initiative to build a den in a more remote part of the Jubilee Gardens which was an amazing initiative that they lack a suitable facility so this will be raised with EDDC.
I will be meeting fellow villagers in Beer and Branscombe throughout my campaign and I will ensure I represent both villages equally by spending time meeting parishioners.
I will be talking to residents in West Seaton and am well aware of their concerns about inappropriate development, for example in the field at the top of Beer Road as well as in the Green Wedge. I’m disappointed that the government has again turned down EDDC’s Levelling Up bid to fund the Seaton Seafront Enhancement Scheme and I will work with other Seaton councillors to try to move this forward.
I will hold monthly surgeries but also because I am newly retired from front line key working public service I can and will devote my time to ensuring you are represented when I raise issues at council meetings. My role will be to ensure Beer, Branscombe and West Seaton has a voice at EDDC. I will advocate on your behalf for positive outcomes, and I want to ensure transparency and communications in relaying back to you decisions made by EDDC through a blog page but also through Beer Information Page, Beer Memories and West Seaton page. I hope you can consider me for your vote on 4 May. I would be privileged to serve my community.
Best wishes, John
The other candidates are Maria Hall, Conservative, from Axminster, and the disgraced former town mayor of Seaton, Peter Burrows, standing as a Liberal Democrat. John Heath is the only candidate who lives in the ward.
Local election candidates now known – here’s the Seaton & Colyton picture
In SEATON WARD, DAN LEDGER (right) , Independent, has been an impressive chair of Strategic Planning on EDDC and is pushing through the Council’s plan to build the first new social housing for decades. If I was in the ward I would back him.
Since you have 3 votes in this ward, I would also vote for STEVE HUNT, Liberal Democrat, whom I haven’t met but who comes highly recommended.
Two Tories are also standing in Seaton: town, district and county councillor Marcus Hartnell and town councillor Del Heggerty. Both originally voted for the proposed housing development in the Green Wedge at Seaton’s Planning Committee. Electing any Tories after we have just brought to an end their 45-year control of EDDC would be a backward move.
If I was in this ward, I think I’d use my third vote for the Labour candidate, HONEY BARLOW MARSHALL. She’s young and unknown, but she hasn’t made the mistakes of Tories who are past their sell-by dates.
PAUL ARNOTT, leader of East Devon District Council and of the Democratic Alliance (Independents, Lib Dems and Greens), is standing as a Liberal Democrat for COLY VALLEY ward. He has been a stalwart of the movement for change in the district and deserves everybody’s support against two Conservatives.
IN MY NEXT POST, I’ll discuss the candidates in the Beer and Branscombe ward, which includes West Seaton (where I live).
Apply NOW for your Voter ID … or you may not be able to vote in May
My latest column in the local press (somehow missed out of the print edition of the Midweek Herald):
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/23355818.apply-voter-id-now-mays-local-elections/
Town Council ‘declines to support’ Green Wedge development plan
Seaton Town Council last night ‘declined to support’ the scheme to build 130 houses in the Green Wedge between the town and Colyford. In a confusing meeting, councillors rowed back from the in-principle support given to the plan by a poorly attended meeting of their planning committee, citing flooding problems and the ‘dangerous’ Colyford Road.
50 objectors attended the meeting along with representatives of the developers. When I was cut off in mid-sentence by the chair (Cllr Amrik Singh), Julian Thompson, Mayor of Colyford, intervened to take over my speech, at which the chair was persuaded to allow me to finish.
Cllr Marcus Hartnell, who abstained, continues to believe that Highways may solve the problems of Colyford Road, but I was categorically assured when I was County Councillor, by the Neighbourhood Highways Officer, that there was not room to install pavements on the section which is missing them.
A Bakers Estates representative told the meeting that they would enter a legally binding agreement with EDDC for the proposed affordable housing. What the meeting was not told is that a financial viability assessment is a legal means for them to get out of their agreement, as many developers do all the time and as happened with the Tesco site.
Seaton Town Council to reconsider Green Wedge planning application – after public meeting’s request
After Tuesday’s public meeting attended by over 150 residents – which almost unanimously opposed application 22/2781/MOUT – on Thursday I wrote (as the meeting had asked me to) to the Town Mayor, Town Clerk and councillors asking the full Council to reconsider their planning committee’s support for the bid. I drew their attention to the Environment Agency’s objection on grounds of flood risk (see the text of my email below).
I didn’t get a reply but on Friday, the Council posted on the planning portal: “In light of comments submitted by the Environment Agency on 20 February the Town Council would like to reconsider the application. It is hoped that a meeting can be held on Monday 6 March and any comments could be submitted by the end of that week or the beginning of the following week.”
I also got an email from Cllr Marcus Hartnell saying: “Since the meeting … further information has been received from the Environment Agency (EA) concerning flood risk. This is of concern to me, and recognising the overwhelming consensus from those who attended the public meeting, and to ensure the response from Seaton Town Council is robust, I have put forward a motion that the planning application is reconsidered and debated at the Full Council meeting on 6th March. My motion was sent to the Town Clerk yesterday and is now confirmed to be included on the agenda.”
THE MEETING ON 6th MARCH IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – the agenda is still to be published.
HERE’S MY EMAIL:
Dear Amrik, Jules and councillors,
I write at the request of a public meeting about this development, held on Tuesday 21st February in the Gateway, which I chaired. The meeting of over 150 Seaton and Colyford residents was unanimous, apart from Cllr Marcus Hartnell, in opposing this development.
The meeting expressed its disappointment that Seaton Town Council’s Planning Committee, attended by only four out of its seven members, had voted to recommend approving the development in principle (subject only to Highways concerns), despite strong opposition from the public. Our meeting was reminded by several former town councillors that the Town Council had consistently opposed applications for development on this site in the past, in line with the vast majority of local opinion as well as the adopted Local Plan.
We feel that the Planning Committee did not fully consider the range of issues that are raised by this proposal. Indeed I am informed that apart from Cllr Hartnell no member actually spoke to the issues. The Committee was unaware, for example, that concerns about flooding due to the development, raised by local residents, have been reinforced by the Environment Agency’s objection to it on grounds of its inadequate Flood Risk Assessment.
As I recall previous proposals for this site (and other major developments), in view of their importance to the town and the strength of public feeling, have been considered by the full Town Council. I therefore assume that in line with usual practice, the Planning Committee’s minutes will be on the agenda of the next Town Council meeting for its consideration, before any response is submitted to EDDC.
We request that the full Council then take that opportunity to revise the Town Council’s recommendation. I wish to notify you that I and other participants in Tuesday’s meeting intend to attend the Council to speak on this matter.
Please confirm that time will be provided in your next full Council for proper consideration of this matter which has aroused wide public concern.
Best regards,
Martin
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 