The Sunday Telegraph says that Theresa May’s “ethics adviser” (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) says General Election candidates should be “as open as possible” and should publish what income streams they currently have and what paid jobs and be clear about whether these would continue if they enter Parliament.
Trouble is, some of our potential MPs find it impossible to be open.
And the punishment for that? Nothing – zero – nada.
Bang go the ethics.
The Sunday Times reports that EDDC will become the first council to enforce Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs)with £80 on-the-spot fines or court proceedings for feeding seagulls on beaches at Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Beer and Seaton.
A PSPO creates a criminal rather than civil offence.
There was no mention of how this will be enforced – presumably as it is a criminal offence the expectation is that police will do it, rather than “Seagull Wardens”.
Let’s hope that when a seagull pinches a chip from a child on the beach a policeman can catch it and that it doesn’t further disgrace itself in court! But at least we might recognise regular miscreants by the leg tags they may have to wear.
“… Bovis faces the humiliation of being the only major housebuilder to report falling volumes this year as it attempts to recover from a series of blunders and a major profit warning … a 15% drop in completions … dividend cut … damaged reputation …”
Sunday Telegraph Business section
This will have a major knock on effect for East Devon, where the company is heavily involved in Axminster, Seaton and Cranbrook. Bad news, too, for the Local Plan, which similarly relies on the company to boost its numbers.
“Desperate councils risk being plunged into an Icelandic-style financial crisis after investing £1.5bn in the commercial property market, according to Sir Vince Cable, former business secretary.
Heavy cuts in central government funding have left the authorities having to consider increasingly exotic solutions to ease their financial constraints.
Between 2010 and 2015, there was a 37% cut in real terms in central government funding to local authorities. One option – popular in the last couple of years – has been to borrow from the Treasury-run Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) at very low rates of interest and then use the money to invest in commercial property ventures that offer returns of as much as 8%.
But there are fears that the strategy is creating a bubble that could bankrupt some local authorities. “This is not a wise and sensible thing to do,” said Cable, who was business secretary in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition and is standing as Lib Dem candidate in his former seat in Twickenham, south-west London.
“Local authorities have a long and inglorious history of gambling in financial and property markets,” he said. In the 1980s, Hammersmith and Fulham council was one of several local authorities that got into financial difficulties after becoming involved in complex bets on interest rates.
Cable said he could understand why councils were considering such strategies. “When they are massively constrained in what they can do around council tax – and indeed commercial rates – they are trying to prevent even deeper and more damaging cuts by taking these unorthodox measures. In some cases they may succeed, but there is a very high risk of bankrupting their local authorities. It does suggest a certain degree of desperation.”
Local government sources have defended the councils, saying that much of the money is invested in helping regenerate their local areas. But not in all cases. “What is so bizarre, so shocking, is that they are investing in property in other parts of the country,” Cable said. “It makes no sense whatsoever.”
Matthew Oakeshott, an investment manager at Olim Property, said councils were “playing a gigantic game of Monopoly with taxpayers’ cash”.
But authorities badly need returns at a time when interest rates remain low and demands on councils are rising. It is estimated that, by 2020, England’s councils will face a near £6bn funding gap between what they need to spend and what they receive. Most of this shortfall is due to rising costs linked to social care.
Two years ago, the Local Government Association warned that a dozen councils were on the brink of financial failure. Since then, the councils have had to be inventive in seeking to balance their books. Several – such as Eastleigh, Kettering and Maidstone – have successfully exploited loans from the PWLB to invest in commercial property. This, in turn, has attracted interest from other councils.
But such copycat behaviour is a concern, according to Cable, who drew comparisons with 2008, when many councils were left exposed after depositing millions of pounds in high-interest rate accounts offered by Icelandic banks, which then went bust.
“It did very serious damage to some councils,” Cable said. “It should have been a warning to all corporate treasurers in local government to not go anywhere near this.”
The extent to which councils are exposed to a downturn in the commercial property sector is unclear.
Last month, Lord Myners tabled a parliamentary question asking the government to confirm how much money the PWLB had lent to local authorities to invest in commercial real estate between 2011 and 2016, and what it was doing to monitor the risk from such investments.
Responding for the government, Baroness Neville-Rolfe said it was up to the councils to assess risk. She said: “The Public Works Loan Board is not required to collect information on the specific reasons that local authorities borrow from it, and so it does not hold information about the amount of lending that has been used for acquisition of commercial real estate.”
However, estate agent Savills told the Financial Times that councils had invested £1.2bn in commercial property last year and a further £221m so far this year.
