Well, we have all to first pay for a seafront development Exmouth doesn’t want and then we all have to pay for EDDC’s flash new offices and then … who knows?
Seaton always seems to be the poor relation.
Come on Mr Parish – get your fingers out!
Monthly Archives: June 2017
Who deserves subsidised food? Children, the poor or MPs?
What (some) young people think of Sidmouth and Seaton
SIDMOUTH
“It’s paradise…for the retired and elderly. There is only one nightclub known for its legendary ‘Chlamydia pole’ that no-one dares touch, the ankle breaking stairs down to the loos and music from 2007. Can you think of any good tunes from 2007? No. Exactly.”
SEATON
“Seaton is over-run with pensioners. Not the nice fluffy kind, the “get out of my way you snivelling little fool” type on their mobility scooters. They all live in bungalow-land in the north of the town leaving the town centre to a deserted shopping street and a gigantic Tesco, which is also only half full at the best of times.”
No magic money tree for high rise blocks with failed cladding
Grenfell Tower cladding scandal could cost councils millions after Government says no guarantee of extra funding.
‘There is no way we can afford to reclad our tower blocks. If we have to find that money, it will come from other projects’
But despite emergency fire safety checks being carried out nationwide under central government direction, councils will not be reimbursed for refurbishment work carried out.
A DCLG spokesperson said there was “no guarantee” of central government funding and that it would be “up to local authorities and housing associations to pay” for the work needed to ensure residents’ safety.
The spokesperson said financial support would be considered on a “case by case” basis for those that could not afford to carry out the necessary work, but did not clarify what the criteria for that consideration would be.
The announcement was met with severe criticism from some of the councils affected, with local authorities already having their budgets severely squeezed after years of austerity measures.
Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, which is among the authorities to have discovered unsafe cladding, said “starved” councils would be forced to make cuts to other areas, including schooling, if central government did not help with costs.
“Local authorities have been starved of money over the past seven years. Our spending power has decreased,” she said. “There is no way we can afford to reclad our tower blocks. If we have to find that money, it will come from other projects, from investing in the fabric of our schools, capital investment in our infrastructure, the money has to come out of that. And it can’t really be done.
“I say absolutely, categorically that the Government should pay. If they can find £1bn to send to Northern Ireland, that gets more spending per capita than anywhere else, to buy 10 votes, then these people, living in high-rise towers, deserve better.” …
EDDC Audit and Governance: new auditors find much to comment on
A little late, as the meeting is tomorrow, but anyone with a spare couple of hours (!) might want to spend it poring over the agenda of the Audit and Governance Committee.
A rather thorough going over after their appointment as auditors has seen KPMG out EDDC under the microscope.
Too many to list here, it has identified numerous financial and procedural weaknesses.
For quick reference the agenda is here:
Click to access 290617agcombined-agenda.pdf
and Owl found the following pages most interesting:
Pages 84-88 detailing financial weaknesses
Page 103 on weaknesses in contract Standing Orders and procurement procedures
Appendix A Risk Review – page 86
Click to access 290617bpauditgovernanceoperationalrisk.pdf
which contains this intriguing comment:
“Risk: [Identified as medium BOLD type is Owl’s]
Incapacitation of all staff for protracted period re Elections
In the event that all election staff were absent for a prolonged period the Council would fail to complete the canvass, fail to publish a revised register and fail to produce accurate data and registers for elections. In the event that the Electoral Services Officer/Manager was absent for a prolonged period it is unlikely that existing staff resources would accept managerial responsibilities.”
and finally – another coruscating reminder of the Section 106 scandal
Click to access item-12-management-of-s106-contributions-report.pdf
“Leicestershire school plans early finish on Fridays due to cuts”
“A school in Leicestershire is proposing to operate on a four-and-a-half-day week due to budget cuts, confirming warnings by unions that changes to the schools funding formula would lead to schools closing early.
