A business council set up by Boris Johnson to rebuild the UK after Covid has been criticised for being too London-centric and treating most of the country with “contempt” after it emerged that all but five council members are based in or near the English capital.

Helen Pidd www.theguardian.com

Just one of the 30 Build Back Better Council members is based in the north of England, two are in the Midlands, one in Cambridge and one in Scotland. None work for firms headquartered in Wales or Northern Ireland. Twenty-two are in London and three in commuter towns within 25 miles of the capital.

Announcing the council on Monday, Johnson said it would “level up opportunity for people and businesses across the UK”. He promised it would “provide an important forum for frank feedback on our recovery plans”.

But the geographic makeup of the council was criticised for drawing almost exclusively from firms based in London or the commuter belt of the capital.

Nick Forbes, the leader of Newcastle city council, said: “So much for levelling up. We’re the only city with an A rating for our CDP assessment (demonstrating our ambition and plan for net zero by 2030), we’ve created thousands of jobs in the city over the last decade, we’ve won national praise for our work on tackling homelessness, we’ve broken all our housebuilding targets and we’re the first city to have all care home residents vaccinated against Covid. But the government doesn’t think they have anything to learn from us.”

Frank McKenna from UnitedCity, a pressure group set up to help businesses in Greater Manchester recover from the pandemic, said: “The one thing the government should have learnt from the last nine months, surely, is that we can’t have a one-size-fits-all-approach to rebuilding our economy.”

McKenna, who also heads Downtown in Business, which brings together firms in the north of England and the West Midlands, said it wasn’t too late to broaden the council’s membership. “Even at this stage I would say to Boris Johnson and his colleagues: this just looks daft … At worst it looks like the north of England has been forgotten and is being treated with contempt again.”

Henri Murison, the director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership thinktank, said: “A large part of the British business community, including a number of its most significant firms, is here – not least most of its major supermarkets. It is vital that discussions about key business priorities reflect that.”

A government spokesperson defended the appointments, saying: “The Build Back Better Council members have significant operations across the UK, employing tens of thousands of people in factories, R&D campuses, shops and forecourts across the Midlands and the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“Council members were selected because of their long-term commitment to the UK economy and their combined capability to increase business investment, get the economy moving and create jobs across the entire country.”

The council members include senior executives from companies including Google, Heathrow Airport, British Airways and Unilever. Outside London and the commuter belt there is the chief executive of Siemens, based in Manchester; the chief executives of Jaguar Land Rover and Severn Trent, both in Coventry; Sir Ian Wood of the engineering consultancy Wood in Aberdeen, and Poppy Gustafsson from the cyber-security firm Darktrace in Cambridge. The three companies within 25 miles of the capital are in Slough, Brentwood in Middlesex and Welwyn Garden City.

[Text of e-mail from EDDC on general circulation forwarded by a correspondent]

Dear Sir/Madam

A new local plan for East Devon – Issues and Options report consultation

I am delighted to advise that we are producing a new local plan for East Devon.  To start things off we have produced an Issues and Options consultation report.  This report highlights some of the major planning issues and challenges that we see for East Devon over the years ahead and some of the potential responses.  We would welcome your views on the matters we raise or any additional considerations.

The Issues and options report can be viewed www.eastdevon.gov.uk/newlocalplan and we have also produced an online questionnaire that we would encourage you to fill out.  We need to receive any comments by 12:00 noon on Monday 15 March 2021.

Responses received to the consultation, along with ongoing plan making work, will be used to help us produce a draft version of the local plan that we hope will go out for consultation in early 2022.

It is envisaged that a new local plan will guide future development and contain the full range of planning policies needed for the Council to undertake its development management functions and determine planning applications.   This consultation is undertaken in respect of the requirements of ‘Regulation 18’ of ‘The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012’ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/767/regulation/18/made

Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment – Call for Sites

To support local plan production we are undertaking a call for sites as part of a new Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (HELAA).  If you wish to promote any sites or areas of land in East Devon, for development, please visit our HELAA web page www.eastdevon.gov.uk/callforsites. 

Submission need to be received by 12:00 noon on Monday 15 March 2021

Sustainability Appraisal Scoping report

Local Plan production needs to be accompanied by sustainability appraisal.  We have produced a draft scoping report and would welcome any comments, again by 12:00 noon on Monday 15 March 2021.  Please see our sustainability appraisal web page www.eastdevon.gov.uk/sustainabilityappraisal for more details.

Yours faithfully

Matt Dickins

Planning Policy Manager

Legal challenge on Covid procurement secrecy with court hearing scheduled for Wednesday 3 February

Jon Danzig www.facebook.com 

The UK now has the highest COVID-19 death rate of anywhere in the world, writes Jolyon Maugham, QC, Director of the Good Law Project.

As we try and make sense of how we got our response so wretchedly wrong, just how significant will Government’s abandonment of transparency and proper process prove to be?

The purpose of procurement law is to ensure the public interest is served and that contracts go to those most able to deliver.

It protects us by requiring Government to undertake open and competitive tendering. This is particularly important at times of crisis when stakes are high.

Yet Government’s response to this pandemic has been characterised by secrecy.

There are billions of pounds of public health contracts we know nothing about – we don’t know who has made the decision to spend, or with what safeguards, or why such strange counterparties were chosen.

It is almost impossible for anyone to accurately assess where we’ve gone wrong because so many parts of the story are missing.

And Government is being deliberately misleading about what it has and hasn’t complied with.

On 17 December, Cabinet Office Minister, Julia Lopez, responded to a question in Parliament stating that all PPE contracts had now been published.

[Source: https://hansard.parliament.uk/…/583A3CB…/Covid-19Consultants]

That is simply not true.

Our litigation has revealed Government is refusing to publish whole categories of contracts, including those of significant agencies like Public Health England and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

[Source: https://drive.google.com/…/1ZxVtlh_zkY0MZ8fALO1iARTSRY…/view]

Executive agencies have no separate legal status – there is no lawful reason to exclude these.

Further, the NAO in its second report on pandemic procurement, set out that £12.5 billion had been spent on PPE between February and July 2020, including through existing contracts with Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL), which manages the NHS supply chain.

[Source: https://www.nao.org.uk/…/The-supply-of-personal-protective-…]

However, data provided to us by Tussell on 18 December showed that only £8 billion of PPE contract awards made during that same period had been published.

Procurement through existing contracts is still the subject of an obligation to publish. Yet Government has published no details of call-off contracts with SCCL relating to PPE – over £4 billion of contracts are hidden.

These breaches matter.

▪ They matter because they normalise non-compliance with the law.

▪ They matter because they erode public trust that taxpayers’ money is being spent wisely, and that it will not just be handed to politically connected individuals, without adequate safeguards.

▪ But most importantly they matter because without a full and honest picture of what is happening, how can we begin to turn our fatally flawed response around?

We have a Government who no longer wants to account to the people on what it does – on why we have the worst death rate in the world, on why so many families are grieving.

But they cannot evade scrutiny in the courts. Our hearing is scheduled for 3rd February.

I am publishing my final Witness Statement in full.

[Link: https://drive.google.com/…/1ZxVtlh_zkY0MZ8fALO1iARTSRY…/view]

Thank you.

