Following on from the “Moonshot”; does Hercule Poirot have the solution to Matt Hancock’s case of rising infections? Possibly, not.

Daniel Boffey www.theguardian.com

Belgium has been cited by the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, as a model for getting coronavirus under control – just as its public health body recorded a 15% rise in the number of daily infections compared with the previous week.

Despite a dip in the number of new infections in August, after a tightening of rules by the Belgian prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, the most recent data suggests the country’s success may be short-lived as people return to work and school.

An average of 509.7 people a day have tested newly positive during the past seven days, according to the latest figures by from Belgium’s scientific institute for public health.

Thursday marked the fifth successive day that the number of people newly infected has risen.

Hospital admissions are also up. Between 3 to 9 September, an average of 20.6 new admissions per day was recorded, an increase from 16.7 the week before.

Hancock had praised Belgium as he sought to justify strict new laws on social gatherings in England, including the so-called rule of six people, limiting the size of social groups.

The health secretary said the UK was learning from the experience of other European countries that had recorded an increase in coronavirus infections in recent months.

“Some of those countries have then got that second wave under control,” Hancock said. “If you look at what’s happened in Belgium, they saw an increase and then they’ve brought it down, whereas in France and Spain that just hasn’t happened.”

Belgium had a sustained decrease in the number of people recorded as being newly infected in August, after the government responded to a worrying spike the previous month.

A gradual lifting of social restrictions was halted by the government with the order that each household would only be allowed to meet and have close contact with five other adults from outside their household rather than 15, as had been previously permitted. The so-called social bubbles were to remain the same for a month.

Indoor events were also limited to 100 people or 200 outdoors, down from 200 and 400 respectively. The wearing of face masks in public was made obligatory.

But despite those measures, infections have since risen. Analysis by the Flemish Agency for Care and Health of contacts and sources of contamination, published on Thursday, has suggested a direct link with the start of the school year and the resumption of work after the summer holidays.

My dad died of Covid last Xmas – he’d still be here if China hadn’t lied

Chris Pollard www.thesun.co.uk

THE daughter of a UK Covid victim who fell ill last December says he and many more could still be alive if Beijing had not covered up the outbreak.

Jane Buckland blasted: “If China hadn’t lied to the rest of the world and kept this hidden for so long, it could have saved countless lives.”

Her dad Peter Attwood, 84, became ill with a mystery cough and fever shortly after Christmas — more than two months before officials discovered the virus was spreading in Britain.

Peter died in hospital in January, with heart failure and pneumonia initially blamed.

But tests have now shown Covid was a cause of death — making him the UK’s first recorded virus victim and the first outside China.

CHINA’S ‘SECRECY’

Jane, who fears he caught it off her, fell ill with Covid symptoms on December 15 — meaning the deadly bug could have been spreading here at least two weeks before China said it even existed.

Peter, from Chatham, Kent, had never travelled abroad.

Jane said: “Covid has obviously been around for much longer than we know. People have been talking about a cover-up but we don’t know the scale of it.

“My father could still be here if we’d known about the threat of this horrible virus earlier.”

MPs last night said Peter’s case showed China had conducted a sinister cover-up of its outbreak while letting the bug secretly spread around the world.

Jane, 46, said her dad’s coughing got so bad that he was admitted to hospital on January 7.

She said: “The doctors did every test under the sun but couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him.

“His blood tests showed a high level of infection but they had no idea what it was.

“He died on January 30 and the provisional death certificate said it was heart failure and pneumonia.

“The virus was obviously running rampant in this country back in December or maybe even earlier.

“China was covering it up from the beginning.

“I had all the Covid symptoms — dry cough, fever, aches and pains, diarrhoea — before Christmas, but no one knew what it was.

“I went to Christmas parties and was hugging and kissing everyone, even people I didn’t know. That’s what people do at Christmas.

“If we’d known we were possibly spreading a deadly virus, things could have been very different.

“It’s no wonder so many people in this country ended up dying from it. How many lives could have been saved if we’d known what was really going on?

