District Council: vote on restricting public speaking..... Weds 4th June

Following the District Council's decision in mid May to restrict what Councillors could bring forward for debate at full council:
Futures Forum: District Council: vote on restricting councillors speaking
... the scrutiny committee has recommended to cabinet to restrict what members of the public could bring up at planning meetings:
Futures Forum: District Council: to vote on restricting public speaking: Thurs 15th May
Futures Forum: District Council: vote on restricting public speaking

The Cabinet will be meeting this Wednesday 4th June to consider this proposal:

Development Management Committee public speaking arrangements and future agenda and meeting management: 

Council agreed on the 9 April 2014 that the Committee should consider and debate the arrangements for members of the public wishing to speak, agenda, and meeting management of the Development Management Committee (DMC). 

www.eastdevon.gov.uk/cabinet_040614__-_public_version.pdf (see page 17+)

Here's a report from the EDA website:

EDDC & PLANNING…A COMPARISON WITH NEARBY AUTHORITIES.

MAY 31, 2014

Changes to rules for public speaking is one of the most sensitive items on the agenda at the next EDDC Cabinet meeting (Weds 4th June, 5.30pm at Knowle).

Many questions from the public are to do with Planning. Why is this issue so acute here? How does East Devon compare with nearby areas?  

Here’s what an EDA researcher found, in a study done earlier this year Public speaking analysis_EDDC

EDDC & Planning…a comparison with nearby authorities. | East Devon Alliance

And comment from independent Cllr Claire Wright:
Public speaking restriction plans to go before cabinet next Wednesday.
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Knowle relocation project: the current issues: LATEST: District Council cabinet to consider its "Relocation Update": Weds 4th June

There has been a lot going on at Knowle of late, with the cabinet at East Devon about to look at its relocation project this Wednesday:
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: the current issues... District Council cabinet to consider its "Relocation Update": Weds 4th June

A statement is expected:

Latest Knowle relocation update by Deputy Chief Executive

May 29, 2014 by sidmouthsid Leave a comment

A statement will be given by Richard Cohen on Wednesday 4th June, at the next EDDC Cabinet meeting which starts at 5.30pm at Knowle.

Please also note, other explosive items on the agenda:
Item 1 Changes to rules for public speaking
Item 4 Declarations of Interest (EDDC officers seem to have been recently confused about this)
Item 18 Cranbrook update
Item 22 Complaints monitoring
Item 23 Freedom of Information monitoring
(Various posts concerning the above Items can be found on the EDA website, http://eastdevonalliance.org. More comment expected there soon.)

The current stage of EDDC’s ambition to relocate will of course attract much attention from East Devon taxpayers, and consequently, from the media. 

Public can attend and ask questions (NB new rules apply, see agenda Item 1) . 

Full agenda here: http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/cabinet_040614__-_public_version.pdf

Latest Knowle relocation update by Deputy Chief Executive | Save Our Sidmouth

There are several issues at stake:

TOWN/VILLAGE GREEN APPLICATION:
Futures Forum: Town/Village Green application: "a mechanism that local objectors are using to try to hold up the council's plans for Knowle"
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: “Relocation is central to our plans to transform the council into an organisation that meets the needs of our residents and businesses in an accessible, cost effective and joined up way.”

Yesterday, the Express & Echo carried the story:
Village Green bid could hit East Devon District Council's new headquarters bid | Exeter Express and Echo

And this evening, the Herald has published its own report on-line:

Council sell-off stays on hold due to appeal

Stefan GordonMonday, June 2, 2014
6:00 AM

  

HOUSEHOLDERS have thrown a spanner in the works of East Devon District Council’s relocation bid – as the cost of the project to date reaches £705,000.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) hasn’t started marketing Knowle and Manstone Depot for sale to developers because of an application by nearby homeowners to preserve the former’s parks and gardens for public use.

Knowle Residents Association submitted a plea in July 2012 for Knowle’s outdoor areas to be recognised as a Town and Village Green (TGV).

EDDC members in February supported a move to SkyPark near Exeter in principal. Further research is to be undertaken into the viability of the move before £1million is committed to buying a new site.

Councillors want to know the outcome of an exercise to find the value developers are prepared to put on Knowle and Manstone. This is expected to be completed in July.

Experts have advised the council to delay marketing until there is clarity around the TVG application. An outcome is expected shortly.

Property experts Savills look set to at least be commissioned with managing the marketing of both Sidmouth assets.

