A damning new paper has claimed the Government’s ‘Eat-Out-To-Help-Out’ scheme triggered thousands of extra Covid cases.

It is well known that crowded and poorly ventilated places are ideal breeding grounds for virus propagation.

Responsible politicians should have been far more aware of this when devising help for the hospitality sector. 

‘Eat-Out-To-Help-Out’ is one example. Other trigger events come to mind: Cheltenham Festival March 10-13 2020, recognised as the first superspreading event; and Boardmasters 10-14 August 2021, credited by many with seeding infection levels in Cornwall to all time highs which have yet to abate.

In this context Owl has always thought Simon Jupp’s “pub crawl” an ill advised idea and an immature response to the plight of the hospitality sector. A very high proportion of Simon’s constituents feel vulnerable to Covid and its emerging variants. The hospitality sector might be helped more by arguing for the Government to take a more responsible, less “Gung-Ho”, attitude to Covid so that the general population felt more secure to venture out. – Owl

Rachel Sloper www.devonlive.com 

The £850 million subsidised meals initiative was intended to help the hard-hit hospitality sector gets back on its feet following last year’s first Covid-19 lockdown.

But a new Economic Journal report indicates that the scheme actually “accelerated” a second wave of Covid cases by increasing community transmission of the virus.

The findings suggest Eat-Out-To-Help-Out (EOHO) may have been responsible for around 11 per cent of all new detected Covid-19 clusters in the UK emerging during August and early September last year.

The scheme directly subsidised the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks by up to 50 per cent across participating restaurants nationwide for meals served on all Mondays to Wednesdays from August 3 to August 31 last year.

The discount was capped at a maximum of £10 per person, but there was no limit on how often people could benefit.

Figures suggest that the government subsidised 160 million meals at a cost to the taxpayer of £849 million. Restaurant visits increased drastically on Mondays to Wednesdays, which usually see less trade. Official government statistics suggest that more than 59,000 businesses have registered for the scheme.

Researchers found that the programme did have a “notable” temporary impact on restaurant visits when comparing year-on-year changes from the booking service OpenTable. During days that the scheme was available, restaurant visits increased between 10 and 200 per cent.

But the data also suggests that the scheme may have shifted restaurant visits from the weekend to weekdays on which the discount was available and that the increased number of restaurant visits was temporary.

Study co-author Professor Thiemo Fetzer, of Warwick University, said: “Areas with higher participation in the Eat-Out-To-Help-Out scheme saw both a notable increase in new Covid-19 infection clusters within a week of the scheme starting, and a deceleration in infections within two weeks of the programme ending.

“Areas that had notable rainfall during the prime lunch and dinner hours on days the scheme was active, making customers less likely to visit restaurants and take advantage of the subsidised meals, had a lower infection rate.

“The empirical estimates suggest that the subsidised restaurant meal scheme may be responsible for around 11 per cent of all new detected Covid-19 clusters emerging during August and into early September in the United Kingdom.”

He continued: “The figures suggest that the EOHO scheme may have caused between 4,798 and 6,643 symptomatic infections or 7,759 and 21,824 overall infections, including asymptomatic cases directly.

“This estimate is unlikely to capture the full pandemic impact of the EOHO scheme as this will spread well beyond calendar weeks 32 to 36. The estimates are unlikely to capture the full chain of onward infections.”

Prof Fetzer added: “The most prominent point of divergence between the UK’s fiscal response and that of other countries was a large-scale demand-inducing measure targeted at the restaurant sector.

“A total of £850 million was spent to subsidise the cost of eating out by up to 50 per cent in the month of August. This came at a time when epidemiological studies suggested that restaurant dining may be a particularly risky setting.

“This paper shows that the Eat-Out-To-Help-Out scheme, hailed as a boon for the ailing sector, causally increased Covid-19 community transmission.

“By subsidising an economic activity associated with negative health externalities, the estimates suggest that the scheme may have been responsible for between eight per cent and 17 per cent of all newly detected COVID-19 infections – and likely many more non-detected asymptomatic infections – in late summer.

“This highlights the fact that fiscal responses aimed to cushion the economic fallout from Covid-19 have to pay particular attention to epidemiological risks as, otherwise, they may significantly worsen the pandemic progression and undermine any short-term economic benefits.”

Renewed and urgent calls have been made to help fund the relocation of a primary school on a ‘risk to life’ floodplain after more flooding last week.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

The Environment Agency has been deeply concerned about the welfare of children attending the school since 2015 where it stated in a report that there is a ‘risk to life’ of the children attending the school because of the flood risk, and they maintain this position.

Tipton St John Primary School, which has about 90 pupils, has suffered from repeated flooding with children being evacuated and the school being shut.

Last week’s heavy rainfall once again hit the site and led to flooding, with pictures showing the water still boot-level high even hours after the water levels had peaked during the night.

Cllr Jess Bailey, who represents the Otter Valley on Devon County Council, has once again called on the Government to help fund the relocation of the school

Cllr Jess Bailey at the flooded Tipton St John Primary School

The preferred option had been to try and relocate the school within the village, but after a £3.5m bid to the Government was rejected, and due to the flood risk, a rebuild on the current site was not viable, a move to Ottery St Mary was considered the only realistic option.

Plans to relocate the school to Ottery St Mary, as part of a 150 home housing scheme, had been put forward, but in January 2021 the plans were rejected by East Devon councillors due to the housing element by 11 votes to two.

Cllr Bailey said: “It is vital that the government funds the relocation of Tipton St John school within the village of Tipton St John. This intolerable situation has been dragging on for years and the government needs to do the right thing. There is an established ‘risk to life’ from flooding, which is a matter of huge concern. The government must act now.