“My dad was elderly and had an underlying heart condition, so he would have been shielding.”

‘MISLEADING THE WORLD’

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said The Sun’s revelations offered damning proof China misled the world about the extent of its Covid outbreak last year.

He said: “This has absolutely proved positive that what was going on back in October in China, where doctors were speaking out and then were silenced, was that China knew all about human to human transfer about this virus and did nothing about it.

“Secondly, the World Health Organisation is also guilty because they failed to press China back in November and December when it became obvious that China had at least an epidemic on their hands.

“None of this was done until later — only at the end of January did China admit it had a problem. Then, it wasn’t until March 11 that the WHO declared a pandemic.”

The Sun says

HAD China come clean about Covid from the off, Peter Attwood might be alive today.

So might many of our 41,586 victims and hundreds of thousands worldwide.

Some scientists believe the disease erupted in Wuhan as early as last October.

China’s instinct was to lie, to cover it up, to play it down, to silence whistle-blowers.

An early global warning might have seen Peter, an 84-year-old heart patient, self-isolate for his protection.

It might even have persuaded Public Health England to grasp Covid’s seriousness, which it shamefully failed to do.

PHE was still minimising the dangers and bragging about its preparations at the end of February. By then Peter had been dead nearly a month.

No one yet knows Covid’s exact origins. And we do not blame China’s people.

But through its secrecy and deceit their Communist regime has worsened the damage this plague has inflicted on the world. One day it must make amends.

Boss of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said: “China’s secrecy over the emergence of Covid has put at risk millions.”

Doctors saved some of Peter’s lung tissue because they suspected he may have had asbestosis, a lung condition caused by working around asbestos.

Deaths from it have to be referred to a coroner.

But Peter, a retired car dealership company secretary never worked with asbestos.

Last Thursday, Jane got an email from Kent coroner Bina Patel saying post-mortem tests had detected coronavirus in his lung tissue.

Miss Patel recorded his cause of death as “Covid-19 infection and bronchopneumonia”.

Previously, the earliest-recorded case of coronavirus caught in the UK was February 21.

It was only on March 5 that England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said community transmission was likely to be happening inside the UK.

University of East Anglia Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter said of Peter’s case: “This is a remarkable development because it shows there was some virus transmission in the UK before anyone realised.”

How dad’s Covid case unfolded

DECEMBER 15, 2019: Jane comes down with Covid symptoms, but dismisses it as a bad cold. She continues to attend Christmas parties and care for her elderly parents.

DECEMBER 21: A cluster of patients with an unknown pneumonia-like illness are identified in China.

DECEMBER 28: Jane’s dad Peter starts suffering from a dry cough. His symptoms continue to worsen.

DECEMBER 31: China alerts the World Health Organisation of the new virus, which has spread in the Wuhan area.

JANUARY 2, 2020: Jane’s asthmatic daughter Megan, 18, has difficulty breathing.

JANUARY 7: Peter has become very ill and is struggling to breathe, so is admitted to a Kent hospital.

JANUARY 11: A 61-year-old man in Wuhan becomes the world’s first known casualty of the virus, believed to have originated in a wet market.

JANUARY 15: Doctors are puzzled by Peter’s illness. Blood tests show a high level of infection, but they are unsure what has caused it.

JANUARY 30: Peter dies. The cause is recorded as heart failure and pneumonia but doctors take tissue samples for further testing.

JANUARY 31: Two Chinese tourists from Wuhan are diagnosed with Covid-19 in York.

FEBRUARY 6: Stephen Walsh, from Brighton, becomes the UK’s third confirmed case. He caught it in Singapore and gave it to others on ski trip.

FEBRUARY 15: The first reported coronavirus death in Europe after 80-year-old Chinese tourist dies in France

FEBRUARY 28: The first British victim dies on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

MARCH 5: The first death is confirmed in the UK as cases of Covid-19 surge.

MARCH 26: New laws give police powers to enforce lockdown. Non-essential shops and businesses are forced to close. Parliament shuts.

