By Owl’s reckoning the state of power groupings in EDDC is now as follows :

Democratic Alliance (EDA, LibDems, Independent and Greens) 24

Conservatives 21

Independents (various) 6

Independent Progressives (in coalition with DA) 4

Cranbrook Voice 3

Unaligned Indy (Peter Faithful) 1

Green candidate, Henry Gent, knocks Sara Randall Johnson into second place in this two seat division.

We also now have the Exmouth two seat result:

This story keeps surfacing but the Government still sticks to the notion that the bottleneck in building is due to councils failing to grant planning permissions. – Owl

Julia Kollewe www.theguardian.com

More than 1.1m homes that received planning permission in England over the last decade are yet to be built, according to the Local Government Association, which called for new powers to be given to councils to encourage developers to build housing more quickly.

The LGA, which represents 327 of the 333 councils in England, said that 2.78m homes have been granted planning permission by councils since 2010/11, but over the same period only 1.6m have been built. The number of planning consents granted for new homes has more than doubled since 2010, with nine in 10 planning applications being approved by councils.

The LGA said the Queen’s speech should include legislation that enables councils to charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development when the original planning permission expires.

The government should also make it easier for councils to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire stalled housing sites, or sites where developers do not build to timescales agreed with a local planning authority.

Developers have ramped up homebuilding in recent years since the slump caused by the 2009 financial crisis, with completions reaching 210,600 in 2019-20 – the highest level in the past 10 years. But this falls far short of building the 300,000 homes a year the government has pledged.

The Home Builders Federation denied that builders were sitting on land unnecessarily. Andrew Whitaker, its planning director, said: “Whilst housing supply has doubled in recent years the planning process remains the biggest constraint on further increases.

“Many of the homes included in these numbers will have actually been completed or are on sites where construction work is ongoing. Others will only have an initial consent and be struggling their way through the treacle of the local authority planning departments to get to the point where builders are allowed start work.”

Joshua Carson, head of policy at the consultancy Blackstock, said: “The notion of developers ‘sitting on planning permissions’ has been taken out of context. It takes a considerable length of time to agree the provision of new infrastructure on strategic sites for housing and extensive negotiation with councils to discharge planning conditions before homes can be built.”

The LGA says only by building more council homes can the housing crisis be tackled and the government’s housebuilding target be met. It is calling for councils to be given the powers to kickstart a social housebuilding programme of 100,000 homes a year. Polling by the association has found that 80% of MPs and 88% of peers think councils should have more financial freedoms and powers to build new homes.

Cllr David Renard, the LGA’s housing spokesperson, said: “It is good the number of homes built each year is increasing. But by giving councils the right powers to incentivise developers to get building once planning permission has been granted, we can go further and faster … We need the Queen’s speech to deliver the reform needed to enable councils to tackle the housing crisis.”

Whittaker said: “We would welcome a contribution by local authorities towards housing supply but regardless of who builds the houses, evidence clearly shows that if we are to reach the 300,000 target many more permissions will need to be granted. It is vital that planning departments are sufficiently resourced and that applications are processed efficiently so that work can begin on sites more quickly.”

Owl understands the difficulty some EDDC councillors have with Zoom and Youtube etiquette, and offers advice.

Don’t try this on the way to Blackdown House!

High-speed rail services cancelled after cracks found in trains

By Alex Therrien https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57036247

The fleet of Hitachi 800 trains entered service in 2017

Some railway services across the UK have been cancelled after hairline cracks were found in high-speed trains.

The issue was found in the Hitachi 800 series trains, which are used by Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railways and Hull Trains.

The operators warned there would be cancellations and disruption while the cracks were investigated.

Passengers have been advised to check before travelling and to consider postponing journeys.

All high-speed GWR services between London, Bristol, Cardiff and Penzance have been cancelled and customers are advised not to attempt to travel today.

LNER is currently advising passengers not to travel.

It means limited to no service on the East Coast – between Edinburgh, Newcastle, York and London.

A spokesman for Hull Trains said the problem was being investigated by Hitachi, and once trains had been checked it was hoped they could be released back into service “as soon as possible”.

“This could affect a significant number of our services and passengers should check before they travel,” the spokesman added.

The fleet of Hitachi 800 trains entered service in 2017 and was designed to be electric, but engines were also fitted with diesel power because of delays with railway electrification.

The trains were made at the Hitachi factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

For the moment the electorate appears to be content to credit the Tories with successfully delivering a vaccination programme and the promise of economic recovery. Despite the mess over Brexit fishing rights. How long will this last?

Today’s Western Morning News summarises the results in the Peninsular as follows:   

…Labour losing control of Plymouth City Council, and Cornwall switching to the Tories in time for the G7 summit; plus, Devon County Council remains under Tory control, albeit with a slightly reduced majority…

Note: two divisions in East Devon – Exmouth and Broadclyst – where two councillors are elected in each, won’t begin counting until this morning, so a final result and composition of Devon County Council  won’t be known until later today.

However, the East Devon Alliance (EDA) suffered a bitter blow as Martin Shaw failed to retain Seaton & Colyton by a wafer thin margin.

EDA candidates also failed to take Axminster and Sidmouth, but again only by small margins:

Axminster: Paul Hayward (EDA) lost to Ian Hall (Con) by 1,439 to 1,672

Seaton & Colyton: Martin Shaw (EDA) lost to Marcus Hartnell (Con) 2,176 to 2,321

Sidmouth: Louise Mac Allister (EDA) lost to Stuart Hughes (Con) 2,431 to 2,601

(Other candidates received few votes – full results here www.devonlive.com)

The positive message to take from this is that, where EDA fields a candidate it is in a very strong position to win.

Jess Bailey (Ind) held Otter Valley, the division vacated by Claire Wright by 3,224 votes to 1,281 for Charlie Hobson (Con)..

Exeter City 

Bucking the trend Labour have retained control of Exeter City Council – and with an increased majority. www.devonlive.com 

Cornwall

The election for Cornwall Council is different this year after boundary changes by the Government cut the number of councillors from 123 to 87. Owl’s skimming over the results show some divisions being decided with candidates winning having only received 700/800 votes. Something wrong with democracy here.

(Owl has yet to digest the overall turnout figures, but some of the divisions are becoming so large as to make it very difficult for those not backed by a national party to contest. This even more apparent in the farcical Police Crime Commissioner elections. A correspondent asked Owl why all PCC candidates came from national parties!).