An economic downturn could see commercial property yields drop, leaving councils exposed, say analysts. This fear has led some councils to resist investing, but others have developed considerable appetites. The Financial Times reported that Spelthorne borough council – which has assets of just £88m – bought a business park in Sunbury-on-Thames for £360m, having taken out 50 separate loans from the PWLB.
Local government sources played down fears of a bubble, pointing out that every council investment was made on a case-by-case basis and had to meet strict borrowing criteria.
Under the Prudential Code, councils must show that their investment plans are affordable, prudent and sustainable.
A Treasury spokesman said: “Responsibility for local authority spending and borrowing decisions lies with locally elected councillors, who are democratically accountable to their electorates.”
Head teachers are not known for hysteria, so this is serious.
“Secondary schools in England are facing a “perfect storm” of pressures that could have severe consequences for children, headteachers have said.
Budget cuts, changes to exams, problems recruiting teachers and Brexit are causing major upheaval, according to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).
The union is also expected to argue against government proposals to expand grammar schools at its annual conference this weekend.
Speaking ahead of the Telford meeting, the NAHT general secretary, Russell Hobby, said: “The combination of challenges facing secondary schools and their students has never been greater.
“Many school leaders are concerned about maintaining high standards in the face of simultaneous upheaval on so many fronts. It’s a perfect storm. The government is loading more uncertainty onto the secondary system than ever before. There is a real risk it will break.”
Hobby repeated warnings that schools are facing “unacceptable levels of financial pressure”, with an NAHT survey showing that 72% of headteachers believe that school budgets will be unsustainable in two years’ time.
u
“This is a result of the government’s choice to freeze spending and keep it at 2010 levels for each pupil. The 2010 cash isn’t going as far as it used to. You can’t expect it to. But the government is flatly refusing to admit the reality.”
Ministers have argued that school funding is at record levels, and that this will increase further as pupil numbers rise. The outgoing NAHT president, Kim Johnson, attacked suggestions that schools need to make efficiency savings.
“It’s quite insulting to have ministers say to you: ‘You need to renegotiate your photocopying contract, perhaps think about the paper you’re getting in, club together with six other schools and you’ll get it cheaper.’”
Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff, the NAHT said, particularly in key subjects such as maths, science and languages.
“Year after year, the government has missed its own targets for teacher recruitment,” Hobby said. “Thirty per cent of new teachers leave the profession after five years.
“NAHT’s own research shows school leaders have struggled or failed to recruit in eight out of 10 cases this year. Recruitment has never been more challenging.”
Schools are also dealing with exam changes this summer, including a new GCSE grading system. There are also concerns about a government expectation that 90% of pupils will study English Baccalaureate subjects – English, maths, science, history or geography and a language – narrowing the curriculum, the NAHT said, and uncertainty about how Brexit will affect the thousands of EU nationals who work in schools.
The NAHT’s motion on selective schools says the union should “campaign vigorously to reject the proposed expansion of selection” in the absence of “any compelling evidence that it promotes social mobility”.
Theresa May has said the policy will help to create a place at a good school for every child and argued that many children’s school choices are determined by where they live or their parents’ wealth.”
Owl takes no credit for this – the post is one from the United States that has gone viral! Owl, of course, does not advocate some of the suggested actions which appeal far more to America where guns are sacred.
“Social Care: Plan G
If you are an older senior citizen and can no longer take care of yourself and need Long-Term Care, but the government says there is no Nursing Home Care available for you, what do you do? You may opt for Medicare Part G:
The plan gives anyone 75 or older a gun (Part G) and one bullet. You may then shoot one worthless politician. [Owl does not support this, of course]
This means you will be sent to prison for the rest of your life where you will receive three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating and air conditioning, cable TV, a library, and all the health care you need. Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That’s great. Need a hearing aid, new hip, knees, kidney, lungs, sex change or heart? They are all covered.
As an added bonus your kids can come and visit you at least as often as they do now.
And who will be paying for all this? The same government that just told you they can’t afford for you to go into a nursing home.
And you will get rid of a useless politician while you are at it. And now, because you are a prisioner, you don’t have to pay any more income taxes.
Is this a great country or what?
Now that you have solved your Long-Term Care problem, enjoy the rest of your week.”
Does anyone else find it ironic that Tory candidates are saying that they will “fight for” local hospitals, fairer funding for schools and our precious environment when it is THEIR party that brought the CCG’s that are already cutting beds by stealth, the unfair school funding and which wants to loosen environmental regulations as soon as possible to enable more building on green fields and who are trying to stop frightening air pollution figures being published?
The Tory battle cry seems to be:
“What do we want?”
“No bed cuts, fairer funding for schools and a healthy environment!”