“It is ridiculous that the government has previously not taken into account flood risk when deciding which schools to fund. This has meant Tipton St John primary school has missed out and was not one of the 100 selected schools. This must change for the next funding rounds”

“It is not a matter of ‘if’ it is a matter of ‘when and how bad” the next flooding incident will be at Tipton St John School,. I am very fearful of what this could mean for teachers and pupils as there is a clearly established ‘risk to life.”

She said that last week she was concerned about possible flooding at Tipton St John School, and when she arrived at 8am on Thursday morning, she was shocked to see just how much water was on the site – and this was hours after the water levels had peaked during the night.

Cllr Bailey added: “I have written to the relevant government minister Baroness Barran, to highlight the issue of flooding at the school. This situation cannot continue and I am urging the government to fund the relocation of the school within the village.

“I have emphasised the importance of flood risk being a key criteria for funding for new school buildings, particularly when there is an established ‘risk to life’, which is the case at Tipton St John.”

Her letter added: “The site is within flood zone 3 and has experienced flooding events on multiple occasions in recent years.

“Strenuous efforts have been made by the Diocese, Devon County Council and the School Governors to relocate the school for over a decade now. This significant and unresolved flood risk issue needs to be addressed as a priority through the School Rebuilding Programme.

“Flood risk which is dangerous and poses a risk to life – as it is the case at Tipton St John – must be a key factor in assessing priorities. Not only does the flood risk at Tipton St John represent a threat to life, but also could cause long term closure of the school with significant educational disruption to pupils.

“And what is more, the flood risk is set to worsen significantly in coming years due to climate change making this an even more pressing issue.

“I do really feel that the government must fund the relocation of Tipton St John School within Tipton St John. This dangerous situation which represents a threat to life cannot be allowed to continue and the government must provide vital funding.”

Devon County Council has previously argued that as many of the pupils already come from Ottery St Mary, it made more sense for the school to be built there than in Tipton St John.

Flooding at Tipton St John Primary School overnight on Wednesday, October 20/Thursday, OCtober 21

Councillors had been recommended to approve the scheme for a 210 space primary school and up to 150 new homes on land opposite Barrack Farm in Exeter Road, Ottery St Mary, when they met in January.

But the committee rejected the plans on the grounds of the countryside location of the housing scheme which is in an area not allocated for residential development and outside the built up area boundary of the town, the harmful visual impact, and that it didn’t provide the 50 per cent affordable housing required in policy.

Pooh has obviously consulted the interactive map referenced in this post.

With thanks to Paul Freeman for spotting this one.

Correspondence from “The Lorax”

Dear Owl,

I note that Simon Jupp MP: “is a proud Devonian who wants to preserve where we live. I want to tackle the raw sewage issue and I voted for a plan to help get us there.”

I also note that a “Budleigh Correspondent” writes that: “Not only in Budleigh do we get the pollution from the river (farm discharges plus all the sewage discharges from upstream of the Otter) and the two brook outlets.

We had 90 discharges from Newton Poppleford turning up in our bay in 2020! 137 from Honiton!

No wonder our water quality prediction display has not worked all year.” (Advising people in real time against bathing when it rains allows Budleigh to claim an extra bathing water quality “Star”).

How does Simon propose to tackle this problem? Does the beautiful bay in Budleigh Salterton have to wait for his long-term solution? According to Luke Pollard, Shadow Environment Secretary, not one English river is in a healthy condition, there has been zero improvement since 2016. Light touch measures aren’t working.

If Simon is concerned about cost, there is a much quicker and “cost free” answer. Stop all new house building in Honiton and Newton Poppleford and indeed all the way up the Otter catchment until South West Water stops discharging their sewage from these settlements.

The former cabinet minister David Davis has pledged to lead a rebellion against the government’s changes to judicial review, calling them a worrying assault on the legal system and attempt to avoid accountability.

Aubrey Allegretti www.theguardian.com 

Before the first major test of the judicial review and courts bill when it is debated in the Commons on Tuesday, Davis wrote in an article for the Guardian that ministers’ plans would “tip scales of law in favour of the powerful”.

He cited the power of judicial reviews to give “a voice to victims”, pointing to the overturning of the Parole Board’s decision to release the serial rapist John Worboys. The Haltemprice and Howden MP also praised the campaigner Gina Miller for challenging the government’s position at the start of the Brexit process that article 50 could be triggered without parliamentary authorisation.

An overhaul of the judicial review process was promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, which said the mechanism should be “available to protect the rights of the individuals against an overbearing state”, but promised it would not be “abused to conduct politics by another means or to create needless delays”.

Davis said judicial review “delivers for individuals on matters affecting everyday life” and was constantly being used “to correct fundamental and dangerous errors of law”.

“Such attempts to consolidate power are profoundly un-conservative and forget that in a society governed by the rule of law, the government does not always get its way,” he said.

Davis also addressed suggestions that so-called Cart judicial reviews could be abolished, which would let the high court review a decision to refuse someone permission to appeal a case. Davis said ministers viewed these as “expensive and unsuccessful”.

“While the attack on judicial review, and in particular Cart judicial reviews, is a worrying assault on our legal system, it is only part of the picture,” wrote the former Brexit secretary, whose former chief of staff Dominic Raab is now the justice secretary.

Davis said ministers were in effect trying to “deny a court jurisdiction in a certain matter” through a mechanism known as an “ouster” clause.

He wrote: “Left unchecked, the use of these ouster clauses could give a government free rein to designate certain decisions it has made, or the use of certain powers it hands itself, to be unchallengeable in the courts. And the government, through this bill, wants to establish a framework for how ouster clauses can be applied to other areas in future legislation. This is entirely wrong.

“It all too clearly leaves the door open for further ouster clauses to be created that remove the courts from decisions in matters such as employment tribunals or social security.”