SEPTEMBER 3: Kent coroner Bina Patel tells Jane her father died from Covid-19.

“Mission Team”, “Moonshot Headquarters” and “Mission Analysis”, the “future vision” is 10m tests a day in early 2021. But the technology doesn’t yet exist – ring any alarm bells? This PM loves to clutch at straws. Don’t hold your breath! – Owl

Sarah Boseley www.theguardian.com 

They call it the “moonshot” – and it is as ambitious as any space adventure.

This is the name given to the government project that aims to ramp up testing to such a scale that it will return the country to some kind of normality. But is it feasible? And what about the cost?

Two internal government documents seen by the Guardian give an indication of the task, and the huge difficulties ahead.

The underlying proposition is simple.

As the documents explain, mass testing of the population on a very frequent basis would allow us all to know who is clear of the virus and allow those people to mix freely again.

The economy and British society as a whole could re-open safely. It would break the chain of transmission. Testing and tracing on this scale would mean the virus would be driven down into such low levels it would be almost eradicated.

One of the documents, titled UK Mass Population Testing Plan, is a briefing memo sent to the first minister in Scotland, which explains it could cost £100bn.

That might be a price worth paying if it worked – however, most of the technology simply does not yet exist. Getting 10 million people tested every day – however quick and simple the process – is a very big logistical ask for a country that has struggled to deliver a few hundred thousand.

The second is a 26-page PowerPoint presentation from the Department of Health and Social Care entitled: Moonshot mobilisation: briefing pack, dated 21 August.

The document is full of diagrams and charts, with pages headlined “Mission Team”, “Moonshot Headquarters” and “Mission Analysis”.

The narrative in both make it clear the prime minister believes the moonshot is the only way out for the UK economy in the face of a probable winter surge. He wants it to be UK-wide.

The documents have been shared with the devolved governments. They have also been to Sage – the government’s scientific advisory committee – and to the Treasury, which is modelling the impact to the British the economy.

And various companies making tests have been sounded out – drawing up much of the plan and leading on various “missions” are employees of Deloitte, the private sector consulting company that has already masterminded the establishment of drive-in testing centres, run by Serco.

The slides show current testing as 200,000 to 800,000 per day, with a rise to 2m to 4m a day in December.

The “future vision” is 10m tests a day in early 2021.

Moonshot is Johnson’s big hope, it makes clear.

“This is described by the prime minister as our only hope for avoiding a second national lockdown before a vaccine, something the country cannot afford. He would also like this to support the opening up of the economy and allow the population to return to something closer to normality,” says the memo.

“This is a top priority for the prime minister who is embedding No 10 staff within the project and has committed to removing any barriers to implementation. He has asked for a Manhattan Project-type approach to delivering the level of innovation/pace required to make this possible. He has also indicated that he would like this to be a cross UK endeavour. The devolved administrations have now been asked at official level whether we wish to embed staff within the moonshot project teams.”

But to some experts, the mission may be seen as more wishful thinking than a feasible way out of the pandemic.

The prime minister has said publicly he wants to move towards mass testing that is as simple as a pregnancy test and delivers a result in 15 minutes.

That technology does not yet exist, but it is a fundamental part of the moonshot package.

The big hope is firstly in saliva tests, which are quick and more comfortable than swab tests for the virus. This part of the plan is under way already.

Saliva tests have been piloted in Southampton, among healthcare workers and their families. The pilot was said to be successful – but no data has been released. It is understood that there were too few infections in the city to prove the tests worked.

That pilot has been extended in Hampshire – the documents suggests it will launch in Manchester as well. Mass screening is taking place in Salford. The same saliva tests are going to be offered to anyone who wants them. It’s both a trial of the saliva test and of people’s enthusiasm for population screening. Testing will take place at train stations and other places yet to be decided, the document says.

The plans suggest that schools, universities and other institutions would follow, while the technology was also to be used to target outbreaks around the country.

The plans feature the initials TBC for much of the detail here – to be confirmed. Finally, private sector organisations would be empowered to deliver testing in workplaces.

