Jacob Rees-Mogg did. Nanny should be ashamed!
Monthly Archives: November 2019
“Students: will your vote be more effective at home or university? – interactive”
Why Claire Wright MP?
Owl is very suspicious about this …
“Meeting to determine fire station closures and cuts moved until after Christmas’
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/meeting-determine-fire-station-closures-3515624
Why is Owl suspicious?
First, it postpones it until after the General Election
and second?
Owl will return to this tomorrow!
Watch out she’s behind you …
Lib Dems have no chance in winning East Devon. So, it begs the question: are they standing to ensure a Toeygets in again by splitting the non-Tory vote or simply to keep Claire Wright out … because? Or both?
“Patrick Kidd’s general election road trip: Watch out, they’re behind you!
Fat Charlie, the mascot of Little Chef, has been replaced by the Starbucks mermaid, the Olympic breakfast giving way to the mocha macchiato, and the long-loved Annie’s Tea Bar in the layby outside Honiton is now Emma’s Café. Yet as the A303 merges into the A30 on the second stage of my election road trip there is one thing that will surely never change: this Devon land east of Exeter will always be Conservative.
Or will it? Lace-rich Honiton, where the mayor, in a display of “no pain, no gain” philanthropy dating from the reign of King Stephen, throws piping-hot pennies at the people every July, has had Tory MPs since the 1880s, save for a 16-month hiccup in the 1920s. Neil Parish is surely safe with a 20,000 majority.
Head southwest, though, to Ottery St Mary, Sidmouth, Topsham and Budleigh Salterton and something different is happening. An independent anti-austerity councillor has come second twice in general elections in Devon East, cutting the Tory lead in 2017 to 8,000. With Labour 14,500 behind her and the Liberal Democrats losing their deposit last time, Claire Wright is now the opposition.”
Source: Times (pay wall)
What can you use a closed community hospital for? A holiday let!
The cost of hubris – £11.5 million for ditched Non-Brexit coins
Urban sprawl – Greater Exeter, Lesser East Devon
From a correspondent:
This correspondent had a beautiful sunny autumn drive through the villages of West Hill and Woodbury yesterday morning. Then the enthusiasm of conservative Cllr Philip Skinner for a “network of linked villages being built in the North West Quadrant area of East Devon” came to mind.
Has not East Devon sacrificed enough Grade 1 agricultural land to build Cranbrook? Were we not told that this sacrifice would be EDDC’s contribution to housing need?
Then we found that Ottery St. Mary was sacrificed.
Feniton was sacrificed.
Exmouth was sacrificed. I could go on.
And now we are told the villages of Poltimore, Huxham, Clyst St Mary, Clyst St George, Ebford, West Hill, Woodbury, Woodbury Salterton, Exton and Farringdon would be most likely to be sacrificed.
Has the ward councillors of the above villages consulted their constituents? Are the constituents of Ben Ingham and Geoff Jung happy that Woodbury will join Cllr. Skinner’s “bigger vision”?
Why aren’t our independent councillors telling Exeter that East Devon has done their bit, they do not wish urban sprawl and it is now the other surrounding councils turn?
Why do the elite want us to leave the EU?
Lib Dems stand down in Exeter to help Remain vote, but will not stand down for strongest candidate in East Devon
The decision whether to stand is apparently taken at local level. Exeter Lib Dems have agreedtheu will stand down in favour of the Green candidate.
East Devon Lib Dem candidate Eleanor Rylance has presumably refused to stand down for the strongest candidate in East Devon – Claire Wright. Far, far more likely to win than the Green in Exeter – she gained 35% of the vote in 2017.
If splitting the Remain vote leads to a Tory victory – your local Lib Dem group will be to blame.
In East Devon, if you vote Lib Dem you stand a good chance of getting a Tory.
Exeter story here:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/lib-dems-reveal-not-contest-3511208
Fake news: a tutorial
The Tory general election launch from two perspectives – same place, same time:
If you don’t fill out this consultation you might lose out on rural broadband
“People in Somerset and Devon are being asked which areas have the biggest need for broadband, ahead of the process to appoint a new contractor.
In September Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) terminated its contract with Gigaclear as it significantly fell behind schedule.
CDS wants to establish which areas lack infrastructure and where the private sector has no future plans to invest.
