Real Zorro

Mission - to challenge in East Devon. To hold elected representatives & their officials to account.

Tuesday 23 December 2014

Happy Xmas from #EDDC Leader

#EDDC Leader, known affectionately  locally as Kim Jong Un, reflects in the knowledge of surviving another year  in office, and smiling to himself that he can rely upon his Conservative Group's block vote to drive on with the unpopular local Council HQ relocation #knowlegate.

Here Kim is wishing his supporters a Happy Xmas! Can't you see the massed ranks of supporters revelling in his glory!


Wednesday 17 December 2014

Hunt Real Zorro out at tonight's #EDDC Council Meeting!

Real Zorro is a sucker for an #EDDC Council meeting and today''s won't be an exception.  Watching the  massed ranks of the Politburo in all their glory masquerading as the  Conservative Group is a wonderous sight.

This is real old style Soviet politics in action. Hands going up in unison as the opposition is steam rollered. And there falls another  attempt by those pesky Independents to undermine the ruling elite of #EDDC political life.

So,  I shall sneak into watch the farce that passes for local democracy (in)action. Now here's the exciting part! I shall be incognito! Aren't I underhand!

I am offering two prizes for the first people, and here I will be democratic and allow Conservative a Councillors to join in, who -
(1) take a selfie with me and post it via my twitter account and/or,
(2) comes up to me and says out loud "You are Real Zorro and I claim my prize".

Don't be shy, join in tomorrow evening in outing me at the Council meeting! I can take it!

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Claire Wright - BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview

On the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning local Devon County & #EDDC Councillor Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ and East Devon Independent Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in next year’s general election was interviewed by BBC reporter Tom Bateman. The report came from the area in and around Exeter.

Claire Wright was elected for interview as the piece being broadcast, to coincide with the presentation today to Parliament on options for the current issue of “English votes for English people”. In the broadcast package, which concentrated on whether as part of the move towards greater devolved powers within the various UK countries it perhaps was now necessary to consider greater devolution to English Regions.

Within this broadcast piece, which prefaced a live interview with the ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Claire Wright was the only elected representative who was interviewed. This was due to the fact that she has a proven track record of fighting for local electors interests and because she is an elected Councillor, as well as someone who is standing to be elected as an MP.

Being chosen for interview was truly a great accolade for Claire Wright. You can bet that the #EDDC Conservative Councillors and their MP Hugo Swire must have been cursing her and that bastion of leftist propaganda, the BBC. Some choking on tea and toast must have reverberated across their breakfast tables as Claire Wright broadcast to the nation over the radio waves!

In Claire Wright’s interview which took place in Councillor Twiss’ own backyard in West Hill, she explained why she entered politics originally and why she now felt the need to stand as an independent in next year’s general election. And what was the issue that motivated Claire Wright to become politically active? Yes, you guessed correctly, planning issues! The issue still is at the heart of Claire’s campaigning locally.

 Listen to the whole BBC package on exploring greater powers for English Regions on the BBC iPlayer at – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b04v380w. The package with reporterTom Bateman starts 2 hours 10 minutes into today’s edition of the Today programme (just after the 8.00am news headlines).

Claire Wright starts being interviewed at 2 hours 12 minutes & 16 seconds in. The whole package ends, just ahead of the John Prescott interview, at 2 hours 16 minutes 10 seconds.

Listen to your next local MP on the radio!

Claire Wright today blogged about an issue that related to her interview at – http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/planning_law_policy_fuels_inappropriate_development.

Claire’s blog article is Planning law policy ‘fuels inappropriate development’”.

Yesterday Claire Wright trailed her interview, again on her blog under the understated heading “BBC Radio 4 Today Programme debut” – http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/bbc_today_programme_debut.

Hugo Swire or Councillor Paul Diviani must have turned down the opportunity to be interviewed in order to help Claire Wright in her election campaign!

Monday 15 December 2014

Clr Howard's (A)way - How trees became politically dangerous in #EDDC


Trees are politically dangerous!
 


Who would have thought that trees in #EDDC would be politically dangerous! But there again in #EDDC it would appear that anything and everything that the Conservative majority Group can’t control and direct is deemed politically dangerous. So, the story about trees, politics and #EDDC is –

Way back in October 2013 following an initiative by Councillor Claire Wright

http://www.claire-wright.org/ #EDDC agreed set up a tree scrutiny task force. Yes, I know that this sounds rather innocuous but frankly anything that involves Claire Wright and trees must be politically suspect, after all she is the Woodland Trust’s https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ tree champion for Devon. If you follow this link to the Woodland Trust you will see what a politically subversive lot they are.