In a letter to parents, Danemill primary school in Enderby cited the controversial formula as a reason for its decision to end the school week at lunchtime on Fridays from October.
The letter published by the Leicester Mercury said: “As you may be aware the fairer funding formula has resulted in schools receiving significantly less money in their annual budgets from the government and Danemill is not an exception.”
To cope in the “current economic climate” it proposed early closing on Fridays. It says: “Effective from October 24 2017 the school day would end on Friday afternoons at 1.05pm.” It argued this will help maintain quality teaching and give teachers time to prepare lessons.
Parents have reacted with dismay, according to the Mercury. One unnamed father told the paper: “This is in the middle of the working day. Lots of parents have to work to make ends meet. It is unworkable madness.”
The school has proposed a limited number of “enrichment activities” on Friday afternoons for some children. The proposal follow warnings by teaching unions that schools would be forced to consider early closing because of a squeeze on resources.
Tim Stone, the chief executive of the Discovery Schools Academy Trust which runs Danemill, said the proposal to close early on Fridays was being put out to consultation with parents. …”
Local public transport: Stagecoach in financial trouble – will there be price hikes?
Owl says: Stagecoach Group plc has announced bad results for the past year and their shares are down 7.5% today. East Devon is heavily reliant on the company for rail services to London on its South West Trains franchise and for bus services throughout the district, where the company has a near monopoly on routes.
Will this be yet more price hikes for rural communities and commuters?
“Stagecoach was forced to take a hefty £84.1mln pre-tax charge on the joint venture with Virgin, as well as an additional £44.8mln write down on the value of the network – one that used to be profitable under public ownership.
The FTSE 250 group said it was in talks with the Department for Transport regarding the terms of the deal and hoped that, with some tweaks, the franchise will return to profitability in 2019. …”
Ottery St Mary complains about rubbish rubbish collections
Comments from Ottery Matters blog”
“… My parents has been missed ever since the new service started. Tbink they eventually got it collected last Friday after making several calls to EDDC.”
… There is an eddc app that you can use to report missed collections too.
… I spoke with the Waste Collection team earlier this afternoon – there as a long wait on hold, and when I eventually got through I was told that there have been hundreds of complaints about non-collection. Apparently many homes have been missed off the new routes.
First week of new scheme (in the heat wave) we had no collection and ended up with hundreds of maggots crawling out and over our food waste bin. Disgusting!!
So it seems like the new scheme is having major teething issues – and EDDC is failing to get the contractor to get on top of the issues.
… Neither has ours in Knightstones.
… We’ve been waiting 3 weeks in rockbeare! Well just our lane actually! Think we’ve been erased from the map!
… General enquiry. Has anyone else’s recycling not been collected for the last 2 weeks or is it just sunnyhill?”
What does £1 billion buy?
Owl says: just remember, if you voted Conservative in June, these are the kind of things things you stopped us having.
“During her disastrous election campaign Theresa May kindly reminded us that there is “no magic money tree” to fix the country’s cash problems.
But this week the struggling prime minister has managed to find a spare £1billion to make a deal with the DUP to prop up her minority government.
That’s enough to fund 26,000 nurses.
Or free school meals for all primary school children for a year.
Or sprinklers on 600 tower blocks.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/everyone-asking-theresa-ridiculous-presents-10695091
OR
A billion pounds will buy 147,000 state pensions or 300,000 jobseeker’s allowances for a year.
Alternatively it could fund 2.3 million people’s disability living allowance per annum – three quarters of the total.
It would cover all diagnostic imaging – MRI scans, x-rays – for a year with a bit left over for other jobs.
Or another way would be to fund 26,000 nurses or 12,000 hospital doctors for a year.
It could pay for 167,000 hip replacements or 1.4 million hospital day cases.
A billion pounds could also pay for two flagship hospitals, such as Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital which opened in 2010.