Beyond saliva testing, which has not yet been proved to work although it is promising, moonshot depends on a new generation of rapid antigen tests becoming available.

The DHSC has already contracted to buy some of them off the drawing board. It signed a deal with Oxford Nanopore, a young biotech company spun off from Oxford University, for a rapid test that can be turned around in 90 minutes before it had even gained its CE mark.

On 3 August, Hancock announced it was buying “millions of ground-breaking rapid coronavirus tests” from Oxford Nanopore, which features in the moonshot documents, and DnaNudge. They would be “rolled out to hospitals, care homes and labs across the UK to increase testing capacity ahead of winter”, he said.

“We’re using the most innovative technologies available to tackle coronavirus. Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on the spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly,” said Hancock.

The documents do acknowledge that most of those tests are as yet unavailable. They talk of “developing, validating, procuring, and operationalising testing technology that currently does not exist” and “creating significant new logistical and manufacturing infrastructure and capacity”.

The number of people going back to work in offices has flatlined in the past two months despite the government push to get more workers into cities to protect Britain’s biggest urban economies from collapse.

EM 09-07-20 U3A Survey link to Select Committee post Covid 19 inquiry

mailchi.mp

To Chairs, Secretaries and Treasurers

The Third Age Trust and U3A movement has been given an opportunity to respond to a House of Lords Inquiry.

U3A Movement’s CEO Sam Mauger said, “Many of you have contacted us about Covid and how it has impacted upon you. The Trust can respond to the Inquiry with the points that you feel should be included.”

The button below contains a link to the questions that they are gathering information about.

Please could you respond to the questions by 15 September.

Please share the link with your members and colleagues so they can also take part in the survey.

We will collate the answers and send them in by the deadline of 18 September.

Thank you so much

Link to Survey Questions 

Chair of the Third Age Trust, Ian McCannah, has created a report based from U3A members’ thoughts on how the U3A movement can move forward post lockdown.

Read the report in the button below.

Beyond Lockdown Report

This is an easy way to share this mailing. Click on this link and copy the URL to share this mailing on other platforms, including Beacon.

“Critics have dubbed it a “festival of Brexit” and pilloried it as a waste of £120m of public money, but the first plans for the festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – announced by Theresa May in 2018 – will officially launch on Wednesday.”

? – Owl

The government’s planning reforms would lead to a 45 per cent increase in housebuilding under Tory councils outside London whereas the number of new homes in Labour areas would fall.

[Note for East Devon that will be 74 per cent. Owl would like to know what Simon Jupp and Neil Parish are doing about it]

Conservative MPs have warned Boris Johnson that a “mutant” algorithm at the heart of the planning reforms would lead to overbuilding in the southeast and “permanently disadvantage” the North and the Midlands.

Under the changes, local discretion over the rate of building would be removed and central government would “distribute” an annual target, at present 337,000 a year, among councils using an algorithm. An analysis of data provided by Lichfields, a planning consultancy, shows that much of the new housing would be concentrated in Conservative local authority areas in the suburbs and shires, rather than in town centres.

Nearly 100,000 homes would be built in Conservative local authorities outside London, a rise of 45 per cent. In Labour-held local authorities the number of new homes would fall by 3 per cent, from 57,148 to 55,500.

The analysis was released as Tory MPs criticised the plans during a Commons debate late on Monday. Andrew Griffith, Tory MP for Arundel & South Downs, said that the algorithm was “blind to geography” and called for exemptions for green corridors. He said: “By piling on even more growth in the southeast, the algorithm is locking the North and Midlands into permanent disadvantage. Despite the government’s stated intent, the new formula is levelling down, not levelling up.”

James Sunderland, the Tory MP for Bracknell, said that the government had to apply “some form of judgment” on the science behind the algorithm.

“Many of my constituents are very sensitive about unsustainable house building,” he said.

Tory MPs in the Greater London area were also critical of the algorithm. The prime minister held a Zoom conference last month with 17 MPs, who warned him that the reforms risked “creating the slums of the future”.

