Knowle relocation project: energy and consultancy figures: Auditors' reports to go to joint committees 5th March

Further to the call for clarification of facts and figures from the District Council's auditors
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: energy and consultancy figures: "possible errors in the Council’s facts and figures"

... yet more information has been forthcoming.

Within the context is how to calculate energy bills for the next twenty years
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: saving energy costs - and challenging the justification to move
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: Predicting energy price increases over the next 20 years

... this appeared on today's East Devon Watch site:


DOES RICHARD COHEN KNOW MORE THAN THE ENERGY MINISTER?

14th January 2015

First Capacity Market auction guarantees security of supply at low cost Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said:

… ‘This is fantastic news for bill-payers and businesses. We are guaranteeing security at the lowest cost for consumers. We’ve done this by ensuring that we get the best out of our existing power stations and unlocking new investment in flexible plant.’ …

… Our best estimate for the average annual net on domestic electricity bills over the period 2016 to 2030 remains an estimated £2 (in 2012 prices). This is equivalent to a 0.3% average increase in domestic bills.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-capacity-market-auction-guarantees-security-of-supply-at-low-cost

Mr Cohen if EDDC apparently believes that a more accurate figure is 10% increase year by year.

Does Richard Cohen know more than the Energy Minister? | East Devon Watch

This is also from today - with comment:

KNOWLE RELOCATION ENERGY COSTS ..A SENSITIVE MATTER FOR EDDC, IT SEEMS. 

14th January 2015

There’s a curious continued reluctance of the relocation Team to fully answer SOS Chair Richard Thurlow’s Freedom of Information request on the matter. 
Details here: http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/01/13/energy-costs-for-relocation-disclosure-of-information-still-refused/

One thought on “Knowle relocation energy costs ..a sensitive matter for EDDC, it seems.”

Paul F says: 14 Jan 2015 at 2:24pm

I struggle to understand how details of energy costs can be commercially sensitive. EDDC needs to state the legal grounds for withholding this information!!

Knowle relocation energy costs ..a sensitive matter for EDDC, it seems. | East Devon Watch

And this appeared in yesterday's Express & Echo:

Campaigners welcome “long overdue” financial reports into East Devon Council’s relocation project

By Exeter Express and Echo | Posted: January 13, 2015

EDDC HQ in Sidmouth

CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed two “long overdue” reports that will “delve” into the financialcase surrounding East Devon District Council’s ambitious relocation project, due to be published next month.

In order to save money, the council resolved to relocate from its aging Sidmouth offices to SkyPark near Exeter, but in November announced a U-turn on its plans and instead backed a revised plan to move to Honiton and Exmouth.

The East Devon Alliance campaign group has long argued that the relocation project has had an air of “secrecy” surrounding it and has questioned why the council’s financial case has “never been fully revealed”.

Now, the group has welcomed the decision for reports into the “relocation financial model calculations and assumptions” to be made public: An internal report into the relocation figures by Andrew Ellins, audit manager of the South West Audit Partnership, and by external auditors Grant Thornton, will be made available to members of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny and Audit and Governance committees ahead of their joint meeting to discuss the findings on March 5.

In December, the full council voted for the Audit and Governance Committee to “thoroughly investigate” all the data relating to the relocation project.

At this month’s committee meeting on January 8, Mr Ellins confirmed that all the current protocols were in place for the relocation project but said that if the figures weren’t accurate, then he’d been “hoodwinked”.

Mr Green welcomed the forthcoming publication of the reports but criticised the time it’s taken for the financial case behind the controversial project to be scrutinised and revealed.

“There’s been a whole lot of secrecy surrounding the figures and a lot of suspicion about the move,” he said. “I would have welcomed a detailed report a couple of years ago before the decision was taken to move. It’s extraordinary that it’s been left until the eleventh hour for auditors to look at the data in detail. There was definitely a feeling at the meeting that the committee were waking up to the sheer scale of what could go wrong, and there was a genuine effort to get to the bottom of figures they had previously taken on trust.”

At the meeting, former chairman of Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce, Richard Eley, questioned the council’s annual energy consumption prediction of around eight per cent increase a year. Mr Green added that the estimation was “ridiculous” and annual costs would be more like a two – four per cent increase.

RELATED CONTENT
Feniton Council writes to East Devon Council about “very real threat” of new flood water drainage tanks
Reader’s Letter: What sort of MP does East Devon want?
Decision on whether East Devon District Council should publish report on its relocation is at least a month away

Campaigners welcome “long overdue” financial reports into East Devon Council’s relocation project | Exeter Express and Echo
Relocation costs: EDA (and others) to the rescue! | East Devon Watch
.
.
.