This is totally shocking.

East Devon, over the past year, has spent an exorbitant sum of Council Tax money on rubbish collection and toilet cleaning, up to three times a day, during the pandemic, with little benefit coming to the tourist industry.

This is an affront to us all.

Sam Sterrett www.radioexe.co.uk 

Photo: East Devon District Council

The facility in Budleigh has been closed

A public toilet at Limekiln, in Budligh, was criminally damaged last week. The photo above shows the full extend of damage, with pieces of the toilet shattered across the floor.

East Devon District Council, who shared the post via Facebook, were forced to close the toilet. The said they currently have no date for repair – but they’ll update the public once they do.

If you have any information regarding the vandalism, please report to Devon and Cornwall police via 101.

More than half of all adults in East Devon, Torbay and West Devon have now had their first Covid-19 vaccine.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

The statistics, which provide the position as of February 28, show that there have been 461,165 vaccines delivered in Devon, with 445,074 of them being the first dose. Just under 50,000 vaccinations were carried out in the last week.

Across the whole of Devon, which will have risen in the most recent days, are by far the highest number of vaccinations for any of the regions within the South West and they show that 44.5 per cent of the adult population had received their first jab. This is up on the 39.1 per cent as of February 21.

In Cornwall, 216,072 people have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, 46.8 per cent of the adult population, up from 39.3 per cent as of last week.

The statistics show that as of Sunday, in Devon, 99.6 per cent of over 80s, 100 per cent of 75-79s, 95.6 per cent of 70-74s, and 79.4 per cent of 65-69s had received one dose, based on the 2019 ONS population estimates.

In Cornwall, 98.4 per cent of over 80s, 100 per cent of 75-79s, 94.7 per cent of 70-74s and 83.9 per cent of 65-69s had their first vaccine.

Of the total population of Devon, 16,091 people, 1.6 per cent of adults, have also had their second dose, with 11,325 in Cornwall, 2.4 per cent of adults.

And figures also show the number of vaccines that have been delivered in each local authority, as well as in the MSOA area.

In every single local authority in Devon and Cornwall, more than a third of all adults have had at least one dose, and in East Devon, Torbay and West Devon, it is more than half.

Of the adult population, 46.8 per cent in Cornwall, 52.6 per cent in East Devon, 35 per cent in Exeter, 46.8 per cent in the Isles of Scilly, 43.8 per cent in Mid Devon, 48.4 per cent in North Devon, 38.9 per cent in Plymouth, 48.6 per cent in South Hams, 48.5 per cent in Teignbridge, 50.2 per cent in Torbay, 48.9 per cent in Torridge, and 53.4 per cent in West Devon, have had one dose. These figures are as of February 28 and so will have risen in recent days.

The government can expect a “backlash” if it goes ahead with a proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff in England next year, a nursing union has warned.

Is the Government Tone Deaf? – Owl

www.bbc.co.uk 

The health department has made the recommendation in a submission to the independent panel that advises on NHS salaries.

The Royal College of Nursing called the suggested rise “pitiful” and said nurses should be getting 12.5% more.

NHS staff have been excluded from a pay freeze for most public sector workers.

The NHS Pay Review Body is due to recommend salary levels for health service staff before early May, before ministers then make a final decision.

In its submission, the health department said awarding NHS staff a “headline” pay increase of more than 1% “would require re-prioritisation”.

Health department officials said the Covid pandemic had placed a “huge strain” on NHS finances, whilst the economic outlook “remains uncertain”.

They added that this increase was still above the CPI rate of inflation, whilst some staff would see a higher rise under a previously agreed three-year deal.

Some 1.3 million public sector workers will see a pay freeze next year, while those earning less than £24,000 guaranteed a pay rise of at least £250.

image captionThe PM and his fiancee Carrie Symonds outside 10 Downing Street joining in clap for carers in May

Speaking on BBC’s Question Time, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he was sure the pay round “has been discussed and established at the right level”.

“No one is doubting that the NHS hasn’t been absolutely first class in this pandemic. What I am suggesting is that the whole economy has been under pressure,” he added.

But Labour said a 1% increase for NHS staff was “the ultimate kick in teeth to our NHS heroes who have done so much to keep us safe over the past year”.

The party’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said staff “deserve a fair pay rise,” adding the proposal was “an absolute insult”.

NHS pay in England has been out of the news since 2018 when a three year deal was agreed and welcomed by unions.

But the issue is firmly back on the agenda with a new deal needed for the upcoming financial year.

This is just the start of the process.

The government has made its submission to the NHS Pay Review Body. But the fact that ministers think a 1% pay rise is reasonable has angered health unions.

They see it as scant reward for the huge efforts of staff during the pandemic.