Davis said it did “not take a wild imagination to picture a future government, racked by constant losses in the courts on welfare matters, to suddenly legislate to remove the court’s vital oversight functions” in decisions about employment tribunals or benefits.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This bill delivers on our manifesto commitment to protect the rights of individuals, while ensuring the courts are not open to abuse and delay.

“These changes will give the judiciary the power to hold the government to account, while tackling those who look to frustrate the court process.”

The MoJ has previously claimed the number of Cart judicial reviews that succeeded was just 0.22%, though Davis queried this in his article, saying the figure was “wildly incorrect” and likely to be “much higher” at about 5.7%.

And the sea?

Chances are: probably not.

Owl easily finds sites in each constituency discharging on average more than once a week.

Search the interactive map here.

The key is simple, the bigger the brown blob, the worse it is. Hover mouse over online map to get details of how many discharges occurred in 2020 and for how many hours. “Avoid entering the water immediately downstream of these discharges and avoid the overflows, especially after it has been raining.”

Here are some examples averaging well over one discharge a week for each site!

Tory MPs have been defending themselves from accusations they have given the go-ahead to water companies to dump raw sewage in rivers.

Our own Simon Jupp and Neil Parish voted to reject the Lords amendment that would have placed legal duties on the companies to reduce discharges. Have they got any regrets? – Owl

www.bbc.co.uk 

Campaigners are concerned about the impact of sewage discharges on many rivers

A proposal from the Lords to the Environment Bill that would have placed legal duties on the companies to reduce discharges was defeated by 265 MPs’ votes to 202 last week.

The MPs say safeguards already exist and new measures would cost billions.

Critics say the UK is “lecturing” the world while its rivers are polluted.

With just over a week to go until the UK hosts the COP26 climate summit, there is intense focus on ministers’ green credentials.

Last Wednesday, 265 MPs voted with the government to reject an attempt by the House of Lords to toughen up the approach to the discharge of sewage, while 22 Conservative MPs rebelled and voted against the government.

The move has sparked an uproar on social media.

Peers had tabled an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have forced water companies and the government to demonstrate progressive reductions in discharges of untreated sewage and required them to “take all reasonable steps” to avoid using combined sewer overflows.

But ministers said the changes were unnecessary because safeguards are already contained in the bill.

‘Every river polluted’

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, former singer Fergal Sharkey, who now campaigns to clean up the nation’s waterways, said it was a “disgrace”.

“We’re lecturing the rest of the planet on climate change yet the reality is there is not a single river in England that makes good overall environmental health,” he said.

He said “every single river” in England is polluted and “a major cause is the water industry dumping sewage”.

He added: “The truth is what we are looking at is the result of a massive under-investment in infrastructure for the last 30 years and a complete failure of oversight and regulation of the industry by Ofwat, the environment agency and the government itself.”

He said ministers were “unwilling and incapable” of dealing with the situation.

Conservative Huw Merriman, who voted against the government and for the amendment, said “what was being proposed by the government wasn’t enough” and he hoped ministers would “be persuaded” it was the right way to go.

He said: “To have sewage being discharged down streets, when there is too much rain, into the sea” is “just absolutely shocking”.

“It does mean more investment. That may ultimately mean more expensive bills, but we’re talking about decades of investment and it’s got to happen,” he said.

Unfair to taxpayers

But fellow Conservative, Julie Marson, who voted against the amendment, said “there is a lot of misinformation floating about” on the issue and while the proposal itself was “sound”, its “fundamental flaw” was that it “had no plan as to how this can be delivered and no impact assessment whatsoever”.

She wrote: “The preliminary cost of the required infrastructure change was estimated to be between £150bn and £650bn.

“Unless we asked taxpayers to contribute, most of the water companies who would be carrying out this work would go bankrupt, meaning the work could not be completed anyway.

“The cost works out at between about £5,000 and £20,000 per household.

“I felt it would be unfair to sting local people with a bill of this size.”

She said the existing legislation already placed a new duty on water companies to continuously monitor the water quality upstream and downstream of a storm overflow and of sewage disposal works.

Another Conservative, Fay Jones, tweeted that the criticisms of MPs were “deeply misleading”.

She wrote: “It ignores the massive flaw in the amendment (i.e forcing taxpayers to pay up to £600bn to dig up Victorian sewerage system) and the work the government is already doing to reduce discharge from storm overflows.”

And Conservative, John Howell, said in a statement he voted against the amendment because “it is necessary to be realistic” given the age of the sewerage systems and the potential disruption to homes and businesses.

The accusation that he voted to allow water companies to pump raw sewage into rivers “is far from the truth”, he said.

“It would be just as fair to say that Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs voted to pump raw sewage into your home given that resolving the problem by their half-baked proposal of sewage discharges would require rebuilding the sewage system and could cost up to £600bn and take many years,” he added.

Scale of problem

Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers in England more than 400,000 times last year, according to figures published by the Environment Agency.

Untreated effluent, including human waste, wet wipes and condoms, was released into waterways for more than three million hours in 2020.

The Environment Agency allows water utilities to release sewage into rivers and streams after extreme weather events such as prolonged heavy rain.

This protects properties from flooding and prevents sewage from backing up into streets and homes.

The agency says that overflows are “not a sign that the system is faulty”, and that they are “a necessary part of the existing sewerage system”.

The Environment Bill will return to the Lords on Tuesday, where peers are expected to re-insert the measures before it goes back to the House of Commons later this week.

Council priority three A resilient economy

Covid‑19 has had a significant and detrimental impact on the economy of East Devon. Before the pandemic, the district was in almost full employment. Through the pandemic one third of employees across the district were furloughed and longer term the unemployment rate has been forecast to increase.