The MPs, who included four ministers, said that the proposal to treble the number of homes built in London to 93,532 a year would do “real harm to the Conservative vote”.

A Ministry of Housing spokesman said: “The Planning for the Future white paper sets out longer term reforms which will bring forward a simpler, more transparent planning system. In addition, the consultation on changes to the current planning system sets out the elements we want to balance when determining local housing need, including meeting our target of delivering 300,000 homes, tackling affordability challenges in the places people most want to live and renewing and levelling up our towns and cities.”

From a correspondent:

The destruction of the Jill Dando memorial tree at the former BBC studios has just come to my attention through the news, though it actually happened in August.

There is always a sadness when trees are cut down. It does seem that trees are common casualties, along with other wildlife, in planning developments. This case does seem extraordinary as the new building was designed around this tree.

But what caught my eye was that this is yet more student accommodation in the city. Why has the city approved:

“Luxury boutique student accommodation in Exeter”?

“Is an elegant private studio or a luxury en-suite serviced apartment your choice? With a friendly team available 24/7, and a cinema, games room and gym on hand, there is no need to look elsewhere, we have it all!!”

Exeter City has a current local plan requirement of 3058 houses per year and a proposed new standard requirement of 5116 and any brownfield land is needed for the people of the city, not for the university. After all the university has a large campus where it can build for its own students.

But the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP) would have picked up the pieces/land for the city. The neighbouring districts were going to help solve their land requirement problem with East Devon taking the lion’s share. Thank heavens the council had the courage to pull out.

Here is the article referred to:

Jill Dando memorial tree cut down by housing developer in ‘tragic’ mistake 

www.newsbreak.com 

Bungling developers building posh student homes have caused fury after cutting down a memorial tree for murdered television presenter Jill Dando by mistake.

The former BBC studios, where the tragic Crimewatch star started her career, are being replaced by a new student complex.

The scheme was only approved after the developers agreed to keep the beautiful Acer tree that had become a spot where her friends and former colleagues went to remember her.

But it has now emerged the developers preserved the wrong tree at Walnut Gardens in Exeter, Devon – and cut down Jill’s memorial last month.

It is understood a planning report identified the wrong tree to developers, leaving former colleagues and friends “devastated” by the “tragic” mistake.

Blundering student housing developers mistakenly cut down the memorial while preserving the wrong one (Image: GOOGLE/APEX)

The developers StudyInn have now apologised and pledged to plant a fresh memorial tree and commission a sculpture of her on the site instead.

Exeter City Council said the memorial Acer tree was “not clearly marked” and a walnut tree that was more than 100-years old was instead identified as the one that needed saving.

Ms Dando’s former colleague at BBC Radio Devon Sarah Harris was among the friends who decided to plant the memorial tree where Ms Dando first worked for the corporation.

Sarah told the BBC she felt “upset and very, very let down”.

She said she had been communicating with the council and developers since February 2019 to ensure the tree was saved and was given several assurances it would be.

She added: “I’m devastated, but to think the walnut tree was the memorial – I mean she died in 1999, not 1899.

“You can’t have an old tree as a memorial tree – you plant a tree for somebody. I cannot believe it happened.”

Ms Harris added she did not blame the new developers who were given the wrong information.

Journalist and presenter Jill, who was murdered in 1999 outside her home, started her career working for the BBC in Devon.

She became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985 and that year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West.

In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight before being transferred to London the following year where she went on to achieve national fame.

The tree was cut down in August and was noticed by another former colleague, Charles Eden, who went to look at the site to find “bare earth”.

He said it was “tragic” but he hoped the new tree and statue will be “something Exeter can be proud of.”

Developer StudyInn confirmed the wrong tree was marked on a planning report.

A spokesperson said the company had been aware a memorial tree was on site which had to be preserved and relocated.

“There was a tree survey commissioned by the applicant and it identified some important tress for retention in their current position and one tree for relocation,” the spokesperson said.