“When do we want it?”
“Er, whenever Mrs May says we can have it, pretty please?”
“When will it be?
“Brexit means Brexit!”
Have fun with that one – and if you vote for the Tories in Devon just hope you, your children and grandchildren can afford a private education and health care and never need to go to an NHS A and E or GP – or breathe the air in our towns, cities and countryside – tall order!
We need a credible opposition at DCC to fight for us. Claire Wright has done a magnificent job fighting for our schools, our hospitals and our environment at DCC – but could do even more with an army of like-minded councillors alongside her whose battle cry would be:
“What do we want?”
“Our fair share in a clean, green Devon”
“When do we want it?”
“When our voters empower us to get it”
“When will it be”?
“When you vote Independent on 4 May!”
“Devon County Council yesterday, voted in favour of my motion on sending a strong message to central government that nature MUST have at least the same level of protection after we leave the European Union.
Only one councillor voted against the motion, which is below.
Devon is thought to be the first council to endorse such a motion in the country. …
and
“At their meeting this week, members of Devon County Council backed a motion by Claire Wright, Independent councillor for Ottery St Mary, asking for retention of at least the same level of protection for wildlife and environment, as provided by EU law. …
… Only one councillor voted against the motion – Cllr Richard Hosking of Yealmpton – who said the EU habitats regulations had “very many shortcomings”. Great crested newts were either “very successful at parachuting into every environmental impact assessment I have seen, or they are much more prevalent than their protection suggests”, Cllr Hosking said.”
It appears only two of Sidmouth’s DCC candidates were prepared to attend tonight’s husting, which has now been cancelled at short notice – Stuart Hughes (Conservative ex- Monster Raving Loony) and Marianne Rixson (Independent East Devon Alliance).
Such a pity as there are burning questions for the Sidmouth and Sidford candidates, and the incumbent in particular, such as:
Asking Councillor Hughes why he seems to value photo-opportunities and silly songs
over action (for example, Alma Bridge…talk for years…no action)
The state of our roads in Sidmouth and Devon – Councillor Hughes having been in charge of them at DCC for years.
His worrying lack of preparedness about said highways when he should have known the information about them that should have stopped Sidford Industrial Estate ever getting into the local plan – information Sidmouth Councillor Rixson uncovered and used to help to stop it. A story of too little too late.
Councillor Hughes also needs to clarify his views on the NHS. While Sidmouth retains beds in this round of cuts, no-one can predict the future and the hospital will certainly come under pressure with extra patients from Axminster, Honiton and Seaton.
Unfortunately, a vote for Councillor Hughes is a vote for cuts – NHS and just about everything else including social care and education – big DCC responsibilities.
Councillor Rixson, and the local community, stopped the industrial estate. Councillor Rixson is an indefatigable supporter of our NHS and sees the issues way beyond the narrow confines of whipped party politics.
Councillor Rixson is the ONLY credible contender to beat Councillor Hughes, given the results from the 2015 election and to help beat any future cuts in the pipeline.
No wonder other candidates didn’t plan on turning up!
From Facebook today – surely an issue for any judicial review – manipulation of bed figures to enforce closure?
“I had to take my dad to the hospital in Exeter for a procedure. This has all gone well and they were going to move him to a different ward to recuperate perhaps for ten days.
I said it would be good if he could be moved to Seaton Hospital. I was told that staff had been told not to send people to Seaton. The look of disgust on the doctors face suggested that there was more to that sentence along the lines of ‘because they want to keep it empty so that it looks like it is not being used’.
I then walked out of the ward with my father and the porter of whom I asked where my father would be going. He did not know because there were no beds at that time!! In the words of John Lydon ‘Do you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Three major developments may affect how people choose to vote in Devon County Council elections next week.
First, and most tantalising, is the ongoing serious allegation that there seems to be a police investigation ongoing into Colyton’s EDDC villages plan, see here:
This project is somewhat similar to the Neighbourhool Plan project which also hit controversy right from the start, as reported by Owl:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/09/23/a-few-tips-for-the-colyton-and-colyford-neighbourhood-plan/
Seven volunteers resigned from the project, their letter stating:
… This is the community’s plan, not the parish council’s or a few of the individuals who seem to control it. The entire community has the final say in what goes into it. We urge all residents of the parish to ensure that the plan is truly representative of everyone’s collective aspirations for the parish in the coming years. Our concern is that a few could perhaps dictate how the communities are shaped, which would be disastrous for the parish as a whole. …
http://www.colyton-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=104098&headline=COLYTON
Colyton voters might be advised to perhaps go for a DCC councillor from outside the parish this time round.