During the first half of 2020, over 1,000 jobs were lost due to companies going into administration or relocating, including the collapse of Flybe. Many jobs that have been lost have been high value and skilled engineering roles but just as many are in the lower paid sectors of our local economy.

We understand the shift in patterns of behaviour, including more working from home, and the importance of improving access to and the speed of broadband, especially in rural areas.

We have witnessed an increase in occupation of second homes through the move of people out of cities in response to the pandemic and the impact on our local economy and infrastructure.

We also recognise the impact on our town centres of the loss of footfall, through people working from home and the increase in the use of home delivery, rather than local shopping. This might require us to review our planning policies in relation to the conversion of retail and secondary shopping areas to residential or live-work use.

Covid-19 precautions in Budleigh Salterton

It is our overriding priority to strive for a resilient economy in order to promote prosperity and reduce hardship within the district. Not only will we seek to increase the levels of employment, but we will also seek to improve the quality of employment to raise wages levels across East Devon.

We will consider the use of our assets as a council and our planning policies to support regeneration and create employment opportunities.

We recognise the economic as well as the social value of tourism, art and culture to the local economy and the wealth that is generated in those sectors.

Exeter Science Park

We also recognise the importance of working as a part of Team Devon in order to drive recovery for the East Devon economy. We will continue to promote the development of the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone as key to the prosperity of our district.

Our priority actions for a resilient economy

Promoting the green economy

• Support working from home to reduce carbon emissions through unnecessary travel and facilitate the economic sustainability of our local towns and communities.
• Deliver a tourist strategy with emphasis on the on the green economy.

Our financial stability

• Maintain an active approach sourcing and securing available funds to help with asset management and the promotion of the district’s economy.
• Provide in-house commercial services such as pest control and food safety training that provide value for money to residents and local businesses, whilst creating new and valuable revenue streams for the council.

Supporting employment

• Work with the Department of Work and Pensions, regional and local partners to develop and co-ordinate an effective redundancy response network to respond to the serious economic challenges that the pandemic has brought to our district and our residents.
• Work with our Growth Hub to support local small and start-up businesses through free access to tailored advice and guidance, stepping up that support as businesses grow and develop and addressing barriers to business growth and innovation.
• Ensure that all our assets (including car parks) are used in the most effective way and that their development potential is evaluated to support employment and create economic growth and prosperity for all.

Supporting our local economy

• Develop the infrastructure needed to support our local economy, including transport and housing.
• Use the procurement power as a council to support local businesses.
• Provide support and advice to businesses through investment in our Environmental Health department.
• Explore the use of the doughnut economic model to guide policy and decision-making and ensure that ethical, socially responsible, and financially-sound decisions are made in an open, transparent and democratic manner.

Financial stability for a better future

We recognise that the Council Plan needs to be affordable. However, councils in England face acute financial challenges, especially as central government financial support for councils has been reducing over the past decade and demand for some services has been increasing.

The council’s Medium Term Financial Plan shows that existing service costs and expected income leaves a budget gap of £3 million in 2022/23 and a further gap of £1.2 million in 2023/24. This is against a net budget of £15.8 million. Difficult decisions will need to be made in respect of prioritising and delivering services and operating as an organisation.

In response to declining government grant, some authorities invested heavily in commercial property by borrowing via Public Works Loan Board loans in the hope that the rental yield would cover the loan costs and realise a profit to pay for services. However, over the last nine months, rental yields have plummeted. In some cases, this has resulted in the local authority being banned from any new expenditure except for statutory services. Fortunately, East Devon District Council has not had a commercial exposure to this extent, but despite government assistance regarding the impact of Covid‑19, we are still faced with challenges to balance the books for the foreseeable future.

Planning to address the identified funding gap has started, but we still need to look at ways of increasing our income and reducing costs to be able to sustain our current services, meet new requirements and needs and benefit from new opportunities.

Several our services are statutory like our recycling and waste collection. Other services are discretionary, but no less valued by residents such as public toilets and parks. Looking ahead the challenge is to get the balance right between the cost to residents and businesses and the benefits provided in terms of the quality of our environment, the health and wellbeing of residents and the strength and resilience of our local economy.

We also realise there will be a long-term impact of the pandemic on the local economy, both on businesses and on individuals, that will influence the council’s priorities, resources and services.

There are a number forthcoming decisions that impact on our budget. There is a refuse and recycling contractual tipping point that will be triggered by further property growth that will lead to higher costs plus the government changes to the national recycling requirements that may affect our collection policy and costs. We also need to implement the review of car parking charges plus and to install electric vehicles chargers to prepare for more green travel. Through 2021/22 we are undertaking a review into the provision of public toilets.

In the light of these pressures, we will need to focus on statutory services that we must deliver and discretionary services that the public value to help us to prioritise services through the Council Plan.

To deliver the vision through our Council Plan, we will refocus our resources and efficiently utilise our assets, invest to save and innovate, ensure a sound return on investment (both financial and social), keep our Council Tax within government guidelines and agree legally required balanced budgets.

We will identify new funding streams as they become available and ensure we bid for additional income where possible to secure the income needed to implement the Council Plan.

Where necessary we will lobby the government for changes in policy and funding so that we can implement our priorities, securing the resources required for delivery.

Council priority two A greener East Devon

Our commitment to addressing the climate change and ecological emergency is a key priority for the council. Our focus will be on achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 and taking care of and enhancing our built and natural environment in our towns and villages, countryside and coastline now and for future generations. The details of this work is included in our Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.

The council will change all its current working practices to reduce its carbon emissions to the minimum.