Jon Danzig

Across Cumbria local communities, businesses and grassroots organisations are being mobilised to map out ways that they hope will help it become the UK’s first carbon-neutral county. The county is aiming to decarbonise by 2037, an ambition initially supported by £2.5m of national lottery funding, awarded last August and to be drip-fed over five years starting this month. Tourism will be an area of focus, alongside housing, transport and agriculture.

www.theguardian.com

“The national lottery funding is an injection of adrenaline at the beginning of a long journey,” said Karen Mitchell, CEO of Cumbria Action for Sustainability (Cafs). The funding was secured by the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership, which was set up by Cafs in 2019 with the help of the county council. The partnership has 68 members tasked with leading the drive to cut emissions, including the Lake District national park authority.

The UK government has a legal commitment to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, but last month announced an additional target of reducing carbon emissions by 68% by the end of this decade. Last November, UK water companies launched a sector-wide commitment to achieving net zero by 2030, and a handful of cities, including Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds, have also committed to becoming carbon neutral by that date.

“We’re not excluding being able to do it earlier,” said Cafs’ Mitchell. “This is a climate emergency and we should be throwing everything at it.”

Achieving decarbonisation poses challenges for a county that in 2019 was visited by 48 million people. Visitors contribute £3.13bn to Cumbria’s economy and support 65,500 jobs. Tourism’s impact on its carbon footprint is largely linked to transport. In February 2020, the partnership commissioned A Carbon Baseline for Cumbria, which was produced by Professor Mike Berners-Lee, an expert in carbon footprinting – who also happens to live in Kendal.

The report found that the driving emissions of visitors to Cumbria are three times the UK average; their emissions from eating out and recreational activities are also higher than residents’. They account for 49% of Cumbria’s consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions, although 36% of those emissions come from travelling to and from Cumbria.

“Tourism does create significant challenges [to decarbonising], but it’s a huge part of the local economy,” said Chris Hodgson, owner of Haven Cottage B&B in Ambleside, which is now working towards gold certification with the Green Tourism accreditation body. He believes becoming carbon neutral will offer new opportunities for local tourism, but also that it shouldn’t have to mean reducing visitor numbers. “You just have to find ways for people to visit in a more sustainable fashion,” he said.

This could mean increasing the public transport options, the number of bike hire locations and cycleways, and looking at pedestrianisation. Hodgson is a member of the Ambleside to Zero action group, which is working with Cafs on some of these challenges.

The Lake District national park authority is about to release a new management plan that will tackle transport, one of the biggest causes of emissions in the world heritage site. As well as emphasising the public transport options available within the park, it will promote active travel days that can be undertaken without a car.

“Three quarters of visitors already go for a walk while they’re here,” said Emma Moody, sustainable transport adviser for the national park authority. “It’s about getting them to do it more, and also to get them to think about walking from the door of where they’re staying rather than feeling they have to jump in the car every morning.” In essence, it’s about persuading visitors to experience Wordsworth country in the same way the poet would have.

Electric vehicle charging points and electric buses are also on the agenda. The national park has already installed charging points in many of its car parks, and is working with Cafs and other partners to map demand hotspots and the potential volume required to cater for visitors in the future. Electric buses are a more complicated challenge, according to Moody, as the technology required to be able to do the types of journeys needed in the Lake District isn’t in place. The region has many power-draining hills and relatively long distances between charging points.

A low-carbon food programme is another area where the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership hopes to get tourists on board. Restaurants will be encouraged to decarbonise their food menus by lowering food miles, while also showing the impact of food choices by highlighting the carbon footprint of each item listed on the menu. The concept has been road-tested by the National Trust-run Sticklebarn pub in Langdale, which in 2019 was one of the first in the UK to list carbon calculations against its dishes.

Some of the £2.5m funding will go towards setting up a “grow local, eat local” scheme, by encouraging Cumbria’s livestock farmers to set aside land to grow fruit, vegetables and cereals. At the moment, local agriculture is geared towards lamb and dairy, according to Cafs, which leaves huge gaps for decarbonising restaurants.

“We will need every business and home in Cumbria to get on board with the net zero ambitions,” said Jonathan Kaye of Cedar Manor in Windermere, one of Cumbria’s leading eco-hotels, which already holds Green Tourism gold accreditation. “It’s taken us more than 12 years to get to where we are, and we are nowhere near carbon neutral,” he said.

“The plans are not too ambitious, they are essential, but it will take time and money to get there, and there is no point starting in 2035. Let’s be totally honest – we need to get on with this now.”

Ministers are increasingly concerned about the pace of the coronavirus vaccine rollout after a reduction in the supply of Pfizer-Biontech jabs.

Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor | Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor www.thetimes.co.uk

The number of people receiving their first dose on Monday fell for the third day in a row to 204,076 from a high of 324,000 on Friday.

Pfizer said supplies of vaccine would be lower this month and next as it was upgrading its factory in Belgium before increasing production in March.

A government source said that the supply had become “very constrained” with ministers concerned about meeting the target to vaccinate 15 million people in the four most vulnerable groups by mid-February. “It’s going to be very, very tight,” the source said.

In an attempt to scale up the rollout dozens of pharmacies will start offering coronavirus jabs this week in blackspots where large numbers of over-80s are unvaccinated. The pharmacies will step in where GPs have been reluctant to set up vaccination centres.

One government source said they were still “confident” about hitting the February 15 target, but that the delay in the supply of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine made it more challenging.

There are also concerns about the rollout of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine. Ministers had expected to receive two million doses a week this month, but Astrazeneca suggested that it may not hit that target until mid-February.

Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine and 100 million of the Oxford one. Ministers had hoped to distribute more than a million this week.

However, last Friday Pfizer said that it was reducing deliveries for the next three to four weeks while it made improvements to its factory in Puurs, Belgium. It said that although the move would lead to a “significant increase” in doses available in late February and March, it would “temporarily impact” shipments this month and in early February.

Pfizer said that it understood the change “has the potential to create uncertainty”. It was committed to delivering the same number of doses between January and March but said they would be “phased differently”.

London and the east of England have been lagging behind in the early stages of vaccination but officials are confident they will catch up within weeks.

At present only seven pharmacies in England have been authorised to carry out jabs. That number will rise by 63 next week and 130 the following week.

Although the government is on track to reach all care homes by next week and all over-80s shortly afterwards, concern is growing over the reluctance of some healthcare staff to accept the vaccine and plans are being made for a new push to counter misinformation.

In some parts of the country all over-80s have been vaccinated and the over-70s are being offered appointments, along with the clinically vulnerable. In other areas fewer than half of octogenarians have been reached.

London and the east of England have been slowest, with only 388,437 and 393,916 first doses administered respectively, compared with 713,602 in the Midlands.

The prime minister’s spokesman insisted yesterday that “all areas have had equal access to supply” but promised that more jabs would go to areas falling behind. “We will ensure that we provide more supply and support to those areas that have more to do,” he said…..

From today’s Western Morning News:

A grim milestone in the coronavirus statistics has been reached in the Westcountry, with confirmation that more than 1,000 people in Devon and Cornwall have died with the disease.

The fully collated list of figures up to January 16 shows the total number of deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate was 1,009 for Devon and Cornwall combined.

In all, 600 died in hospitals, 329 in care homes, 73 at home, one in a hospice, three in a communal establishment and three ‘elsewhere’.

The new report by the right-of-centre think tank Onward, produced for the levelling-up taskforce of Conservative MPs, argues that a faster impact can be produced through the tax system, by targeting levies that impose a disproportionate burden on poorer parts of the country.

