Claire Wright challenging Hugo Swire again in East Devon

Yesterday evening Claire Wright claire@claire-wright.org announced that she was again standing as a Parliamentary candidate for East Devon in the forthcoming general election where she will be the incumbent’s main challenger. In the previous general election Claire stood for the first time against Hugo Swire and polled about 25% of the vote, which for a first time and Independent candidate was a terrific achievement!

 

Claire Wright is a Devon County Councillor and in last week’s County Council elections she romped to victory winning the Otter Valley ward seat by polling an amazing 74.6% of the votes. This great result for Claire sees her returning to the County Council chamber. Until 2015 Claire had also been a Councillor on East Devon District Council but graciously she stood aside to allow an East Devon Alliance candidate a clear run at the seat.

 

Over the forthcoming weeks Zorro will publish further postings in support of Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ the Independent candidate for East Devon.

 

However, in the meantime Zorro felt it would be more helpful to reproduce Claire’s public declaration about her decision to stand in the general election. This can be downloaded -

http://mailchi.mp/f52bfc9c58ba/claire-wright-in-bid-to-become-east-devons-first-independent-mp-on-8-june.

 

If you want to give Claire support in her challenge to Hugo Swire, she needs your assistance in –

 

Funding her campaign: donate at https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/2644/claire-wright. Remember, none of Claire’s campaign funding will come from a political party. She will have to raise every penny that she spends. So, please dig deep and give what you can afford!

Delivering leaflets: there is a need over the next few weeks for tens of thousands of leaflets to be delivered across East Devon. If you can help in any way contact lmac266@outlook.com.

Putting up posters: you must have a window, door, fence or an outside space that allows you to promote and show your public support for her candidature. To receive a poster contact lmac266@outlook.com.

Helping her campaign: we all have different ways that we can help Claire’s campaign. Whether it’s knocking on elector’s doors and promoting Claire, stuffing envelopes or making refreshments in her campaign office. If you have time and energy to spare please volunteer to help her campaign by contacting lmac266@outlook.com.

 

Vote Claire Wright! Free to speak. Free to act.

 

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Claire to stand for East Devon seat 

Since the snap election was announced I have been inspired by hundreds of emails and calls urging me to stand and offering help. Following my decisive win in the county council elections, I have decided to say YES to my army of supporters by once again challenging the sitting Conservative MP.

In the 2015 parliamentary election I came second, with a 24 per cent share of the vote - more than Labour and the Lib Dems combined.

People are telling me that they are angry and frustrated with the current government’s policies. East Devon residents are looking for someone different, someone who will work solely for them, without being tied to a political party.

As a direct result of this government’s policies local NHS provision is under threat, education budgets face massive shortfalls, local businesses will suffer hikes in business rates, local council services have diminished under massive government cuts - and national debt has actually increased.

As well as this there are real fears of a damaging hard Brexit if the Conservative government is re-elected with a substantial majority, as is predicted.

In 2015, although a long-standing and hard-working local councillor, I was a parliamentary newcomer.

Now I have a track record that shows how local people are prepared to back me. I am the only candidate who can win this seat from the Conservative MP.

I am calling on everyone in this constituency from the youngest to the oldest voter to join in a campaign based on progressive values and to return me as their MP.

As an Independent MP I would be free from the party whip and I would campaign on the issues that local people tell me are important to them. I would be free to speak and free to act.

If every resident who would like to see change in East Devon votes for me, history can be made in East Devon.

Best wishes

Claire
Claire Wright

 

 

We need your help

We want to get Claire's message out to as many people as possible over the next five weeks and we can't do that without your help. Claire is the only person who can beat the Conservative candidate. What she didn't say above is that she just won a 75 per cent of the vote in the County Council elections. If we want someone to fight for the NHS, education, local businesses and against over-development in East Devon and the East of Exeter, then we need to do our best to help her win!!

As an independent, Claire doesn't have a party machine paying for four page advertising wrap arounds on the Express and Echo  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154700149835817&set=a.119185175816.107186.608860816&type=3&theater  and other local papers. Instead we need good old fashioned legwork (and some nifty up-to-the-minute social media too). There are plenty of different ways you can help to make a difference. You could:

• Display a large poster board 
• Deliver leaflets 
• Help with door knocking
• Donate as much as you can afford
• Write a letter supporting Claire to your local paper.

Read on for details of how to take any of these actions.

 

Poster boards

We need a rash of new posters/boards to go up to demonstrate the strength of Claire's campaign and catch the eyes of those who don't know her. Please tell us if you have, or know of, a suitable site and are willing to display a board. NB: If you still have one of the large A1 poster boards from the Devon County Council election please let us know  lmac266@outlook.com, so that we know where the gaps are.