The objective for the whole district will be to work with all residents, businesses, and partners to:

• reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings through low carbon development and retrofitting
• apply for funding to encourage energy reduction and promote green energy
• implement carbon offsetting schemes within the district
• reduce further the waste generated and increase the percentage of recycling
• prepare the community for climate change so we can all become more resilient

In recent times, we have seen the value of green and open space for recreation and health and wellbeing. We shall be implementing re-wilding, nature recovery and conservancy schemes to enhance our precious environment.

Green space in the Clyst Valley

Covid‑19 has resulted in changes to work and lifestyle patterns in the district. We need to explore and understand the impact of new ways of doing things, such as working from home and the impact of online meetings on carbon emissions.

We recognise the importance of working with others on this journey; we will work with partners and contractors, town and parish councils, businesses, visitors and community groups to support them in reducing their carbon footprint.

Greener East Devon for us also means placing the highest emphasis on the natural capital of our stunning environment – coast and countryside – and the value and importance of biodiversity within it. As custodians for future generations, preserving and enhancing our natural environment is key.

Rewilding project in the Broadclyst area

We want to provide a healthier, more beautiful natural environment that inspires, educates and involves residents and visitors to East Devon.

This commitment to greener East Devon comes at a price. It needs to be appropriately funded and resourced. However, we believe it to be essential for the future of our district.

Recently there has been a staffing shortage affecting our recycling teams, we have begun to address this and will keep it under review. We will also need to respond to any future contractual tipping point that could be triggered by further local property growth as this would lead to higher contract costs. We will also need to respond to anticipated government changes to the national recycling requirements that may affect our collection policy and costs.

Our priority actions for a greener East Devon

Carbon reduction

• Fulfil the actions and commitments in our Climate Change Strategy (aimed at reducing the council’s carbon footprint and that of our partners, contractors, businesses, communities, residents and visitors through green procurement, reducing carbon use in our supply chain and seeking to influence the businesses from whom we purchase) and update our Carbon Plan which will be the primary vehicle for delivering our intentions.
• Develop a Local Plan policy that protects the existing biodiversity and to improve and add to it significantly, to provide for communities to be more sustainable and provide improved interconnecting greener routes with cycle and foot ways.

Meeting high environmental standards

• Using the council’s investments and bank accounts to support the green economy.

Planning in our environment

• Work with landowners and developers to deliver habitat mitigation on-site with new developments or to provide mitigation close to the development site.
• Ensure that we are giving appropriate protection to our built heritage, including developing policies for the new Local Plan to continue to conserve and protect our listed buildings and conservation areas.
• Work with our communities to review our conservation area boundaries and their management plans, to develop a list of locally important heritage assets and progress the other actions in our Heritage Strategy.
• Develop planning policy to protect the nature corridors with new developments; protect and enhance our natural habitats, green spaces and the existing treescape across the district; increase tree planting and replacement schemes; review our tree management policies and promote best practice.
• Complete the review of the Playing Pitch Strategy and develop policies in the new Local Plan to protect existing playing pitches and support our sports clubs and communities to deliver new and enhanced facilities.

Promoting recycling and reducing waste

• Continuously strive to increase recycling rates and reduction of residual waste tonnages so we are amongst the highest recyclers nationally and the lowest council in England for residual waste disposal per household and continuing the promotion of the green waste collection service and home composting.
• Improve on street recycling including starting a programme of replacing older dog waste bins with dual mixed waste/recycling bins.
• Continue working with all district and unitary councils in Devon with a Keep Devon Litter Free campaign and other countywide recycling projects and explore ways to further reduce on street littering.

Protecting and enhancing our natural environment in coast and country

• Continue to develop our nature reserves including the award-winning Seaton Wetlands, and to work with landowners and groups on projects that will benefit to climate change and biodiversity net gain.
• Continue to work with partners to deliver the important Clyst Valley Regional Park.
• Address the risk of flooding and erosion by strengthening community resilience and extending flood prevention measures.
• Monitor carefully the progress of the Environment Bill 2020 and prepare appropriate plans to address the implications for East Devon District Council.

Council priority one Better homes and communities for all

We want to increase access to social and affordable homes as one of the council’s highest priorities.

We want to ensure better build quality of new homes, more social and affordable housing and a good standard of maintenance, to ensure homes are fit for purpose across all sectors. To us, delivering better homes is about far more than bricks and mortar; it is about using our resources and influence to keep people healthy and safe. It is about the quality of the setting of the homes, whether that is town, village or countryside and about the amenities, the open space and infrastructure that serve the houses and contribute to the wellbeing of residents.

Ian Williams, our home repairs contractors

We believe that as the planning authority we have a crucial role to play in delivering better quality homes, ensuring the right homes in the right places and enforcing high build standards. Through our enabling activities, we intend to drive the delivery of much needed social and affordable housing. We will be pressing harder than ever for the ending of the Right to Buy which deprives the council of crucial housing stock.

As a council we also wish to reduce poverty and deprivation and intend to use our resources to achieve this.

Recognising the significant contribution of the voluntary sector to building community, we will seek to strengthen the sector and to support volunteering and the third sector.

A portfolio has been introduced to cover leisure and culture, recognising the importance of these sectors for our local economy, our communities, tourism and health and wellbeing.