A replacement contractor is likely to be in place by next November. ‘Biggest impact’ CDS is a partnership between Devon and Somerset county councils to deliver broadband to rural areas.
Responses to the consultation will help inform how the contract is shaped.
The procurement process is due to begin next month.
Devon County Council’s cabinet member, and CDS board member, Conservative, Rufus Gilbert said the consultation would help them set out the proposed areas and where to focus efforts.
Somerset County Council has added that it wanted to ensure the public funding as the biggest impact in increasing coverage.
Consultation here:
The hidden benefits of registering to vote
Do it here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
“Did you know that registering to vote could help you with buying or renting a house?
Even if you don’t vote, there can be some benefits of being on the electoral register.
If you do want to vote in the general election on 12 December, the deadline to register is midnight on 26 November.
Here are some of the ways being on the electoral register (also called the electoral roll) could help you – that are nothing to do with politics.
It could help you get a bank loan
In fact, it can help you in any situation where you get a credit check – buying a car, getting a mortgage or getting a phone contract.
That’s because banks and other lenders that check credit scores look through the electoral roll.
It’s part of their checks to verify your identity – and your credit score can improve if lenders know you are who you say you are.
It can be particularly useful if you don’t have a long credit history, if for example it’s the first time you’re getting a loan or phone contract. …”
Affordable housing: cause and effect?
Do you think these two things might be linked?
CAUSE?
“Redrow hit by shareholder revolt over bosses’ bonuses and controversial new chairman”
… Former boss and founder Steve Morgan, 66, will still be entitled to bonuses, even though he has retired.
He has a 20 per cent stake in the company worth £422million.
There has also been anger at former chief executive Tutte, 63, becoming executive chairman, in breach of City rules for best practice in the boardroom.
Tutte is not considered independent enough because of his previous years at the company.
It prompted investor advisory services Glass Lewis and ISS to urge shareholders to oppose both changes. …”
EFFECT
“Affordable homes built at ‘pitiful’ rate despite increase
The number of affordable homes built in Britain has risen for the second consecutive year but analysts warned that the current level of housebuilding remained woefully inadequate.
Sixty thousand homes classed as affordable were supplied between April 2017 and March last year, according to official figures. While this is an improvement on the 43,473 built in 2015-16, it is still below the ten-year average of 62,400.
Affordable housing includes properties for social rent, shared ownership and other intermediate tenures. In 2017 the government set up a £7 billion fund to increase the supply of affordable homes by 40,000 within four years. As chancellor, Philip Hammond promised £3 billion to fund an extra 30,000 affordable homes through the scheme this year.
Scotland supplied the most affordable homes per person last year, at about 16 homes per 10,000 people.
England produced 8.5 homes per 10,000 people, although this was an improvement on six per 10,000 people in 2015-16. At 47,100, the number of affordable homes built in England last year was below the long-term average of 50,800. Wales also dragged on the long-term average, while Northern Ireland and Scotland registered growth.
The government also promised that 300,000 homes a year would be under construction by the middle of the next decade to increase affordability, but the present rate is about 220,000. Analysts have warned that the government will only hit its target if it increases funding for affordable housing because it can no longer rely on the private sector.
Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves, an estate agency, said: “Just 60,000 homes delivered in a year and no change in the level of social housing in a decade is pitiful.
“Affordability is an issue not just in the London market but nationwide, and an issue that is largely exacerbated by a failure to build more homes at all levels to keep pace with a growing population and an increase in buyer demand. We must build more and this, in turn, will help boost affordability.”
Last month L&Q, one of Britain’s leading builders of affordable homes, withdrew from the market citing a “serious downturn” due to persistent uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
Source – TIMES (pay wall)
Councillor Paul Millar’s thoughts on Swire – from his vantage point in Parliament
“In recent weeks outgoing Conservative MP Sir Hugo Swire for East Devon has been unrelenting in his attacks on Claire Wright.
At a time in which women in politics are leaving Parliament in droves, the bombardment has felt a little insensitive. Yet, it’s water off a duck’s back for Claire, as she remains focussed on the issues that matter in East Devon rather than the kind of Punch-and-Judy politics Sir Hugo is indulging in.