The paper argues that the Treasury should publish regional distributional analysis at every Budget and Spending Review so that policymakers can systematically examine the regional impacts of different tax changes and to ensure that the levelling up agenda is not held back by the tax system.

www.ukonward.com

The analysis reveals that many taxes are regionally regressive, in that they are borne disproportionately by the less affluent regions. These include taxes such as council tax, some green levies, tobacco and alcohol duty, and VAT. In particular:

• Average council tax per head in London is the lowest in England (£481), despite house prices being much higher in the capital than elsewhere. Per capita council taxes in London are a fifth lower than in much poorer regions such as the East of England (£593) and South West (£620). Council tax as a share of disposable income (GDHI) in London (1.64%) is the lowest in the UK, and just over half that of Yorkshire and the Humber (3.06%) and the North East (2.91%). 
• Fuel and environmental duties are skewed towards poorer regions because of different transport patterns and more industrial economies in poorer areas. As a share of post-tax income, fuel duty is four times higher in Yorkshire and the Humber (2.72%) and Northern Ireland (2.68%) than it is London (0.68%), which has more public transport, more cycling and more electric vehicles. 
• As a share of GDP, environmental levies on business are between a third and half lower in London (0.48%) than in more industrialised places like Scotland (0.99%) and the East Midlands (0.79%).
• Excise duties weigh most heavily on the poorest regions. Per head the average person in Northern Ireland pays £469 a year in tobacco and alcohol duties combined, while in London it is just £210. Demographic trends have also meant that the capital’s tobacco and alcohol duty contributions combined have fallen by 16%, the fastest fall of any region.

The report also models different tax changes to understand which regions would benefit most from different approaches. The analysis finds that:

• Reforming council tax could disproportionately benefit poorer regions. Cutting Band A council tax, from 6/9 of Band D to 5/9, for example, would save 54% of households in the North East an average of £147 a year, compared to a saving of £125 for just 4% of households in London. By contrast, increasing Bands F-H would increase tax for 15% of households in London and the South East but just 3% in the North East. 
• Increasing capital allowances, particularly those for plant and machinery or industrial buildings, would likely generate larger gains for the midlands, the north and Wales. Businesses in places like Warwickshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands, Teesside, East Yorkshire, Northern Lincolnshire and Cumbria, invest the most in such things as a share of their local economy, and would be likely to see larger gains from increasing such tax allowances.
• Removing the tax advantages for self employed people would disproportionately be borne in more prosperous regions, resulting in a £3,452 tax increase per self-employee worker in London compared to a UK average of £2,344 and just £1,565 per self-employed worker in the North East and Wales. 
• In cash terms a £1,000 increase in the income tax personal allowance would see the largest gains per capita in London.  But as a share of income the gains would be larger in lower income regions. For Londoners this amounts to a 0.35% boost to income, compared to 0.52% in the North East, the East Midlands and Wales. 

The paper argues that the Treasury should publish regional distributional analysis at every Budget and Spending Review so that policymakers can systematically examine the regional impacts of different tax changes and to ensure that the levelling up agenda is not held back by the tax system.

A statue to Mary Anning, a fossil hunter and palaeontologist once “lost to history” but now considered a significant female force in science, is finally to be erected after a crowdfunding campaign by a teenage girl.

Caroline Davies www.theguardian.com 

Evie Swire, 13, was nine years old when she first heard of Anning, who was born into a humble family in 1799 near Evie’s Lyme Regis home in Dorset. The schoolgirl was outraged to discover there was no statue.

Now, despite setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic, Evie’s campaign has raised £70,000 – enough to commission the statue. It is hoped it can be unveiled in Lyme Regis in May 2022 on the anniversary of Anning’s birthday.

Anning grew up hunting for fossils in the nearby cliffs to sell to supplement her family’s meagre income. She was responsible for many pioneering finds, including one of the first ichthyosaurus skeletons, and became immensely knowledgable in the then emerging field of palaeontology.

But her finds were often credited to the male collectors to whom she sold her fossils. Her disappointment and frustration was evident in one surviving letter in which she wrote: “The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone.” She died aged 47.

Evie launched the “Mary Anning Rocks” campaign with her mother, Anya Pearson. Its patrons include Sir David Attenborough, the academic and broadcaster Prof Alice Roberts and the novelist Tracy Chevalier. The actor Kate Winslet, who stars in Ammonite, a film about Anning, has also pledged support.

The sculptor Denise Dutton, whose recent works have included the Land Girls monument at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and the suffragette Annie Kenney in Oldham, has been commissioned.

Drawing inspiration from designs submitted by local schoolchildren in Lyme Regis, she has produced preliminary sketches that show Anning striding with her dog, Tray.

“I think it looks really good. It just looks like her from the one picture that we have of her,” said Evie.

Even though Anning was excluded from organisations such as the Geological Society, “it didn’t stop her. She still carried on, even when it became really hard for her,” Evie added. “She was a very important person, but she was lost in history.”

Evie’s mother said that despite the pandemic, which delayed the launch of the crowdfunder, £70,000 of the £100,000 target had been raised, enough to go ahead with the statue. The remaining £30,000, which they will continue to fundraise for, is to cover installation and legal costs.

The statue would be placed somewhere along the town’s sea defence wall, “so she will be looking out towards Black Ven where she did all her fossil hunting”, Pearson said.

“She’s been created so she’s interactive, so there’s no pedestal or podium. She’s on the floor with everyone, so people can put fossils in her basket. Lots of children leave fossils at her grave. So the idea is we put her out on the walk down to the fossil beach and children will start putting fossils into her little basket.”

The campaign has 30,000 followers across social media. “We call them the Anning army, and it really does feel like an army of people who are all equally up in arms that this absolutely incredible woman – working-class, self-educated – has been woefully forgotten,” said Pearson.

Anning is now part of the national curriculum and many children have donated Christmas and pocket money, she added.

Dutton said Anning was “absolutely fascinating” as a subject. Only one painting of her exists, where she is in her Sunday best.

“She was never credited for her discoveries. She sold specimens to male scientists who claimed credit,” said Dutton. She is meticulously researching what Anning would have worn to go fossil hunting and is taking advice from the V&A Museum in London.

What does she want the statue to convey? “Determination, because among everything else, the determination that she had to carry on, to go out – and she went out at the end of storms when it was very dangerous – so there must have been a pig-headedness about her to do that. So, that excitement and that determination,” said Dutton.

“a government that is shelling out billions on rapid tests while still quibbling over financial support for people on universal credit is not a great look”

Paul Waugh www.huffingtonpost.co.uk [extract]

Given the lack of evidence so far about the impact of vaccination on transmission of the virus, it’s notable that mass testing is still a key weapon (alongside lockdown itself) in curbing the spread. In a long evidence session before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, the whole issue of testing came up repeatedly and we got at least a few new facts.

Dido Harding sounded more bullish than she has for a long time, pointing out that Test and Trace coped well with the Christmas surge in cases with capacity to spare, saying its national structure meant it was able to handle the new cases in a way local teams simply couldn’t on their own. Still, the turnaround times for PCR labs are well off the PM’s own 100% target (set for last June) for in-person test results to be received within 24 hours.

Harding was pretty cautious about when schools could reopen, stating only that the pilots for rapid, daily testing that had been running since the autumn had to be updated to cope with the new variant of Covid. But asymptomatic, rapid testing is Test and Trace’s biggest new challenge, with more than 100 companies (she revealed the list now includes John Lewis as well as food manufacturers like Moy Park) trialling schemes where staff who test negative can come into work.