Second is, of course, the closure of Axminster Hospital in-patient beds to the north and scheduled closure of Honiton’s in-patient beds to the west and Seaton’s to the south. DCC candidate Mrs Parr (Conservative) is on record as having been persuaded by CCG plans to close these beds. Jim Knight, who having been passed over for selection is standing as an “Independent” Conservative (whatever that is – how do voters differentiate it from UKIP these days?) is between a rock and a hard place on this one too?
DCC has the major committee for holding health authorities to account and Independent Claire Wright is doing a sterling job of fighting for us, but she desperately needs the help of others prepared to fight with her.
So, who is left?
Well, that’s the third issue.
Let’s dismiss tha Labour candidate – who had to be parachuted in from Exeter who no-one (including Labour activists) seems to know anything about!
Let’s also dismiss Peter Burrows (Lib Dem) – who declined to face voters at a recent hustings (but apparently crept into the back of the room towards the end). Who uses family connections to the health service to boost himself, rather than his own actions, which are surprisingly thin on the ground. Also Burrows has recently become notorious as a censor on the 1500-strong Facebook group, ‘It’s Seaton Devon Thank You Very Much’, of which he is administrator. After deleting posts by Shaw and others about the hospital beds, he even removed Shaw – and various other people with no connection to his campaign – from the group, provoking a considerable backlash.
With this controversy around Burrows’ role, Knight could come in ahead of him and see Burrows struggling to come third as in 2013.
This leaves the field wide open for the only other contender – Martin Shaw, Independent East Devon Alliance. Shaw has been vociferous in his support of retaining beds at Seaton Hospital, instrumental in organising a legal opinion to fight closures and has proved to be something of a tiger in his role on the town council’s planning committee.
Will voters feel minded to dismiss the “same olds” of the past and vote for someone untainted by past choices and misdemeanors?
Let us hope so.
““An Exeter Tory election candidate has been forced to apologise on social media for a series of shocking and offensive messages he sent from his Twitter account.
Aric Gilinsky, candidate for St David’s & Haven Banks in next week’s county council elections, made several inappropriate remarks in 2011 concerning members of the Catholic Church and other Twitter users, including one he branded ‘some nutter feminist bitch.'”
Well, at least he didn’t suggest a cull of councillors … THAT remark led to EDDC Tory Phil Twiss reporting Claire Wright to the police – even though his Leader used exactly the same words in an article in the Daily Telegraph:
No such worries for THIS candidate – he just has to apologise and all is forgiven.
Marianne Rixson – Sidmouth and Sidbury
Paul Hayward (Axminster) and Martin Shaw (Seaton and Colyton):
and all three have signed the pledge to make NHS protection a top priority:
Something rather odd happened at East Devon District Council’s full council meeting earlier this week.
With some Tory eyebrows shooting skywards, gutsy EDA Leader, Councillor Cathy Gardner asked the following question of EDDC’s Paul Diviani:
“I am sure you are aware, as I am,” she began, “that there is an ongoing Police Investigation into aspects of the Colyton section of the emerging Villages Plan. It may, therefore, be proven that undue influence has distorted the content of the plan. If that does turn out to be the case, do you agree that it is the responsibility of this Council to rectify the result of this influence – in order to ensure the residents of Colyton are not adversely affected and to do so before the plan goes to the (Planning) Inspector?”
What could she be referring to?! “Undue influence”? Surely not.
The two previous questions to Cllr Diviani had been vigorously taken by CEO Mark Williams. Williams didn’t seem to fancy answering this one, though. He sat impassively, even though Chairman Stuart Hughes leaned in to see if he wanted to contribute.
Cllr Diviani replied in somewhat woolly terms thus:
“Well, in terms of the Villages Plan that’s on its progress as it currently stands. I can’t see a reason why we should be inclined to second guess what an Inspector or other authority or otherwise is going to do and in that respect I will reserve judgement as to when we actually do take action.”
Tories shot glances at each other. Action? Against whom? And why? And what did he mean by “other authority”?
The Colyton Village Plan was the subject of a last minute amendment on 27th February 2017 when the Coly Valley’s two district councillors spoke about the disused Ceramtec factory. Of them, Cllr Godbeer was present last night.
Not available to comment was Vice Chairman Helen Parr (also a County candidate) who chose to attend Colyton’s Annual Parish Meeting instead.