EDDC’s cabinet will decide whether to give the firm the go-ahead on Wednesday (June 4).

A council spokesperson described the TGV as ‘a mechanism that local objectors are using to try to hold up the council’s plans for Knowle’.

Kelvin Dent, vice-chairman of Knowle Residents Association, told the Herald: “The purpose of this application is to ensure the public have the right to continue to use the park and gardens for their enjoyment – to preserve the rights people think they have already got. I don’t apologise for the delay – the longer the delay the longer people have to reflect how sensible this is as an idea [moving to SkyPark].”

Money from the sale of parts of Knowle and the Manstone Depot – along with millions from the sale of the council’s site at Heathpark in Honiton – will be invested in the new HQ.

Council sell-off stays on hold due to appeal - News - Sidmouth Herald

See also:
Campaigning residents apply brakes to EDDC office relocation project - Claire Wright

TRANSPARENCY:
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: further FOI requests

With further reports from independent Cllr Claire Wright and the East Devon Alliance:
EDDC appeals against Information Commissioner’s ruling on transparency - Claire Wright
Transparency – a foggy issue | East Devon Alliance
EDDC – Knowle relocation secrecy – important update | East Devon Alliance

EFFICIENT USE OF RESOURCES:
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project... "Should we build less and reuse more?"
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Economics @ Transition Exeter: event Thurs 26th June

The economics working group within Transition Exeter will be hosting a session exploring current ideas on sustainability later in the month:

Working for a Fair and Sustainable Economy

Our economic system is unfair, unsustainable, and unstable. How Could it be different? and what bottom-up steps can we take towards those changes?

Thursday 26th June 7:oo for 7:15 pm

Exeter Community Centre

St David's Hill, Exeter EX4 3RG

Working for a Fair and Sustainable Economy

Talk and discussion lead by Gill Westcott, Transition Exeter Economics Group.

 

Gill Westcott studied ecomomics at Cambridge and Oxford, editing a magazine critical of orthodox economics; then as a smallholder's wife and mother ran a market veg stall before teaching sustainability in schools. She facilitates workshops, writes and gives talks on economics for Quakers and others. Call 01647 24789 for more information.

Working for a Fair and Sustainable Economy | Transition Exeter

Gill Westcott has hosted other similar meetings:
Alternative Economic Systems | Transition Exeter

... has been part of the Transition Town movement for some time:
www.sitesplus.co.uk/user_docs/880/File/Sustainable and Resilient Rural Communities Conference Report v2.pdf

... is part of the Exeter Community Energy team and convener of the Local Currency working group:
Our Team - ECOE

... and is very active in the Quakers:
Sustainability stories - Exeter LM | Quakers in Britain
www.swquakers.org.uk/sites/default/files/130205 How much is enoughTE.pdf
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Economics @ Transition Exeter: an active working group

One big idea which has been explored recently by Transition Exeter is 'georgism':
Futures Forum: Economics @ Transition Exeter: A land value tax

The county's largest Transition Town 
Transition Exeter
has its own working group looking at the bigger issues around economics 
- with some links to some interesting videos below:

Economics

We think there could be a better, more just economic system than we have now, that doesn’t put banks and global companies before local business and local peoples’ jobs and quality of life.  How?  See some of the videos and articles below.

Planet –Friendly Economics

 In Transition Exeter economics group, we’ve been educating ourselves about the current economy and how it could be different; we’re still doing this, but also want to discuss what we’re learning with more people, and help find projects which will move us towards a low carbon economy, and one which doesn’t have a built in self-destruct mechanism.

 Current economic theory and practice accepts the economic growth paradigm (as if there were no limits to natural resources). It has fuelled climate change and brought some marine and land ecosystems to collapse, with many more threatened. The way money is created, mainly by being lent into being by the banks as debt, is a driving force in this damage. Households and businesses struggle to pay interest on their debt, having to increase their material throughput to do so without regard to human happiness or ecological costs. Our money systems are not currently democratically controlled or run to benefit the community (see Money as Debt below). How do we address this? Reform of the financial system is needed. Money systems can be used to help create thriving local economies, reducing leakage through large businesses to national and international profit accounts and the fossil-fuelled long distance transport used to supply our needs and wants today.

Our present economy is like an aeroplane. If it doesn’t move forwards fast it falls out of the sky. We need an economy that moves like a helicopter. The only trouble is, that we have to transform the aeroplane into the helicopter in mid-flight!