“The only reference we had to go on as to the identification of the Jill Dando Memorial tree was in the Planning Inspectors approval notice condition 7, which identifies the Jill Dando Memorial tree as T98 in the tree report which accompanied the Planning Application.

“The tree report itself does not mention the Jill Dando Memorial Tree and T98 is a Walnut Tree. So we protected the trees identified for retention and used a tree specialist to remove the Walnut tree (T98) and keep it safe and preserved for re-planting in the re-developed site.

“Unfortunately the actual Jill Dando Memorial tree was a small tree which because of its size was not marked to be retained on the tree survey and it was removed before we knew its identity.

“We are very sorry that this has happened and appreciate that this has caused distress, particularly to those people who were close to Jill Dando and had planted the original tree.

“We can only look forward from this point and do what we can to facilitate the new memorial.”

The company that owns the Exmouth Journal, Sidmouth Herald and Midweek Herald has announced it is to come under new ownership.

Beth Sharp www.sidmouthherald.co.uk

Norwich-based Archant has been acquired by Rcapital. It takes a controlling share, with a minority holding for the Pension Protection Fund, into which Archant’s long-defunct company pension has been transferred.

Chris Campbell, partner at Rcapital, said: “We are incredibly pleased to have worked alongside Archant’s management team and KPMG to put forward a plan that will restructure finances and inject fresh capital into one of Britain’s oldest local newspaper brands. We are hopeful, that with the support of its creditors, Archant will emerge from this challenging period as a stronger business that continues to provide a vital service to its clients and readership.”

There is no interruption to publishing in the business, which continues to trade as before.

Keir Starmer has warned the coronavirus test-and-trace system is “on the verge of collapse”, as ministers conceded that a lack of laboratory capacity which has prevented many people getting a test could take a fortnight to be resolved.

More than 160 places in England have seen a rise in the number of coronavirus cases in seven days – with some places seeing the infection rate more than treble.

New infections of coronavirus in the UK are now growing as fast as they were at the beginning of April, according to Telegraph analysis.

By Alex Clark 8 September 2020 www.telegraph.co.uk 

Data on the last five days of new Covid-19 cases announced by Public Health England shows that new infections are now doubling every nine days, up from every 20 days just under a week ago.

That matches the daily rate seen between 6 and 7 April, where new coronavirus cases were doubling every eight to ten days, with a government scientific adviser today warning that the disease is again growing “exponentially” in the UK. 

After a spate of continuous decline in May and June, new cases of coronavirus began to tick up again in July – around when pubs and restaurants re-opened on so-called ‘Super Saturday’ on the 4th. 

At that point there were on average 700 new cases of coronavirus announced each day, down from a daily peak of over 5,000 in mid-April. 

By the beginning of September this daily rate had climbed to over 2,000 a day, however, up from around 1,000 towards the end of August – more than double.

This morning Professor John Edmunds, who is part of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE),  warned that cases are “increasing exponentially”, a phenomenon that can be seen when a logarithmic scale is applied to infections data, where straight lines represent such growth. 

Professor Edmunds went on to say that the UK has entered “a risky period” with the reproduction number potentially above the crucial figure of one.

“I didn’t want us to relax measures so much that we couldn’t open the schools safely without it tipping the reproduction number significantly above one,” he told ITV news.

“And we are already above one and we’ve opened schools.”

What’s different this time?

Unlike April, however, the UK now has a far more extensive testing regime – something that might over emphasise the number of fresh infections relative to the beginning of the pandemic.

In the past week alone there have been over 1.3m coronavirus tests, as opposed to just 95,188 in the first week of April. 

As of 2 September over 17m tests have been conducted in the UK, and around half of these have taken place since mid-July. 

Not only are there more tests now. Those actually returning positive results are a markedly different demographic to the pandemic’s first victims.

The largest share of positive results are coming from the 20 to 29 age group – in the week to 28 August, 29 per cent of new coronavirus infections in women and 28 per cent of men were in that bracket, the biggest shares of any group. 