No surprises here:
Karl Tucker, Joint Managing Director Yeo Valley Farms (Production) Ltd
· Member HotSW LEP People Group
· Member Somerset E & Skills Steering Group
· Member Somerset Economic Growth Board
· Member SW CBI Council
Richard Stevens Managing Director, Plymouth Citybus Ltd
· Chairman Plymouth & Devon Chamber
· Chair Plymouth Growth Board
· Member PRTFu
· Numerous other local groups
Fiona McMillan Non-Executive Director, EDF Energy New Build Gen Co Ltd
· Member HotSW LEP People Group
· Chair Somerset E & Skills Steering Group
· Member Somerset Economic Growth Board
· Previously Principal Bridgwater College
Helen Lacey, Managing Director, Red Berry Recruitment
· Member HotSW LEP People Group
· Chair IoD Somerset
· Vice Chair Somerset Chamber
· Previously Vice Chair FSB Somerset
· Non-Executive Director Inspire To Achieve
Mel Squires, SW Regional Director, NFU
· Member SW CBI Council
· Member SWRFN
· Previously Member HotSW LEP Executive
· Chairman of the Seale-Hayne Education Trust
Jackie Jacobs, Board member and joint owner
EIC Group / SW Metal Finishing Ltd
· Board member WEAF
Stuart Brocklehurst, Chief Executive, Applegate Marketplace Ltd
· Governor Petroc College
· Patron of Pilton House Trust
· Previously Group Communications Director Amadeus IT Group Madrid, Senior Vice President Visa International, Bishop’s Council Diocese of Exeter
David Bird, Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking
Board member DCBC
“Pirc advises shareholders to abstain on the annual remuneration report because of high pay for the chief executive, Jeff Fairburn: “The CEO-to-employee pay ratio for 2016 is at an unacceptable level of 55:1,” it says.
Mr Fairburn was paid £2.1m for 2016, up slightly from £2m a year earlier but less than half the £5m paid to then-chief executive Mike Farley in 2012.
Persimmon may be insulated from a large-scale pay rebellion because Institutional Shareholder Services, the largest proxy adviser, says shareholders should vote in favour of all motions at its annual meeting.
But the criticism of its pay scheme follows a revolt at Crest Nicholson, where 58 per cent of voting shareholders opposed the remuneration report in March after it cut profit targets at which incentives under its long-term pay plan kick in. It also comes at a time of growing disquiet over UK listed companies’ multimillion-pound payouts to top executives.
Housebuilders have been increasing profits and dividends as their businesses thrive thanks to house price rises, a shortage of new homes in areas of jobs growth, and the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. This programme enables buyers of newly built homes to receive government-backed loans so they can buy with deposits of only 5 per cent. At Persimmon, this scheme supports about 45 per cent of home sales.” …
https://www.ft.com/content/bb8628b8-269b-11e7-a34a-538b4cb30025
Letter in Guardian:
“We reserved a Bovis home in February 2016 and exchanged on 6 June. However, after signing the contract, we were informed the completion date had been delayed from October 2016 to March 2017. This was a complete surprise as we weren’t made aware of any issues. It’s since been further delayed to May 2017.
We’ve not been given any explanation. Meanwhile, the sale of our flat completed and we are incurring large costs renting a home and paying for our furniture to be in storage. My wife has also given birth to our baby, who we’d planned to have in our new house. Bovis insists the original October completion date was realistic. At the end of January, it finally offered us £1,100 to cover storage and commuting costs, but our total costs are nearer £16,700 including the early mortgage termination fee we were forced to pay.” RJ, Watford Herts
ANSWER
“Since you wrote in, the completion date has been put back by another month. This means you will have to apply for a new mortgage as your current offer expires in late May.
Bovis has offered to let you withdraw from the contract but that would mean you have to start searching for a new home from scratch. It blames “operational issues”, but declines to explain how problems great enough to cause an eight-month delay had not been identified when you signed the contract the day before the completion date was postponed.
It has now agreed to your demand for £6,000 to help with some of your costs, but you are still in suspense, wondering whether you and your new family will have a proper home in June.”
“Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC has revealed it will make a £130mln provision to cover disputes over leases taken out by customers that have left some of them with a doubling in ground rent as it unveiled a good start to trading in 2017.
In a trading statement ahead of the housebuilder’s annual meeting today in London, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive, Pete Redfern said that following conversations with freeholders and lenders the group is unveiling “measures which will address our customers’ concerns in an appropriate and fair manner.”
The FTSE 100-listed firm said it entered into the lease structures in 2007 “in good faith”, but that a review sparked by customers’ complaints showed the clauses are causing “understandable concern”.
As a result, the firm said it will make a gross provision of around £130mln that will be recorded as an exceptional item in its first half accounts.
Redfern said: “Whilst there is a financial cost to the Group related to this course of action, we confirm that our dividend targets and land investment programme are not impacted”.”
East Devon Watch 