Will Paul Diviani’s Cabinet* be shown to have chosen the worst option for taxpayers last night?  Their recommendation to Full Council is to move to Honiton, despite having no Knowle sale agreed and with no guarantee of what price the current site will eventually fetch. This situation, and the obligation to now take out a loan, smacks of continued clumsy handling of the ‘ambition’ to relocate. Whether or not Pegasus Life has lost interest, any potential buyer of the Knowle, one of Sidmouth’s prime and prized sites, is set to drive a hard bargain.

As the Sidmouth Herald headlined last week, the figure for the famously declared   “cost neutral” Council HQ move, has now topped £10,000,000. And not a brick for the Honiton newbuild has yet been laid ……

Related information at links below:

EDDC relocation has hallmarks of a “dodgy project”, Full Council is advised.

Council chambers compared (continued) ..Would seating capacity be fit for purpose at proposed new Honiton HQ?

http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/knowle-relocation-project-district.html

and on EDDC website:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/access-to-information/historical-information/relocation-project-documentation-archive/project-document-archive/

*Current Cabinet membership, as listed on EDDC website:
Iain Chubb, Conservative
Paul Diviani, Conservative – Leader of the council
Jill Elson, Conservative
Andrew Moulding, Conservative – Deputy leader of the council
Geoff Pook, Independent
Philip Skinner, Conservative
Ian Thomas, Conservative
Phil Twiss, Conservative
Eileen Wragg, Liberal Democrats
Tom Wright, Conservative

East Devon District Council has been obliged to rethink its relocation ‘ambition’,  since its Development Management Committee (DMC) rejected Pegasus Life’s planning application for Knowle.  New options will be discussed and decided at Cabinet* next Wednesday (5th April, 2017, 5.30pm ), for consideration at a special Joint Overview, Scrutiny and Audit & Governance meeting (18th April,  6pm).

Public may attend and make audio or video recordings of the meetings, which will be held in Knowle Council Chamber.

SOS understands that one option for discussion is for a retrenched EDDC HQ in the modern parts of Knowle, plus the Chamber and Members’ Lounge. A second smaller office would be in the refurbished Exmouth Town Hall.

*Current Cabinet membership, as listed on EDDC website:

Iain Chubb, Conservative
Paul Diviani, Conservative – Leader of the council
Jill Elson, Conservative
Andrew Moulding, Conservative – Deputy leader of the council
Geoff Pook, Independent
Philip Skinner, Conservative
Ian Thomas, Conservative
Phil Twiss, Conservative
Eileen Wragg, Liberal Democrats
Tom Wright, Conservative

In response to a request by Cllr Cathy Gardner (East Devon Alliance), Ward Member for Sidmouth Town, the relocation documents held back for so long, are now to be made public. In an e-mail dated 24th February 2017, EDDC’s Strategic Lead Officer (Governance and Licensing), Henry Gordon Lennox, has assured her that “the minutes of the relocation meetings (officer and executive group) plus any related reports will be available to view within the Members folders within a week or so.”

This conversion to transparency naturally gives rise to speculation about the options that the District Council Leadership are now contemplating.

Some relevant thoughts are noted here: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/knowle-relocation-project-how.html