…
OBE
John Christian Varley, TD.
Estate director, Clinton Devon Estates.
“For services to agriculture, the environment and the rural community”
Tell that to Newton Poppleford!
Daily Archives: 30 Dec 2015
One post office box, two mobiles, an 0300 number and a “promise” ….
This page of last week’s Sidmouth Herald is SO entertaining!
Swire says we shouldn’t be worried that devolution deals are being done behind closed doors and that power is being devolved from politicians in Whitehall.
But he neglects to say that it is being devolved to … er … a bunch of anonymous, unelected businessmen in … er … well, they have a post office box number in Exeter, two mobile phone numbers and an 0300 numbers on their contact us webpage:
http://www.heartofswlep.co.uk/contact-us
so they could be anywhere! Running their businesses, perhaps …..
and as a bonus we get a” Buy one, get one free” offer from Diviani promising us those missing relocation documents (the ones he was ordered to produce last May) ” soon”. Was the “Sale, amazing offers” advert a coincidence or a subliminal message to us all?
BOGOF indeed.
Nine housebuilding companies are sitting on at least 615,000 agreed planning permissions
“Britain’s biggest housebuilders possess enough land to create more than 600,000 new homes, an analysis by the Guardian has found, raising questions about whether they are doing enough to solve the housing crisis facing Britain.
The nine housebuilders in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 hold 615,152 housing plots in their landbank, according to financial disclosures. This is four times the total number of homes built in Britain in the past year.
Berkeley, Barratt, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey – the four biggest companies in the industry – account for more than 450,000 of the plots. They are also sitting on £947m of cash and declared or issued more than £1.5bn in payouts to shareholders in 2015.
Shelter said the figures showed how dysfunctional the housing market has become. Toby Lloyd, head of policy for the housing charity, said: “Developers do need a pipeline of future sites – but when housebuilding is still stubbornly low and landbanks are this large it is a signal of how dysfunctional our housebuilding system is….
… The land held by housebuilders includes sites they own and sites that they have an contractual option to build on. Some housebuilders do not publicly disclose all the land they control, meaning their total landbank could be even bigger. For example, Bellway does not report land that has not got planning permission for house construction, while Persimmon says it controls 18,000 acres of “strategic land” on top of more than 90,000 plots that already have planning permission.
1985: NHS privatisation would be good as it would stop staff resting
“David Willetts also sent a memo to Margaret Thatcher in 1985]about the benefits of private healthcare compared to the NHS.
In one section about whether the private sector should be brought in to run a psychiatric hospital, he explained:
“The hospital is run cost-effectively. Only one in 20 patients gets a tray meal: the rest go to one canteen which is shared with the staff.
“The building avoids ‘staff traps’ – private areas where staff can take a rest.”
Independent online today
Compare with:
“A Freedom of Information request reveals how peers are so unhappy with their 8 eateries they’ve been sending handwritten complaints to Parliament.
Peers can buy confit halibut for £15, “prawn and lobster meat folded into Avugar caviar” for £10, or a full roast dinner for £9.50.
A restaurant in central London would charge £25 for a similar halibut dish, while prawn and lobster with caviar could rack up around £30 and a roast dinner could set you back £18.
One complaint was from a very angry member of the Lords left waiting 30 minutes for a sandwich in the Bishop’s Bar.
He was so dissatisfied he wrote a letter to Lord Sewell, Chairman of the Committees at the House of Lords – one of several revealed after the information request by MailOnline.
He wrote in the letter, dated 26 November 2014: “For the second time in two weeks I waited over half an hour for a sandwich in the Bishops Bar.
On the first occasion, a chef who did not seem to be doing anything was present and today it was just chaotic.”
Another complaint was from a Lord who was “very disappointed” because his creme brulee wasn’t very cheesy – and a worker put a pat of butter in his soup, which he found “a bit odd”.