What struck me most was the sheer scale, in numbers and cost, of the mass testing programme planned. “Hundreds of millions” of lateral flow tests have been ordered, Harding said, and DHSC expects to spend a whopping £15bn in just four months on testing. MPs were told that 90% of the massive £22bn budget would go on testing, not tracing. And the bulk of the new tests would be lateral flow tests, because PCR capacity. Moreover, 30 of 207 new contracts awarded since November had been done without competitive tender, and most were for mass testing.

Perhaps the most eye-catching revelation of the session came when DHSC second permanent secretary David Williams revealed almost casually that 900 staff from consultants Deloitte are working for Test and Trace, at an average cost of £1,000 a day. That’s nearly a cool one million quid every day being paid out to a private consultancy. Just why NHS staff or civil servants can’t now provide that service remains a mystery to several MPs, including committee chair Meg Hillier.

I’d be surprised if the £900k-a day-to-Deloitte-alone cost is not raised by Keir Starmer in PMQs this week, given his own emphasis on government failures to give taxpayers value for money in the pandemic. This fits with Anneliese Dodds’ wider pledge last week that the NAO would do an annual audit of a Labour government’s spending (perhaps to reassure the public about her more radical fiscal rule suggestions of only balancing the books over a 20 year period but that’s another story).

Rapid testing may prove a more valuable tool than some government critics assume (I’m writing more about this later this week). Yet a government that is shelling out billions on rapid tests while still quibbling over financial support for people on universal credit is not a great look.‌….

Comment from a correspondent upgraded to a post:

Dear Owl,

I, too, watched Spotlight on the BBC last night and was shocked to hear the reporter say that only 2/3rds of the over 80s of the 10 practises which use the Exmouth Vaccination Centre at the Tennis Club have been vaccinated. This centre has been open since before Christmas so, with very little mathematical skill, it can easily be worked out that the centre will have to dramatically increase its output to vaccinate the approximate 3,000 left in this priority group by the February 15th deadline. And of course there are quite a few over 70s in the area which Boris has promised will be included by that date.

Perhaps the Director of the centre is hoping that the over 80s in Budleigh Salterton that have received letters inviting them to attend Taunton Racecourse will take this kind offer up. This Taunton hub was set up for the people who live within 45 minutes of the hub (mostly in Somerset). If we in BS took up this offer there would be a lot of flashing police blue lights on the A303 as the over 80s tried to complete this journey in 45 minutes. And, remember, they would have to do so again for the follow-up jab. That could be four journeys for an elderly couple.

Why have Devon and Cornwall missed out on a hub?

Kind Regards

A Budleigh Resident

PS There is a new activity in the town – what is the method for choosing those who have already had the vaccine which seems haphazard? Not age, not alphabetical order, not existing conditions, not post codes. Perhaps Doctor’s lists? But I prefer “your mother’s maiden name.”

[Owl understands that patients must take the second vaccination from the same place as the first]

Covid jabs diverted to over-80s in vaccination blackspots

www.thetimes.co.uk 

Coronavirus jabs will be diverted to areas falling behind on vaccinating the over-80s amid concerns about regional disparities in the programme.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said that stocks would be prioritised for areas with a large number of unprotected over-80s, despite a promise yesterday to let GPs begin vaccinating younger patients…..

Yesterday it was:

“Full speed ahead with vaccination of over-70s”

Followed by:

“Don’t forget last of the over-80s in vaccine queue, says minister“

The first phase of the UK’s Covid vaccination programme is under way, with priority groups including health workers and vulnerable groups. But debate continues over who will get first access to the vaccine among the rest of the population.

Nicola Davis www.theguardian.com looks at the options.

Black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities

According to data from the Office for National Statistics for deaths between 2 March to 28 July 2020 in England and Wales, males of black African ethnic background had a death rate 2.7 times higher than those of white ethnic background, while among women the death rate was almost twice as high for black Caribbean females as white.

“All ethnic minority groups other than Chinese had a higher rate than the white ethnic population for both males and females,” the report says.

Dr Mohammad Razai, the lead author of a study on the issue from St George’s, University of London, said people from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to have poor outcomes if exposed to coronavirus.

“Therefore, any meaningful risk assessments should take ethnicity into account in combination with these other factors, and where it has been assessed that their risk is high, ethnic minority groups should be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccination,” he said.

Teachers

Data from the ONS, covering 2 September and 16 October 2020, found no evidence of a difference in the rates of positive coronavirus cases between teachers and other key workers in England, such as those in healthcare. The data also showed no evidence of any difference compared with other professionals overall.

But Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said teachers should be prioritised to make sure schools can stay open without disruption.

“Teachers and education staff are unable to practise social distancing from their pupils and few are provided with essential PPE,” he said. “Many schools are continuing to operate through the lockdown with very high numbers of children and young people on site and alternative, special and nursery provision continues to operate as normal.”

Police

Police leaders say forces need to have priority access to Covid vaccines to keep officers safe as they deal with members of the public, and prevent the service from being hampered by staff sickness.

“My colleagues are at the frontlines of this pandemic, risking infection from this vile and deadly disease every day to keep the public safe. We have a growing number of officers who are off sick after catching the virus or who are off self-isolating – this creates a serious concern over policing maintaining resilience,” said John Apter, the national chair of the Police Federation.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council has also raised the need for officers to be vaccinated.

Retail staff

ONS figures for England and Wales between 9 March and 25 May 2020 reveal that for both men and women, sales and retail assistant roles were among the occupations that had increased rates of Covid deaths compared with the general population.

Paddy Lillis, the general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw), said close proximity to the public as well as the indoor working environment were among the factors behind this.

“Retail workers, including grocery delivery drivers, have played a key role in ensuring the country is able to get through the current crisis. These critical workers have played a vital role in our communities ensuring that food remains on the shelves,” he said.

“Given the risks involved in their public-facing roles, retail workers should be one of the groups prioritised [for vaccination].”

He said Usdaw also wanted to see other key workers in settings such as food manufacturing and pharmaceutical distribution prioritised for vaccination.

People with learning disabilities

Jackie O’Sullivan, the executive director of communication, advocacy and activism at the learning disability charity Mencap, is among those calling for people with learning disabilities to be prioritised for vaccination.

“Those with a severe or profound learning disability are in group six [on the priority list for the first phase of the vaccination programme], but people with a more mild or moderate learning disability are not being prioritised at all – yet we’ve seen no evidence that they are at any less risk of dying from Covid,” she said.

“Prioritising the vaccine for all people with a learning disability would mean that doctors can roll it out without having to make time-consuming distinctions between the types and severity of disability.”

Dimensions, a not-for-profit organisation providing support to people with learning disabilities and autism, said people with learning difficulties had a Covid death rate more than four times higher than the general population.

“The increased mortality can most likely be attributed not only to clinical issues associated with having a learning disability, but also barriers and systemic inequalities experienced by people in health services,” said Steve Scown, the chief executive of Dimensions.

Transport workers

According to ONS figures from the first wave in England and Wales, bus, coach, van and taxi drivers had an increased risk of Covid-related death among men, while Transport for London has said that by 11 January, 57 of its staff had died from the disease.

“From getting key workers to hospitals and moving vital supplies around the country, our transport key workers have kept the country moving through the pandemic. Many have lost their lives to the virus, but they bravely continue to serve during this time of crisis,” said Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA).

Politicians

In the US, members of Congress are at the front of the queue for the vaccine, even getting the jab before many doctors and other health workers. Some have argued that vaccinating politicians builds trust among the public.

“We should do MPs and core house staff as well so we can get our democracy back,” the Conservative backbencher Steve Brine told the Telegraph last week. “Parliament is a shadow, at best, of itself and it’s never been more important we can ask questions. Good policy comes through scrutiny, in my experience.”

