A swingeing critique on the South West Audit Partnership report was made by an EDDC Councillor in an interview today on Radio Exe. This, and more glaring omissions in the report, are mentioned on the following SIN blog posts: http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/councillors-criticise-lightweight-anti-corruption-report/ and http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/south-west-audit-pollyanna/
Category Archives: East Devon Alliance
Councillor Godbeer refuses to clarify his opinion
Councillor Graham Godbeer is not only Chairman of East Devon District Council, but also Chairman of the Standards Committee. At the last Full Council Meeting (23rd October), the Chair of Save Our Sidmouth asked the Council Chairman if he agreed with and condoned the Council Leader’s allegations and offensive remarks about SOS in a recent e-mail sent to 100 people. (See https://saveoursidmouth.com/2013/10/24/sos-asks-chairman-of-eddc-to-put-the-record-straight/) Councillor Godbeer gave no immediate reply, but said he would respond to the question in writing.
Consequently, Councillor Godbeer e-mailed SOS Chair Richard Thurlow, stating that he refused to comment on The Leader’s allegations because “ if a complaint were to be made to the Council’s Monitoring Officer about (the allegations) it would be wrong of me to pre-empt any such consideration by expressing my own personal opinion. In this respect whether in my civic role as Chairman of the Council or as the current Chairman of the Standards Committee it is not appropriate to solicit my opinion in such circumstances.”
In a comment today Mr Thurlow said,
“SOS is very disappointed by this weak response from the Chairman. He has failed signally to disassociate himself – and the Council- from the arrogance and refusal to debate which is unfortunately one of the hallmarks of Cllr Diviani’s leadership. One can only conclude that the Leader is increasingly sensitive about any criticism of his ambition to embark on an extravagant relocation project because there are gathering signs that it could become a financial disaster for the council tax payers of East Devon”.
“…transparency and open data….. fosters accountability” , says Local Government Agency.
This comment, relevant to our earlier post today, has been left on the SIN blog:
” The LGA has a section on their website which deals with transparency. The first sentence reads: “The Government has made transparency and open data a key priority as it fosters accountability, drives improvements in public services by informing choice, and stimulates innovation and growth.” !!!
LGA sets out details of a £1million breakthrough fund from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to local governments to enable the release of open data. Did EDDC apply for funds?
(ref. http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/oxymoron-of-the-day/)
Save Our Sidmouth 