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Daily Archives: 10 May 2017
Honiton: another council, another police investigation?
Comment by current Deputy Mayor Henty Brown on the recent shock resignations from Honiton Town Council, reported in today’s Express and Echo website:
“... The town council is not in crisis as this mass exodus was planned – the fact that one resigned after the other meant it was all orchestrated in a way to get maximum effect.
“There is of course also the investigation into the finances of the town council and a police investigation into that. But the council is above this and we have to remain an open and transparent council, and if you don’t want that to be the case, then you should resign.”…
And, on election expenses fraud – no prosecutions: bears do defacate in woods!
“CPS presses no charges over alleged 2015 Tory election over-spending, but one case outstanding
The Crown Prosecution Service has put out this statement. It’s from Nick Vamos, its head of special crime.
We have considered files of evidence from 14 police forces in respect of allegations relating to Conservative Party candidates’ expenditure during the 2015 General Election campaign.
We considered whether candidates and election agents working in constituencies that were visited by the Party’s ‘Battle Bus’ may have committed a criminal offence by not declaring related expenditure on their local returns. Instead, as the Electoral Commission found in its report, these costs were recorded as national expenditure by the Party.
We reviewed the files in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and have concluded the tests in the Code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised.
Under the Representation of the People Act, every candidate and agent must sign a declaration on the expenses return that to the best of their knowledge and belief it is a complete and correct return as required by law. It is an offence to knowingly make a false declaration. In order to bring a charge, it must be proved that a suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration. Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest.
The Act also makes it a technical offence for an election agent to fail to deliver a true return. By omitting any ‘Battle Bus’ costs, the returns may have been inaccurate. However, it is clear agents were told by Conservative Party headquarters that the costs were part of the national campaign and it would not be possible to prove any agent acted knowingly or dishonestly. Therefore we have concluded it is not in the public interest to charge anyone referred to us with this offence.
Our evaluation of the evidence is consistent with that of the Electoral Commission. While the role of the Commission is to regulate political finances and campaign spending, the role of the CPS is to consider whether any individual should face criminal charges, which is a different matter with different consideration and tests.
One file, from Kent Police, was only recently received by the CPS, and remains under consideration. No inference as to whether any criminal charge may or may not be authorised in relation to this file should be drawn from this fact and we will announce our decision as soon as possible once we have considered the evidence in this matter.”
via Guardian Live
Children injured in new- build homes due to dangerous and shoddy workmanship
“Children have been injured in shoddily built new homes, we can reveal.
The youngsters have suffered electric shocks and breathing problems, while one was even crushed by a radiator, after moving in to properties that had not been constructed properly.
The revelations are the latest uncovered by the Daily Mail as part of an investigation into the dire state of many of Britain’s new-build homes.
We have previously reported on leaks, water-logged gardens, missing windows, badly fitted doors, broken toilets and gaps in the guttering.
Many homebuyers have scrimped and saved for years to get on the property ladder.
Today we can reveal that poor workmanship by builders – some of whom are cutting corners in a rush to meet construction targets – is raising safety concerns.
Kate and Kevin Fever, from Tiverton, Devon, saved for years to buy a bigger home for their four children. When they moved to their new £265,000, four-bedroom property in December 2015, there were snagging issues with the downstairs flooring and drainage in the garden. These were fixed within a few weeks.
But, seven months later, a heavy double radiator fell off the wall as their eldest daughter Gemma, then aged ten, walked across the kitchen. Kate, 32, a student midwife, says: ‘When I rushed over and pulled off her sock, I expected just a graze, but it was a bloodbath. I grabbed a tea towel to wrap around her foot and we went straight to A&E.’ Gemma, now 11, needed stitches and a cast on her leg for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Kate and Kevin, 40, reported the incident to their builder Taylor Wimpey.
They claim the firm admitted wrong fixings were used on a number of radiators, which meant they weren’t secured properly to the walls.
The radiators were repaired and the firm contacted other customers they thought could be affected. Gemma also received toys, a £50 Toys R Us gift card and £150.
A spokeswoman for the builder says: ‘Taylor Wimpey has apologised to the Fever family for the distress caused. The health and safety of our customers and their families is our number one priority.’
Paul and Lisa Holland, from Leyland, Lancashire, also bought a four-bedroom property from Taylor Wimpey, which they have lived in since 2010. In November last year, Lisa, 43, and youngest son Kyle, 11, suffered electric shocks after touching a lightswitch.
