Scientists are struggling to understand why the death rate from the coronavirus is so much lower in Germany than other countries. Germany has seen just 27 deaths from the virus so far despite recording 10,082 infections — more than anywhere except China, Italy, Iran and Spain.

That represents a fatality rate of just 0.2 per cent, compared to 7.9 per cent in Italy — raising hopes Germany might be doing something right that other countries can follow.

By Justin Huggler Berlin 18 March 2020 www.telegraph.co.uk

The disparity has even led to allegations of a German cover-up by the Italian far-Right. But experts have cautioned that Germany may simply be at an earlier stage of the pandemic, and that death rates here may soon catch up.

But they also point to other factors that may be helping keep the German death rate down.

“Germany has had a very aggressive testing process,” Dr Mike Ryan, health emergencies director at the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. “So the number of tests maybe detecting more mild cases.

“From the beginning, we have very systematically called upon our doctors to test people,” Prof Lothar Wieler of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute said.

“We can provide testing to a high degree so that we can easily look into the beginnings of the epidemic.”

“Test, test, test” has become the WHO’s mantra in fighting the coronavirus, and experts say Germany’s vigorous testing programme may be doing more than just keeping the death rate down by documenting more cases.

“Italy has a much older population. And in many ways Italy is the poster child  for living longer lives, but unfortunately in this case having an older population means the fatality rate may  appear higher,” Dr Ryan said.

Official figures show that rates of infection among the most vulnerable age group, those aged 60 and above, are much lower in Germany than elsewhere.

That may just be a case of luck, but it may be that by identifying cases early, Germany has been able to track chains of infection and prevent the virus reaching the most vulnerable.

“There is a very big systemic difference between Germany and other countries,” Christian Drosten, the leading virologist at Berlin’s Charite teaching hospital, told Watson magazine.

“Our regulations for the introduction of new test procedures are very liberal. In other countries, there is a central authority that does all the testing for new diseases.”

By contrast, in Germany any doctor can perform a coronavirus test and public health insurance will pay. Germany is not the only country to record a lower death rate. In South Korea fatalities have also been much lower than the general trend.

“In South Korea it appears it was probably a combination of factors, rather than just one,” says Suerie Moon of the Graduate Insititute in Geneva. “Initial cases were among the young, and focused around one church which made it easier for the authorities to contain. But it appears testing also played a crucial role.”

Other differences in the German health system may also be significant. The country has far more intensive care (ICU) beds than anywhere else in Europe.

Intensive care beds can mean the difference between life and death for those who become seriously ill with the virus, and dire reports from northern Italy have told of doctors being forced to choose which patients get them.

Germany has 28,000 ICU beds. By contrast, the UK has just 4,000. And 25,000 of Germany’s already have the ventilators seriously ill patients need.

At the outbreak of the crisis, Germany had 29.2 intensive care beds per 100,000 people. Italy had 12.5. The UK had just 6.6.

In part, that is because of the different way healthcare is funded in Germany. Public health insurance is compulsory and collected at source alongside income tax — but it is passed directly to insurance funds and never enters government coffers, effectively firewalling health funding.

Germany may be better prepared for the virus than most of its neighbours, but it may yet need all the beds it has. Authorities here have warned people not to be complacent about the death rate.

“This is just the beginning for Germany,” said Prof Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute. “If you imagine an epidemic like a curve, then there are countries that are simply further along it.”

Owl congratulates the members of the Green, Independent East Devon Alliance and Liberal Democrat parties and an Independent for coming together to form a new group in EDDC to reform the council. Finding common cause whilst retaining their individual identities.

This exciting news offers the opportunity of real change. It was what Owl thought had happened last May when the voters removed the Conservatives from overall control. Unfortunately that was a false dawn. Ben Ingham grabbed power under the pretence of being the leading “Independent”, turned his back on  the Greens, LibDems and East Devon Alliance indies and promptly jumped into bed with the Conservatives. 

Having led the electorate up the garden path, Ben Ingham has meekly continued with Conservative policies, with Conservatives in key cabinet posts. There has been no change. Business as usual. We also have the bizarre situation of the Conservatives not only sharing power with Ben, but also forming the official opposition. Something straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan.

With the defection of Cllr. Joe Whibley  in January , following Cllr Paul Millars defection earlier, Ben Ingham can no longer muster more support than the Conservatives and his power base has evaporated. He’s yesterday’s man, having lost power after only eight months.

It is now certain that the “Independent Group”, as Ben calls his followers, will disintegrate. For them it will be decision time. Some will  show their colours and become “true blue”, some may sit on their hands, others will undoubtedly “cross the floor” to sign up for the change agenda of the Democratic Alliance,

Those that do will be seeking to reform the running of the council, to properly examine planning policy and practice, and to accelerate the delivery of appropriate housing fit for charitable, private and public sectors. For them the Climate Emergency will be a top priority in guiding policy. The group they join also wishes to call in the council’s borrowing, investment and acquisition policy at a time when the last administration’s long freeze on council tax rises has left the legacy of a looming deficit in the next financial year. Primarily, they will be focusing on the needs of residents, in particular, tackling the issues of poverty and employment.

As Cllr  Whibley said in January: “When elected I stood on a platform of change – an alternative to the status quo. I have seen little evidence that this desire is shared by the Independent Group and, to be true to myself and those who put their trust in me, have decided that I can no longer associate myself with them.”

To Owl it’s a no brainer – do what the voters voted you to do.

A new Democratic Alliance has been formed in East Devon and they have become the largest political group on the council.

Daniel Clark  www.devonlive.com 

Councillors from the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Independent East Devon Alliance, and an Independent have come together for form a new political group.

So far, 22 of the 23 councillors from those parties have combined to join one political group. The 23 has been away and has not had the opportunity to officially sign the papers confirming they will join the political group. All councillors will retain their respective party or independent identities.

It means the Democratic Alliance is now the largest group on the council and Cllr Paul Arnott, who has been elected as their group leader, said that they will now seek to become the official opposition on the council and may seek to form an administration at the Annual Council meeting.

The council is currently run by 18 Independents, with the largest group on the council being the Conservatives with 19.

Cllr Paul Millar and Cllr Joe Whibley were initially members of the Independent Group, but during the course of 2019/20, had quit and currently sit as part of the EDA and an Independent respectively.

Cllr Arnott, who was the EDA group leader, added: “Members of the Green, Independent East Devon Alliance and Liberal Democrat parties and an Independent at East Devon District Council have combined to form a new group with the title the Democratic Alliance.

“The members will retain their respective party or independent identities but have combined to form the largest group at EDDC of 22 councillors. If other members wish to join in due course, they will be carefully considered.

“We have finalised a five page document of our ambitions and it will be shared with all the Independent Group members. If some of them wish to consider coming on board then the Democratic Alliance will be pleased to consider them.”

He added: “After recent meetings, the Democratic Alliance has found common cause in seeking to reform the running of the council, to properly examine planning policy and practice, and to accelerate the delivery of appropriate housing fit for charitable, private and public sectors.

