East Devon District Council

East Devon District Council’s Revenues and Benefits team have received national recognition with two awards from a professional association.

The team are responsible for collecting council tax and for processing claims for council tax support, housing benefit and other assistance for people who may be struggling to pay their civic bills. Their work involves a great deal of contact with customers, many of whom are experiencing difficulty in making ends meet and so need to be treated with respect and sensitivity by council staff.

Last year the team was twice highly commended...

Members of East Devon voluntary organisations and community groups turned out in force for the annual event run by East Devon District Council called “Working Together for the Future of East Devon”.

This year's focus was on ‘Isolation’. After the conference on 10 October Councillor Jill Elson, EDDC Cabinet Member for Sustainable Homes and Communities, said it had been good to hear about the excellent work being done in our local communities.

She went on: “There is a lot of good work taking place in East Devon. It was a great opportunity to meet and hear about the many...

East Devon District Council and Broadclyst Parish Council have been working together to provide residents of the parish with the free-to-use outdoor gym that they want.

And now people that live in the parish of Broadclyst (which includes Westwood, Budlake, Westclyst, Broadclyst Station, Cranbrook and Blackhorse) of all ages need to decide how it should look by voting for the design they like best.

The voting event will be held at the Pavilions, Broadclyst on Friday 17 October between 4pm and 6pm.

You will be able to see all three proposed designs and vote on which...

Following last month’s ‘turf cutting’ work is moving at a pace on the site of the new visitor centre, Seaton Jurassic. The old Tourist Information Centre has been demolished so that construction on the new centre can begin and the new car park entrance, at the Marsh Lane end of The Underfleet, is on schedule for completion by the end of the month. The short stay car park is now restricted to disabled users only and from 24 October will be closed completely with all traffic following the signed roadway to the long stay car park. The existing entrance to the car park is expected to close on...

East Devon District Council’s Home Safeguard service is one of the highest performing in the country – and that’s official!

Following a rigorous annual inspection by the Telecare Services Association (TSA), Home Safeguard was given a clean bill of health for the fourth year running.

TSA is the largest industry body for telecare services and the largest industry specific network in Europe. They provide an external inspection to telecare services to ensure services are running up to standard and to certify the well-being of customers using the service.

Councillor Jill...

East Devon District Council’s Leader has welcomed the offer of a woodland at Cranbrook for use by students at the new education campus where building work is about to begin as “an excellent example of promoting health and wellbeing”.

Councillor Paul Diviani gave a short address to a members’ briefing at Knowle on Wednesday, called so councillors could hear about the latest proposals from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group that covers Eastern Devon.*

As a County Council ward member for Honiton St Paul’s, Councillor Diviani also has an interest in Devon County Council’s...

On Saturday 27 September, members of the public are invited to come along to the Imperial Recreation Ground slipway in Exmouth at 1pm for a couple of hours of litter picking followed by a relaxing cruise on the Estuary with free buffet (places limited).

Over the past few years volunteers have made a substantial impact on the health of the globally important Exe Estuary by helping to clear large and often dangerous items of litter that accumulate in the Estuary.

This litter and waste not only detracts from the beautiful landscape and harms wildlife but is also a hazard for...

East Devon District Council is carrying out checks to make sure that residents who currently receive a Council Tax reduction are still entitled to it.

Council Tax payers who receive a 25 per cent discount on their bill as single occupancy residents will be reviewed to make sure the reductions are correct. The checks, using sophisticated data-matching technology, form part of the council’s measures to prevent and detect fraud and protect the public purse.

Over the next couple of months the council will check around 3,000 households to see if the person is genuinely living...

Teams from the Housing Service at East Devon District Council are working with partners to minimise the impact that cuts in Devon County Council (DCC) funding will have on over 1,300 elderly and vulnerable tenants. The cuts mean a reduction of over half a million pounds in this sector in the next financial year alone.

EDDC’s main aim is to ensure that those tenants who wish to continue living in their own homes are able to do so. And tenants will have a say in the type and implementation of any changes.

DCC has advised that the Older Persons Targeted Support Agreement will...