Asked whether MPs should be among professions prioritised in the next phase of vaccinations, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said this would be a matter for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

“JCVI are looking at what phase 2 should look like, and whether certain professions that are at higher risk of exposure should be prioritised.”

However, the JCVI has previously said it will not advise on which occupations will be prioritised for the next wave of vaccinations.

During Monday the way this story has been reported in the Times changed significantly.

It started under the headline “Full speed ahead with vaccination of over-70s”, by evening the bullish tone of this article had changed to the more reflective:

“Don’t forget last of the over-80s in vaccine queue, says minister“

Owl had spent the day collecting anecdotal accounts from over 80s some who have been vaccinated and quite a few who haven’t been contacted yet.

At the beginning of January Owl posted the following estimates of the numbers eligible for vaccination in the most vulnerable groups in East Devon:

17,322 care home staff and residents, frontline healthcare workers and over-80s.

6,780 over-75s

11,738 over-70s and clinically vulnerable

Last night on BBC Spotlight the Clinical Director of the Woodbury, Exmouth and Budleigh (WEB) Primary Care Network, which covers 10 GP practices spoke. The reporter indicated that so far around two thirds of the 9,000 over 80s had been vaccinated. So there is still a queue to get through before moving to the next group, reflecting the high proportion of the elderly in East Devon.

Axminster’s over 80s, however, should be vaccinated by the weekend according to Axminster Nub news.

Owl’s take on the change in tone in the National Press is that this is another example of mixed messages coming from the government, tarnishing what is fundamentally a good news story.

Is Boris the culprit?

www.thetimes.co.uk “Don’t forget last of the over-80s in vaccine queue, says minister“

Four million people have now been vaccinated against Covid amid confusion over which areas will begin immunising over-70s.

A cabinet minister has complained that unvaccinated over-80s will be left distressed and annoyed as younger people are called for jabs, as Boris Johnson defended starting on over-70s while hundreds of thousands of older people remain unprotected.

GPs who have already vaccinated their older patients will now be allowed to move on to over-70s, but many are complaining that their vaccine supplies are being diverted elsewhere.

It remains unclear whether areas that still have large numbers of over-80s to reach should start on younger patients. Officials said it would be a clinical judgment, with no precise threshold set for how many over-80s need to be vaccinated before jabs can go to younger people.

Along with over-80s and care home residents, NHS and care staff are part of an initial priority group covering 6.7 million people. Another 5.6 million people in their seventies and the clinically extremely vulnerable became eligible from today.

During a visit to Oxfordshire, the prime minister said: “We’re getting it out as fast as we can, four million done so far, I think we’ve done more than half of the over-80s, half of the people in care homes, the elderly residents of care homes.

“Those groups remain our top priority, they’re an absolute priority for us, but it’s right as more vaccine comes on stream to get it into the arms of the other groups on the JCVI [joint committee on vaccination and imminisation] list.”

Mr Johnson said that “the pace of the rollout is very encouraging” but played down prospects of easing restrictions while the NHS is still under huge pressure.

“You can’t just open up in a great open sesame a great bang because I’m afraid the situation is still pretty precarious, as people can tell,” he said.

Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minster, insisted that only areas that have vaccinated the majority of over-80s should be offering jabs to younger people. However, the government did not say how many areas have vaccinated more than half of over-80s.

Speaking on LBC Radio, Mr Zahawi told over-80s who had not yet been vaccinated: “Don’t worry, we’re only really doing the over-70s in areas where they’ve reached the majority of the over-80s. So you will get a call, you will get a letter and you will be offered that vaccine and you will be protected by mid-February.”

Mr Zahawi praised areas such as Cockermouth in Cumbria, Yateley in Hampshire and parts of the Cotswolds which have vaccinated more than 90 per cent of their over-80s.

GP centres which started in the first wave in mid-December and have local venues more suitable for mass vaccination have found it easier to move faster, and rural areas doing well say that enthusiastic staff and volunteers have also proved invaluable. Some such areas started over-70s last week, but have complained that their vaccines supply has been diverted to areas that have moved more slowly.

Each GP centre has been managing the process in its own way and Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, raised concerns about allocation in her Suffolk Coastal constituency this morning.

“Something is not quite working right yet though, particularly in one part of the constituency, as I am hearing from people in part of the area that 80+ and 90+ year olds have not been contacted while some 70+ patients in the same GP practice were invited for vaccination,” she wrote on Facebook.

“I know it is both distressing and annoying when people hear that other cohorts of a lower priority (according to the JCVI) are being vaccinated ahead of our oldest and most vulnerable.”

She later said on Twitter that she had since been assured that letters and messages would go out today to all over-80s in the area who have not been contacted.

Asked about her comments, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said: “we continue to make the vaccines available and distributed equally across England and the UK. That will remain the case. But in some areas where they have already vaccinated the majority of those four high-risk groups, we want to ensure we maintain momentum and continue to rollout the vaccine to more and more people who are at higher clinical risk — that’s why we sent out the letter to the over-70s.”

He said that “depending on where they are, the timing will be slightly different but the important point is that this allows areas that have already vaccinated a majority of those over 80, care home residents, frontline NHS and care home staff to keep the momentum up and to start giving it to further-at-risk people.”………

Police and council officers will be working together and stepping up enforcement action in a crackdown on those breaching Coronavirus regulations in North Devon.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

The police will accompany council officers on inspections of holiday homes and extra council staff are being diverted into North Devon Council’s Covid enforcement team.

The council is also working closely with the Health and Safety Executive’s Spot Check initiative and 340 local businesses have already been approached to check they are Covid-secure.

While North Devon has the second lowest infection rate in England – only Torridge is lower – the two agencies will be taking action to protect the community from anyone breaching the rules.

Their four strand approach involves acting on reports of breaches of regulations and virus outbreaks, using intelligence to identify potential breaches such as the advertising of holiday lets, inspections of high risk places such as supermarkets, offices and showrooms and checks on temporary accommodation to ensure vulnerable people are being accommodated safely

Cllr David Worden, leader of North Devon Council, said: “The vast majority of local people are abiding by the rules but there are still a minority who are posing a huge risk to others by not taking the measures that are needed to prevent the spread of this killer virus.

“We only ever carry out enforcement as a last resort but some people have left us with no choice so now is the time to step up our efforts to protect the rest of the community.”

Local Policing Area Commander for North and West Devon, Superintendent Toby Davies added: “We will continue to work closely with our council colleagues in maintaining the safety of our communities.

“We recognise this has been an incredibly challenging time for everyone and the community response in helping to stop the spread of this cruel virus is hugely appreciated. Whilst most adhere to the rules, disappointingly we continue to see a minority who blatantly disregard the rules, and risk further spread of the virus.

“We have invested a considerable amount of time and energy helping to engage, explain and educate – and people have had plenty of time to fully understand the rules. As such, those who continue to blatantly breach the rules, do so knowingly, and can expect robust formal action.

“This partnership response sends out a strong message, that the police and the council will work together and not tolerate people who risk spreading this virus. Please stay at home and stay safe.”

Any families in Devon getting “not acceptable” free school meals are being urged to contact councillors with the evidence so the situation can be addressed.

Francesca Evans seaton.nub.news 

Devon County Council’s Cabinet heard that there was at least one school in Devon where food parcels that had been provided to parents were well short of the standards expected.

And they slammed the government’s “Victorian era” style solution of providing food parcels during lockdown rather than the voucher system that they provided during the school holidays.

