READERS of the “Crediton Courier” might like to listen to the recording of a meeting of Full Council of Mid Devon District Council that took place on Wednesday, October 25.

Item 13 on the Agenda was a proposal for the Council to go into Part II to discuss Item 14.  This meant that the Press and Public were excluded from listening to the debate.

The matter for discussion was the proposal, supported by the Conservative Group and Officers, to purchase two additional commercial properties in Tiverton.

When a subject is to be discussed, in Council, which is commercially sensitive or individually sensitive, then, quite rightly, discussions take place in Part II.

On October 25, several District Councillors objected to the matter being discussed in private and after a considerable time they lost the vote, because “the subject matter was deemed to be commercially sensitive and therefore should not be in the Public domain”. The main thrust of the objections was that, apart from the purchase price of the properties, which need not be and should not be, referred to in open session, transparency should be allowed in the debate in order that the people of Mid Devon would know what was going on.

Additionally, there was a great concern, amongst non-Conservative Councillors, that the costs and risks of developing further, MDDC as a property company, should not take precedence over MDDC acting as a Local Authority with an objective, instead, of concentrating on providing the people of Mid Devon with as good a service as it can, given its financial constraints.

The farce of this situation is that details about the purchase of these two additional commercial properties was already in the public domain, in published papers for the Cabinet meeting the following day!

It would appear that the Cabinet and some Officers were suffering from collective amnesia at Full Council.

Readers may be aware that there may be a Government crackdown on the involvement in the commercial property market, as a result of concern that bad investments could have an adverse effect on Local Authority finances, in the event of a downturn in property values.

The Chancellor is expected to introduce tough new rules on council investments in next month’s budget.

We, the undersigned, will continue to challenge the Council to try, on behalf of the people of Mid Devon, to ensure that the Council is open and transparent and that taxpayers are kept informed of how the Council is spending their money.

Cllr Mrs Eileen Andrews (Independent Cullompton South Ward)

Cllr Bob Deed (Independent – Cadbury Ward)

Cllr John Downes (Liberal Democrat – Boniface Ward)

Cllr Dennis Knowles (Independent – Lowman Ward)

Cllr Frank Letch (Liberal Democrat – Lawrence Ward)

Cllr Mrs Jenny Roach (Liberal – Silverton Ward)

Cllr Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat – Bradninch Ward)

Cllr Nick Way (Liberal Democrat – Boniface Ward)

Cllr Mrs Nikki Woollatt (Independent – Cullompton North Ward)

Cllr Bob Wright (Liberal Democrat – Lawrence Ward)