EDDC Chair, Peter Halse, ordered a five-minute adjournment, after Michael Temple of the Knowle Residents’ Association was not allowed to finish his question, but nevertheless continued.  Mr Temple was in fact speaking on behalf of Sidmouth resident, Barry Sangster, who was unable to attend the meeting himself.  The core of the question was, in Mr Sangster’s words,” The only way this Council is going to begin to restore the public’s confidence is to agree to an INDEPENDENT inquiry into the council’s workings, which I believe would be outside the remit of any current police investigations.”

Councillor Halse said this was a matter ‘sub judice’, but many in the room believed this was not the case because, as Councillor Ben Ingham quickly pointed out, no-one has yet been charged with a criminal offence. Deputy Monitoring officer, Rachel Pocock, confirmed this, but said “the definition of ‘sub judice’ is not the key point. EDDC does not want to prejudice what the police may be doing.”

For a fuller report, go to http://www.claire-wright.org.  More to follow on this website shortly.

 ‘ She cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7) ).

Those who have submitted, or are about to submit formal complaints against councillors or other public servants, please note.