He said the “supreme of Hake” dish was “awful” and too plain, saying:” The Hake was completely unadorned, with a hard crust on top.”
He claimed that he requested something to make the dish more bearable, but was handed more pats of butter.
This particular Lord says he will no longer be able to entertain guests there unless the food improves.
The Head of Catering services Tim Lamming, said he read the peer’s complaint “with dismay” and said: “I must apologise most sincerely for the dip in standards and I will investigate the issues you have raised.”
Further upset has been caused by the fact that peers can now no longer select a second vegetable with their dish.
One peer complained that there was a lack of variation in the vegetables served, saying: “Cabbage, broccoli, sprouts and spinach have almost vanished completely in favour of root vegetables.”
This week with the roast meat we have had in succession carrots, parsnip and celeriac, so that with roast potatoes there is a considerable excess of carbohydrates.”
Other bugbears were that wine per glass had increased by 30p, the yoghurt is too heavy and staff need to smile more often.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/house-lords-members-complain-awful-5933933
No wonder the government wants to curtail Freedom of Information!
Warnings about Devon’s flood defences we published in February 2015
“… The Environment Agency data showed the majority were in areas where large numbers of homes and businesses could be vulnerable to flooding.
However, the agency said “most of the issues are minor”.
Other failures from the agency’s latest inspection report included some sea defences, culverts, outfalls and embankments.”
Devon – Tavistock, Horrabridge, Plymouth, Lympstone, Ottery St Mary, Exeter, Totnes, Barnstaple, Dawlish Warren, Ilfracombe, Tiverton, Kingsbridge, Teignmouth, Torbay and Clyst St Mary”
First published on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-31313464
and at
on 10 February 2015
Devolution problems for dummies
“Devolution: the moving of power or a responsibility in a main organisation to a lower level or from a central government to local government”
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/devolution
WHAT IT DOES NOT MEAN:
The moving of power from an elected body of councillors to an unelected small group of business people (Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership) who have their own agendas and pecuniary interests and who are untransparently unaccountable to no-one.
And all being done in secret with no public consultation.
Anyone not understand why people might be critical of this?
Claire Wright asks: ” Why is Mr Swire angry over devolution criticisms?”
I see that Mr Swire has been publicly critical of those of us who have expressed concerns about devolution.
Devolution is essentially the transfer of some government responsibilities to local councils.
I am not opposed to the principle of devolution, however, Chancellor, George Osborne has strong-armed councils into taking on these extra responsibilities, which gives me a cause for considerable scepticism.
A group of councils in Devon and Somerset, as well as the NHS and businesses are currently negotiating a deal to be put to ministers for devolved powers.
As Devon County Council prepares to shave off nearly £40m again, from its budgets in a few weeks, thanks to austerity measures, it will be even less well equipped than before to provide vital services.
But now Local Enterprise Partnerships (run by largely by business people) must take a leading role in preparing a bid to government for devolved powers. Ministers have insisted that bids must be business focused.
At the Devon County Council meeting in December, councillors voted in favour of my motion to allow public consultation on the bid. Although, from Mr Swire’s recent opinion, one might be forgiven for thinking that this was a Conservative proposal!
East Devon District Council Independents (especially the East Devon Alliance councillors) have been very proactive in raising concerns about plans, which up until now have been extraordinarily vague and tricky to get to grips with.
From what I have seen however, the bids will be very big business focused. And politically conservative, with a huge emphasis on the importance of Hinkley Point for example … while renewable energy, which has been a thriving industry in the south west – or at least it will be until the 64 per cent subsidy cut hits in a few weeks, doesn’t appear to get a look in.
Mr Swire might not like Independents expressing opposing views to government policy (has he ever voted against the party line?) but I tend to take the view that councillors (and MPs) are here to represent constituents, not to protect corporate interests or nod in sage agreement with every ministerial announcement.
I have raised many important issues in many of my columns in this newspaper and invited Mr Swire’s to respond.
He appears to favour silence, however.