Paul, 45, an HGV driver, says: ‘It happened when we changed the bulb to an energy saver. The bulb started flashing. My son went to the switch, but he jumped back crying. My wife then tried it and jumped back after also suffering a shock.’ When Paul’s brother tested the plastic switch with a volt meter he found live current leaking. The switch had to be replaced, along with the light. ‘My wife and son are very, very lucky they did not each suffer more serious shocks,’ says Paul.
A Taylor Wimpey spokesman says: ‘The vast majority of our customers tell us they are very satisfied with the quality of their home. ‘However, we recognise that we do sometimes get things wrong, and in those cases we are committed to putting them right as quickly as possible.’
Figures show a staggering 98 per cent of new-build buyers report problems to their builders, according to a new home survey by the National House Building Council and the Home Builders Federation.
After years of saving, Colin and Jessica Nickless bought their first home in September 2015. But since moving into the three-bedroom, terraced new-build in Rainham, near London, the couple and their two children have been plagued by damp and mould. Ellie, five, and Freddie, three, have both been in hospital with breathing difficulties and chest infections.
The couple particularly worry about Ellie as she suffers from cystic fibrosis, which makes her vulnerable to respiratory infections. Colin, 41, a full-time carer for Ellie, says: ‘Our new-build home is making us all ill.
‘We’ve had problems with leaking pipes, damp carpets, water dripping through electrical sockets and light fittings, waste pipes not being connected properly and pouring filthy water into my son’s bedroom.’
A spokeswoman for Circle Housing refused to comment on the case due to an ongoing legal claim.
Philip Waller, a retired construction manager who runs advice website brand-newhomes.co.uk, says: ‘When children are being injured by defective new homes, the Government simply cannot stand on the sidelines.'”
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-4489582/Our-new-build-homes-children-E.html
999 call for support at EDDC on 17 May for emergency motion on NHS in Devon
Save our Hospital Services East Devon Facebook page:
“EDDC council meeting 17th May, 6.30 pm – Knowle, Sidmouth.
We [Independent East Devon Alliance] have a motion going before the Council condemning the closure of our community beds.
Support from members of the public during public speaking would really help us and show your local ward member how you want them to vote.
If you can come along and support us we would be very grateful, this is a tough fight. The item is late (last?) in the agenda but you can ask to speak before that item rather than at the start of the meeting. Do contact me if you need more information. Here is our motion and the East Devon Alliance Councillors who are proposing it:
“Councillor Cathy Gardner, seconded by Councillor Marianne Rixson and supported by Councillors Val Ranger, Matt Coppell and Megan Armstrong:
“That this Council condemns the decision of the NEW Devon CCG to close community hospital beds in Seaton and Honiton and calls on our County Councillors and MPs to oppose further cuts to services in East Devon as part of the ongoing Sustainability and Transformation Plan.”
This comes hot on the heels of a damning report on our so-called “Success Regime” Clinical Commissioning Group, which has managed to get us into an even worse mess than the regime it replaced:
(also from same Facebook page):
“Largest CCG given updated legal directions as finances sink
Health Service Journal – 4 May, 2017 By Nick Carding
Fresh legal directions given to troubled NEW Devon CCG
Deadline for submission of 2017-18 operating plan is Friday
CCG’s cumulative deficit now stands at £120.5m
The largest clinical commissioning group in the country has been given fresh legal directions over its financial management, amid a worsening of its cumulative deficit.
NHS England has imposed several instructions on Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG, which has been in the region’s success regime since 2015, and is yet to agree its operating plan for 2017-18 with regulators.
The deadline for submitting the plan is Friday.
The updated directions, which took effect in late March, replace previous directions from August 2015.
They include:
The financial recovery plan and any amendments to it shall continue to be subject to NHS England approval.
NHS England may direct the CCG in any other matters relating to the financial recovery plan.
NHS England could dictate the process to be followed by the CCG in making appointments to its executive team or the “next tier of management”.
The CCG’s cumulative deficit since 2013-14 now stands at £120m, after it ended 2016-17 with a £42m deficit.
In 2016-17 it had forecast a cumulative deficit of £107m.
The region, which has been warned it could become subject to the new “capped expenditure process” devised by NHS England and NHS Improvement, has been ordered to come up with affordable operating plans by Friday.
The plans will be reviewed with national directors at NHS England and NHSI later this month.
The CCG and the NHS providers in the NEW Devon footprint had a joint financial plan for 2016-17.
Neither the CCG nor the providers could identify further savings without “having a severe impact on patient care”, CCG governing body papers said.