Social media on Tuesday was flooded with images of “woefully inadequate” packages received by parents in place of the free school lunches that their children would usually receive at school.

Cllr Alan Connett, who represents the Exminster and Haldon ward, said that he had made aware that one school in his area had provided food parcels that were “ridiculous”.

He said: “Some of the food boxes are brilliant, but others were ridiculous and I can understand why parents were upset, so there is some variance in Devon.”

Cllr Rob Hannaford added: “As we have now found out there are problems in Devon, so I would urge any local families that are receiving inadequate and unacceptable food parcel, to please contact their local county councillors directly with the evidence to make sure that we are all aware where the problems are occurring to help action improvements.”

Cllr Roger Croad, Cabinet member for community, said that he totally agreed with the concerns over the food parcels and that he was much more in favour of the voucher scheme as an alternative.

He said: “We should make some strong representation to the efficacy of food parcels in this day at age. It smacks of a Victorian era and should be overcome and that is down to the government led one size fits all solution.

“The vouchers over Christmas went down well and the government needs to be aware of the dissatisfaction.”

More than 15,000 children across Devon received food vouchers this Christmas as part of a £1million programme by the county council to combat holiday hunger.

But while Devon County Council were responsible for issuing the vouchers over the holiday period, during term time, the funding from government goes directly to the schools.

Dawn Stabb, the council’s head of education, added: “Schools are told to use food parcels if they can. The majority of pictures seen were national but we have been made aware of one school in Devon where the food parcel was not acceptable and we will follow that up with the school.

“The council doesn’t commission any provision during term time for food parcels and it is all done through the school, but we have made the voucher system available for schools to buy into if they wish. Some schools are doing vouchers, some blended, and some food parcels, but I don’t have the figures at this time.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson subsequently told the Education Select Committee on Wednesday that he was “absolutely disgusted” by the photos of the food parcel’s contents, and that his department had made it clear “this sort of behaviour is just not right [and] will not be tolerated”.

He said the government would “support any school that needs to take action” and “name and shame those that are not delivering against the standards” set by the Department for Education and that schools will be able to offer vouchers rather than food parcels from next week.

Conservative Anne Marie Morris, MP for Newton Abbot, voted for this motion, the remaining local Tory MPs abstained as instructed.

www.independent.co.uk

Boris Johnson is facing rising pressure not to remove support for millions of families in the middle of the pandemic as some of his own MPs backed a Labour motion demanding the government abandons a cut in universal credit.

It comes amid a major row over whether to extend the £20-per-week increase in benefits that is due to expire at the end of March. The £6bn measure was introduced at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis to alleviate pressures on low-paid families.

In the absence of a guarantee the support will be extended in the spring, the Commons voted in 278-0 in favour of the non-binding motion on Monday evening, urging the government to maintain the payments as the country suffers the economic fallout from Covid-19.

It passed after the prime minister – bruised by a previous row over a similar motion on free school meals – instructed Conservative MPs to abstain on the issue to avoid the prospect of a potentially damaging defeat on the issue.

Despite ministers describing the Labour motion as a “political stunt”, six Conservatives voted with the opposition including Stephen Crabb, the former work and pensions secretary, Robert Halfon, the chair of the Commons Education Committee, and backbench MPs Peter Aldous, Jason McCartney, Anne Marie Morris and Matthew Offord.

During the debate Mr Crabb urged the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to increase the uplift for another 12 months and provide certainty to low-paid families.

He told MPs: “The question for us right now is whether at the end of March this year, just 10 weeks away, it’s the right time to begin unwinding this support – specifically to remove the extra support for universal credit claimants – and I don’t believe it is the right moment.”

Conservative MP Simon Fell echoed Mr Crabb’s comments, saying “now is not the time” to cut the benefit, adding: “This uplift was brought in to help people through the extreme challenges of the pandemic and those challenges haven’t passed. Indeed, as furlough ends we may be entering even more challenging times.”

However, alongside several Tories, he argued it was “absolutely right” that decisions are taken at the Budget in March by Mr Sunak rather than through Labour’s Opposition Day motion. Reports have also suggested the chancellor is mulling a one-off £500 payment to claimants to avoid the uplift in payments becoming permanent.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Johnson repeatedly declined to state whether or not the increase will be extended when questioned during a visit to Oxfordshire.

“What we have said is we will put our arms around the whole of the country throughout the pandemic,” he told reporters. “We have already done £280bn worth of support and we will keep all measures under constant review.”

Sir Keir Starmer called Mr Johnson “pathetic” for telling Tories not to vote on the motion and said that “in their heart of hearts”, Conservative MPs would back Labour’s move.

After the vote, shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds added: “It is disappointing that the Conservative government refused to vote with Labour to provide families with certainty and secure our economy. They can still do the right thing and drop their plans to cut universal credit.

“Britain is facing the worst recession of any major economy because of the government’s incompetence and indecision. Families cannot be made to pay the price.”

Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The pandemic and its economic fallout are far from over and families are looking to the government to provide some security of income and some certainty so that they can plan for the future.”

“In dodging a decision on the universal credit uplift the government today failed to provide that security and certainty.

“The £20 uplift has acted as a stabiliser for millions of families forced on to universal credit by coronavirus. If it is not retained and extended to all legacy benefit claimants, struggle will turn to real hardship for many more families – at the bleakest point – and more children will show up in the poverty statistics.”

A report published by the Resolution Foundation also warned on Monday that Britain’s poorest households would be pushed further into poverty if the government cut the increase, worth £1,040 a year, with millions facing the sharpest drop in living standards in a generation in 2021.

The think-tank estimated that withdrawal of the benefit increase this spring would drive up relative poverty from 21 to 23 per cent by 2024-25, pushing a further 730,000 children into poverty.

“Deciding if the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit should be extended will determine whether millions of households are able to enjoy any sort of living standards recovery next year,” said the Resolution Foundation’s senior economist Karl Handscomb.

“And looking further ahead, the decision on whether to keep the UC boost will help define whether this is to be a parliament of ‘levelling up’ living standards, or pushing up poverty.”