“The Climate Emergency is a top priority in guiding policy. The group also wishes to call in the council’s borrowing, investment and acquisition policy at a time when the last administration’s long freeze on council tax rises has left the legacy of a looming deficit in the next financial year. Primarily, we will focus on the needs of residents, in particular, tackling the issues of poverty and employment.”

Liberal Democrat Leader, Eileen Wragg has been elected Deputy Leader, and iEDA Leader Paul Arnott elected Group Leader of the Democratic Alliance, both unanimously.

Cllr Arnott added: “The group has also resolved that it is committed to discussing the future of the council with other members who share its vision. In the next few weeks it expects to become the official Opposition at the council, and subject to national events may seek to form an administration at Annual Council on May 12.

“Meanwhile as the people of East Devon come to terms with the far-reaching implications of the Coronavirus the Democratic Alliance councillors will continue to work hard with other members and officers. The health of local people is much more important than politics at this time.”

At present, East Devon District Council has not cancelled any of its upcoming meetings, with a meeting of the Car Parking Task and Finish Forum still set to take place on Thursday evening.

An extraordinary council meeting may be called to take place on Tuesday, March 31, ahead of the currently scheduled cabinet meeting, in which the Democratic Alliance would wish to become the official opposition and where the re-allocation of committee places would take place.

If the Democratic Alliance do become the official opposition, then they would be granted the chairman of the scrutiny committee position.

This is an official statement on behalf of the Democratic Alliance 

“Members of the Green, Independent East Devon Alliance and Liberal Democrat parties and an Independent at East Devon District Council have combined to form a new group with the title the Democratic Alliance. The members will retain their respective party or independent identities but have combined to form the largest group at EDDC of 22 councillors. If other members wish to join in due course, they will be carefully considered.

“After recent meetings, the Democratic Alliance has found common cause in seeking to reform the running of the council, to properly examine planning policy and practice, and to accelerate the delivery of appropriate housing fit for charitable, private and public sectors. The Climate Emergency is a top priority in guiding policy. The group also wishes to call in the council’s borrowing, investment and acquisition policy at a time when the last administration’s long freeze on council tax rises has left the legacy of a looming deficit in the next financial year. Primarily, we will focus on the needs of residents, in particular, tackling the issues of poverty and employment.

“Liberal Democrat Leader, Eileen Wragg has been elected Deputy Leader, and iEDA Leader Paul Arnott elected Group Leader of the Democratic Alliance, both unanimously, in a meeting chaired by Joe Whibley. The group has also resolved that it is committed to discussing the future of the council with other members who share its vision.  In the next few weeks it expects to become the official Opposition at the council, and subject to national events may seek to form an administration at Annual Council on 12th May. 

“Meanwhile as the people of East Devon come to terms with the far-reaching implications of the Coronavirus the Democratic Alliance councillors will continue to work hard with other members and officers. The health of local people is much more important than politics at this time.

The town’s foodbank has closed its collection service with immediate effect in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Callum Lawton  www.sidmouthherald.co.uk 

Sid Valley Food Bank, which helps people and families suffering from food poverty, said safety and wellbeing of its volunteers and clients are its ‘primary concern’.

Now, a series of steps have been agreed to manage the situation as the country continues to battle against the illness, which as of yet has no vaccine.

The food bank has withdrawn its hospitality and closing collection service, and will now offer delivery only.

Members will conduct an in-depth stock-take of current food in order to plan ahead and streamline donation requests to essential items only on a weekly basis.

This action has been taken because of the likelihood of a reduction in food donations and shops’ stock levels and restrictions

Andie Milne, coordinator of the Sid Valley Food Bank, said: “If you would like to volunteer to help with either packing or distributing via deliveries please contact me and I will send you a volunteer application form – we are in the process of updating the website to enable on line applications.

“We also are aware that many supermarkets are restricting the purchasing of essential tinned items from the store but as yet not online shopping.

“At the present there is no dispensation for foodbank to purchase the large amount of items that we will undoubtedly need in the coming weeks.”

Ms Milne said extra volunteers to deliver food is ‘paramount’ to the bank.

She and members will develop a spreadsheet of volunteers who can be contacted for delivery or packing and a quick method for checking references by telephone.

She added: “A huge thank you to you all for the offers of support we are already receiving.”

Sidmouth Town Council has launched an online directory for residents who need help accessing food delivery services and other assistance while in isolation.

The council is also supporting a postcard scheme to help self-isolating neighbours.

The latest guidance from Public Health England and the NHS is also displayed on its website.

More information can be found at http://www.sidmouth.gov.uk

All support services at cancer charity FORCE’s weekly outreach centre in Honiton will stop with immediate effect.

Callum Lawton  www.midweekherald.co.uk

The announcement comes as the UK continues to fight against the coronavirus, which is sweeping across the country with unprecedented speed.

The charity’s support and information centre in Exeter has also closed.

The charity will offer telephone and video call support to local people affected by cancer.

The decision to close its Support Centre in the grounds of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital was taken after consultation with clinical staff at the RD&E.

It follows the first reported cases of Coronavirus/Covid19 at the hospital.

All support services at FORCE’s other outreach centres in Okehampton and Tiverton will also stop but chemotherapy will continue there too for now.

Cancer patients undergoing active chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment may be among those at particular risk from Coronavirus.

A spokesman for FORCE said: “It is with great regret that FORCE Cancer Charity has decided to temporarily close its support and information centre in Exeter with immediate effect. We will still be offering support and information on the phone and via video calling but there will be no face to face appointments or groups until further notice.

The decision was taken following the announcement of the first cases of coronavirus being treated at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and after consultation with clinical staff at the RD&E Trust.

“We recognise that this may cause significant upset to our users, but we feel it is the only responsible action at this time.

“The FORCE Support and Information Centre is a non-clinical environment and not a priority service in times of acute pressure.

“The risk of transmission of Coronavirus is too high for the group of people we support.

“Staff will continue to work from our Support and Information Centre unless they need to self-isolate because of symptoms.

“We will be offering counselling and information services on the telephone and please check our website over the coming weeks to see what we can do to help support people.

“Anyone with appointments or those booked on to courses are being contacted to explain the situation.

“All support services in Okehampton, Tiverton and Honiton will also stop with immediate effect but chemotherapy treatment will continue as normal in these locations at the moment.

“We will review arrangements on a [Report ends Owl]

In a huge act of solidarity by the community an emergency 24-hour helpline and hub are being set up across Torbay which will pair up people needing aid with those volunteering to help in the coronavirus crisis.

Colleen Smith  www.devonlive.com 

The general public and community groups are teaming up with the newly-formed Torbay Help Hub Facebook group, set up by local councillor Jack Dart.

Within days of setting up the group it quickly reached 6,000 members. Now it is teaming up with community groups who have launched the 24 hour helpline which will pair up people in need of help with members of the public offering aid.

The phone line, which will be staffed 24/7, covers Torquay and Paignton. The number is 01803 446022.