In Sir Hugo’s last interview, he concedes that Claire Wright is a “good campaigner” but suggests she wouldn’t be a competent “legislator”.I must admit the statement puzzled me, because in all his years in Parliament, Sir Hugo failed to have any meaningful impact on any legislation which has benefitted the people of East Devon. In my time he never campaigned for any legislative change.
Campaigner and legislator are not two mutually [exclusive things]. I would go as far as to say that I had more impact on legislation my three years as a mediocre researcher than he has in over 22 years as an MP. I rarely saw him in the Palace of Westminster, except when he was dining foreign dignitaries and party donors in Strangers Dining Room, one of the many plush restaurants in the House of Commons subsidised by the taxpayer.
At times one felt a cardboard cut-out might’ve had more influence than Sir Hugo – he never once did any serious cross-party work, and the fact he keeps his constituency work “confidential” rather suggests he was never too interested in helping constituents with appeals for disability benefits and such like. When I approached his office for a request for help with a benefits case for a constituent, I was told it was not their policy to assist.
Most backbenchers do important work and have influence on Select Committees – Sir Hugo refused to serve on any Committee in his last nine years of parliamentary service.
All the while Sir Hugo has been wining and dining, Claire Wright has been working hard and proving herself as a brilliant Councillor. She has excellent values and has done excellent investigation and campaigning work on saving hospital beds and local health facilities. She revealed last week that she had turned down a £5,000 donation from a business.
If elected, forget the torment of Brexit, Claire would make an excellent Member of Parliament, she has the hunger to campaign, she is passionate about improving people’s lives, she has the humility to listen and consult, she has the eye for detail to legislate and make good policies from the backbenches. These are all qualities Sir Hugo lacks.
Being an Independent is no handicap as I have found in local politics. Next month, some will vote for who they want to be Prime Minister; I will be voting for whom I want to be my MP, and the candidate whom I am convinced is best for East Devon. Claire Wright is a breath of fresh air, so I hope all Owl readers will vote for a candidate who so clearly cares about our communities.
About Author:
Paul Millar worked as an aide to the late, independent-minded Labour MP Paul Flynn (2016-17), going onto work as a senior aide to Geoffrey Robinson MP and leading the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill through Parliament.
He is now an Exmouth Town and East Devon District Councillor
Swire – whinging, still obsessing about Claire Wright and says he would not want to wait to 65 to retire!
Well, what a whinger! He could give Victor Meldrew a run for his money! Or maybe Albert Steptoe!
Hates Claire Wright (but too frit to stand against her).
Disses the Sidmouth Beach Plan (put together by his party at EDDC).
Thinks 65 is too late to retire (does he realise we plebs have no option but to go on to 66?).
Hates Cranbrook and puts the blame for it on previous head planner Kate Little (again under EDDC Tory council control and controlled by Leader Diviani).
Says it’s a pity he couldn’t spend more time in East Devon because he had to travel so much when a bag-carrier and arms salesman for the Foreign Office (after which he immediately carried on travelling as Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council).
THEN when asked what he is most proud of he says Budleigh Health Hub (a privately-ownec business which replaced a community hospital) and getting the Health Secretary to say Ottery Hospital (again having lost beds) is “safe” when, if you read the letter, it patently isn’t) and continues:
“I think my proudest achievement must therefore be to have looked after them as well as I can. We’ve helped on other things too, the difference between being a placard waving campaigner and an a member of Parliament, a legislator, is very simple you can’t crow about everything you have achieved as an MP because a lot of what you do is confidential. It involves other people’s extraordinary, complicated, messy and difficult lives.”
In other words – he can’t think of anything else!
A pathetic end to a pathetic career.
Conservation against Profit? It’s Greendale again …
From a correspondent:
A development proposal adjacent to Woodbury Common for 14 “holiday lodges” could be built on a section of the golf course created by the owners of Greendale Business Park.
The Hotel and Golf course was sold some years ago to Nigel Mansell and two years ago, sold again to a c company known as the “Club Company” which operates 13 Country Clubs in the UK, who are owned by a London Based private equity group “Epiris”
The planning application documents outlines how falling numbers of golfers across England is forcing clubs to diversify and that it is necessary to attract golfing markets, such as golf breaks, through ventures like the proposed holiday accommodation.