Here’s the article – http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Comment-renewable-energy-sidelined-devolution/story-28436976-detail/story.html
http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/why_is_mr_swire_angry_over_devolution_criticisms
Many people don’t know they live on flood plains
“Two million households do not realise they are living on flood plains – while chronic underinvestment and climate change are increasing the risks of serious flooding, Government advisers have warned. …
… About 12,000 planning applications to build up to nine properties each on flood plains did not receive specific advice from the EA in 2013 due to staffing cuts, the report finds.
As a result, more than 100,000 homes could have been built without proper oversight to ensure that they are safe, resilient and do not increase the risk of flooding elsewhere.
More than 800 jobs – 20 per cent of staff – have been lost in the Environment Agency (EA)’s flood risk management team since September 2010, with more than half of those in roles specifically tasked with avoiding floods, despite ministers’ pledges to protect frontline jobs, the CCC warns.
Key pieces of legislation designed to reduce the risk of floods by improving drainage from new properties have not been properly implemented, despite being recommended by the 2008 Pitt review into the floods the previous year, which left 13 people dead and 45,000 homes flooded.”
More new homes built on flood plains than off them
“New houses are being built in England’s highest-risk flood areas at almost twice the rate of housing outside flood plains, according to figures which a Government adviser warned showed the country was “storing up problems for the future”.
Housing stock in areas where flooding is likely at least once every 30 years has grown at a rate of 1.2 per cent per year since 2011, according to analysis by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). By contrast, housing outside of flood plains – in areas with less than a 1-in-1,000 year chance of flooding – increased by an average 0.7 per cent a year over the same period.
Lord Krebs, head of the CCC’s adaptation sub-committee, said: “We are building faster in the flood plain than anywhere else.
“If the planning system is going to allow people to carry on building in the flood plain, we have to be aware we are storing up problems for the future because flooding is going to get more frequent.
“So you are locked into cycle of building and having to defend, and then having to build bigger defences because the flood risk has increased.”
On current trends up to 20,000 houses are likely to be built this year in flood risk areas.
Lord Krebs said he expected about 4,500 of these to be medium or high risk areas, where flooding is expected at least once every century.
Many of these are being built with the Environment Agency (EA)’s approval because they are behind existing flood defences, which the agency judges provide adequate protection, he said.
But such protection may not be adequate in future, with defences already being overtopped in recent weeks by “unprecedented” floods. “Today’s unprecedented may be tomorrow’s norm,” he warned.
Thousands of other homes in at-risk areas may be being built without the EA’s oversight because they are in small developments of less than 10 houses, he said.
Lord Krebs warned the continued spread of concrete and paving tiles over gardens and other green spaces was worsening the risk of flooding because it prevented water draining.
Farmers and grouse shooting estates had also increased the risk for urban areas by draining peat bogs on surrounding uplands, which used to provide a natural “sponge” for rainfall.
Senior EA officials have been among thousands of social media users to share a photograph in recent days showing flood waters lapping around a sign marking a development site with permission for 39 new homes, near Whalley in Lancashire.
But documents reveal the EA did not object when consulted by council planners on three applications for the development.
In two cases it made no comment, while in one case it said it had “no objection in principle”, only proposing conditions of sustainable drainage for the new homes.
The agency did raise concerns about an earlier plan that extended into the official flood risk zone, but waved through a tweaked plan that would see houses built immediately abutting the flood zone.
Photos appear to show that flood waters in recent days have extended at least to the edge of the proposed development site.
When the Telegraph attempted to contact the applicant for the development, his wife claimed the picture was “misleading” because the proposed houses were not to be built right by the sign, and were not due to be built “on what the Ribble Valley says is the flood plain”.
She would not confirm whether the flood waters had however extended into the area designated for development.
Ministers on Tuesday announced a further £50 million funding for local authorities to help support households and businesses affected by this weekend’s floods.
East Devon Watch 