Brixham Does Care can be contacted directly on 01803 857727 (mon-fri 9am to 4.30pm).

In Torbay nearly half the population is over the age of 50 with one in four over the age of 65, making many local people across the Bay more vulnerable than the average across the UK.

Torbay Help Hub has joined forces with umbrella organisation Torbay Community Development Trust (TCDT), Ageing Well Torbay (AWT), Healthwatch Torbay, Torbay Citizens Advice Bureau, Age UK Torbay  and Brixham Does Care.

Jack, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Ellacombe, said: “The Facebook page is amazing and people are offering help – but to keep out any potential bad guys whose intentions are not proper, and give an extra level of security, it makes sense to team up with the Torbay Community Development Trust.

“They have got the staff and the know-how and the hub. They are already working with volunteers and they know what they are doing.

“We are going to share our information with the Community Development Trust.

“The page has taken off incredibly and it’s become a bit full-on with no time to even sleep.”

A spokesman for the Community Trust said: “With more cases being reported daily, community leaders are concerned about self- isolators who need support with day-to-day tasks such as shopping, prescription collections and dog walking.

“Staff are working with voluntary groups across the Bay and have set up an emergency phone line for people in need of help because of illness or isolation and also for those that are prepared to offer help.

“TCDT and Ageing Well are also on call to provide advice and guidance on the best ways to help and support people that are affected in partnership with the statutory services to help as demand increases.

“Callers to the helpline who are offering support will be asked in what way they can help and will then be asked to provide a reference so that some necessary checks can be carried out.

“It is then hoped to be able to help put helpers in touch with those needing help for the duration.”

Tracey Cabache, community development manager, said: “These are extraordinary times and communities are going to have to look after their own wherever possible.

“We can at least provide a central point where neighbours can coordinate their efforts and between us, we can help the most vulnerable.”

Ageing Well says it is already aware through their community builders that some people are self-isolating for fear of contracting the virus, particularly those that already have an underlying condition that would be exacerbated.

The fear is that some may not have had the chance to tell friends and neighbours and may be in need of top-up supplies.

Ageing Well said: “Not everyone either has the will or the ability to stockpile – they might not be able to afford a big shop and even if they could, would never be able to carry the heavy bags home and may now have very limited supplies.”

Nationally a campaign with the hashtag #viralkindness is gaining ground with postcards that neighbours can fill out offering help,  with postcards listing names and phone numbers circulating widely.

But It could be open to fraudsters posing as good neighbours and people have to remain vigilant and watch for their own safety.

The TCDT/AWT scheme hopes to add a layer of checking to the system, but it is not foolproof, and Tracey stresses there has to be an element of trust.

“Hospital staff and doctors are doing all they can. Emergency services will require support and understanding, and so we all need to do our bit” she said

“It is an unfortunate analogy, but we really must all invoke the wartime spirit. Large numbers of people are self-isolating either because they have been ill, or are trying to avoid becoming ill.

“Not everyone will have been able to stockpile enough food for the duration, and we will all have to rely on each other. Thankfully our communities are strong, and we can provide a focus for the great work that goes on within them.”

For more information go to the Torbay Community Help Hub

Dorset takes another step towards National Park status – Owl?

It is a rich, complex landscape, a mosaic of heaths, woods, mires, reed beds, salt marsh and dunes that are home to a myriad of flora and fauna from rare birds, butterflies and bats to carnivorous plants.

Seven landowners have now joined forces to created what is being billed as the UK’s first “super national nature reserve” (NNR) on Purbeck Heaths in Dorset.

Steven Morris  www.theguardian.com 

The idea is that by combining the disparate chunks of land, a more dynamic landscape easier to manage in a more natural way – and much simpler for wildlife to navigate through – will be created.

A stonechat, a bird the size of a robin with a call like two pebbles being hit together, provided the backing track as experts from the National Trust, RSPB and Natural England pointed out the features of the new super reserve from a vantage point high above the heathland on Tuesday.

“It really is a very special place,” said David Brown, a National Trust ecologist. He pointed out an area of bright gorse that is one of the few homes in this part of the world for the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly. “At the last count there were only 15 of them there. And they only stay in that one very small area.”

A major aim of the super reserve project is to help such creatures spread further so they do not rely on just one tiny area – and so face being wiped out if disaster strikes their home patch.

Ways in which this will be done include grazing the heathland with cattle and pigs and letting more human visitors tramp across. The concept is not about preserving the landscape as it is but to create the conditions in which it will change dynamically. It is as the changes are happening that some of the most interesting and rare species can flourish.

Some of the developments that will be made at Purbeck will be obvious such as removing non-native Scots pine. But other improvements will be much more subtle including simply encouraging bare patches that plants liked by the nationally scarce yellow centaury.

Brown is keen on the carnivorous plants that can do well here including the sundews. “You can sometimes see dragon fly wings floating on the surface of the boggy pools.The sundews digest their bodies and spit out the hard bits like the wings.”

Birds that do better here than in most places include the Dartford warbler, which dines on spiders that live in the gorse and the woodlark, another lover of tree-cleared ground.

The new Purbeck Heaths NNR knits together 11 types of priority habitat to enable wildlife to move more easily across the landscape. This will give wildlife, including the sand lizard and the Dartford warbler a better chance of adapting and thriving in light of the current climate crisis.

It combines three existing NNRs at Stoborough Heath, Hartland Moor, and Studland and Godlingston Heath. They will be linked with other nature reserves, conservation areas and a golf course, which manages its rough to encourage wildlife and plant life. The whole area will cover more than 8,000 acres and together they will create the largest lowland heathland NNR in the UK.

Partners also include the Forestry England, the private Rempstone Estate, Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust.

The chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper said: “By creating bigger, better, and more joined-up wild places like this one, we will achieve big benefits for both people and wildlife.

“In facing the twin and deepening challenges of global heating and wildlife loss, we need to think and act on a larger scale. Today’s move marks a shift in gear and a new era for nature recovery in England.”

Purbeck Heaths is one of the most biodiverse places in the UK – home to thousands of species of wildlife, including 450 that are listed as rare, threatened or protected.

All six native reptiles are to be found here, including endangered smooth snakes and sand lizards. As well as the smaller birds such as the stonechat, raptors including hen harriers, marsh harriers, merlins, hobbies and ospreys hunt the heathland.

At least 12 species of bats on the heaths. It is also one of the last strongholds for many specialist insects and other invertebrates, such as southern damselflies and the Purbeck mason wasp.

Mark Harold, the National Trust’s director of land & nature, said: “All the rare and beautiful wildlife living in and beyond the reserve will benefit hugely from a landscape where habitats are bigger, in better condition and better connected – and where natural processes are restored. Here they will be able to spread and build more resilient populations.”

Environment minister Rebecca Pow said it was a landmark project. “Purbeck Heaths is a trailblazing example of how landscape-scale conservation can help wildlife thrive, improve people’s well-being, and build resilience to climate change,” she said.