The developers view:
It also says that with the golfing sector under pressure with declining membership and participation forcing many clubs out of business, they must look at new ways to attract golf societies and other groups looking for golfing holidays.
One way to do this is through investing in new accommodation and the lodges would add to the existing hotel on the site.
The statement explains how the number of registered golfers has dropped eight per cent in the last four years. Adults playing golf has fallen 27 per cent between 2007 and 2016, and juniors playing golf weekly have dropped five per cent since 2014.
It adds:
“In clubs where membership is growing, clubs have taken positive steps to address the issues and are catering for a range of different needs and are developing facilities to broaden income streams and become part of the community.”
“The proposed changes at Woodbury Park Hotel and Golf Club aim to follow a similar pattern, providing further golf accommodation in order to attract more golfers from a wider national market.”
“Given the declining popularity of playing golf in England and in order to maintain the business, it is necessary to attract golfing markets, such as golf breaks, through the proposed holiday accommodation. This will allow the club to attract more golfers and more visitors to the bars, restaurant, health club and spa, to generate a vital additional income stream.”
However, the location chosen to build these lodges is next to a very important historic and environmentally important ancient “Green lane” known as Walkidons Way.
The Conservation view.
A local conservation group describes the location:
“Walkidons Way is a rare example in our locality of a green lane – most of the rest having been tarmaced. It is a public access route and runs between Hogsbrook Farm at its north-western end and Woodbury Common at Woodbury Park to the south-east. Along the way it passes beside Rockham Wood – a (private) ancient wood that is a designated County Wildlife Site.
A green lane can be defined as an un-metalled track with field boundaries on either side. These boundaries may be banks, hedges or woodland edges, often with features such as ditches – all of which can be seen along the length of Walkidons Way. The hedges and woodland edges here are particularly rich in examples of hedge-laying and coppicing of great age, and possibly also an ancient boundary trees.
In terms of bio-diversity, green lanes are mini-landscapes with their own micro-climate and ecology, due to the combination of the track and its boundary features. They may be more botanically species-rich than a single hedge, act as wildlife corridors, and their sheltered conditions are of great importance, for example, to butterfly populations.
Historically, Walkidons Way linked Greendale Barton – formerly an important farm on the site of the present Greendale Business Park – to the Common. This route adopted from at least Saxon times, as a drover road, for moving stock between Greendale and the Common.
The former agricultural land here has been much altered for leisure use, and the lane now passes between golf courses at the higher end, and fishing lakes lower down, which were both created during the 1990s. The Woodbury Park complex, which opened in 1995, was a highly controversial development at the time, but has become a generally accepted element of the modern landscape.
The track and its verges are unfortunately suffering degradation from modern vehicular traffic, but Walkidons Way offers a beautiful walk of very different character to that of most of our local lanes, to the open spaces of the Common.”
It will be interesting to see if the need of “big business” will win over the concern to preserve an ancient way.
The Planning can be viewed on the EDDC planning website under the reference 19/2145/FUL
My favourite photo today
“Boris Johnson’s Conservative party has received a surge in cash from Russian donors”
“… An OpenDemocracy investigation found that the UK Conservative party received at least £498,850 from Russian business people and their associates between November 2018 and October 2019.
This was a significant increase on the previous year when they received donations amounting to less than £350,000.
It comes despite increased pressure on the party to cut its ties to Russian oligarchs since the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last year.
It also comes as Johnson’s chief strategist Dominic Cummings came under the spotlight for alleged Russian ties, after the Sunday Times reported claims from a whistleblower about “serious concerns” about the time he spent in Russia in the 1990s. …”
East Devon Alliance Leader Waves a Cheery Goodbye to Swire!
Letter to press (photo by Owl – posted by Swire himself)
“Dear Editor
With his customary good grace, Hugo Swire has walked away from his constituency pledging not to meddle further, then immediately insinuated that a vote for Claire Wright is a waste of time. It is this consistent lack of judgement and common touch that has helped propel Claire repeatedly upwards in the polls in recent years.
Indeed, if Swire’s final thought – after an undistinguished innings – is of her, perhaps the haunting prospect that she will win is belated evidence that the man cares about anything at all.
Paul Arnott
Leader: East Devon Alliance of Independents”
East Devon Watch 