The Creative Cabin at Queen’s Drive Space, Exmouth

Our priority actions for better homes and communities for all

Promoting better homes and stronger communities

• Prepare and promote robust policies in our local plan to address the need for more and better quality homes and communities for all.
• Deliver more social housing and explore new ways to build more affordable homes.
• Deliver on the commitments in our Housing Strategy and Housing Service Plan.
• Implement our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy to assist those in greatest housing need, providing options through our own housing revenue account, by working with our partner housing associations (registered providers) and by responding to the consultation of Devon Homes relating to their banding of property and their assessment of those in need of housing.
• Promote Home Safeguard services and develop our supported housing offer.
• Ensure that council homes are well-managed, in good repair, fit for purpose and safe for our tenants and that we obtain high performance and value for money from our integrated asset management contract for repairs and maintenance and continue to invest in tenants’ homes, guided by stock condition data.
• Engage with and involve tenants in decisions affecting their homes and to improve communications between tenants, the council and its contractors.
• Apply for grants to promote energy efficiency and promote access to grants through greater publicity to residents of available options.
• Advise on and enforce standards in the private sector to attain suitable management and safety standards, including affordable warmth, houses in multiple occupation, mobile homes and private water supplies.
• Through our planning policies and the spending of Community Infrastructure Levy monies seek to secure the timely delivery of new infrastructure to support new development.
• Continue to work with our communities to support them in developing Neighbourhood Plans that reflect the community’s future aspirations and where those include community-led housing schemes work with them to progress their proposals through the planning process and towards delivery.
• Acquire a site to facilitate self-build plots and support their delivery.
• Research the ability for local communities to control the number of second homes in their communities.

Promoting health and wellbeing across the community

• Implement our Anti-Poverty Strategy, designed to reduce hardship and inequality in the district.
• Implement the actions contained in the Public Health Strategic Plan designed to improve public health, wellbeing and the quality of life of our residents.
• Ensure that our services and facilities are Covid‑19 secure and that the community support hub continues to be supported.
• Promote our natural environment, culture and leisure opportunities as part of our plans to deliver public health (including mental health) projects.
• Take forward the agreed recommendations of the strategic leisure review in a timely manner.
• Work with Devon County Council and the Devon Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure that a model of place-based care is in place to make the best use of the existing space in community hospital sites, the better to serve the communities of East Devon; this will reduce travel requirements to Exeter and assist in meeting the targets on carbon reduction as a by-product.
• Review our public toilet requirements, including their location, to ensure they are fit for purpose, working with town and parish councils.
• Ensure that developers pay the required contributions towards infrastructure through Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 agreements, and that where monies are available to be spent by the community, that they are supported by public engagement on spend and given easy access to funds.

The Gate to Plate food festival in Honiton

Promoting culture and community

• Develop a stronger commitment to and offers in arts and leisure through the development of a Culture Strategy and an Events Strategy for our own land.
• Encourage town and parish councils (and the third sector where appropriate) to protect and support their community spaces.
• Promote community wellbeing programmes through a culture and activities offer, led by the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Seaton Wetlands, Wild East Devon, and expand our community development activities.
• Promote the links between arts and culture and climate change through the Creative Cabin and other initiatives, raising awareness of the public and seeking to change behaviours.
• Support communities through the transfer of appropriate community assets to towns and villages, enabling local communities to own, manage and develop assets in support of community aspirations and benefits.

EDDC has just published its own version of “build back better” with a council plan for the immediate post Covid recovery period 2021-2023.

Owl is publishing this in full in four posts:

Introduction (this post) which sets out the vision, plans and priorities. Followed by three more giving the details of each priority. 

Council priority one Better homes and communities for all

Council priority two A greener East Devon

Council priority three A resilient economy

Council Plan 2021-23 | East Devon District Council – Introduction

Councillor Paul Arnott Leader of the Council eastdevon.gov.uk

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Message from the Leader

It is an honour to hold the position of Leader of East Devon District Council and therefore to have been asked to provide an introduction to this new Council Plan. It is the fruit of many hours of thoughtful work between the council’s members and officers, and enables both the democratic part of the council’s function and the administrative part to share an understanding and a practical vision.

I was aware when becoming Leader in May 2020 that there would be many legacy issues and I am pleased that members and officers have worked together to address a number of concerns. I am pleased that most of these matters have come to the fore because a new generation of councillors has engaged with the council to address them.

However, while legacy issues have to be dealt with, this council has also had to cope with the extraordinary work pressures caused by the need to respond to the pandemic, and all officers and members should feel highly satisfied that East Devon District Council has grafted above and beyond to sustain its services. There have been perfect storms, especially around waste and recycling, but the efforts to weather these have been magnificent, and our frontline workers in particular must also be warmly thanked.

Now we must look to the future, and the plan below sets out a practical roadmap to address the key priorities for the district which are, in essence, how can we make sure people have places they can afford to live, how can we conserve our magnificent environment, and how can we ensure there is the support and initiative in place to generate the employment opportunities to enable prosperity and economic security.

This Council Plan sets a course for the council to follow for the immediate future. It is imaginative but realistic as our finances, like so many other councils across the country are limited and this places limitations on how many of our aspirations we can deliver. We have quite rightly prioritised delivering on our promise to get more social and affordable homes built, as we face a housing crisis across the country. We have also prioritised our actions to tackle climate change, because if we don’t, as climate change champions say, there is no Planet B. And our third priority is to manage our finances and to budget in a responsible manner and to work to create a resilient local economy across the district.

I am in no doubt that a strong East Devon District Council working in close collaboration with county and other districts has the best chance of delivering on these priorities, and to take the opportunities which are perhaps going to arise from new regional investment from central government. Whatever the next few years may bring, close, respectful and collegiate cross-political-group work will be essential.

Our vision and values

Our vision is to make a positive difference to residents’ lives and our environment in East Devon.

The way we will make a positive difference to residents’ lives and our environment will be influenced by our values. These include:

• seeking continuous improvement of our high performing council
• listening to and learning from our residents and caring for them
• adapting as a council to new ways of working and refreshed priorities whilst recognising the pressure on resources

Our Vision and Values Commitment sets out more detail about our core vision and values and how they underpin everything we do.

Our plans

Our plans and strategies fit together so that everyone understands how their contribution fits in with the Local Plan and the Council Plan – we call this the ‘golden thread’. Our suite of plans and strategies includes service plans as well as a Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy, Housing Strategy and a Climate Change Strategy.