Discussions at East Devon District Council were still being held, while meetings in the South Hams and West Devon were as of Monday still set to continue.

Other councils have begun to cancel meetings. 

Daniel Clark  www.devonlive.com

Council across Devon have begun cancelling meetings following latest Government advice asking people to stop non-essential contact with other people and avoid all unnecessary travel.

Torridge District Council on Tuesday morning announced that they have taken the decision to cancel all public committee and other meetings until at least the end of March, while at a Teignbridge District Council meeting, it was announced it would be the last until further notice.

Current legislation means that councils cannot meet virtually as members have to be present in the room in order to vote on any decision, but Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced the Government will consider bringing forward legislation to legislation to allow council committee meetings to be held virtually for a temporary period

Councils will be able to use their discretion on deadlines for Freedom of Information requests, the deadline for local government financial audits will be extended to September 30, and it will consider bringing forward legislation to remove the requirement for annual council meetings to take place in person.

Members of the public are being advised not to attend council offices unless absolutely necessary and even them, they are being urged to speak to them in advance of setting off.

Cllr Ken James, Leader of Torridge District Council said: “The message remains that people should in the first instance follow all the guidance being given by the NHS and Central Government and supplement this with any local service updates issued by the Council. I know that all of our officers will do their best to ensure that the upheaval likely to be caused by the spread of COVID-19 will be minimised as far as possible and we will be monitoring and adjusting as times goes on. Our aim is to continue to serve our residents and businesses to the best of our abilities as the situation allows.”

Steve Hearse – Strategic Manager Resources, added: “The public will be able to help us to reduce the spread of the virus and free up officer time by interacting with the Council online or by telephone wherever this is possible. During the current crisis we would ask that they only visit offices where this is absolutely necessary and agreed in advance by telephone. If a request is not urgent then we would also appreciate people deferring a request until a time when the current peak levels of crisis has subsided.”

Announcing the suspension of meetings, a spokesman added: “Following recent government and NHS announcements concerning the spread of Coronavirus the government has asked everybody in the UK to stop non-essential contact with other people and avoid all unnecessary travel. This has been referred to as “social distancing”.

“As a result of this advice the Council have taken the decision to cancel all public committee and other meetings until at least the end of March. The Council will continue to review government advice on a weekly basis and update its approach as appropriate. Where possible alternative methods of exchanging information such as video conferencing will be put in place so that the business of making decisions can continue.

“The Council are also asking members of the public to think about how they interact with the Council in the short term. Many services can be accessed online or requests made by telephone. The Council are advising people that its customer reception points will be closed for all but emergency or essential contact. We are therefore asking people not to visit Council Offices unless it is absolutely necessary and would urge people to speak to officers first before setting off with the intention to visit.

“Officers and Members have also held meetings to discuss service provision during the likely ongoing escalation of the crisis. The emphasis has been on being able to continue to provide the most important front line services to the many vulnerable people across the district as well as other important services such as refuse collection, which nearly everyone uses.

“Human resource teams have also been trying to understand going forward the impact that potential school closures might have on staff that have parenting duties or other staff who might be more vulnerable due to their own health or the health of relatives or dependant partners.

“While services are currently operating at near normal capacity as more officers may themselves succumb to the virus, or be responsible for looking after others at home, some Council response times may be extended. The Council will do its best to manage resources in key services by redeploying staff or assessing temporary workforce arrangements but would ask the public for their understanding in what continues to be a fast evolving situation. There may also be a need to prioritise some services over others but we will endeavour to keep all services running as smoothly as possible.”

At Tuesday morning’s Teignbridge meeting, Phil Shears, the council’s managing director, said that following the meeting, the council was cancelling all non-essential meetings until further notice, which would include council, executive and committee meetings. The full council continued as scheduled as they needed to make a decision on funding for a link road in Newton Abbot by the end of the month and not doing so would set the project back by five years.

Mr Shears added: “We will carry on providing services to residents and for those most in need.”

He said that they were waiting updated guidance from Robert Jenrick about the relaxation of rules than mean meetings cannot be held virtually as members have to be present in the room to vote on all decisions.

Cllr Richard Keeling, chairman of the council, added that he was asking all councillors and members of the public not to visit the council offices until absolutely necessary.

However, not all councils have yet chosen to suspend all meetings.

A North Devon Council spokesman said that the Policy Development Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday was still set to take place, but they were establishing if enough members would be attending to ensure the meeting could legally take place.

They added: “We suspect that the majority won’t attend so there wouldn’t be a quorum.  If we ascertain that there is no quorum, the meeting will be cancelled. We are awaiting advice from Government regarding our other meetings, which we hope to receive in the next day.”

A Mid Devon District Council spokesman added: “We have no plans to the scheduling of our Council meetings at this point in time, but we are keeping this under review.”

Discussions at East Devon District Council were still being held, while meetings in the South Hams and West Devon were as of Monday still set to continue.

Cllr Judy Pearce, Leader of South Hams District Council, said: “At the moment we are following Government guidance. However, we are looking at ways of minimising the risks by live streaming as many public meetings as possible, so the public can still watch the meetings remotely. The situation is evolving on a daily basis and we will publish any changes to our meeting schedule on our website and on social media.”

Cllr Neil Jory, Leader of West Devon Borough Council, said: “We are working hard to make sure that business at the council is affected as little as possible. We are asking staff, Councillors and officers showing symptoms to self-isolate and not attend meetings, in line with Government guidance. Thanks to our remote working capabilities, staff and Councillors can attend internal meetings via skype from home if they need to. We are reviewing how we conduct our Council and other Committee meetings to minimise the risks, and will notify the public of any changes to our usual meeting arrangements via our website and social media”

In response to Owl’s post Liz Pole, media officer for Devon Labour, has sent in the following information on support groups etc.

national coordinating website : https://covidmutualaid.org/

There is a Devon-wide Covid Mutual Aid group on Facebook and they have a very active Slack group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/devonmag/

Survey

https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSf4iUCfpoK…/viewform…

Minutes

https://docs.google.com/…/1oWWd8An3yxks5EWfNxtE…/edit…

SHORT NOTICE: Meeting calls this evening:

[1] Safeguarding Training for Mutual Aid Networks hosted by the National Food Service 18:30 to 20:30 Link: https://zoom.us/j/801023850

Momentum discussion

[2] Coronavirus: How should the left respond? Hosted by The World Transformed from 20:00 Link: https://t.co/dGK3WwK007?amp=1

new group for East Devon https://www.facebook.com/groups/1313793688819070/

Several constituency Labour Parties in Devon are offering phone / email contact details for a team available to help those in self-isolation or vulnerable. In Tiverton and Honiton we are building up a spatial network of members identifying as available to help, and working on emergency coordinating teams via our town councillors.  

Sidmouth business leaders are to raise their concerns about the economic effect of the coronavirus with the East Devon MP, Simon Jupp.

Philippa Davies  www.sidmouthherald.co.uk 

The Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce has also contacted the leaders of the town and district councils, calling for ‘specific measures to address the problems that local businesses face’.

