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25/09/2009, 12:42 PM EXMOUTH TOWN NOT TESCO TOWN Joined on 27/08/2009 Posts 36 LOCAL COUNCILS Like me do any of you get the feeling that our local councils and councillors are treating us like mushrooms......keep us in the dark and feed us on bull****. Let me highlight a few recent examples. Not long ago Miss Sara Randall Johnson the leader of EDDC fuelled a campaign against the proposal of changing the county boundrys that whould have almost certainly meant the end for EDDC. In the process of fighting this change she authorised the spending of thousands of pounds on printing leaflets, political mail shots and legal fees, and also publically blasted DCC over its track record and its stance on the impending changes. So it may come as some surprise to hear that  Miss Sara Randall Johnson has recently gained a promotion to DCC. One has to wonder if this is a case of feathering ones own nest in preparation of the demise of EDDC when the boundrys are next reviewed !! For months the fiasco of Rolle collage has run and run, until councillors finally celebrated their success in securing the property. Surprise surprise once the elections are over and councillors had secured their seats on the various councils the plug is pulled and they vote against any purchase of Rolle College calling it a white elephant. This land will be purchased by a developer to build flats just imagine how many blocks of flats you could build there and how much extra council tax our councils will get. Of course there is one other option, a supermarket. With the amount of money EDDC has in its reserve account it could buy Rolle College itself but it hasn't and it will not for the simple reason it will not generate income for them. Tesco at Salterton Road originally had their planning application for an exstention refused and lodged an appeal. During the appeal process Tesco resubmitted the application without making any changes and it was passed, why ? Could it have anything to do with the £400000.00 they gave to the councils? Tesco at Seaton won approval for their new supermarket despite this not being the favoured option of residents with only one councillor voting against the proposal. Again was this decision influenced by the promise of £1.2 million and more to come ! Samanthas Exmouth recently applied to convert the building into flats and despite concerns over parking,the ability of the sewage system being able to cope and the fact it is a high risk flood area. Again was this decision influenced by the £45000.00 given to Exmouth Town Council ! In Tescos' application for Salterton Road they made a statement that a smaller store in town would be of no benefit to the town and would not be viable for Tesco. Yet some six weeks later they announce they will be opening a store in the town by November. To date the response from our councillors is zero, nothing,not a single word has been spoken by our councillors for or against this move by Tesco. In the last few months there have been several secret meetings between Tesco and Exmouth Town Council, Exmouth Town Management and Exmouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce so did our councillors have prior knowledge of Tescos' intentions or are our councillors too embarassed to admit that despite all their sucking up to Tesco they have been stabbed in the back. During the public debate surrounding ASDA our coucillors chose to ignore the public majority and continued with their plans for an estuaryside developement. During the heat of the arguements the true reason for opposition to this developement was lost, people were not against ASDA opening in the town but against it being built on the side of the estuary. At the end of the day the council lost out because they got too greedy and asked for too much from ASDA. A recent survey showed that only one in four people in East Devon believed they could influence council decisions and they are probably right. Although there are probably some good honest hardworking councillors out there but sadly most turn into primadonnas once they are elected. How often have you been approached by a councillor seeking your views on local issues, not often and how often do our local councils listen to public opinion. Its time for coucillors to start working for the people and not self glory they are not just there for the photo calls they are there to fulfil the wishes of the elctorate.        Report