In February, the CCG confirmed plans to reduce the number of inpatient beds across four community hospitals in its eastern locality from 143 to 72.
For 2017-18, one of the main providers on the patch – Plymouth Hospitals Trust – has launched a £40m financial improvement programme, which includes workforce redesign.
HSJ asked the CCG what its financial forecast and savings target would be in 2017-18, but a spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to respond to questions relating to 2017-18 because their plans have not yet been approved.
South Devon and Torbay CCG is also under legal directions.
Article updated at 3.33pm, May 5, after new information was provided by the CCG.
Source:
CCG board papers and information provided to HSJ”
“Is the Prime Minister fake news”
From the blog of Peter Cleasby:
“Last week the Conservative Party – rebranded nationally as “Theresa May’s Team” – bought advertising space in a dozen local papers around the country to promote the Prime Minister’s general election campaign [1]. Nothing wrong in that in principle: it’s a long-standing habit of political parties to pay for advertising. The towns and cities in question appear to be Parliamentary seats which the Tories are targeting to win. So far, business much as usual.
The commentariat has tended to criticise the tactic as a way of getting around spending limits for constituency election campaigns. It’s a targeted national campaign which doesn’t mention the local candidates so it’s not local spending, and it’s all within Electoral Commission rules.
Frankly, that’s a second-order complaint. The Conservative Party is simply doing what any advertiser would do given the opportunity. If it’s an unintended loophole in the spending rules, it can be put right. Much more insidious, and an example of further erosion of any semblance of standards in corporate behaviour, is the way in which the newspapers allowed the ads to be designed and placed.
What the local papers did – or, probably more accurately, what they were told to do by their corporate owners – was to accept the advertisement in the form of a wrap-around, with each paper’s normal masthead integrated into the paid-for “front page”. In other words, a blatant attempt to mislead readers into thinking their local paper was supporting Mrs May’s election campaign.
Defenders of the scheme have argued that people would easily see that it was an advertisement. Really? Two points here. First, at least on the fake front page of the Exeter Express and Echo, the words “ADVERTISER’S ANNOUNCEMENT” are set in a white font on a pale grey background. This is invisible to anyone looking at the paper from a distance, on a newsstand for example.
Second, it’s not unheard of for national papers such as the Sun and the Daily Mail to trumpet their support for a political party as editorial matter on their front pages. If they can do it, why should people be surprised that the local papers are doing the same?
The advertising impact isn’t limited to people who buy the paper: indeed, they will soon discover the real front page inside and put Mrs May in the recycling. What the technique achieves is massive exposure of Mrs May’s slogans because the papers – typically weekly ones – are displayed on newsstands for a whole week. These stands are often to be found in prominent places in major retailers: in Exeter, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have separate stands for the Echo in the entrance areas.
The edition of the Exeter paper that carried the fake front page also ran a leader article entitled “Delivering facts not fake news” [2]. The irony of this was lost on the paper’s editor. In response to my complaint to him about the fake front page, Mr Parker said:
“The material carried this week was part of a nationwide advertising initiative by the Conservative Party and the decision to publish it was made solely for business reasons as we are, after all, a business.
“It was made clear that this was an advertising arrangement with the Conservative party and is something we are at the moment exploring with other political parties.
“Again, any future decisions will be based on the commercial side of the business and will have absolutely no bearing on the way the Express and Echo covers editorially any news stories whether or not they are of a political nature.
“I cannot emphasise enough that we are a totally independent news operation and proud of that fact and will continue to be so.”
Taking advertisers’ money is one thing. Trying to mislead your readers – who may not be interested in the distinction between the commercial and editorial sides of the business – is quite another. And since the rules on political balance don’t apply to the press, we can assume that only those parties who can pay out hard cash for wrap-arounds will be included in the exploratory discussions Mr Parker refers to.
Up in Westmoreland, where the local paper also ran a fake front page, there is some community anger, threatening a boycott of the rag [3]. Something worth considering everywhere else, since even if local papers no longer care about their reputations, their owners do care about sales and profits.
Meanwhile Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and all other retailers giving prominence to local papers should move the newsstands carrying the fake front page to the nearest back room until normal service is resumed.”
NOTES
[1] For a list of papers and constituencies, see https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/how-the-conservatives-are-using-local-adverts-to-get-around
[2] A longer version of the article is in the online version at http://www.devonlive.com/8203-in-an-age-of-fake-stories-we-always-provide-trusted-news/story-30314208-detail/story.
East Devon Watch 