It follows the Government’s advice on ‘social distancing’, which urges people to avoid pubs, clubs, cinemas, theatres and restaurants, along with all unnecessary travel, to curb the spread of the virus.

The Chamber fully supports these precautions, but also wants to be reassured that steps will be taken to help businesses that face major losses as a result of the restrictions.

A spokesman for the Chamber said: “The Chamber is obviously concerned for our business community, and there is no doubt that this will be an extremely challenging period for us all.

“We are particularly exposed to the economic situation, because Sidmouth is reliant upon tourism and our clientele is typically elderly.

“For our hotels and accommodation providers, the impact will be very severe indeed.

“This will also extend to our pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants, which form such an important component of our local economy.

“The overwhelming need is for everyone to stay safe and accede to government guidance and advice.

“Sidmouth has an elderly and therefore vulnerable population, so we as a community have to get together and do whatever we can to help our neighbours and provide assistance where required.

“Sidmouth has a sense of community and resilience that will stand us in good stead during these very difficult and troubling times.

“The Chamber has been in contact with Simon Jupp, our MP, to discuss the situation, and with the leaders of the town and district councils.

“We are urging specific measures to address the problems that local businesses face.

“This is a time for our local authorities to show a proactive, sympathetic and flexible approach towards the business community.

“We are monitoring the crisis closely, and especially the impact upon our local economy.

“In particular, we need to formulate plans for ensuring a speedy recovery once the virus is defeated.”

In these tumultuous times Owl is considering how to be most useful, there is unlikely to be much local news for a while. Perhaps by becoming a hub for locals to share their community-building or other experiences and information?. For example by giving links to tutorials on Skype and/or Zoom or Facebook Portal; Ideas for things to do in isolation etc. Open to ideas.

Meanwhile, Owl will continue with highly selective Covid related posts. This one might be helpful.

What we scientists have discovered about how each age group spreads Covid-19 

Petra Klepac  www.theguardian.com

[Dr Petra Klepac is assistant professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine]

Early detection and early response. In an ideal world, this will contain an outbreak of infectious disease and prevent it from establishing in a population and becoming an epidemic.

Containment typically involves isolating and testing suspected cases, tracing their contacts, and quarantine in case any of these people are infected. The more thorough the testing and contact tracing early on, the better the chance of containment. These measures work well, especially for diseases like Sars, where symptoms coincide with infectiousness – it is easy to recognise people who are infected.

In the case of Covid-19, detection is much harder because some transmission is possible before people show obvious symptoms, in this case a fever and cough. If there are no symptoms, it is impossible to identify people who are infected unless they are tested and their infection is confirmed in a laboratory, which is why airport screening at arrival is not very effective for Covid-19. This makes the virus much harder to control. Sooner or later, an infected case escapes detection and starts a chain of transmission, and quickly leads to a growing number of cases, which can become impossible to contain. As a result, containment has failed in a number of countries and the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic that is here to stay for months, if not longer.

So how does an epidemic spread through a population – and how do we control it? In outbreak analysis, we measure transmission using the reproduction number (otherwise known as R), which tells us how many other people a typical Covid-19 case will infect on average. If one person is expected to infect more than one other person, the infection will grow and create an outbreak; if a person infects less than one other, the infection will peter out.

The larger the value of R, the easier the virus spreads through a population and the higher the number of infections. For seasonal flu, one infection leads on average to 1.4 new infections. For Covid-19, one infection leads to 2-3 others in the early stages of an outbreak. How many other people we end up infecting depends on several things: how many susceptible people there are in the population, how long we are infected for (the longer we are infected the more chances there are to pass on the infection), the number of people we come into contact with, and the probability of passing on the infection to those contacts.

In order to control the epidemic, we need to reduce R below 1. For diseases such as measles, we can achieve this by vaccinating a large enough proportion of the population so that the disease can no longer spread. Exactly what proportion we need to vaccinate to reach community immunity depends again on R. For R of 2, we need to immunise half of the population to interrupt transmission; for R of 3 we need to immunise two thirds of the population to get R below 1.

However, an effective vaccine for Covid-19 is unlikely to be available for another 12-18 months at best.

Shortening the duration of infection could also reduce transmission, and for some infections, such as influenza, this can be achieved with antiviral therapy. There are currently more than a hundred clinical studies in progress, which could produce therapies that reduce the duration of infection or infectivity. However, both of these control options are not yet available.

Another option to reduce the duration of infection is continued testing; this is a measure that can be effective throughout the epidemic. Finding infected people and advising them to self-isolate for the duration of the infection minimises the risk of them passing on the infection, which therefore slows down the spread. This is again a basic intervention method that we know works well, but in order for it to be most effective, results need to be processed quickly (in the UK it takes 2-4 days to get the results, in Wuhan it is under 4 hours).

If we can’t easily reduce susceptibility or duration, we are left with two things: the probability of transmitting the infection upon contact and the number of different people we come into contact with. Both of these are things we as individuals can change by modifying our behaviour. Washing hands frequently for 20 seconds with hot water and soap, not touching our faces, covering our coughs and sneezes, staying at home if we are sick – all of these reduce the risk of getting infected or passing on the infection to someone else.

Cancelling large gatherings, working from home and school closures are all social distancing measures aimed at reducing the number of contacts between people, each of which is an opportunity for passing on an infection. But this will not be a simple case of just cancelling events and closing schools for a couple of weeks. More severe measures will be necessary to bring the infections to low enough levels to keep the pressure off the health-system long-term. As individuals, we must all reduce the number of different people we come into contact with on a daily basis, and be prepared to do so for a prolonged period of time.

But what sorts of contacts are most important for transmission? Together with Adam Kucharski, also from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, I have recently collaborated with the BBC on a massive citizen science project, led by Professor Julia Gog from Cambridge University. Called BBC Pandemic, the project collected information on how people of different ages interact with one another in different contexts (home, work, school, other) from over 35,000 volunteers. We have recently been fast-tracking the release of contact data to help inform UK Covid-19 modelling efforts and potential intervention strategies.

What we have found in this data is that adults aged 20-50 make most of their contacts in workplaces. If those of us who can work remotely start doing so now, it will contribute to lowering overall transmission in the population. Another important finding is that people over 65 – who are particularly at risk from severe Covid-19 illness – make over half of their contacts in other settings (not home, school or work), such as shops, restaurants and leisure centres. By avoiding these interactions, people who are most at risk from the new coronavirus could halve their risk of infection. By changing our behaviour now, and sustaining these changes throughout the outbreak, we can significantly reduce our own risk of infection, and the risk to others, and by doing so help protect those most vulnerable.

Sustainability is key here; these measures may reduce the reproduction number R, but as soon as they are lifted we could see transmission again, and another outbreak.

We must all take individual action to reduce Covid-19 transmission and slow down its spread, limit the number of infections and reduce the pressure on the health system so that everyone who needs medical care can get it. Starting now, and for the duration of this epidemic, we all have a role to play and a responsibility to modify our behaviour in order to protect the ones who are most at risk.