• Construction of single and two storey extension, balcony, new porch, and introduction of two new first floor windows Minson Hill Cottage Upottery Honiton EX14 9QYRef. No: 21/0053/FUL | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Agricultural storage building Grovelands Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9BQRef. No: 21/0050/AGR | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey side/rear extensions 34 Peaslands Road Sidmouth EX10 9BERef. No: 21/0054/FUL | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of single storey two classroom modular building and associated site works.St Marys Rc Primary School Lyme Road Axminster EX13 5BERef. No: 21/0038/CM | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Beech trees between the woodland and neighbours garden – Tree tag 3435 with multiple stems and an adjacent beech tree which is untagged, we are applying to remove the remaining 3 stems and an adjacent beech tree. In tagged tree 3435 Ganoderma decay fungi bracket on stem base path side. Indicates white rot decay of basal heartwood. No pronounced hollow resonance. No visible stem bleeds. Crown vitality is good. Crowns are balanced. Untagged tree has Kretschmaria deusta decay fungi fruiting bodies in base which causes a brittle fracture of stem wood. No hollow resonance in lower stem, crown vitality is good. Crown weighted along boundary line. All stems recommended to remove due to the poor condition of the trees and the location near houses. No replanting is required as the trees will coppice. See attached tree safety survey. Broad Oak Plantation Higher Broad Oak Road West HillRef. No: 21/0046/TRE | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey side/front extension. 11 Pine Park Road Honiton EX14 2HZRef. No: 21/0029/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey extension to the rear (south east) of existing dwelling to accommodate an indoor swimming pool Crabhayne Farm Axmouth Seaton EX12 4BWRef. No: 21/0032/LBC | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T6 Sycamore coppice sycamore to prevent destabilisation of bank due to windthrow of upper canopy and situation of base on bank above stream. 17/0035/TPO Longbridge Boughmore Road Sidmouth EX10 8SHRef. No: 21/0034/TRE | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 English Oak works required through prune oak to protect BT cable giving cable approximately 3ft clearance channel. Also remove lowest limb that trails along top of roadside hedge to facilitate the hedge to fill out and prevent the need in future to remove what will become a large limb and a massive issue requiring a large pruning wound if left. Remove all deadwood throughout canopy. T2 Beech remove secondary smaller co-dominant stem to allow space for large mature stem and oak to develop. This will aid to prevent future issues with the smaller beech fighting for dominance with the other two trees potentially causing damage to either tree. Therefore the removal of this stem will protect the two more established trees from potential future damage. T3 Maple remove lowest limbs 4 limbs total to raise canopy and improve canopy shape as canopy is currently low to ground and causes issues during standard regular garden maintenance. T4 silver birch remove silver birch due to poor choice of tree for location and replace with multi-stem snow queen silver birch as it will be more appropriate for situation. T5 blue atlas cedar reduce by 4 to 6 ft in height and reduce sides to rebalance canopy due to currently imbalanced growth pattern. This will allow us to re-establish a balanced canopy structure enabling the tree to develop a more uniform canopy shape. Longbridge Boughmore Road Sidmouth EX10 8SHRef. No: 21/0037/TCA | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 lime: This historically pollarded lime requires a 20% thin to reduce sail effect on the tree due to weak previous pollard points which increase the risk of failure causing potential damage to property. Tree also requires a crown lift to 6m to prevent potential damage to vehicles accessing the property. During the works a full climbing inspection will be undertaken and any areas of the tree requiring cobra bracing will be braced accordingly to prevent union failure. Tredarren Boughmore Road Sidmouth EX10 8SHRef. No: 21/0033/TCA | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed first floor extension to rear dormer (revised scheme to 20/1979/FUL). 17 Bapton Lane Exmouth EX8 3JSRef. No: 21/0028/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey extension to the rear (south east) of existing dwelling to accommodate an indoor swimming pool Crabhayne Farm Axmouth Seaton EX12 4BWRef. No: 21/0031/FUL | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of rear extension with balcony, and detached garage/store Chandlers Hall Shute Axminster EX13 7QJRef. No: 21/0024/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of agricultural land to secure dog walking/exercising area Land West Of Salcombe Regis Recreational Field Salcombe Hill SidmouthRef. No: 21/0017/COU | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension and loft conversion ( incl dormers on front and rear elevations) 4 Gipsy Lane Exmouth EX8 3HWRef. No: 20/2908/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of two storey rear extension, new dormer window, new porch and associated platform, new carport to the front and landscaping. 33 Douglas Avenue Exmouth EX8 2HERef. No: 20/2902/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition 2 (approved plans) of planning permission 20/0262/FUL (extensions to restaurant) to increase the height of the approved WC and kitchen prep extensions and change flat roof of porch to a pitched roof Saddlers Arms Exmouth Road Lympstone Exmouth EX8 5LSRef. No: 20/2909/VAR | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Sophora Tetraptera : Removal (felling) of tree because of root disturbance and excessive growth; seedling of original tree already prepared for planting in a more suitable position The Garden Flat 3 Trefusis Terrace Exmouth EX8 2AXRef. No: 21/0012/TCA | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing pitched roof timber garden shed and dilapidated fencing. Replacement of shed with brick built pitched roof shed and new 1 brick thick rear garden wall to replace timber fencing. 26 Bicton Street Exmouth EX8 2RURef. No: 20/2903/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of garden building, replacement conservatory roof and provision of cladding Penyland Wilmington Honiton EX14 9JXRef. No: 21/0015/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Construction of single storey extension projecting 4 metres beyond original rear wall, measuring 2.8m to eaves and 2.8m in total height. 8 Taleford Villas Taleford Ottery St Mary EX11 1NBRef. No: 21/0006/GPD | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey outbuilding Ashley Exton Exeter EX3 0PPRef. No: 20/2906/FUL | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey rear/side extensions, rear dormer window including balcony, alterations to roof, change of external materials and patio. 1 Orchard Close Colyford Colyton EX24 6QHRef. No: 21/0007/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of existing outbuilding to provide ancillary residential accommodation. Lexhayne Mill Farm Shute Axminster EX13 7PPRef. No: 21/0010/FUL | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of garage and workshop with accommodation above to replace existing double garage, including link to house. Hawkern Ladram Road Otterton Budleigh Salterton EX9 7HTRef. No: 21/0008/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Extension to nursing home to provide 15 no. additional bedrooms in accordance with planning permission 17/2021/FUL (application for a certificate of lawfulness of proposed development) Amberwood Nursing Home 231 Exeter Road Exmouth EX8 3EDRef. No: 20/2912/CPL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of agricultural land to equestrian and construction of a menage Grange Farm Newton Poppleford Sidmouth EX10 0BYRef. No: 20/2901/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of side extensions 40 Bedlands Lane Budleigh Salterton EX9 6QNRef. No: 20/2897/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey side and rear extensions 13 West Close Axminster EX13 5PERef. No: 20/2900/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Extensions and alterations to bungalow, to create two storey dwelling with car port 28 Hulham Road Exmouth EX8 3HSRef. No: 20/2894/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Erection of a storage and workshop building, and an office building to facilitate the change of use of the land to commercial. Land North Of East Strete Farm Strete Ralegh WhimpleRef. No: 20/2896/FUL | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Raise roof height to provide additional first floor accommodation; reconfigure front entrance porch; increase size of the existing external staircase landing and terrace area. 2 Bramble Close Budleigh Salterton EX9 6JSRef. No: 20/2893/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey lean to side extension 3 Little Old Park Cottages Woodbury Lane Axminster EX13 5TLRef. No: 20/2886/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition 3 of planning approval 16/0246/FUL (Change of use of land for the siting of shepherds hut and ancillary facilities, 2 proposed locations, for use as holiday accommodation) to allow the siting of a shepherds hut on both of the locations approved under application 16/0246/FUL Scorlinch Farm Clyst St Lawrence Cullompton EX15 2NJRef. No: 20/2864/VAR | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of buildings to provide outdoor kitchen and bike store (retrospective) and use of land for the siting of a mobile catering unit Heron Farm Weston Honiton EX14 3NZRef. No: 20/2868/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Yew T1, T2, T3, T4,T5 & T6 To reduce height by approx 2 metres and remove splayed out branches, pruning cuts should not exceed 60mm. Hawthorn T7 To dismantle. The tree has grown in /close to, the original manor foundation walls and is in danger of causing structural damage as it increases in size. A replacement will be planted in its place. Little Manor Upottery Honiton EX14 9PNRef. No: 20/2871/TRE | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• G1 – Young Sycamore group To remove suppressed and damaged trees leaving the 3 best specimens. In order to allow the 3 remaining saplings the space to grow, and go on to achieve decent form, this will also improve light into the garden improving the quality of the smaller ornamentals within. T1 – Holly (twin stemmed within hedge row) To coppice just above ground level. The tree is showing signs of distress/decline, coppicing would allow the chance of new growth to form from the coppice stool. Jacaranda Dunkeswell Honiton EX14 4RERef. No: 20/2869/TRE | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Raising of roof ridge and re-alignment of roof. Brook House Cottage 9 Batts Lane Ottery St Mary EX11 1EYRef. No: 20/2867/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of shed 14 Pencepool Orchard Plymtree Cullompton EX15 2JGRef. No: 20/2853/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 1 No. fascia sign within brick plinth. Alexander House Hawkins Road Exeter Devon EX1 3UWRef. No: 20/2848/ADV | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Construction of carport and store Bay Tree House Membury Axminster EX13 7AFRef. No: 20/2849/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective application for retention of use of land as a residential caravan site without restricting the occupation to gypsies and travellers only. Hawkwell Park Wareham Road HawkchurchRef. No: 20/2825/COU | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Remedial works to stone boundary retaining wall including some structural support and localised rebuilding and re-pointing of the wall. In addition, the repair and resurfacing of the carriageway and new post and rail fence Elford Farm Dalwood Axminster EX13 7HBRef. No: 20/2833/LBC | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of detached garage with annexe above, external steps and balcony Candys Burgmanns Hill Lympstone Exmouth EX8 5HPRef. No: 20/2818/FUL | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• New agricultural building Woodhouse Farm Branscombe Seaton EX12 3BXRef. No: 20/2816/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of part of garden to cattery, including construction of two 6 berth cattery buildings and associated works. Gledhow Whimple Exeter EX5 2PXRef. No: 20/2803/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of summer house Chiltern Rising Connaught Close Sidmouth EX10 8TURef. No: 20/2798/FUL | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of silage clamp Challenger Farm Membury Axminster EX13 7JTRef. No: 20/2791/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of silage clamp. Challenger Farm Membury Axminster EX13 7JTRef. No: 20/2793/FUL | Validated: Tue 05 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Provision of new footpath Lidl Distribution Centre Chillpark Brake Clyst Honiton Exeter Devon EX5 2FURef. No: 20/2755/FUL | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Reconstruction of former garage to provide additional living accommodation. Honeysuckle Cottage Sidmouth Road Clyst St Mary Exeter EX5 1DNRef. No: 20/2741/LBC | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Reconstruction of former garage to provide additional living accommodation. Honeysuckle Cottage Sidmouth Road Clyst St Mary Exeter EX5 1DNRef. No: 20/2740/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use and conversion of 5 no. shop units to 3 no. ground floor flats. Miltons Yard West Street AxminsterRef. No: 20/2544/FUL | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Fell 4x Ash trees due to Ash dieback Fell 1x ornamental Cypressus which has outgrown its position and shading a north facing window of the property. Hoopers Farm Chardstock Axminster EX13 7BYRef. No: 20/2553/TCA | Validated: Thu 07 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Cherry 147 x 2 : Fell. Holly x 2 : Fell. Oak 1746 : reduce as per Arb Report. Oak 1750 : Reduce as per Arb Report. Reason: Appropriate arboricultural management. A La Ronde Summer Lane Exmouth EX8 5BDRef. No: 20/2538/TRE | Validated: Fri 08 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install stairlift in 20th century wing at ground floor leading to first floor; stairlift to be attached to stair treads The Chantry Combe Raleigh Honiton EX14 4TQRef. No: 20/2539/LBC | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed 5no. new industrial units for B1, B2 & B8 use Liverton Business Park (Electricity Sub Station 2 (land To The East Of) Liverton Business Park ExmouthRef. No: 20/2493/FUL | Validated: Mon 04 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• G1 sycamore : various approved works T1 and T2 ash : previously approved felling (20/1475/TRE) T3, T4, T5 Sycamore : fell T6 : end weight reduction and dynamic cobra brace as agreed G2 and G3 Sycamore : reduce end lengths by up to 2m maximum cut diameter 50mm T7 oak : small reduction away from property via thinning G4 : Lowest limb overhanging the rondavel, reduce to the back to dominant upright growth point. All works on this site have been discussed in person by David Colman EDDC and George Taylor and will not exceed the agreed parameters Hartsholme Cotlands Sidmouth EX10 8SPRef. No: 20/2278/TRE | Validated: Wed 06 Jan 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