How our Council Plan gives direction for the council’s work

Our Council Plan with its three priorities feeds into a category of delivery. This then feeds into a category of monitoring.

The category of delivery includes the Financial Plan, the Local Plan, council strategies and Annual service plans.

The category of monitoring includes budgets and the Financial Plan. It includes Council committees like cabinet, Overview Committee and Scrutiny Committee. It includes Performance Excellence Reviews and individual performance objectives for council staff.

Our priorities

Our vision is integral to our Council Plan and the delivery of it and we believe that East Devon District Council can achieve it through our three priorities:

• Council priority one
  Better homes and communities for all with a priority on the importance of good quality, affordable housing suitable in size and location. Poverty caused by the loss of employment, illness or disability is an increasing issue and will also be a high priority for East Devon District Council to tackle through all means available to us.
• Council priority two
  A greener East Devon, which prioritises issues arising from climate change and supports our natural environment. This issue affects and informs all of our objectives and services.
• Council priority three
  A resilient economy bringing prosperity to the district, notwithstanding the current challenging circumstances.

Conclusion of our Council Plan

This Council Plan sets out the district council’s strategic direction until the next elections in May 2023. It will guide officers and staff about council priorities and objectives, creating a framework to help plan and efficiently deliver great value and quality services to all residents, businesses and visitors.

This plan should also inform our residents, business, and partners about the council’s ambitions to evolve and improve. To do this, we have set out our three key priorities alongside our broader aspirations.

The council can, and will, deliver this Council Plan with the support and commitment of our dedicated staff and partners. This is only possible because each councillor, regardless of their political pedigree, has a single united desire to ensure that this council succeeds in all that it does to make East Devon a great place to live, work and play.

This council cannot deliver on its Council Plan unless it has the necessary resources. We remain at the whim of central government funding and direction, which presents a problematic and constantly evolving situation. Therefore, the council must continually find new and more imaginative ways of raising additional funds and review how it can more efficiently manage all of its assets and resources. The following two years and beyond will subsequently remain financially challenging for this council.

Despite these challenges, we conclude this Council Plan with the firm commitment to strive, more than ever before, to turn our ambitions and goals into quality services and support for all East Devon residents and businesses.

East Devon District Council is a local authority providing great value services to our local residents.

We are a council with no overall political control but a strong and productive coalition between the Democratic Alliance Group and Independent Progressive Group has formed an administration. The Leader, Councillor Paul Arnott, was elected as a member of the East Devon Alliance which is part of the Democratic Alliance Group within the council.

Find out more information about the political makeup of the council and to access minutes from our committee meetings

Our council comprises of:

Our councillors

Each councillor represents the residents living within a ward in our district.

Our councillors are committed to making East Devon one of the best places to live and work in the district delivering the services that our residents value the most.

Find out more about East Devon’s councillors

Find out more about the great place we service in our Knowing East Devon profile

Our services

We are proud of the wide range of services that our council delivers whether by itself or in partnership with others. We are especially proud of our staff’s continuing and additional delivery of services over recent challenging months during the global pandemic.

We have good news to share about how well we do as a council in recycling waste and delivering other services. We are the custodians of ten nature reserves and responsible for the South West Coast Path in our district and the East Devon Way.

SUEZ, our recycling and waste contractor

We are also proud of our external accreditation – our Green and Blue Flags, our platinum award from Investors in People – and we strive for continual improvement beyond what has already been achieved. This means operating at the highest level as an organisation – to deliver excellent services first time and every time.

East Devon District Council will improve communications to highlight the services we provide and what we do as a council, including the day-to-day work of our staff for our residents.

Our services range from the delivery of grants and benefits on behalf of the government through to environmental health, street cleansing, toilet provision, Award-winning parks, beaches and open spaces, recycling and waste collection. They are visible and make a big difference to the quality of life and the attractiveness of our local environment.

LED Community Leisure providing community activities in the district

Behind the scenes we also deliver so much more; complex and bespoke engineering projects typically linked with climate change and based around flood protection; a planning department that determines applications large and small and oversees building control; leisure services to meet the needs of East Devon residents through our partners in LED Community Leisure; cultural services both independent of and in conjunction with LED and a finance department that efficiently supports our customers, some of whom may be struggling financially.

We strive to evolve continually for the benefit of all our residents now and in the future

We strive to evolve continually for the benefit of all our residents now and in the future. This will require us to consider how we maintain and fund our assets such as toilets and car parks, which matter to the public. It also will require us to consider how we fund and deliver services in future, especially in the light of the recovery from the pandemic, the climate emergency and changing demographics, patterns of work and emerging technologies. We also will need to be clear about the capacity we have and the financial pressures facing local government, and be alert to securing new sources of funding and exploring new opportunities to secure resources for our activity.

Blackdown House, Honiton

External evaluation matters to us and we will continue to value that especially where it, as often is the case, provides positive endorsement of our services, processes and staff.