 

Delivering leaflets / doorknocking   Getting leaflets to everyone in the constituency is a vital part of the campaign - and one that gets easier the more people who do it. We know that many of you may be feeling a bit weary after the council elections, but if you would like to support Claire please make the effort and push leaflets through some more letterboxes. The more volunteers, the smaller the rounds! The same is true for door-knockers. If you're happy to speak to people about Claire's manifesto on the doorstep, we'd like to hear from you. Please let Louise know  lmac266@outlook.com if you can help. Remember to tell us where you can help and whether it's delivering leaflets or knocking on doors.

 

Give what you can Every penny counts in a general election campaign, and without a national party to fundraise we're at a disadvantage compared to other candidates, so please dig in your pockets and give what you can at Crowdpac  https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/2644/claire-wright.  And please forward this on to friends or family who you think might be able to help too. All the work of the campaign is done by volunteers, but we still have the costs of printing leaflets, posters and display boards and other publicity material to cover.

 

Write a letter During the 2015 General Election many of Claire's supporters were kind enough to write letters to their local paper mentioning why they were supporting Claire. This was a valuable tactic for getting stories of her achievements as a councillor, and details of her manifesto pledges, to a wider audience. Please do put pen to paper; or fingers to keyboard and write to your local editor. Here's how to contact some of the main papers: Sidmouth Herald: sidmouth.letters@archant.co.uk Pulmans View From News - peter@viewnews.co.uk Express & Echo - echonews@expressandecho.co.uk

Monsters, Raving, Loonies & Donkeys

It’s often been said by Mrs Zorro that if the East Devon Conservatives were to stand donkeys with their traditional blue election rosettes affixed that they would literally romp home. Some, more politically aggressive than Zorro would also say that in such circumstances given all that has politically gone on around East Devon over the years that voting for such donkeys would be loony.

 

But art often imitates life, or precisely political life, as yet again the results of another local council election here in East Devon shows!

 

The official “The Conservative Party” candidate for the Sidmouth seat on Devon County Council, one Stuart Hughes, found out today that he had secured the seat by winning the popular. So, it should be congratulations to the winner, or is that commiserations to those who he now represents?

 

But wait a minute....isn’t this the very same Stuart Hughes who has so far been a member of at least two other parties before finding a convenient home inside “The Conservative Party”?

Monster Raving Loonies - Screaming Lord Sutch & Stuart Hughes in Seaton 1988

Yes, back in the day Stuart was a proud member of Screaming Lord Sutch’s Monster Raving Loony Party. Said party had, and still has, a sad track record of standing in elections for pure media publicity based upon ridiculously silly manifesto pledges.



Shortly after he was photographed in Seaton with Screaming Lord Sutch, Stuart fell out with the party and went on to help found the Raving Loony Green Giant Party. Wikipedia informs Zorro that by 1991 whilst leader of this new Raving Loony Party Stuart stood and was elected to East Devon District Council and to Sidmouth Town Council in 1991 (along with another Raving Loony Green Giant Party candidate, Stuart Greenwood).



The Raving Loony Green Giant Party became effectively defunct after Stuart Hughes's election to Devon County Council in 1993 and he is reported to officially have joined the Conservative Party just before the 1997 local elections.



Fast forward to yesterday as Stuart Hughes stood for the newly created Sidmouth seat in the County Council elections for The Conservative Party. And he won! I know, that he has been involved in local politics for years now, but seriously, how loony is that!?

                                                                  

Now, where did I put that donkey!

An Inspectors Calls! EDDC leaders play "Get Out of Jail" card

The East Devon Local Plan is back in the headlines...again. This time it re-emerges having been considered by Mr Thickett the Planning Inspector. So, now there is a new villain to add to the mix of (the majority group of) East Devon District Council Councillors and Officers!

The Local Plan and the Planning Inspector’s views on it have now been published by EDDC ahead of their consideration by the Council at its meeting on 28 January. The details of the Local Plan & the Planning Inspector’s report were published on 19 January via this link –

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/emerging-plans-and-policies/the-new-local-plan/local-plan-adoption/.

For ease the main reports are accessible here –

Final Report on the Examination of the Local Plan (26 page Inspector’s report);

Main Modifications (99 page set of amendments to the Local Plan);

new clean base copy of the plan text (264 page original version of the Local Plan that the Main Modifications relate to).