Last Friday (March 13) five County Councillors wrote to all Devon MP’s urging the Government to bring forward social distancing measures to reduce the impact of the Coronavirus.

They were gravely concerned that the people of Devon are being excessively exposed to the threat of death through the coronavirus, because the Government was failing to introduce the social distancing measures needed to contain the epidemic.

The UK has fewer hospital beds, fewer Intensive Care Unit beds and fewer specialist respiratory beds than other European countries. In Devon we have more than our fair share of the elderly population who will be especially vulnerable to the epidemic.

They are all members of the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, but their statement was issued in their personal capacities. They were:

Hilary Ackland (Exeter, Pinhoe and Mincinglake)
Marina Asvachin (Exeter, Wonford and St. Loyes)
Martin Shaw (Seaton and Colyton)
Nick Way (Crediton)
Claire Wright (Otter Valley)

Within the space of three days their intervention now looks prophetic as the Government, yesterday, changed course in the face of evidence emerging from Italy, effectively adopting this amongst other measures.

These five were doing their job, scrutinising Health and Well Being policies as they affect our lives locally on our behalves. Until now the Government has been following a strategy at odds with WHO advice and markedly different from the rest of the world. This has now changed as that strategy has been subject to expert scrutiny and in the face of reality.

Proper and fearless scrutiny is an entirely constructive process.

Although this group stressed they were acting in a personal capacity, Owl notices that not one of the majority Conservative members of the committee joined them.

Over 400 volunteer groups offering support to neighbours affected by coronavirus measures have been set up, using social media to co-ordinate activity. 

Owl has looked at the map and finds that they look to be dominated by facebook based organisations. So the only East Devon group showing is Exmouth. The Otterton and Ottery St Mary groups Owl has posted don’t feature.  Social media might not be the best way of communicating with the vulnerable over seventies.

www.civilsociety.co.uk 

A central body named Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK will focus on providing resources and connecting people to their nearest local groups, willing volunteers and those in need.

The group is run entirely by volunteers and not medical professionals. There are now more than 400 local groups across the country.

And now Ottery St Mary:

Sidmouth.nub.news

In the last few days listening to all the news of the development of the Corona virus around the world I have been brought back to my days at university when I was studying for my degree in Biology and Chemistry.

Among the many things that crossed my mind there was something I remember being said to us by one of our lecturers. How true it was, I don’t know, but at the moment it looks like his words were filled with great wisdom and knowledge. He said to us: “Nature has its own ways of controlling the population and that is the reason we see famine and epidemics, war and natural disasters occurring at times.

“At the same time when that happens human beings show their worst and their best and that is the reason we hear of horror crimes committed in the name of religious or nationalism, but also we hear about great acts of courage and kindness.”

A week ago an Ottery resident Sarah Crow put a message on Ottery Matters that showed her concern should the spread of the virus would reach the town and how the lonely and vulnerable would be able to cope if they would be forced into isolation.

Within hours there was a meeting of representatives of organisations such as the Help Scheme and the Coledrige Medical Centre and a group under the name of Ottery Community Volunteers was formed.

This group got into action and through the facilities of their own and the local social media pages they asked for volunteers to come forward so they could have enough resources to deliver medicines, basic essentials, food, etc. to those confined to their homes during the crisis. In other words to provide those residents with the necessary reassurance that they had not been forgotten.

The latest figures show that over 200 people have indicated their willingness to help. The group still is looking for people who could help, in particular volunteers that may already have DBS checks in place and can drive.

If you think you could be one of the members of this great group of volunteers, please get in touch with Sarah through this link.

I would like to congratulate Sarah on the success of her initiative which I hope will set up an example for other communities.

It would be wonderful not having to use the services of this group and Ottery spares the damage the virus can bring upon the town but, who knows, this could be the beginning of an initiative that will give those isolated and vulnerable people in the parish the reassurance that there will always be lots of people in town on standby ready to help at any time and under any circumstances.

I am sure we all in Ottery join our voices to thank Sarah and all those volunteers for showing us that in this community there will always be people who care and will come forward to help.

Owl hopes there will be many more community self-help initiatives like this

Daniel Wilkins Exmouth Journal

Otterton residents who are self isolating, either because they have Covid 19 symptoms or because they are elderly or at high risk from the disease are being reassured that help is available for them.

The parish council is setting up a network of volunteers in the village to drop provisions or provide other help to those in need.

Parish council chairman John Hiles said: “We want the people of Otterton to know that support is available to them and urge them to get into contact if they are self isolating. 

“A number of people are ready and willing to help.” 

Anyone needing assistance is asked to email cv19otterton@gmail.com, call 07468429264 or visit the facebook page CV19 Otterton.

“Guided by the science” In a previous post Owl revealed aspects of a discussion about Coronavirus held with trusted friends knowledgeable in health matters. Here is an extension of the discussion:

With a novel virus there is so much we don’t know that health scientists have to resort to modelling using what little is known and filling in the gaps with assumptions. As soon as real data becomes available from an infected population, there needs to be priority given to collect them and use them to refine the modelling. That is a true scientific approach.

In a document reported here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/uk-coronavirus-crisis-to-last-until-spring-2021-and-could-see-79m-hospitalised

The government’s position is spelled out:

• The health service cannot cope with the sheer number of people with symptoms who need to be tested because laboratories are “under significant demand pressures”.
• From now on only the very seriously ill who are already in hospital and people in care homes and prisons where the coronavirus has been detected will get tested.
• Testing services are under such strain that even NHS staff will not be swabbed, despite their key role and the risk of them passing the virus on to patients.

We don’t seem to be collecting data on the number of people “self-isolating” either. So from now on we appear to have no real idea of what is happening accept in terms of hospital admissions yet the government keeps telling us the majority will have only mild symptoms. So how will we know when its all over? (Owl’s experts thought that there might be clever statistical sampling that could be employed but there is no evidence of that).

Here is better informed debate on the subject: from today’s Guardian:

Anthony Costello, a UK paediatrician and former director of the World Health Organization (WHO), said he had written to Whitty asking for testing to continue in the community.

“The key principles from the WHO are intensive surveillance,” he told the Guardian. “You test the population like crazy, find out where the cases are, immediately quarantine them and do contact tracing and get them out of the community. This deals with family clusters. That’s the key bedrock of getting this under control.”

This was how South Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan had brought their case numbers down.

“You can really take people out of the population and make sure they are quarantined. That is vital – before you get to social distancing.”

However, the UK government is stopping tests outside of hospital. “For me and the WHO people I have spoken to, this is absolutely the wrong policy. It would mean it just lets rip,” he said.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, expressed his concern on Friday at the end of testing and contact tracing in Britain and some other European countries. “You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is,” he said. “Find, isolate, test and treat every case to break the chains of Covid transmission. Every case we find and treat limits the expansion of the disease.”

As a result Owl does not intent to publish any infection rate data for Devon as is published, for example, on DevonLive. Unfortunately these data are simply unreliable.

