Blog Posts

North Devon CLP supports The Friends of Manning's Pit

19/5/2016

At the recent CLP meeting at the Vivian Moon Center on Thursday the 5th of May, members raised the subject of the proposed development of an area on the edge of Barnstaple called Manning's Pit. A local group called The Friends of Manning's Pit have been organising supporters and have managed to get over 2000 people to add their names to a petition to stop the development of the site.

There was a motion raised at the meeting that the North Devon Labour Party should support the opposition to development on Manning's Pit and we happy to report that member voted in favour of the motion. The party will now do what we can to support The Friends of Mannings Pit group.

To show your individual support you can sign the on-line petition here or visit www.manningspit.com .

Also during the CLP meeting members also raised the issue of 2 more contentious developments in the area that are felt to not benefit local residents. The proposed development are at Yelland, where we recently joined other local groups to show cross-party support and the demolition and development of a Victorian building in Saunton.

Image : North Devon Gazette and Advertiser

These developments raised a wider issue on the subject of planning and the absence of a clear local plan. Marc Cann repeated his is point that “Until we get this plan adopted it is just a developers’ free-for-all.” As a result of this the CLP will table a full discussion on local housing at a future meeting and decide what action the local party can take.

0 Comments

The North Devon CLP On-line Private Forum will be opening on May 15th!

12/5/2016

2 Comments

I bet many of you reading this have no idea what I am talking about. To explain quickly, for the last couple of months I have been building the foundation of a new place for us to talk online as an alternative to our party member private Facebook group. In our earlier meetings many people expressed a desire for an online medium for Party members to discuss issues that was not tied to Facebook. After all this time we are finally ready to provide another option. While the forum will not be opening until May 15th you can do the sign up process before then.

Click here to go to the forum

The link to our new Forum is located in the top right of the website’s homepage, actually it has been there for quite a while now; it’s the word ‘forum’ in the page names. Clicking this opens up a new page which takes you to what the public can see of this forum, basically nothing. You may now be asking yourself how you can join the discussion, it’s a fair question. So I have assembled some simple start-up instructions below.

Before anything else bookmark, or otherwise save the page you are sent to by the link, it will speed things up later. Click the ‘Sign up’ button at the top of the screen. This gives you an account with Lefora, the host for our new private forum.
You then need to fill out a few details; username, email, first and last name, gender, birthday and password. Make sure you use the same email address as you do for the Labour Party, helps if we need to verify your membership to the CLP. Finally you also need to fill in what they call the “human test”, basically type what it says in the box in the ‘Your answer’ section below.
Click ‘Join Lefora’, remember to read ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Privacy Policy’ pages. Congratulations, you now have a Lefora account, though you will need to click the link in a verification email.
Now you need to request access to our new forum. Once logged in, either from when you finished signed up or if you are logged out you can log in again by using the ‘Log In’ button left of the one you used to sign up. Open a new page and navigate back to the forum, using the ‘forum’ link like you did originally or the bookmark we made at the start. Once there you should be able to request access to the forum by clicking the forum name and following on screen instructions.
Wait until an Admin grants you access, this may take a while as I am the only active admin at the moment. Give me a day or so and if you are still not approved please contact me by email, note no one will be approved before May 15th when the forum opens.
Go back to the page linked on the website and log into Lefora.
You can now post on our Private Forum!

For those of you with little experience with forums I have created a Beginner’s Guide to answer most of your questions on where to begin, it is displayed prominently in the forum. To access it all you need to do is click its name. I also strongly recommend any new members to the forum give the rules a quick once over, mostly common sense stuff but even so it can be helpful to have a clear picture of the type of forum we are aiming for.

If you have any issues with accessing the forum please email me at [email protected].

2 Comments

Election 2016 results

7/5/2016

0 Comments

Well done to Gareth Derrick Police and Crime Commissioner candidate Devon and Cornwall who came 2nd by a very small margin with 22.6% of the vote which is an increase from 12.6% in 2012.

The results show a clear increase in support The Labour Party in the area.

Results
Gareth Gwyn James DERRICK (Labour) 66,519
Alison Selina Hernandez (Conservative) 69,354
William Morris (Independent) 22,395
Jonathan Leslie Smith (UKIP) 49,659
Bob Spencer (Independent) 41,382
Richard Younger-Ross (Liberal Democrat) 35.154
Spoiled ballot papers - 9,530
Total turnout 22.8%

Marvin Reese was elected the Mayor of Bristol with 40% of the votes. The local Labour Party gained 7 seats bringing the total up-to 37 out of 70 council seats, giving it a majority for the first time since 2003.

Well done to our friends in Exeter where the Exeter Labour Party won 30 out of 39 seats in the local council elections. Which is an increase of 2 seats proving that Labour can do well in the South West.

Ben Bradshaw MP

"Here in Exeter, we run a very local campaign based on local issues... we are one of the few councils in the country to be investing in our future."

"Other councils are closing their leisure centres and theatres down – we are keeping ours open."

The North Devon CLP would like to congratulate Sadiq Khan on becoming the new Mayor of London. While this may not make a huge difference to us locally it is an important win for the national presence of The Labour Party and our leadership team.

0 Comments

North Devon MP responds to NDCLP letter regarding the bedroom tax

28/3/2016

0 Comments

Dear Peter,

Following a recent meeting of North Devon Labour Party members where we discussed Housing Policy – I was asked to write to you to seek your views on the Bedroom Tax.
Given the recent Court of Appeal ruling (which I appreciate is the subject of further appeal to the Supreme Court) which judged the policy to be discriminatory – isn’t it time for you and your Conservative colleagues to recognise that not only is the ‘tax’ unfair but it has clearly failed to meet its own stated objectives.

Can I ask you how many properties in North Devon have been vacated in line with the policy’s stated objective to free up larger properties by encouraging those who no longer need more rooms to move?
Isn’t it true that the DWP’s own evaluation found that the policy is not working, with just one in nine affected tenants being able to find a smaller property?

I look forward to your response.
Yours Sincerely

Mark Cann

Mark Cann
Vice Chair, North Devon Labour Party

0 Comments

Clare Moody talks to the NDCLP - Listen

27/2/2016

0 Comments

Clare Moody MEP recently came to North Devon to talk about why she and the Labour party are campaigning to remain in the European Union. Clare opened the meeting with a speech detailing the reason that the UK is better as part of Europe she then answered a wide range of questions from local constituents.

Below is an audio recording of the full meeting.