A further 350 people have tested positive for coronavirus across Devon, the latest figures show.

Remember that, sadly, about 20% of all Covid-19 cases in Devon in the last week have been in care homes. – Owl

Katie Timms www.devonlive.com 

Government data as of 4pm on Sunday showed the Devon local authority area recorded 180 new positive Covid-19 cases in the last 24-hour reporting period.

The area now has now had 16,116 positive cases.

Torbay saw a further 38 cases recorded, bringing its total cases from when the pandemic began, to 3,038.

Plymouth saw a further 132 cases, bringing its overall total to 7,166.

The whole county has now seen 26,365 positive cases since the pandemic began.

The data is made up of the number of people with at least one positive Covid-19 test result, either lab-reported or from a lateral flow device, by specimen date.

Those who test positive more than once are only counted once, on the date of their first positive test.

The latest cluster data as of January 17, relating to coronavirus cases in the same seven-day-period between January 6 and December 12, shows Exmouth Littleham has the highest case rate in the county.

The area of East Devon has 57 cases in the same seven-day-period, equating to a rate of 758.6 cases per 100,000 people.

We’ve taken the highest cluster case rate from each area.

Torbay’s highest case rate is Babbacombe and Plainmoor, with 32 cases and a rate of 569.4 cases per 100,000 people.

Cullompton in Mid Devon has 568.5 cases per 100,000 people, with 50 cases in the same seven-day-period.

Dartmouth in South Hams has 29 cases for the latest seven-day-period, equating to a rate of 534.4.

Plymouth’s area with the highest case rate is Ernesettle, with 32 cases and a rate of 526.5.

St Thomas West in Exeter has a rate of 508.6 per 100,000 people, with 37 recorded cases.

Newton Abbot, Highweek in Teignbridge has 31 recorded cases, with a rate of 504.1.

Westward Ho! and Northam South in Torridge has 18 recorded cases and a case rate of 282.1.

North Devon’s area with the highest case rate is Lynton and Combe Martin, with 255.3 cases per 100,000 people. It has recorded 14 cases between January 6 and January 12.

No area is cluster free, which means the area has between zero and two positive covid cases recorded in the same seven-day-period.

The cluster figures for each area can be found below.

The local authority is listed in bold, followed by the MSOA (Middle layer Super Output Area), new positive cases between January 6 and January 12 and then the rate per 100,000 people in the same seven-day-period. See www.devonlive.com  for the full listing for the remaining districts, Exeter and Plymouth.

East Devon

Axminster

15

161

Budleigh Salterton

14

225.2

Clyst, Exton & Lympstone

7

102.4

Cranbrook, Broadclyst & Stoke Canon

32

237.7

Dunkesewell, Upottery & Stockland

13

223.9

Exmouth Brixington

20

308.8

Exmouth Halsdon

19

273.9

Exmouth Littleham

57

758.6

Exmouth Town

26

352

Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh

12

161.9

Feniton & Whimple

31

353.9

Honiton North & East

24

396.8

Honiton South & West

21

381.7

Kilmington, Colyton & Uplyme

19

227.5

Ottery St Mary & West Hill

32

359.3

Poppleford, Otterton & Woodbury

5

81.3

Seaton

8

106.2

Sidbury, Offwell & Beer

6

111.2

Sidmouth Sidford

8

113.8

Sidmouth Town

3

57.3