More than a million people in Great Britain now live at least a mile from a bus stop with a regular service, BBC research suggests.

The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) said cuts to services had left some people “trapped in their homes”.

Bus pass use by older and disabled people in England has fallen by almost a fifth in a decade.

The South West is the worst off, with 96,000 poorly served homes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-51815726

The government has promised £5bn over five years for buses and cycling.

However, Department for Transport (DfT) figures show local and central government support for buses has fallen by £800m a year over 10 years.

Analysis of bus route data for the BBC’s Panorama showed 550,000 properties, equivalent to about 1.3 million people, are at least 2km (1.2 miles) from a bus stop with a service calling on average four times a day.

‘Your heart sinks when you need to get to the doctor’s’

Marion Crawford, from Lower Denby, West Yorkshire, said her local bus stopped about seven years ago, leaving her reliant on charity-run services.
“I’m not benefitting from my bus pass at all,” she said.

“I don’t know what I’d do without the community bus. I’d have no way to go grocery shopping or to the doctors, I’d be reliant on friends.”

The 92-year-old said: “When you go to the doctor and they say they want to see you again, your heart sinks, you think ‘how am I going to get here?'”

Paul Jones, chief officer of the Denby Dale Centre, which provides a charity-funded bus service, said: “Our members tell us some bus routes do not actually reach their villages any more and they feel left alone.”

The charity has received grant funding from the government and the National Lottery for its services.

Judith Lawrence, 75, said she had not left her village of Helperby, North Yorkshire, at all this year because of a lack of bus services.

No private operators run routes through the village, so the local council provides a minibus to take residents to a nearby town twice a week.

“I’ve got a bus pass but no bus,” Ms Lawrence said.

“It’s almost like a discrimination against the people in rural areas with low incomes who can’t afford to take a taxi somewhere.”

The lack of buses is also affecting people trying to get to work.

Construction worker Marti Blagborough said buses between his home in Farnley and Leeds city centre are often delayed or do not turn up.

He said: “If there’s no buses there’s no work, because we can’t get there.

“You have to trust them, I guess you’ve got no other choice.

“If I lived locally I’d have the option of maybe bicycle to work and stuff like that but working further away it’s the only option.”

Bus use has declined over the past decade along with a fall of about 10% in the number of miles covered each year, but it varies across Great Britain

.
According to annual DfT figures, the areas with the most steady declines in estimated miles travelled by bus include Blackburn with Darwen, which has seen a 42% reduction since 2014; Stoke on Trent (41% reduction); and North Yorkshire (41%).

Martin Kelly, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s director of growth and development, said the authority had invested in public transport but “several travel companies in the area have stopped trading or have reduced the services due to falling passenger numbers”.

He said other factors included austerity cuts to council funding, changing employment patterns and “lower demand for traditional shopping patterns”.

“Our figures do seem to have stabilised, however, and we have recently been granted funding from the DfT which should allow us to increase certain services,” he added.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council said commercial operators’ fares increase when usage falls, creating “a vicious circle”. The council is bidding for funding from the government to improve bus reliability and provide more services.

‘Reliant on goodwill’

The government funds free bus passes for pensioners and disabled people in England but the number of journeys made with them has fallen by 18% since 2010.

The DfT said part of this decline was due to the fall in pass holders because the age at which people can receive them has risen in line with changes to the state pension age.

Darren Shirley from the CBT said: “We’re seeing people who are trapped in their home, essentially.”

He said many people left without a bus service would be “reliant on the goodwill of neighbours” to get around.

On average, pensioners and disabled people in England took 26 fewer bus journeys a year on their passes than they did in 2014-15, DfT data showed.

In Somerset the number of concessionary journeys taken was down by 45%.

A spokesman for Somerset County Council said it had reduced spending on concessionary fares for “a variety of reasons, including reductions in both subsidised and commercial bus services” and the collapse of a bus operator in 2016.

He added that the council continued to “meet and exceed” its statutory duties.

A spokeswoman for the DfT said: “Buses are crucial to communities, providing key links to work, school, shops and family and friends.

“We’ve pledged £5 billion to overhaul bus and cycling links, which is on top of the significant £220 million investment we’ve already made to make buses more reliable and convenient.
“We’re also publishing a national bus strategy which will help transform local transport services in every region across the country.”

If you are in the UK, you can watch Panorama: Britain’s bus crisis on Monday 16 March at 20:30 on BBC One or catch up afterwards on iPlayer.
Reporting team: Will Dahlgreen, Rob England, Daniel Wainwright

Public health experts and hundreds of doctors and scientists at home and abroad are urging the UK government to change its strategy against coronavirus, amid fears it will mean the epidemic “lets rip” through the population.

They say the UK is turning its back on strategies that have successfully brought down the numbers of infections and deaths in other countries.

Sarah Boseley  www.theguardian.com

Public health experts and hundreds of doctors and scientists at home and abroad are urging the UK government to change its strategy against coronavirus, amid fears it will mean the epidemic “lets rip” through the population.

They say the UK is turning its back on strategies that have successfully brought down the numbers of infections and deaths in other countries.

On Thursday, Boris Johnson and his medical and scientific advisers announced that only those seriously ill in hospital would be tested. Anyone who had any symptoms should self-isolate at home for seven days, without notifying the NHS.

Banning mass gatherings would not help reduce the spread of infections, the prime minister and his advisers said – although it now seems likely, largely in response to sporting and entertainment bodies cancelling events of their own accord.

Anthony Costello, a UK paediatrician and former director of the World Health Organization (WHO), said he had personally written to the chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, asking for testing to continue in the community.

“The key principles from WHO are intensive surveillance,” he told the Guardian. “You test the population like crazy, find out where the cases are, immediately quarantine them and do contact tracing and get them out of the community. This deals with family clusters. That’s the key bedrock of getting this under control.”

This was how South Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan had brought their case numbers down. “You can really take people out of the population and make sure they are quarantined. That is vital – before you get to social distancing.”

Yet the UK government was stopping tests outside of hospital. “For me and the WHO people I have spoken to, this is absolutely the wrong policy. It would mean it just lets rip,” he said.

Costello thinks we will be in the same position as Italy within two weeks. “The basic public health approach is playing second fiddle to mathematical modelling,” he said.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, expressed his deep concern on Friday at the end of testing and contact tracing in the UK and some other European countries.

“You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is,” he said. “Find, isolate, test and treat every case to break the chains of Covid transmission. Every case we find and treat limits the expansion of the disease.”

Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at The University of Edinburgh, listed on Twitter the reasons for continuing to test. “1 People can alter behaviour based on whether they have Covid. 2 Break chains of transmission. 3 Local hospitals can plan for how many patients will need care. 4 To know where cases are emerging (hotspots). 5 How do we know how large problem is?”

A government minister in Singapore has also expressed dismay. “One concern we have with cases such as UK and Switzerland isn’t just about the numbers. It is that these countries have abandoned any measure to contain or restrain the virus,” minister for national development, Lawrence Wong, said at a press briefing on Sunday. “If there’s no attempt to contain, we estimate the number of cases in these countries to rise significantly in the coming days and weeks.”