Great, #EDDC having set up this task group then set about doing nothing to hold any meetings. Then low and behold one is called for 5 December 2014. Not bad only 14 months to organise a meeting! Must be something #EDDC Conservatives don’t really want to happen.

Anyway, Claire Wright turns up at the tree scrutiny task group meeting along with one of our other local politically dangerous #EDDC Councillors Roger Giles. As does, “on message” Conservative Councillor Tony Howard.

 One would think that this task force might first of all set about electing one of their number to chair the task force. But you would be so wrong! Before the meeting even started Councillor Howard had been “appointed” by Councillor Tim Wood (no relative to the tree family), Chair of the  # EDDC Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Guess which political persuasion they are!?

Oh dear, we knew that it would all end in tears when at the meeting Claire Wright proposed Roger Giles should be the Chair. The matter was deferred to the next meeting – probably so that the Conservative Group could muster its troops to attend with their block vote.

Then the tree scrutiny task force set about discussing the scope of its remit. That is very politically taxing! This was fine until Claire Wright (her again?!) proposed that the Local Plan (now that is politically taxing!) be part of the remit. After much argy bargy the Chair, you recall its Conservative Councillor Tony Howard, announced that he had had enough and was closing the meeting! That will teach Claire Wright!

But wait, the two pesky independent Councillors then tried to get those present to agree a date for a further meeting. Now this is tricky as the task force has to conclude its scrutiny in 26 March so that it is all done way ahead of May’s local elections. So, when is the next meeting? Yup, 26 January!!

Hang on though, it’s not all over yet! Councillor Howard decides to throw a spanner in the works by resigning!

One way or another the #EDDC Conservative Councillors are throwing all they can at Claire Wright and her independent allies, even when it comes to talking about trees!

Read all about this #EDDC farce, and weep, at -

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Twiss and Shout - police offer Clr Twiss words of advice

So much is happening in the murky world of #EDDC politics it is hard to catch up and to comment upon it all. So, here I am trying to round off the latest developments in Councillor Twiss’ clumsy attempt to try to cause electoral and political damage to Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ and her parliamentary ambitions at the next election.

The story of Councillor’s Twiss’ ludicrous reaction to a member of the public’s comment about “culling” Tory politicians on Claire Wright’s blog was reported in the Exeter Express and Echo and the Western Morning News newspapers. It also then was covered in the Sidmouth Herald -http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/news/cull_comment_on_aspiring_mp_s_blog_reported_1_3878489

It soon became apparent that Councillor Twiss was worried that a random comment about culling Tory politicians would lead to #EDDC Councillors being attacked. He appeared to envisage the good burghers of East Devon losing all will power, control and good sense and going hunting down Councillor Twiss and his motley crew of Conservative #EDDC Councillors! Or so he explained in a letter to a voter who took him to task for his ridiculous reactions to Claire Wright’s blog.

Councillor Twiss worried about the violence meted out to a Tory Councillor in Coventry as reported in the Coventry Telegraph – https://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/CoventryTelegraphClrAttackedArticle.pdf. Clearly violence is not to be condoned, but get real Councillor Twiss! No one surely, well anyone who isn’t either paranoid or who is desperate to cover up an act of political vandalism that claiming Claire Wright’s blog had breached the Malicious Communications Act obviously was, would try to link the two things!!

A hat tip to my good friends at East Devon Alliance for originally reporting this aspect of the story -

Here we are several weeks on from a simple throw away comment that was put on Claire Wright’s blog, but not by her. Here we are, having had Claire Wright reported to Inspector Knacker, who must be rather busy trying to catch criminals to have to worry about Councillor Twiss’ paranoia. Here we are, with the story gaining coverage by the day. So, what is the current position?

Well, totally unsurprisingly two things have happened.

Firstly, the local constabulary have decided to do nothing with the political complaint lodged by Councillor Twiss. Shame they didn’t warn him about wasting police time, but there again maybe they did! It appears that “Officers from the force’s neighbourhood team spoke to the reporting person and offered words of advice. Err...perhaps “stop playing dirty politics and wasting our time” was what they actually said.

Claire Wright reported all of this on her blog –

Secondly, Councillor Twiss is totally unrepentant! He is reported by the Sidmouth Herald as having said, once the police took no action, “I make no apology for this apparently uncompromising position”. What else did you expect him to say!

Who comes out of all of this best? It has to be Claire Wright who has, as always, showed dignity and professional in the face of yet another dirty #EDDC Conservative attempt to derail her successful general election campaign. Clearly it isn’t Councillor Twiss.

If you were a proper gentleman Councillor Twiss you would admit that you made a grave error of judgement! You would accept that your dirty political act backfired spectacularly on you and your #EDDC Conservative Councillors.

None the less, Claire Wright will no doubt be sat there waiting for the next political rock to be thrown her way by #EDDC Conservatives. It will come sadly as sure as night follows day.