Some ideas about how we do this are in the resources below, especially ‘The Great Transition’ and ‘Prosperity without Growth.’ We also list some of the articles and videos we’ve found useful, that show how the present economy affects the planet’s life support systems.

Transition Exeter’s Economics group has three aims:

1. to educate ourselves about what a sustainable economy would be like
2. to pass on the information to other people
3. to develop practical projects

We have regular meetings, which are open. To find out more, do get in touch with us at economics@transitionexeter.org.uk  

Below are some of the videos and writings we’ve found most useful, but there are many more in the Resource List you can get from us.

Short videos:

About why growth isn’t indefinitely possible:

1) The test tube analogy
2) THE IMPOSSIBLE HAMSTER analogy
3) The Story of Stuff
4) The first video on positivemoney.org.uk explains what’s wrong with the current system.

Medium length videos:

Tim Jackson @ TED: Tim Jackson's economic reality check
A short (20 minute) introduction to the themes of ‘Prosperity without Growth’

Money as Debt - shows why money created mainly by banks forces continued economic growth even at the cost of environmental destruction

[BBC5.tv is a UK based independent production collective, comprised of individuals committed to progressive journalism and the observance of truth]

For more depth:

Series of short videos: Crash Course in economics at www.chrismartenson.com

The Great Transition, New Economics Foundation – short book, readable, with policies on how to get from here to there, a just sustainable economy. Downloadable at http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/great-transition

Economics | Transition Exeter
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Economics @ Transition Exeter: A land value tax

The latest monthly newsletter from Transition Exeter is just out:
Transition Exeter June 2014 Newsletter

With a particularly interesting piece:

Report: The Earth Sharing Economy

Speakers from the Henry George Society, at our public meeting in April, explained that rent for the use of land (rather than for the buildings upon it) is the money that landlords get for doing absolutely nothing, and should be taxed rather than income that people have worked hard for. 

A land value tax would reduce the value of land, mean that land wouldn’t be hoarded and there would be more available on the market; the land value tax could replace business tax and council tax and provide for a Citizens Income paid to everyone as of right to replace means tested benefits. The planning system would have to remain to prevent over-development.

Transition Exeter

The Henry George Society of Devon

Fostering and promoting a greater understanding of Georgist Economics in Devon

The Study of Political Economy
A lecture delivered by Henry George to the students of the University of California, Mar 9, 1877

The Henry George Society of Devon | Fostering and promoting a greater understanding of Georgist Economics in Devon

The main idea being a 'land value tax':



The Henry George Foundation

During his lifetime, he became the third most famous man in the United States, behind Thomas Edison and Mark Twain. His supporters included Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and John Dewey, to name a few. Here's our Henry George quote of the day, and here is more on George's life and work.

Did you know that the game of Monopoly was originally invented as a teaching tool to help get across Henry George's economic principles? Here's an article on the history ofThe Landlord's Game, patented in 1904, which, under its new name —Monopoly — became the world's most popular board game!

Understanding Economics

Georgism is an economic philosophy and ideology which holds that people own what they create, but that income (economic rent) from things found in nature, most importantly from land, belongs equally to all.^[1] The philosophical basis of Georgism dates back to early proponents such as John Locke^[2] and Baruch Spinoza,^[3] but the concept was widely popularized by the economist and social reformer Henry George (1839–1897).^[4]

Georgists argue that a tax on land value is efficient, fair, and equitable; and that it can generate sufficient revenue so that other taxes (e.g. taxes on profits, sales or income), which are less fair and efficient, can be reduced or eliminated. Economists since Adam Smith have known that – unlike other taxes – a land value tax would not cause economic inefficiency.^[5] A land value tax would also be a progressive tax, since it would be paidprimarily by the wealthy, and would reduce economic inequality.^[6][7]

Georgism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Keep Trade Local.................................................................. the campaign from the Federation of Small Businesses

The vitality of a local community seems to rely on the vitality of its local businesses:
Futures Forum: "Promoting local economic activity, local services and facilities, social and community wellbeing and environmental protection"
Futures Forum: Can anyone save the High Street?
Futures Forum: "Statistics show us that small and medium-size businesses (including those in tourism) are our life blood."
Futures Forum: Local Retail Levy: Exmouth Town Council support Transition Town Exmouth initiative
Futures Forum: Foreign Direct Investment ... vs ... supporting locally-owned small businesses
Futures Forum: The power of local government to determine the future of high streets

The Federation of Small Businesses is campaigning to keep trade local:

What is Keep Trade Local ?