In the email notification that Zorro received from the kind Planning Policy Manger at EDDC he introduced the main issues associated with the Local Plan, which has in part been amended by the Planning Inspector, by saying –

“The Inspector concludes that the Local Plan is sound subject to ‘main modifications’, details of which can be viewed with copies of the report. Key matters highlighted in the Inspector’s report, that relates to the plan as submitted for examination and includes main modifications, include that:

a)         the plan should cover the 2013  to 2031 period;

b)         it is appropriate for the plan to provide for 17,100 new homes over this time period – this equates to 950 per year;

c)         the strategy for distribution of development, with a focus on the West End, is appropriate;

d)         the Council can show a five year housing land supply;

e)         the plan makes appropriate provision for affordable housing;

f)          the plan makes appropriate provision for jobs growth (noting links between job growth and housing provision);

g)         the plan provides for protection of the natural environment and highlights that  habitat mitigation is critical in respect of accommodating housing growth;

h)         the Sidford employment land allocation should remain in the plan;

i)          residential development at the Council offices site (at the Knowle) is appropriate as is the allocation boundary;

j)          the plan should provide for gypsies and travellers at Cranbrook;

k)         Chardstock and Dunkeswell should not feature in Strategy 27 of the plan; they should not be identified as villages to have a Built-up Area Boundary;

l)          Land should not be safeguarded for a rail head at the Intermodal Interchange site.

Adoption of the Local Plan is due to be considered at a meeting of the Full Council on 28^th January 2016”.

Local press coverage has cranked up again on this matter with the Sidmouth Herald giving it a high degree of prominence in last Friday’s (22 January) edition, as did the Express & Echo at the weekend.

https://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/22.1.16SidmouthHerald.pdf

 The contributors to the Sidmouth Herald’s local online Streetlife, where people can have their say on local issues, have generated a plethora of comments about the outcome of the Inspector’s deliberations over the Local Plan. It does seem that Inspector Mr Thickett is not popular as a result of his deliberations. EDDC leaders don’t come out of it too well either. https://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/25.1.16Streetlife.doc

Zorro wonders whether Mr Thickett was given a poor hand to play with. Surely, the starting point for any criticism over the Local plan rests at the door of the Knowle (something that can’t say that for too much longer!). Here the ultimate criticism must rest with the previous EDDC administration (oh! the same people are still in charge!) for submitting a Local Plan that did not have the vision that their electors had or wanted.

Mr Thickett therefore in part was in a very difficult position e.g. Paragraphs 88 – 95 Sidford (Employment); one created by EDDC. These paragraphs related to the proposals for a Business Park in Sidford; something that Sid Valley residents are very concerned and unhappy about, still.

Paragraph 88 of the Inspector’s report makes it clear to Zorro that EDDC knew that its decision to vote to exclude the Sidford Business Park from the Local Plan, so late in the day, was not going to be upheld by the Inspector.

 Paragraph 88 says –

“The Local Plan proposes the allocation of 5 ha of land on the northern edge of

Sidford for employment use. At a meeting on 26 March 2015 the Council

resolved to delete this allocation from the Local Plan. However, the allocation

was part of the plan submitted for examination and following submission for

examination the Council cannot make any further changes to the Local Plan.

Any further changes can only come about through a recommendation made in

this report. As stated above the starting point for the examination is the

assumption that the Council has submitted what it considers to be a sound

plan. The Council considered the allocation to be sound when the plan was

submitted for examination and it defended the allocation at the Hearing in

February 2014. No new evidence has been submitted by the Council to

support its volte face”.

Zorro is cynical enough to believe that Clr Diviani & the Conservative majority on EDDC knew what they were doing when they, at the eleventh minute, excluded the Business Park from the Local Plan. They thought that with local elections coming up in May 2015 that in order to look as if they were being responsive to the vocal local concerns about the sitting of the Business Park they agreed to exclude it from the Plan.

In so doing they knew full well what the Inspector has now said – surely the inclusion must have been deemed “sound” enough to be included in the Plan by EDDC and when it defended the Plan in February 2014. And without any “new evidence has been submitted by the Council to support its volte face” how or why could the inspector overturn the original decision.

Bravo Clr Diviani et al! A great piece of political skulduggery! You tried to look like the good guys and now the Inspector is to be seen as the bad guy!! A plot straight of the satirical political tv show “The Thick of IT”.

It seems to Zorro that the Local Plan puts local politics and democracy back on the front page. The question now is how will electors react? Will it be in the same way as reported in the Sidmouth Herald headline this week said ...”the future’s looking considerably brighter”. Or will it be more in the vein of the Letters page in this week’s Sidmouth Herald?

https://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/22.1.16SidmouthHeraldLetters.pdf

Shout out to @eastdevonhour

A big shout out to my Twitter friend @eastdevonhour. If you like Twitter. If you like East Devon. You'll love @eastdevonhour!