Monday 8 December 2014

Knowlegate - Councillor Diviani still fails the public reaction test!

The latest exchange of local opinion via Streetlife on Paul 'Kim Jung-Un' Diviani's performance on last week's BBC Devon when he tried to explain the latest twist in #knowlegate. Clearly he's not fooling all of the people all of the time!

Oh dear one person accuses Kim of lying whilst another calls him 'diviblarny'. Keep going Councillor Diviani there's votes in this!




Paul Diviani E.D.D.C. Radio Devon - Knowle

LW 
He did himself no favours........

I want to know how much the Knowle is valued at and why this information is sensitive, if you go to an auction you want the highest price as an asset.

Also, with the Government stating more Public Sector cuts, it may be worth staying in the new part of the Knowle as two sites may be too large in the long term.


He stated that the price has dropped......surely if the value of your property drops...you hold onto it until the price rises....if not you are selling at a bargain and the only person who makes a lot of money is a developer who purchasers low and puts it to his land bank.

After listening to his interview...I want the Knowle to stay until the land prices rises at least!





Old Boot
I unfortunately missed the interview, LW, I hope it is repeated. Your comments make sense to me though. As I understand it, £3/4million already spent on just making decisions! How can decisions (or indecisions!) cost this much?
LW
I now think it should remain at the new part of the Knowle until residential land rises and we get the best price in a good market...not a sale in a falling market.

Who makes these decisions?

Free and open for all of to have an opportunity to buy not just a few... The money spent on this  is beyond belief....if it was a private firm who had made the wrong decisions and wasted the money...they would be out of the business.

We just keep voting for them!  With further cutbacks in public services you may find that the two sites may be over capacity...crazy...
Jo
I would suggest they refurbish the newer part of the Knowle - after all it is a lot younger than the proposed Exmouth offices, so can't need that much work.
Then sell off the old part of the Knowle and the bits of the grounds where they already proposed to build some new housing. The proceeds from that sale would help towards the refurbishment of the existing newer offices.
Keep the business centre in Honiton open and keep the rents coming from there and wait until a good market time to sell it off for development.
Sell the Manstone depot to a housing association for affordable homes.
Paul L
I would like to know where the staff being relocated to Exmouth town hall are going to park, last time I was there parking was very limited
LW
Paul many places have the same problem in Exeter....you either have to car share to get a parking space, pay...go by public transport!
Paul L
So, will the council tax payer once again foot the bill and the generous employer EDDC supply upwards of a hundred car parking spaces to the employees, assuming the split between Honiton and Exmouth being 120 to each office building
LW
You can see it.....people moaning about Council employees parking in their roads!

I really can't see a problem with parking..because most new offices built don't provide enough parking for all staff and older premises on main roads often don't have parking.  The employee either has to find parking (like employees who work in Fields/shops in Sidmouth) themselves...should not be an issue.
Barnacle Bill
Ah but has Exmouth the equivalent of a Library/Health Centre car park that the workers can abuse as they do in Sidmouth?
Pining Lass
I've just listened to it ..... and he lies through his teeth!
He claims that they didn't change their minds about where to move to, that Sky Park was their first choice.

It will also cost £10, 000, 000 for the move he says, this is far more than they originally said (to the best of my recollection). It is all so stupid. I wish they would just stop.

If the move will be 'cost neutral' over 20 years then that is 20 years of increased taxes to pay for the money borrowed before it is all paid off. It is madness in the face of current needs for cutbacks and people struggling to make ends meet.

I certainly won't see any benefit when it is paid off as I'll be gone by then. This would not be a problem if I thought it would be of benefit to the next generations but from what I can see it will just leave Sidmouth with more pressure on facilities and less employment opportunities.

It makes no sense, employment and housing are supposed to go hand in hand; not least because it is 'green' to reduce the travel needed from home to work.
Jackie G
Public Open Meeting tomorrow in Sidmouth, (7pm, Unitarian Church, corner of All Saints' Rd and High St). The seven  District Councillors representing Sidmouth have been invited to give their view, and answer questions. Organised by Sid Vale Association.
All welcome.
I'm with: Save Our Sidmouth
Barnacle Bill
If the tories all lost their seats at the next EDDC election would that mean Diviblarny would not be the 'leader' of the council?
LW
I agree BB....but people won't risk voting the alternative.  I would vote for anybody who puts up against E.D.D.C. whomever they were...after that Telegraph incident.......   Just to give them a shock.

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Saturday 6 December 2014

Twiss and Shout - whilst doing the banana republic Hokey Cokey!