 

Small businesses are the heart of the local community. They generate wealth, employment and opportunity.

Following the horsemeat scandal, many people chose to use their independent, high street butchers. 

This return is good news, but we don't want it to be a reactionary fad!  

 

We want to see people using all of the independent businesses on the high street, and celebrate the uniqueness and flavour that they bring to their communities.  

 

Once a high street has fallen into decline the trend can be very difficult to reverse. Still, there are issues that local authorties can address to help reverse the tide of closing shops, and help people return to the high street. 

 

What are we doing?

We are lobbying local authorities on the three Ps:

 

Parking

Our research shows that seven in 10 small firms think parking is priority for the future of independent shops.

 

Planning

Nearly 70 per cent of members said that small businesses have to wait more than the maximum of eight weeks for local authorities to decide minor planning applications. So we need to see a speedier planning system.

 

Procurement

Local Authorities spend around £88 billion annually. This could be used to boost the local economy by using local, small business suppliers and keep procurement procedures simple.

 

If you are a small business owner - what can you do?

We want more people to use their independent shops and to think small first. So what can you do?

 

• Speak to your FSB Development Manager to get stickers for your shop windows and if you are selling produce sourced locally try to highlight this
• Say thank you to your customers by giving them a postcard with their purchase
• Spread the message on social media – tweet pictures of people buying your products and share them using hashtag #keeptradelocal or post them on our Facebook page. We will host them on our Tumblr

 

If you are a consumer - what can you do?

Why not think small first, when you set off to the shops or when you want to employ a service or visit a cafe? The greengrocer and the butcher, they are not always more expensive than the supermarket, and they offer a personalised service that you seldom can get in a big supermarket. Sadly, the case is that if we don't use our independent businesses we will lose them.

 

Together we can keep our high streets not just alive, but thriving.

 

If you are not a member of the FSB, why not take a look at our benefits page to see how the FSB could help your business?

Keep Trade Local
Our campaigns

The Devon region is very active:
Devon - Federation of Small Businesses - FSB - UK small business support organisation

With its own newsletter focussing on Devon issues 
- such as how to overcome the issues around the recent flooding:
www.fsb.org.uk/121/assets/voice/devon2.pdf

And a look forward to the Honiton Show in August:
East Devon - Federation of Small Businesses - FSB - UK small business support organisation

The FSB is also sponsoring the Sustainability Show later this month:
Futures Forum: The Sustainability Show: Taunton: 15th June: "Lovely people, lots of business done in a laid back atmosphere."
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The Sustainability Show: Taunton: 15th June: "Lovely people, lots of business done in a laid back atmosphere."

A lively event coming up in a fortnight's time in Somerset:

What is the Sustainability Show?

The Sustainability Show is dedicated to exhibiting the many ways in which every individual, family and organisation can contribute to making our lives greener. Over 100 exhibitors will be on the playing fields behind Queen’s College.

Don’t expect it to be all green and serious though. As well as dozens of foods stalls (organic naturally) there will be cider and ale bars plus live music.

The Sustainability Show 2014 | Home

With quite a list of exhibitors:
The Sustainability Show | Who's here

And some very positive reviews from the last shows:

It was good show for us providing some great leads which we hope will follow through into some sales. Thanks so much for involving us in the show please can we have the same premium spot next year.

Lloyd Scott – Windscout, Lymington

Just a short e-mail to send our congratulations, what a fantastic show!  We all enjoyed it very much (the climbing wall a big hit with our children) and from a business point of view we were constantly busy and the company gained a lot of interest.

Lynn Grabham – Solar Systems Limited, Taunton

Great show really enjoyed well done and thanks to you and your team!

Ian Armstrong – Forever Fuels, Avonmouth

I live locally and saw the posters for the Sustainability Show and decided to pop along.  It was an excellent, original and creative display of a variety of efforts to produce a more sustainable world.  The exhibitors were informative and creative and the beer was good too.  Unfortunately I didn’t get round to the cider.  A very entertaining and informative afternoon.  I look forward to the next one.

B. North – Taunton

It was a great event, we were really pleased, hope you were. Lovely people, lots of business done in a laid back atmosphere.

Yvonne Mackeson – Somerset College

The Sustainability Show | What they said
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