A billion pounds would provide an 8hr course of talking therapy for 2.5m people. Or 750,000 eight-session courses of mindfulness therapy.
Or the army could pay for 40 Challenger 2 tanks. The basic production cost in 2002 of each tank was £6m.
£1bn could fund 8,500 troops.
With £1bn the government could, for a year, fund 27,000 primary or 22,000 secondary school teachers.
Or give free school meals to 2.5m children.
The average cost of a free school is £6.6 million – so that would mean about new 150 free schools.
With £1bn the government could build 16,600 new social homes or 50,000 shared ownership homes, according to Shelter.
£1bn could make universal the offer of 15 hours a week of childcare for 37 weeks of the year.”
Facts courtesy of this tweet https://twitter.com/CerianJenkins/status/879332594839687170
Resident complains about Exmouth cleanliness
“Our town centre is FILTHY, specifically Rolle Street and the Strand pavements, the bus shelters and rubbish bins in the same area. Why is our town so FILTHY? What is going on??
Please clean this area on a regular basis, daily. It is worse than a third world country.”
Correspondent please note Owl cannot respond to requests for telephone contact.
Any further comment from other Exmothians?
Nuclear inaction – it’s hotting up
Owl says: no worries, our Local Enterprise Partnership has it all under control. What? It doesn’t? It’s getting very warm in here …
Business Commentary – Alistair Osborne (The Times – paywall)
“Lucky the National Audit Office got its Hinkley Point C report out last week. Then, it merely concluded that the government had “locked consumers into a risky and expensive project with uncertain strategic and economic benefits”. Oh, and that the reactor was of “unproven” design and other projects incorporating it were “experiencing difficulties”.
Well, guess what?
The £18 billion bill is shooting up and Hinkley Point could be another two years late, at least if you believe Le Monde. A report over the weekend added a potential £2.7 billion to the cost of the project and put back the start date to 2027 — conjecture hardly denied by the main contractor, France’s EDF, which must pay for any cost hikes. It said only that it was doing a “full review of the costs and schedule”.
Still, all that’s just for starters. More alarmingly, France’s nuclear watchdog has just produced a howitzer of a ruling over one of the two prototypes for Hinkley: a similar European Pressurised Reactor at Flamanville in France.
Having ordered a review of the nuke after finding carbon spots in the reactor vessel, the regulator has now told EDF it will have to replace the vessel cover within a few years of operation unless it can pass further tests — a bit tricky as the cover is no longer accessible.
The upshot? It’ll be replacing the cover on a live nuke, much to the delight of the locals. Anyway, this is the kit on its way to Somerset. Gives you such a warm glow.”
Now we are ruled by the DUP?
Credit: The Canary
EDDC’s new rubbish rubbish collection
From a correspondent:
“We are now in week 3 of the new collection scheme.
Week 1 (heatwave): Collection day Tuesday. Reported missed collection Wednesday morning. Told Thursday afternoon it had been collected but it hadn’t. Chased and chased.
Week 2 (still heatwave): Complained again because we had thousands of maggots crawling all over our kitchen waste bin (having been stood in the sun for more than a week). Eventually collection made – but this was not the missed one – it was the next one.
Week 3 (today): Bins not collected again. Call centre clogged with calls from irate residents. EDDC apologetic – and say that there are hundreds of people calling to complain – but simply wringing their hands, not actually doing anything to fix it.
It’s funny, isn’t it, how EDDC PR dept can churn out PR after PR hyping what the council claims it is doing well – but not a peep out of them we residents deserve an apology and an explanation and details of an action plan to fix it.”
Just how much can you rip voters off before they reject you?
“Ask any returning or new MP what the big issues were during the election campaign and I bet most would have school cuts and police cuts top of the list. Indeed, at the beginning of the campaign, before the manifestos which changed the course of the election, I felt our school gates campaign was our strongest card and it would only be a matter of time before the Tories closed it down, as they did in 2015 on the NHS, with a promise to meet the shortfall.