That contrasts with most of the pandemic in the UK, when older age groups, particularly those above the age of 80, were the predominant demographic affected by the disease. 

On Sunday, after it was announced the UK had seen nearly 3,000 new coronavirus infections, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned young people not to “infect their grandparents”.

“The cases are predominantly among younger people, but we’ve seen in other countries across the world and in Europe, this sort of rise in the cases amongst younger people leading to a rise across the population as a whole,” said Mr Hancock.

“It’s so important that people don’t allow this illness to infect their grandparents, and to lead to the sorts of problems that we saw earlier in the year.”

On the other hand, Dr Neil Stone, an infectious disease specialist at University College Hospital in London, said: “I don’t believe the Covid-19 epidemic in the UK, US and elsewhere has ‘shifted’ to younger, healthier people.”

“They just weren’t being tested before.”

British democracy used to feel rock steady, unassailable: one could argue about the constitution, the voting system, the Lords, the monarchy, but about not the fundamental tenets.

Otterton referendum to be held next year for residents and businesses to have their say and Membury neighbourhood plan reaches final stage of adoption.

4 September 2020 eastdevon.gov.uk

A referendum will be held next year for the residents and businesses of Otterton so that they can have their say on the parish’s neighbourhood plan.

The Otterton poll follows the successful referendum for the Membury neighbourhood plan which was held in March and was approved by 81% of those who voted.

Both plans have been developed over a number of years through the hard work and dedication of their respective parish councils’ neighbourhood plan steering groups. The plans sets out policies for the future of these areas to help inform decisions about land use and planning applications.

East Devon District Council has approved the Otterton plan as a robust and positive document and has recommended it to go forward for a referendum. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the referendum asking the parish to adopt the plan cannot be held until next year (2021). However, as the district council has recommended the plan and it has been the subject of significant public consultation and an independent examination, the proposals now have significant weight in any decisions about development in the parish.

The leader of the Otterton Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, Ian Birch, said:

“The fact that our village’s plan has reached this stage is very gratifying, and we’d like to thank everyone who contributed to its development over the last few years.

The plan will help protect the village against inappropriate development, whilst encouraging activity which supports and enhances the wonderful natural environment of the area. We look forward to the referendum taking place in due course – although it’s disappointing that this may not be until next year, depending on the course of recovery from the current pandemic.”

Membury neighbourhood plan is the latest to reach the final stage of the plan making process and was formally adopted by the East Devon District Council in April.

Cllr Dan Ledger, the district council’s portfolio holder for strategic planning said:

“I have to commend the steering groups of both Otterton and Membury for achieving these feats. A neighbourhood plan is a long and arduous process but one that has long lasting benefits to the community it serves.

It gives weight to the voice of the community within planning policy and allows them to set out a positive vision of how they wish to see the community develop. With the fantastic news of Membury’s neighbourhood plan being made in April, I will now eagerly await the results of the Otterton referendum in 2021.”

East Devon currently has 18 adopted neighbourhood plans and a further 20 plans at various stages of development. Once adopted, neighbourhood plans form part of the suite of statutory development plan documents, together with the East Devon Local Plan.

The Otterton and Membury plans are available to view on the district council’s website, together with further information about neighbourhood planning across the district. The website link is https://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/neighbourhood-and-community-plans/

The district council is keen to continue supporting the progression of neighbourhood planning work as far as is possible in the current circumstances. Parishes and groups needing help with neighbourhood plans can contact the council’s new neighbourhood planning officer Angela King through email at aking@eastdevon.gov.uk or by calling 01395 571740.

INTO THE MOUNTAINS WITH YOU : THE HEALTH SECRETARY of an industrialised nation currently mismanaging Covid-19 has made a plea for assistance from the nation’s young.

www.lcdviews.com 

“Some would think we’re still pursuing herd immunity as our strategy with Covid-19,” he began, “but just at a slower, more political manageable pace. Rather than the mass pit burial velocity we had to pull back from before the summer. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your leaders are famous for adjusting their positions based on public opposition. We U turn all the time. You can trust us to U turn on you. And you can trust me when I say that, because I’m from your government.”