25/09/2009, 1:27 PM Ian Woolger Joined on 09/09/2008 Budleigh Salterton Posts 211 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS Like yourself, I am also a fully paid up member of "The Mushroom Club", along with the rest of the populace, we are totally under the grip of EDDC and its decisions. Whilst disagreeing with many of their decisions and being quite happy to express my disagreement in writing or at the ballot box, I am sadly resigned to the fact, that the situation will continue "as is" for the foreseeable future. We need a total revamp,in the way our local authorities are run, from their funding, both from local income and from Whitehall, to their political affiliations, which I believe should never come into local politics in the first place. I have always held a belief in democracy and still feel that a Council elected by the public, is the best course of action. However, the people voted to run our services should be totally "A political" and should run the services for the public good, with the funds available, rather than follow political diktats from their masters in London. I also feel that the Local Council, should be paid a salary for a fixed term, commensurate with running a similar sized business, based on their performance as councilors. They should not have any business interests which would conflict with their role and they should be able to be removed by a vote of "no confidence" during any part of their term. Perhaps this would stop some of the self serving primadonnas and social climbers who seem to currently infest our councils. Let us see a more "By the people for the people" attitude from those who govern us locally..... It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases    Report

25/09/2009, 1:46 PM Inquiringmind Joined on 11/09/2009 Posts 81 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS <BLOCKQUOTE><table width="85%"><tr><td class="txt4"><img src="/cs/Themes/default/images/icon-quote.gif">&nbsp;<strong>Ian Woolger wrote:</strong></td></tr><tr><td class="quoteTable"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="100%" valign="top" class="txt4">rather than follow political diktats from their masters in London. .....<br></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE> Hear, hear! One particular diktat that I would wish to see knocked on the head is the one that encourages councils to allow (especially developers) to turn family homes into flats. Town centre residential areas of Exmouth are now totally clogged with parked cars, leading to 'parking rage' amongst residents. More flats means more cars - plus extra burden on drains, etc. For the council, of course, it means more income from council tax - and sod the residents' problems. I fought the battle against one such development, and won - many more (see today's Journal) are being approved.    Report

25/09/2009, 2:12 PM EXMOUTH TOWN NOT TESCO TOWN Joined on 27/08/2009 Posts 36 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS I agree that councillors should be paid and that it should be their only full time employment and with no outside interest, thier only interest should be that of the electorate that put them there in the first place. However i do have to say that i cant believe that someone within EDDC is worth the £90000.00 plus expenses that they are currently earning, i wonder who that might be ! Some people will say that we only have ourselves to blame as we elected them. This is of course true but the problem is that too many people make the decision not to vote and often leads to councillors being elected when they polled only two or three hundred votes.Its surely time for us the electorate to take back some control of our councils instead of letting them run around like headless chickens and clutching at straws and ignoring detailed reports and of course the voice of the public. Councils and councillors dont help their own cause when you find out that planning applications have been passed on the back of a financial inducement or personal glory. Recent history has shown us that politicians at all levels are not whiter than white and we the public should demand and expect more clarity, transparency and involvement from these political wildcats. Give us the opportunity to vote them out mid term, perhaps then a few councillors might realise that staying below the radar will not guarantee them a free ride to the next round of political hot air blown at election time and forgotten the second their bum sits on the council chair.     Report

25/09/2009, 4:20 PM EXMOUTH TOWN NOT TESCO TOWN Joined on 27/08/2009 Posts 36 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS Going off the subject just a little bit but i cant believe what i have just read and goes to show how our money is being wasted. A report has shown that within EDDC during the last year the average worker had 12.82 days off sick at a cost of £527000.00 !!!!!!!!! EDDC proudly boasted that of their 467 employees 204 took no sick leave at all.......hang on lets look at this again 263 employees took a total of 5987 days or on average 22.7 days each sick leave at a cost of £88.00 per day...their having a laugh surely.   If that were to happen in the private sector you would be up for one of those certificates they call P45    Report

30/09/2009, 8:56 AM EXMOUTH TOWN NOT TESCO TOWN Joined on 27/08/2009 Posts 36 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS EDDC executive board approved at their meeting on 2nd September to allocate up to £80000.00 along with an equal sum from DCC for a development brief to decide the best way forward in regenerating the following areas; London Inn car park, Union Street, the old gas works site, Royal Avenue Estuary site to include the bus station the sports centre Imperial Recreation Ground and Camperdown Terrace area. Will we the residents of Exmouth get a say or will EDDC plough ahead and do what they want....time will tell    Report