An open letter from a group including some of the UK’s most senior doctors asked the government to publish the modelling and any other evidence for the policies it is pursuing. “Our country’s public health response to Covid-19 is demonstrably different to most other countries’ responses globally and in Europe … There is also no clear indication that the UK’s response is being informed by experiences of other countries in containing the spread of Covid-19,” it said, pointing out the risks to the NHS of a rapid and huge surge in cases of people needing hospital treatment. The UK has 2.5 beds per 1,000 people in the population, they said, which is fewer than France (6), Italy (3.2) and the United States (2.8).

Immunologists, in a separate open letter, said they had “significant questions” about the government’s apparent strategy to rely on building up “herd immunity” by exposure to the virus in the UK. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, has suggested this might be a good outcome from many people becoming infected.

Herd immunity is usually brought about by vaccination – not exposing people to the risks of a disease. “The ultimate aim of herd immunity is to stop disease spread and protect the most vulnerable in society. However, this strategy only works to reduce serious disease if, when building that immunity, vulnerable individuals are protected from becoming ill, for example through social distancing. If not, the consequences could be severe,” says the letter from the British Society for Immunology.

Behavioural scientists joined the concern, saying they believed the government should immediately bring in social distancing measures and not delay for fear of the public getting “behavioural fatigue”.

“If ‘behavioural fatigue’ truly represents a key factor in the government’s decision to delay high-visibility interventions, we urge the government to share an adequate evidence base in support of that decision. If one is lacking, we urge the government to reconsider these decisions,” wrote Prof Ulrike Hahn from Birkbeck, University of London, and others.

DevonLive has just published yet another article on the Exmouth seafront development. This repeats the story about the delay caused by the findings from the scrutiny committee. It also gives an update on Phase 2 and a history of the ill fated project to date.

It has prompted a correspondent to observe: “Sadly, seeing as it seems likely many hotels and restaurants may soon go to the wall, so fragile is the business model for tourism at the moment, Scrutiny may well have done the best thing for Ingham!

Once the tourism sector shows its winners and losers, the local seaside towns may have to radically reinvent themselves yet again.”

Daniel Clark  www.devonlive.com

It is now eight years since as part of the Exmouth Masterplan, East Devon District Council released its plans for an ambitious, and what proved to be controversial, redevelopment scheme for the seafront.

The plans have faced delay after delay, the latest last Thursday when the council’s scrutiny committee agreed that panel agreeing the selection criteria for the marketing exercise to identify a developer for the Queen’s Drive site was not properly balanced…..

……..But phase 2 of the seafront project, the new watersports centre, in complete contrast, is on budget and on time, and is set to open this summer, as planned.

Aiden Johnson-Hugill, Director, Grenadier said that they are still aiming for practical completion in June or July, as construction has been slightly affected by the weather. He said: “We are targeting being open for the summer holidays. It’s a bit like Christmas, you can’t miss it.

“The big thing is we are on site. In part, as a result of the highways works which means the magic of the site is that it has direct beach access. Developments are often precluded with a road or an esplanade but here you can walk straight across.

“Our contractors are doing a good job and we chose them as they have a proven track record of delivering marine developments and ultimately will be handed back to the community, so we didn’t want to build something shoddy. We are on budget and within the parameters of tolerance for the construction timescale.”

(Article then summarises the full development history)

House building based on need, priority given to brownfield sites, good design – too good to be true? Especially if EDDC’s Blackdown House , often described to Owl as “Colditz”, sets the gold standard for design?

Robert Jenrick plans for the future to get Britain building www.gov.uk 

• Developers encouraged to build upwards and above stations
• New map of brownfield sites to make the most of unused land
• Proposals being considered to turn disused buildings into homes more quickly

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP has today (12 March 2020) set out proposals to bring Britain’s planning system into the 21st century as part of plans to get the country building.

Councils will be encouraged to take a more innovative approach to home building – by ensuring redevelopment of high streets is housing-led, building upwards and above and around stations.

Next month the government will launch a register of brownfield sites which will map out unused land as part of plans to encourage councils to make the most of this land first – backed by £400 million to bring this mostly unused land back to use. 

Developers will be able to demolish vacant commercial, industrial and residential buildings and replace them with well-designed homes without getting delayed in a lengthy planning process, under new plans being consulted on by the government, meaning that more homes will be able to be delivered more quickly.

The government will also review how places assess how many homes are needed in their area and incentivise those that deliver on those numbers.

All local authorities will also be required to have up-to-date Local Plans in place by December 2023, or see government intervention, so enough homes are built for their communities.  

The changes come ahead of plans for an ambitious planning white paper – set to radically reform the planning system by speeding up the decision-making process so homes can be built quicker where they are needed the most.

Good design and place-making will be at the heart of the new system, championing tree-lined streets, a “fast track for beauty” and a commitment to lower carbon emissions in all new homes – for a green revolution in housebuilding.  

Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

I want everyone, no matter where they live, to have access to affordable, safe, quality housing and live in communities with a real sense of place – as part of our mission to level up, unite and unleash the potential of this country.

We must think boldly and creatively about the planning system to make it fit for the future, and this is just the first step, so we can deliver the homes communities need and help more young people onto the ladder.

This follows a package of measures announced in yesterday’s Budget to help more people onto the housing ladder by building more affordable homes and speeding up the planning process to deliver the 300,000 homes a year the country needs.

There will be more help for those that want to build their own home and for parish councils and neighbourhood forums wanting to build a small number of homes that will allow their community to grow.

A further £1 billion will be made available to help unlock almost 70,000 new homes and create a new £10 billion Single Housing Infrastructure Fund to give confidence to communities, local authorities and developers that the infrastructure they want will be delivered before the building starts. 

This follows the announcement of £12 billion of investment to build more affordable homes – the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade. With the ability to also bring in around £38 billion of further private and public investment. 

This new Affordable Homes Programme will deliver more affordable housing, helping more people to own their own home through the government’s home ownership programmes such as Right to Shared Ownership.

It will also help to build more social rent homes – supporting those most at risk of homelessness.

To secure a fairer deal for those who are renting the government will abolish “no fault” evictions through the Renters Reform Bill and bring forward the social housing white paper to ensure residents in social homes are treated with dignity and respect.

In order to help ensure the homes that people are living in are safe, £1 billion of grant funding to tackle unsafe cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings over 18 million in both the private and social sectors has also been announced. 

The grant funding is in addition to the £600 million already available, as the government introduces a new Building Safety Bill to bring about the biggest changes to building safety in a generation.

An extra £145 million, on top of the £236 million allocated at the end of February, will be used to offer ‘move on’ accommodation for up to 6,000 rough sleepers and those at immediate risk of rough sleeping.

In addition, a further £262 million will be used to expand drug and alcohol treatment services for vulnerable people sleeping rough – ensuring every area in the country receives additional funding for these vital services.