Government sources say that inflation is so low that 1% still represents a real terms increase and that public finances are constrained.

This is shaping up to be a tense few months with pay added to the many difficult issues facing the NHS.

RCN Chief Executive Dame Donna Kinnair said the government was “dangerously out of touch with nursing staff, NHS workers and the public”.

“Nursing staff would feel they are being punished and made to pay for the cost of the pandemic. It is a political decision to underfund and undervalue nursing staff.

“With the time remaining before the Pay Review Body recommendation, the government can expect a backlash from a million NHS workers. Taxpayers are supportive of a significant and fair pay rise for NHS workers – this year of all years.”

One nurse, Carmel O’Boyle, said she was “disgusted”.

“We just want something that reflects the work that we do. We want a fair wage and I don’t think the government understands at all what the nursing workforce does,” she said.

“I understand it is a very difficult year for the whole world… but this is a political decision,” she added.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said the recommendation was “a kick in the teeth”.

Its chair of council, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, accused the government of a “total dereliction” of its “moral duty and obligation to a workforce that is keeping the NHS on its feet and patients alive”.

He said: “Throughout the pandemic, doctors have cared for more critically ill patients than was ever thought possible and worked round the clock despite suffering from extreme stress and exhaustion.

“The government should demonstrate that it recognises the contribution of a workforce that has literally kept this country alive for the past 10 months.”

A government spokesperson said they would “consider carefully” the recommendations made by the NHS Pay Review Body when it reports in the spring.

The government “will continue to provide pay rises for NHS workers”, despite the wider freeze on pay in the rest of the public sector, the spokesperson said.

They added multi-year pay deals had delivered a pay rise of over 12% for newly qualified nurses, and will increase junior doctors’ pay scales by 8.2%.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is essential to holding the government accountable. But it’s being undermined by a major loophole: it doesn’t apply to government contractors.

go.cfoi.org.uk

Will you help get FOI extended to government contractors?

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is essential to holding the government accountable. But it’s being undermined by a major loophole: it doesn’t apply to government contractors.

Since the Act was passed, outsourcing has vastly expanded. Government now spends £292bn a year buying goods and services – more than a third of all public expenditure. Private companies like Serco, G4S and Capita receive millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, but because they’re not subject to FOI we can’t properly hold them to account.

During the pandemic £10.5bn of government contracts were awarded without competitive tender and hundreds of millions was spent on “potentially unsuitable” PPE according to the National Audit Office, the spending watchdog. It also found that suppliers with political connections were 10 times more likely to receive government contracts.

Access to contractor-held information depends on the public authority and contractor agreeing to clauses in the contract which permit it – a totally unacceptable situation that allows vital information to be withheld from the public.

We think the FOI Act should be extended to cover all contractor-held information via an FOI request to the public authority. Major contractors should be required to answer requests directly.

Support for bringing contractors under FOI has come from:

• The Information Commissioner, who enforces the FOI Act. 
• The House of Commons Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee 
• The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee 
• The Committee on Standards in Public Life 
• The government appointed Independent Commission on Freedom of Information 
• The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, which brings together 18 of the UK’s leading anti-corruption organisations 
• The Open Government Network of civil society organisations

But we need to show there is huge public support for it too. This is where you can help:

• Sign this petition to Boris Johnson It only takes a few seconds.
• Spread the word further and sharing this link to the petition on Facebook and Twitter https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/extend-the-freedom-of-information-act-to-companies-awarded-government-contracts

Thank you!

Katherine Gundersen

Campaign for Freedom of Information

A fund intended to boost the UK’s most deprived places appears overwhelmingly skewed towards Tory-held areas, with dozens of Conservative regions in the top tier for assistance despite being relatively affluent, a Guardian analysis has found.

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com

Among 93 English regions placed in the priority group of three tiers to receive money from the £4.8bn levelling up fund, 31 are included while not being ranked as in the top third most deprived places by average deprivation score.

Of these 31, 26 are entirely represented by Conservative MPs, with the others having at least one Tory MP.

Among the remaining five is Canterbury, is a highly marginal Labour-Conservative seat.

Labour described the way the fund was allocated as “divide and rule”, and called on ministers to publish the criteria for the tiers. One MP whose area was excluded from the top tier called the decision “a stitch-up”.

Four places are in the uppermost level for funding despite being ranked in the bottom third of English regions by deprivation score, the analysis found. All those areas have Conservative MPs.

One area is Richmondshire in North Yorkshire, where the local MP is Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, whose own department is leading work on the fund. This is among the top fifth of most prosperous places in England by the average deprivation score.

The analysis will add weight to complaints about “pork barrel politics” within Sunak’s budget on Wednesday. It included money for two other funds, both of which appear also to lean towards Conservative-held areas.