Yet, with the arrogance and complacency that became the hallmark of their campaign, the Tories continued with their defensive line that school budgets were protected in cash terms (not real terms).
The Tories then adopted a similar (and wrong) strategy when police numbers took centre stage in the wake of the Manchester and London terror attacks, with Theresa May completely unable to say she’d “give the police the resources they need.”
In today’s Daily Mail, Tory MPs complain that headteachers lost them the election. Wrong. It was their own policies (and inability to change) which lost them the election. Polls after the election estimated that over three quarters of a million people changed the way they voted because of school funding cuts.
It wasn’t the fault of headteachers, nor the Chief Constables of the Met Police and Greater Manchester Police who also cited resource pressures, it was the Tory government’s own record on these issues.
The public can cope with a certain amount of “efficiencies” and necessary cost-cutting, but when their kids are in oversized classes without text books, and their hot lunches are being scrapped for a cold breakfast, or when our streets and communities become unsafe because of unsustainable cuts to the police, that’s when people get rightly very concerned.
The Tories failure to get this, is the biggest failure of their campaign and their government. It made Theresa May look remote and shifty on the campaign trail, unable to answer a straight question with a straight answer.
The Queen’s Speech shows that they’ve completely failed to learn the lessons of their election losses with no new money for schools or the police.
What an irony then that their own “magic money tree” has produced £1billion for their grubby deal with the DUP. This same billion pounds used at the start of the campaign to meet the shortfall in schools’ budgets and to give the police the resources they need with extra police officers, could have won them a majority, probably quite comfortably. Instead they are now going to have to find at least another £1billion to deal with the ever growing, and legitimate, calls of senior police officers and head teachers for adequate resources. The NUT has estimated that if English schools were given the same proportion of funding under this bung to the DUP as Northern Irish schools head teachers would receive over half a billion pounds.
The Tories key lines against Labour so effectively used in 2015 now all look in tatters, for the long term. It’s a common view that this election was a disaster for them, their dodgy deal with the DUP will only lead to more pain unless they learn the lessons of the election campaign.
Lucy Powell is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Manchester Central”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lucy-powell/general-election-2017-public-services_b_17304168.html
Hernandez friend, now Deputy PCC, revers Mrs Thatcher, adores the Queen and calls Mrs May “Mother Theresa May”!
The Chief Constable must be loving this!
“Devon’s newly revealed deputy police and crime commissioner is a “staunch” Conservative who once chained himself to a set of railings to protest about the downfall of his hero, Margaret Thatcher.
Mark Kingscote has now been officially revealed by crime czar Alison Hernandez as her second-in-command, a role which will come with an estimated salary of £30,000.
The 55-year-old NHS mental health support worker is a close ally of Ms Hernandez from the days the pair were jointly-elected Torbay councillors for Shiphay with the Willows.
Ms Hernandez faced criticism during her election campaign that she would politicise the role, including from predecessor Tony Hogg, who quit the Tories in protest at the end of his office.
However, she has opted to recruit a fellow party member from her home town, prizing his track record in mental health and diversity in an appointment which has been criticised as “smacking of nepotism”.
A brief glance at Twitter shows her deputy is a loyal Conservative who reveres Mrs Thatcher, adores the Queen and even refers to the current prime minister as “Mother Theresa” May.
Deputy police and crime commissioner Mark Kingscote once chained himself to railings in protest at Tory plot to depose Margaret Thatcher
Devon’s newly revealed deputy police and crime commissioner is a “staunch” Conservative who once chained himself to a set of railings to protest about the downfall of his hero, Margaret Thatcher.
Mark Kingscote has now been officially revealed by crime czar Alison Hernandez as her second-in-command, a role which will come with an estimated salary of £30,000.
The 55-year-old NHS mental health support worker is a close ally of Ms Hernandez from the days the pair were jointly-elected Torbay councillors for Shiphay with the Willows.