So far, so good.

“And don’t listen to any unpatriotic types who suggest that urging everyone back into offices, after reopening pubs, at the same time as refilling schools is not a sensible public health strategy. Teenagers, and drunks are famous for their self control and adherence to rules. Drunk teenagers especially! It’ll not be our fault if they catch Covid. It’s just nature taking its course.”

All perfectly sensible.

“But there is one area where I need the youth of this nation to help me out. It’s not just wearing face masks while shoplifting, or whatever past time you scallywags get up to these days, that I need your help with.”

Alright. Get on with it.

“It’s with your grandparents. You maybe aware we have a social care crisis in this country. For too long governments pursued a shortsighted agenda of helping people live longer. Long past their ability to work in the gig economy. This is a now a serious problem. Of course the funds that could be spent solving it are currently in tax havens. That is where money belongs. So what to do about all these old people hanging about the place, and between you and me, not doing much that’s useful except grandparenting?”

What indeed. Someone has to give them Covid?

“You don’t want giving them Covid that on your conscience. So let it happen as a result of other people crisscrossing the UK in search of Covid tests. World beating navigation will see us through. And if you really want to help out, take a drive to Barnard Castle and sneeze. We’re taking the right steps, at the right time. This is why you need to protect your grandparents so a rogue algorithm can take care of them, just like it did for A level tests.”

Don’t kill your granny. That’s the government’s job.

Public transport in Devon faces an uncertain future unless people get back on buses and trains.

By Daniel Clark, local democracy reporter  www.radioexe.co.uk

An organisation called the Peninsula Transport Shadow Sub National Transport Body, on which local councillors sit, has been told the number of people using buses ris less than half what it used to be across Devon and Cornwall.  Train use is 35 per cent of pre-lockdown levels, but gradually increasing.

Although transport operators receive government support to ensure they continue to run loss-making services, it is uncertain about how long it will last and concerns about the impact it could have if routes stop running. Significant numbers of people are still under the impression that public transport should only be used if essential. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously said people should avoid public transport if possible, although messaging has since changed to allow  bus and train use for any purpose.

But Cllr Mark Coker said: “We have a huge rural area and if bus patronage does not return to usual soon, there will be financial implications for the bus companies and the local authorities. Are we going to actively encourage people to get back on buses, and will the DFT change their message?”

Cllr Geoff Brown added: “The original message to only use public transport if essential nosedived the passenger numbers when we didn’t have an issue with capacity in the first place. For those using the buses it was essential. We have done a lot of work to make people safe, but the messaging isn’t helpful, so can we promote public transport in the near future?”

Dave Gilnos from the Department for Transport said a huge package of funding has been established to support the continued operation of bus services and he didn’t expect any services to fall aside while the funding is in place. He said: “There will come a time when government say they cannot keep supporting the industry forever more, and the question is when that funding will cease. Social distancing is limiting capacity to 50 per cent of what it was previously, and some buses are full, but full is 50 per cent so isn’t generating the revenue it was once. Work is on under way on a bus recovery strategy that will come out in the autumn.”

Daniel Round, from GWR, added that the message was changing to ‘travel with confidence’ and to try and entice people can onto the railway. He said: “We are seeing a uplift in numbers in the westward routes. We are now up to 30 to 35 per cent, when at the height of the pandemic, it was down at two to three per cent. We have extended the agreement with the DFT until June until next year so a sign of stability, and we will change out timetable to 95 per cent of pre-pandemic services.”

A group of 40 Conservative MPs have formed a new group to keep up the pressure on Boris Johnson to fulfil his pledge to “level up” the more deprived areas of the country.

[Leader is Neil O’Brien MP for Harborough of: “The next algorithm disaster – coming to a Conservative constituency near you. This time, it’s housing growth” fame. Owl wonders whether Simon Jupp or Neil Parish are members to put the case for the us in the far South West. Or is this just for “Red Wall” MPs?]