The chancellor announced £1bn in extra money for an existing towns fund, intended to help struggling areas. Of the 45 new grants unveiled this week, 39 will go to towns with a Conservative MP.

Finally, a community renewal fund, with a total spend of £220m, will also benefit Sunak’s Richmondshire region. In all, seven areas represented by cabinet ministers are among the 100 areas targeted for help.

Dan Jarvis, mayor of the Sheffield city region and the Labour MP for Barnsley Central, said the government’s treatment of the levelling up fund was “symbolic of their divide and rule approach”, noting that while Richmondshire was in the top level, Sheffield and Barnsley – both of which have notably higher deprivation levels – were in tier 2.

Jarvis called for the funding metric to be published: “It’s yet again proof that this government’s actions are levelling South Yorkshire down, pushing our region and some of the poorest places in the north to the back of the queue for investment.”

Paul Dennett, the Labour mayor of Salford, said he could not understand why his city was tier 2 for the fund: “Salford is the 18th most deprived area in the country according to government’s own index of multiple deprivation. We would have fully expected Salford to have been included in category 1.”

While the levelling up fund also covers Scotland and Wales, deprivation statistics between the nations are not directly comparable, meaning the Guardian analysis only covers England.

However, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts, said she could not understand why Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, which includes her Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency, was put in the lowest tier for help, saying that earlier EU funds prioritised it as among the least developed areas in Europe.

She said: “Our public money is being snatched for the budget of Tory bungs. This is not levelling up but a stitch-up.”

Boris Johnson was asked on Thursday about the allocation of the towns fund towards Conservative seats, arguing that his party’s win in the 2019 election meant “there are a lot of Conservative-represented towns”.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Teesport in north-east England, he said: “I’ve asked about this and I’m told that the criteria was entirely objective – it takes in data on poverty, employment and so on.”

The row has been exacerbated by apparent confusion in government over how the decision to allocate spending had been made.

While Sunak had told a post-budget press conference that the metric was “based on an index of economic need, which is transparently published”, an apparent reference to the levelling-up fund, the fund’s official prospectus, says this information is coming “shortly”. Treasury sources were unable to say how long this might be.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The bandings do not represent eligibility criteria – and money will be allocated to the areas most in need. Further technical details will be published by the government in due course.”

The metrics for the towns fund also appear somewhat open to interpretation. While a wider pool of 541 eligible towns was selected based on official deprivation levels, further selection was down to factors including what was called “strategic alignment with government priorities”, investment opportunities, and other indicators of need.

Similarly, the formula for deciding who received money from the community renewal fund was also somewhat qualitative, based on an assessment by the housing ministry of seven “strategic fit considerations”.

(Unless your’e “three homes” Robert Jenrick MP for Newark)

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government www.gov.uk

This list consists of 45 of the 101 Towns Fund areas who have had their funding confirmed at part of Budget, announced by the Chancellor on Wednesday 3 March 2021. Funding equates to £1.02 billion in total.

[A National Audit Office report released in July revealed 61 of the 101 towns in the original list were chosen by ministers led by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick – and all but one of these were either Tory-held seats or targets, including his own of Newark. Meg Hillier, chair of the powerful Commons Public Accounts Committee, accused the Government of “cherry-picking” which areas received funds. So the “cherry-picking” has become even more selective. – Owl]

Town	Offer
Bolton	£22.9m
Boston	£21.9m
Bournemouth	£21.7m
Burton-upon-Trent	£22.8m
Carlisle	£19.7m
Castleford	£23.9m
Cheadle	£13.9m
Clay Cross	£24.1m
Colchester	£18.2m
Crawley	£21.1m
Goldthorpe	£23.1m
Great Yarmouth	£20.1m
Grimsby	£20.9m
Ipswich	£25m
Kidsgrove	£16.9m
Leyland	£25m
Lincoln	£19m
Lowestoft	£24.9m
Mablethorpe	£23.9m
Mansfield	£12.3m
Margate	£22.2m
Middlesbrough	£21.9m
Milton Keynes	£22.7m
Morley	£24.3m
Newark	£25m
Northampton	£25m
Nuneaton	£23.2m
Preston	£19.9m
Rochdale	£23.6m
Rowley Regis	£19m
Scarborough	£20.2m
Scunthorpe	£20.9m
Skegness	£24.5m
Smethwick	£23.5m
Southport	£37.5m
Staveley (Derbyshire)	£25.2m
Stevenage	£37.5m
Stocksbridge	£24.1m
Swindon	£19.5m
Thornaby-on-Tees	£23.9m
Wakefield	£24.9m
West Bromwich	£25m
Whitby	£17.1m
Wolverhampton	£25m
Workington	£23.1m