03/12/2009, 6:42 PM EXMOUTH TOWN NOT TESCO TOWN Joined on 27/08/2009 Posts 36 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS I know i may have had a touch too much of the amber nector last night but after reading the front page of the Exmouth Journal today 3/12/09 i believed i had travelled back in time and was now languishing in the depths of 2004 ! The news that EDDC would be releasing a master plan for the redevelopement of Exmouth in the new year took me back to September 2004 when surprise surprise EDDC announced their masterplan for the redevelopement of Exmouth, are we reinventing the wheel ? In 2004 SRJ the leader of EDDC had authorised the spending of thousands of the tax payers money to engage the services of a consultancy firm to produce a master plan for Exmouth. The master plan announced included the following A supermarket developement on the Estuaryside A 5 million leisure centre on the Estuaryside A Ten pin bowling centre and retail complex for the seafront A developement of retail units on the London Inn car park A developement of a pub/restuarant on the site of the Elizabeth Hall The redevelopement of Mamhead slipway The developement of a water sports facility in the Gut Camperdown Terrace A residential developement on the Maer car park Diverting the seafront road at Queens Drive to provide carparking/visitors/swimming pool Improved Bus and Rail links All to be completed within four years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So here we are five years later and what do we have a mecano building on the seafront with no roof no walls and no ten pin bowling and an eyesore of a lifeboat station.....oh and EDDC spending another £160000 to engage another consultancy firm to do it all over again. I look forward to the wonders this report will recommend for Exmouth which will of course depend on whether Sainbury's, Waitrose, ASDA, or Morrisons are willing to stump up the cash for it !!!!!!      Report

05/12/2009, 8:21 PM sungirl Joined on 27/11/2008 Posts 46 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS that sounds like a great plan but alas it is just pie in the sky again because small minded of exmouth has a phobia against progress and change of any sort. if this town isn't picked up soon it will be too late -it probably already is unfortunately.    Report

11/12/2009, 10:39 AM ExmouthGirl Joined on 11/12/2009 Posts 1 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS I think you are confusing 'small-minded' with wanting better for Exmouth.  If progress means turning Exmouth into another sterile coastal town with the same shops you can find anywhere and a supermarket plonked next to one of our biggest assets then I am happy to be small minded.  My small minded vision of Exmouth is that we should think more of ourselves and make ourselves different and unique - its almost 2010 we should not be considering multi storey car parks and theiving supermarkets as an 'enhancement' to our wonderful town.  Instead we should be thinking interesting and individual small businesses, independant shops and retailers, local food producers and better walking and cycling facilities and public transport.  Exmouth is in a wonderful location - why arent we making the best of it - we have the SW coastal path, the new cycle path up the Exe estuary will be a fab thing when complete, we have a lovely sea front and the common behind us.  All offering many opportunities - we have sailing and kite surfing, cycling, walking, mountain biking - all sorts and yet local enterprise is knocked back repeatedly.  As well as providing for local people we need to provide for tourists as well - give them a reason to come to Exmouth because we are different!!    Report

14/12/2009, 3:07 PM sungirl Joined on 27/11/2008 Posts 46 Re: LOCAL COUNCILS while some of what you say is probably true, we do have a few things going for us but as you say it is 2010 nearly and this town has to move out of 1910 and progress. it is too late for twee and different Exmouth is dying on it's feet we despirately inspite of what some people might say need a decent supermarket, some competition and some work opportunities for local people this in it's turn would make exmouth a more popular place to come to together with the few things we have already. yes we are different and unique alright but in totally the wrong way. we desperately need more carparking that is one reason why the town has died. you can see the level exmouth is at by the fact that all we could thinkj of to put in the card shop that closed is a pasty shop - that has found the level in this town well & truly. different and unique is a nice dream but it will never be Exmouth - not in the way you mean    Report

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