Ms Hernandez faced criticism during her election campaign that she would politicise the role, including from predecessor Tony Hogg, who quit the Tories in protest at the end of his office.
However, she has opted to recruit a fellow party member from her home town, prizing his track record in mental health and diversity in an appointment which has been criticised as “smacking of nepotism”.
A brief glance at Twitter shows her deputy is a loyal Conservative who reveres Mrs Thatcher, adores the Queen and even refers to the current prime minister as “Mother Theresa” May.
Councillor Kingscote insists his views do not prevent him from looking and thinking “outside the box” and he will not bring party politics into policing.
But he does nothing to conceal or play down his deep admiration for Mrs Thatcher and her “special aura”.
He staked out Brighton’s Grand Hotel in 1987, the first time the Tories had stayed there since the IRA bomb of 1984 which nearly killed the then prime minister, bearing a bouquet of flowers.
Three years later, he was so furious at Michael Heseltine for launching a leadership challenge that he chained himself to the railings outside the Tory MP’s Mayfair home.
“I am more of a Thatcherite than a Conservative – she was a great inspiration to me,” he told Devon Live.
“That is based on the free market, deregulation and giving people the tools to get on with their own life. I believe in giving people a hand up not a hand-out and give people a chance to make something of their life.
“People have short memories but I remember how sad and desperate Britain was before she came to power: the three-day week, public sector strikes…Britain was on its knees.”
Mr Kingscote said he received many hundreds of letters of support from around the country for his demonstration, which saw him moved on by police.
“I went to Michael Heseltine’s house and we chained ourselves to the railings – the police came along and said, ‘Behave yourselves and get on your way’.
“Later we went to Downing Street and were greeted by rapturous applause.”
Mr Kingscote also reveals how his floral tribute to the so-called Iron Lady also began on a whim in his hometown, Torbay.
“I met Mrs Thatcher on many occasions, the most memorable being the Tory party conference of 1987,” he recalled.
“I said to my friend Vera ‘its Margaret’s birthday tomorrow I want to get her some flowers’.
“We went to Brighton and bumped into Michael Heseltine around 7am. He said, ‘You had better check with the heavy mob’ as security was tight.
“It was all cordoned off so we went upstairs and waited and waited while she was having a cabinet meeting.
“All of a sudden the door opened and I saw the outline and said ‘it’s Maggie’ and she said ‘you had better come in’ – we said we had come to wish her happy birthday to show how much we loved her.
She looked at the flowers and said ‘oh, red, white and blue – the colours of freedom and democracy in our country. May we never betray these colours’.
“We were in there for 15 to 20 minutes. It is amazing when you think how powerful she was in the 80s – there were ambassadors and heads of state waiting – she didn’t have to do that.
“There are only two people who have ever made me feel nervous in their presence: one was Maggie – she had a huge aura about her – and the other was the Queen.
“The dress, the hair, the make-up – everything about her was powerful and she used it all to maximum effect.”
The post of deputy police and crime commissioner was first raised on the campaign trail by Ms Hernandez, who toyed with the idea of campaigning for office alongside a running mate.
She eventually stood alone on the Tory ticket and was elected in her own right.
But last month, Devon Live revealed that she was considering appointing Mr Kingscote to share the workload, including increased scrutiny.
On Friday, he was formally announced before being presented to a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel next week.
His knowledge of mental health during 25 years in the NHS, his experience as Torbay’s planning committee, and a councillor since 2000, persuaded Ms Hernandez to offer him the role.
Cllr Kingscote is passionate about promoting diversity and this area will be key to Ms Hernandez’s plans to include marginalised communities in policing decisions.
He says, as a gay man, he has never experienced any prejudice, but will “speak up on behalf” of those whose views may not receive sufficient attention.
“I have never in my life experienced any prejudice but that might just be because of the person I am,” he added.
