Lead story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b083gk3j/spotlight-weekend-news-03122016
Daily Archives: 3 Dec 2016
NHS Crisis – the big national demo – 4 March 2017
East Devon Alliance Councillor Cathy Gardner radio interview on health crisis
Exeter NHS Rally: East Devon Alliance well represented, no Tory councillors or MPs spotted!
East Devon Alliance:
Spotted in the crowd (not an exhaustive list as crowd too large): East Devon Alliance councillors Marianne Rixon and Cathy Gardner (also on Spotlight and Radio Devon), Sidmouth campaigners Di Fuller and Robert Crick along with town councillor Martin Shaw of Seaton and Independent Councillor Roger Giles of Ottery St Mary.
Many people attended from Exeter, Okehampton and North Devon.
No East Devon Tory Councillors or MPs sighted at all. Nor Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw.
Hundreds protest over NHS cuts
“Protesters were seen marching in red lines from every direction along Sidwell Street, Fore Street, Queen Street, North Street, South Street, and Paris Street.
Protesters then gathered in Bedford Square where the speeches began.”
It included a rousing speech by DCC councillor Claire Wright:
Hernandez: quick – find money, sell police stations, increase council tax
“Police and crime commissioner (PCC) Alison Hernandez has told officials to find millions in cash to boost neighbourhood policing with dozens of new officers.
The Tory crime tsar won the May election with a pledge to keep open police stations and deploy more “bobbies” in communities that felt “abandoned”.
… Now Ms Hernandez has instructed her office to find all the spare money she can to fund new officers – including raising council tax and digging into cash reserves.
The operation – which could generate an extra £4million, funding as many as 80 new officers – comes as the results of a huge public consultation in Devon and Cornwall, generating 1,400 responses, are revealed.
Ms Hernandez will attend the police and crime panel in Plymouth, which oversees the PCC, to formally present her plans next Friday.
Andrew White, chief executive at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, said every potential source of fresh money would be tapped.
“I have been going through the budget to find all the money I can to turnover as much money as possible into frontline policing,” he told the Echo. …
… The plan is not explicit about the future shape of the force but promises to “retain a broad footprint for the police estate”.
“Police stations and offices are not the primary means by which the public engage with the police although they can play a part in connecting the community to the police,” it states.
The report also says “keeping underutilised or unnecessary physical buildings will tie up capital and revenue funds which we can spend in other ways”. “Going forward when a police station is vacated we will seek to provide an alternative base within that locality.
“In addition the PCC and the Chief Constable will look at ways to widen the police footprint in local areas to improve community liaison and connectivity – including through the Citizens in Policing Programme, colocation with partners and community access points and will pilot options in the second half of 2017.”
Panel member and Plymouth City Councillor Philippa Davey said: “it is a good plan which contains lots of fantastic things but does not set out exactly how we will achieve them. “It will be interesting to hear from Alison Hernandez and the chief constable at the meeting. “The bottom line is going to be a reduction in workforce, officers and money.
“The PCC and the chief constable will be spending their time making savings rather than doing their job – keeping our communities safe from harm.”
More French nuclear plants offline after safety tests
“The company building the UK’s first new nuclear power station for decades is facing questions over the health of its fleet of French nuclear plants after an investigation which has left the country with the lowest level of nuclear power for 10 years and the prospect of power cuts during a cold snap.
Thirteen of Électricité de France’s (EDF) 58 atomic plants are offline, some due to planned maintenance, but most for safety checks ordered by the regulator over anomalies discovered in reactor parts.
The outages have prompted warnings of potential planned power cuts and pushed up wholesale power prices, boosting coal and gas operators but squeezing small energy suppliers. Carbon emissions will possibly rise too as France, which last year forged a historic climate change deal in Paris, has to import more fossil fuel power.
The problems stem from a fault identified last year by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in the as-yet-unfinished reactor at north-western France’s Flamanville plant – the same design approved for Hinkley Point C in the UK.
Pierre-Franck Chevet, president of the ASN, told Le Figaro the situation was “very worrying” and the discovery had led to “unprecedented” checks at all the country’s nuclear plants, which provide 75% of France’s electricity and normally help it export power to other countries. The issue is higher than expected carbon concentrations in steel reactor components, which could make them vulnerable to cracking.”
East Devon Watch 