In case on Thursday 4 December you missed #EDDC Leader Paul 'Kim Jung-Un' Diviani On BBC Devon hesitatingly and unconvincingly trying to explain why the #knowlegate relocation fiasco is not a u-turn, you have a treat! You can listen to him via the medium of radio catch up http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02c7n1v. The whole piece starts 1 hour 37 minutes 45 seconds into the programme.

The Great Leader starts to be interviewed 1 hour  38 minutes 39 seconds in. He falteringly continues until 1 hour 46 minutes have elapsed.

So, what have we learnt from this exciting five and a half minutes of radio? Firstly, he was unable to put up a convincing justification as to why #knowlegate was originally going to be relocated to Honiton. Then why #EDDC decided to change its mind and relocate to Skypark. Then why it has decided to relocate to a split site formate, back in Honiton plus Exmouth.

Secondly, Paul, let's call him Kim for shortness, told us that #EDDC had 'got its ducks in a row' and matters were now in an 'orderly fashion'. He's spent £700,000+ of our money on an office version of the hokey pokey and Kim, when asked if he was at all embarrassed about all of this, said 'not at all'. Loving the arrogance oh Great One!

Both East Devon Alliance East Devon Alliance and Councillor Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ provide much more detailed commentaries and critiques of both the #EDDC Cabinet decision to move #knowlegate to Honiton and Exmouth, and Kim's barnstorming radio performance the other day.

But back to Paul 'Kim Jung-Un' Diviani and his cohort of #EDDC Conservative Councillors.

Are you happy that they are playing banana republic politics with your Council Tax and your District Council?

Are you embarrassed by the mess that they are making of #knowlegate and other key local matters?

Do you dislike how Kim and his comrades are bulldozing #knowlegate and other decisions through and stopping public scrutiny and comment on what they do?

If you have answered YES to any of these questions then You really should be thinking seriously about doing the Twiss and Shout at the local and general elections next year. I cannot suggest that there is a political cull locally can I? That would infuriate Councillor Twiss to send Inspector Knacker to my front door.

What you could do however, as an interim measure, is to volunteer to display Claire Wright's election  poster. I'm sure she would be only too pleased to provide you with one, or more.

Additionally, pop into Ladbokes and put a fiver on Claire Wright to win the East Devon seat in the general election. Hurry though, as the odds are shortening. Currently Claire Wright is down to 12/1 to win.

Here's what Claire Wright's poster looks like - having a technology problem so photo failing to stay uploaded. It will be shown once a work around is made.


Friday 5 December 2014

Knowlegate - Clr Diviani fails the public reaction test!

This is how local people who exchange views on local topical issues via Streetlife which is promoted by the Sidmouth Herald today see the latest developments in #knowlegate. Clearly Paul 'Jung Kim-Un' Diviani has a long way to go to restore trust and confidence in #EDDC Conservatives. So it's not just that minx Councillor Claire Wright who is incredulous about how they are dealing with #knowlegate.


Paul Diviani E.D.D.C. Radio Devon - Knowle

LW 
He did himself no favours........

I want to know how much the Knowle is valued at and why this information is sensitive, if you go to an auction you want the highest price as an asset.

Also, with the Government stating more Public Sector cuts, it may be worth staying in the new part of the Knowle as two sites may be too large in the long term.


He stated that the price has dropped......surely if the value of your property drops...you hold onto it until the price rises....if not you are selling at a bargain and the only person who makes a lot of money is a developer who purchasers low and puts it to his land bank.

After listening to his interview...I want the Knowle to stay until the land prices rises at least!


Real Sidmouthian
Yes indeed! Wait until it's a better price then they can build themselves some lovely new offices.
Old Boot
I unfortunately missed the interview, LW, I hope it is repeated. Your comments make sense to me though. As I understand it, £3/4million already spent on just making decisions! How can decisions (or indecisions!) cost this much?
LW
I now think it should remain at the new part of the Knowle until residential land rises and we get the best price in a good market...not a sale in a falling market.

Who makes these decisions?

Free and open for all of to have an opportunity to buy not just a few... The money spent on this  is beyond belief....if it was a private firm who had made the wrong decisions and wasted the money...they would be out of the business.

We just keep voting for them!  With further cutbacks in public services you may find that the two sites may be over capacity...crazy...
Jo
I would suggest they refurbish the newer part of the Knowle - after all it is a lot younger than the proposed Exmouth offices, so can't need that much work.
Then sell off the old part of the Knowle and the bits of the grounds where they already proposed to build some new housing. The proceeds from that sale would help towards the refurbishment of the existing newer offices.
Keep the business centre in Honiton open and keep the rents coming from there and wait until a good market time to sell it off for development.
Sell the Manstone depot to a housing association for affordable homes.
Paul L
I would like to know where the staff being relocated to Exmouth town hall are going to park, last time I was there parking was very limited

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