“In this day and age sexuality is not really relevant. I am also a committed member of the Church of England but you have got to have a broad outlook on life.
“You don’t have to be part of a particular group to want the best for them.”
He says his “staunch” Conservatism will be channelled into getting value for money in policing for taxpayers in Devon and Cornwall.
Asked about the recent row over Ms Hernandez’s comments over armed citizens, Cllr Kingscote feels his new boss has been harshly criticised.
He says her suggestion that allowing registered firearm users to combat terrorists was simply stimulating debate.
“Sometimes you need to debate things to know if it is a good policy or not,” he added.
“Both Alison and myself have strong views. I am not frightened to challenge my views or to challenge hers: that’s what makes a good team to challenge and influence policy
“Of course I am a Conservative and my belief in Conservative values will never change but you have got to look at the bigger picture.
“My three principles are freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”
Properties sold and future disposals by NHS Property Services
Make sure you check the second tab of “Future Disposals” which goes not yet include East Devon community hospitals – but you can bet it soon will.
http://www.property.nhs.uk/wpdm-package/disposals-2017/?wpdmdl=11292
NHS Property Services – a very rich gravy train
And you don’t even have to work for the money!
How much longer can these “free market” obscenities go on?
And yet another hidden money tree.
“Labour slams ‘stupid and dangerous’ Tory crime czar as ‘unfit’ for office”
Owl says: at last someone prepared to say that this particular Empress has no professional clothes!
“Labour has called for the sacking of the Tory crime czar after her comments about armed citizens taking on terrorist attackers.
A group of Plymouth councillors have said Devon and Cornwall’s Police and Crime Commissioner should be removed from her role for making “stupid and dangerous” comments about guns.
The group is pushing for a vote of no confidence in Alison Hernandez, saying they are “extremely alarmed” at her stance on how to tackle terrorists.
Earlier this month Ms Hernandez said vigilantes with guns could be part of the “solution” – but later insisted the interview had been misinterpreted.
Labour is preparing to table a motion at next week’s council meeting calling for action.
“Ms Hernandez’s statement that she would ‘really be interested’ in the suggestion shows she is unfit and unsuitable for office,” a spokesman said.
“We endorse Deputy Chief Constable Paul Netherton’s view that it would be ‘definitely an emphatic no’ to non-police officers taking up arms.
“A proposal to utilise domestically owned firearms is a crass and inadequate response to mounting concerns about police cuts.
“In particular it is an inadequate response to the previously reported removal of a large number of armed officers. This in turn is exacerbated by the removal of the ‘eyes and ears of the force’, the PCSOs and beat officers.”
READ MORE: Machete wielding man in gas mask wrestled to ground by brave neighbours after spate of fires
The motion calls for the council’s chief executive to write to the Home Secretary asking her to “remove Ms Hernandez from office, allowing Devon and Cornwall Police to continue the fight against crime, including terrorist threats, without these stupid and dangerous comments being made.”
The councillors also want to write to the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel Chair requesting he tables an urgent vote of no confidence in Ms Hernandez at their next full meeting.
A spokesman for Ms Hernandez’ office said: “There has been no official notification of any Plymouth City Council motion concerning the Police and Crime Commissioner.
“Should a motion be tabled, any response from the commissioner will be made through the appropriate channels.”
DUP will be back for more
Meanwhile the West Country deteriorates.
“The Democratic Unionist Party’s £1 billion deal to prop up the Conservative government may end up costing the country far more because the DUP will be “back for more”, it emerged last night.
The Tories finally sealed a historic deal with the Northern Irish party which guarantees its 10 MPs will vote with the Government on key legislation, in return for which cash will go to Belfast for infrastructure, broadband, schools and hospitals.
But the £1billion payment – the equivalent of £33 for every taxpayer in the UK – could be only the start after DUP sources hinted that they will ask for more cash when the deal is “reviewed” in two years’ time. …”
Did YOU vote for the DUP?
East Devon Watch 