Apologies for a long silence.
Quite a lot has been going on - none of it good - and it always seemed sensible to wait for the next development before reporting back to you. Now we seem to have reached a dead stop, so I can lay out the whole sorry story.
Briefly to recap. The EDDC Development Management Committee agreed on 21 September to stop the Tesco pipeline operating between 11pm and 7am, and this decision was witnessed by several solid citizens, myself amongst them.
However, this time restriction was removed from the record by EDDC officers after meeting with Tesco. I complained about this to all the officers and elected members involved - without result. They neither deny nor admit it, but refuse to do anything about it.
My last post (below) reported the result of a freedom of information request for the actual notes of the4 meeting. EDDC spun this out to the last moment, and then said there was nothing to show. I then identified and wrote directly to the clerk to the committee who took the notes and wrote the first draft of the minutes.
He explained that his notes were only retained until the official minutes produced from them were approved at the next committee meeting. The notes were then securely destroyed. This complies with the mandatory data protection regulations, although good practice would be to keep them for 6 years to resolve any possible disputes - like this one.
I have also written to a variety of public law officers, but they all refuse to get involved. The Serious Fraud Office suggested going to the local police if we suspect corruption - but, of course, we have no proof of that.
EDDC are quite capable of using illegal data manipulation against the public interest without getting paid for it - other than by the long-suffering tax-payers.
Since none of us has the funding for judicial review, we shall just have to let them cheat us and lie to us as much as they like: we can do nothing to stop them. But there are two lessons for us all:
1. When the elections come around next in 2011, use your vote to expel the miscreants. If your local candidate is amongst the members of the Development Management Committee, then vote for someone else. These people have demonstrated that they care nothing for their constituents, for democracy or for the rule of law. You can find their names by clicking HERE
2. Tescowatch is futile. We set it up to watch over Tesco and tell EDDC about any transgressions, expecting them to jump to defend the public interest. How naive can you get ? EDDC are active collaborators in making things as easy as possible for Tesco, whatever the cost to the public whose interests they exist to defend. Since no-one will listen to us, there is no point in complaining about anything - however monstrous.
So, unless someone comes up with evidence we can take to the police, this will be my last post.
Goodbye and good luck. .
.
I wrote to EDDC saying their 20 days for providing the intermediate minutes under Freedom of Information were up, and my email crossed in the ether with their response.
No other minutes exist, they say, so there is nothing to provide. I had asked about sound recordings of minutes, since every speaker uses a microphone. They say recordings are not allowed in the meeting. One can see why.
I need to take advice to see how next to proceed. Keep in touch.
It is a whole month since I have posted anything to this blog and some of you may have wondered if I have given up the fight. Not so. I have been engaged in voluminous correspondence with East Devon District Council, and also ordinary citizens of the town.
To load the blog with the documents themselves would generate too many words for any sensible person to read, so I have compiled a summary in the form of a timeline. Anyone who does want to see the originals can send me an email address and I will forward them.
21 September 2010
EDDC Development Management Committee (DMC) chaired by Paul Diviani discusses the Tesco infill proposal. After several presesntations from the public, it approves the application, subject to various conditions including those recommended by the Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), namely that the pipeline bringing infill through the town should be insulated and should not operate between 11pm and 7am
6 October
Decision Notice published, requiring pipeline insulation, but making no mention of restricted hours of operation.
29 October
Rather late in the day, I consult the Decision Notice and observe the missing item. I consult the offficial minutes of the meeting and find this item missing from them also. The minutes also contain much more information than was mentioned at the meeting and are not therefore a record of the discussion. I write to Paul Diviani asking him to correct the situation.
2 November
Paul Diviani replies, enclosing an email from an EHO, Janet Wallace, which, he says, clarifies the matter. In this memo JW says the EHOs met with Kate Little (Head of Planning) and Tesco and it was decided that restricting the hours of operation was not necessary, since the pipeline was going to be insulated against noise. No mention was made about the committee decision.
2 November
I put in a Freedom of Information request to EDDC asking for the note-takers record of the DMC meeting. I write to PD saying I need to consult.
After some investigation I locate a number of citizens who were present at the DMC meeting and who remember, as I do, that the restricted operating hours recommendation was accepted by the committee. One of them remembers a relevant item of the discussion: one committee member said 11pm to 7 am was still too disruptive; why not make it 10pm to 8am ? He or she was voted down in favour of the EHO recommendation, but it helped to fix the item in his memory.
11 November
I write to PD dismissing JW's argument, reporting on the citizens' recollections and calling on him to resign for not safeguarding the integrity of his committee's deliberations
15 November
PD replies, denying any falsification of minutes and refusing to resign
18 November
I write to all the officers and members of the DMC present at the meeting in question reporting our disquiet and asking the person who suggested 10pm to 8am to come forward. I end up with a stirring call for them to defend representative democracy - an unspoken reminder of the elections early next year. To date no replies have been received.
1 December
I write to Kate Symington (EDDC Freedom of Information officer) saying that the statutory period for providing information (20 working days) has expired without anything having been provided and asking for information on how to take the matter further.
Watch this space.