In support of our three corporate priorities and behind the scenes we will:

• improve our communications with residents so that they are better able to contact elected members and officers, find out information about the council and access the services we provide
• look after our exist assets, expanding access to them and improving the return on the council’s investment in them, giving both value for money and providing social value to our communities
• review the services we provide, the performance and funding of those services and the partnerships we require to expand the services and deliver them and effectively as we can
• expand the resources available to support regulation and enforcement activity to ensure a good quality of life and a safe and attractive environment for our residents
• develop a new and enhanced performance management system to monitor the efficiency of our services
• explore innovative digital ways of consulting our residents to establish snapshot views in order to improve our services
• improve the customer experience of our telephone system based on customer and stakeholder feedback
• identify and implement improvements and upgrades to our website to enhance our digital offer and delivering more digital services so that customers can easily access reliable information and resolution of service requests
• provide responsive, effective and consistent communications through traditional media and social media
• listen to feedback via our residents’ vewpoint surveys and developing an action plan to improve our services

• Alterations to annexe roof, single storey rear extension, installation of front porch Heathfield Farm Sidmouth Road Rousdon Lyme Regis DT7 3RDRef. No: 21/2732/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing extension & proposed replacement single storey extension Combehayes Farm Buckerell Honiton EX14 3ETRef. No: 21/2720/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing extension & proposed replacement single storey extension Combehayes Farm Buckerell Honiton EX14 3ETRef. No: 21/2721/LBC | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey extension and alterations to existing flat roof to provide a pitched roof. Valley View Woodhouse Lane Uplyme Lyme Regis DT7 3SXRef. No: 21/2723/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed demolition of existing glazed entrance lobby, construction of single storey front and rear extensions. Sandon Middletown Lane East Budleigh Budleigh Salterton EX9 7EQRef. No: 21/2724/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Reserved matters application for appearance, layout, scale and landscaping of proposed dwelling of planning application 20/0197/OUT 20 Cranford Avenue Exmouth EX8 2HURef. No: 21/2725/RES | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey front garage extension 1 Hill Crescent Honiton EX14 2HYRef. No: 21/2726/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• County matter application for the variation of condition 15 of planning permission 07/00955/2006 to permit fixed wash plant or machinery for inert recycling operationsHill Barton Business Park Exeter EX5 1SDRef. No: 21/2709/CM | Validated: Thu 14 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Roof alterations and internal alterations Moxhayes Cottage Yarcombe EX14 9BBRef. No: 21/2703/FUL | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Roof alterations and internal alterations Moxhayes Cottage Yarcombe EX14 9BBRef. No: 21/2704/LBC | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Single storey front extension, conversion of roofspace to habitable use to include 2 x rear dormers, juliet balcony and 3 x rooflights. Replacement of windows and doors and single storey outbuilding to rear for use as a garden room/garage and associated carport with associated landscaping works. The Pavilion Farway Colyton EX24 6EBRef. No: 21/2692/FUL | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Alteration, two and single storey extensions to dwellinghouse Cloverhayes Farm Smallridge Axminster EX13 7JNRef. No: 21/2693/FUL | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Walnut (T1) Reduce crown by 1.5-2m because of the excessive shading and proximity to the property and neighbouring property. Aiming for 2m clearance from the properties. The Shieling Globe Hill Woodbury Exeter EX5 1JPRef. No: 21/2695/TCA | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension Thyme Cottage Gore Lane Uplyme Lyme Regis DT7 3UURef. No: 21/2697/FUL | Validated: Thu 14 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Formation of rear single storey extension and associated works 26 Summerfield Sidmouth EX10 9RYRef. No: 21/2688/FUL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of front and rear first floor extensions. 79 Chineway Gardens Ottery St Mary EX11 1JQRef. No: 21/2687/FUL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Subdivision of original property into 2 no. dwellings, enlargement of dormer, separation at roof level The Coach House Hele Exeter EX5 4PWRef. No: 21/2685/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Prunus (T1) to be removed Silverdale Bickwell Valley Sidmouth EX10 8SGRef. No: 21/2682/TCA | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey front/side extension and addition of door to garage. 94 Wells Avenue Feniton Honiton EX14 3DRRef. No: 21/2686/FUL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Rear two storey rear extension to existing house Brambles Yettington Budleigh Salterton EX9 7BNRef. No: 21/2677/FUL | Validated: Thu 14 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Single-storey rear infill extension, extension to roofspace to include a rear dormer, juliet balcony, 3 x front rooflights and conversion of roof from hip to gable end with gable end window. 5 Pollybrook Town Lane Woodbury Exeter EX5 1NFRef. No: 21/2670/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of an agricultural building and erection of two polytunnels for use in horticulture and enlarged field gate access. Alderwood Barn Branscombe Seaton EX12 3BURef. No: 21/2666/FUL | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Roofing over yard area. Moonhayes Farm Upottery Honiton EX14 9RARef. No: 21/2655/FUL | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed loft conversion with rear roof dormer extension and velux windows to the front roof slope 1B Hillside Bendarroch Road West Hill Ottery St Mary EX11 1TTRef. No: 21/2651/FUL | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of an annex and pergola in garden 1 Cowley Barton Cottages Cowley Exeter EX5 5ELRef. No: 21/2662/FUL | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of garage and carport. Little Orchard Tytherleigh Axminster EX13 7BGRef. No: 21/2647/FUL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Extension and Access for Stoneshelves Farm, Yarcombe Stoneshelves Farm Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9LSRef. No: 21/2633/FUL | Validated: Thu 14 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Encapsulating of portacabins within a single structure to include single storey front and rear extension, two storey side extension with alterations to fenestrations. Unit 7 Flightway Dunkeswell Business Park Dunkeswell Honiton EX14 4RDRef. No: 21/2610/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Outline application, with all matters reserved, for the erection of seven dwellings. 6 Railway Terrace Broadclyst Station Exeter EX5 3AXRef. No: 21/2604/OUT | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Extend the garden boundary of Courshay Springs, Hawkchurch EX13 5XF, to include the adjacent 0.32 hectare agricultural land purchased in November 2020. Courshay Springs Hawkchurch Axminster EX13 5XFRef. No: 21/2577/FUL | Validated: Wed 13 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Certificate of lawfulness for the construction of single storey rear extension19 Scott Drive Exmouth EX8 3LFRef. No: 21/2532/CPL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Approved
• Two storey detached dwelling, and change of use of land to residential curtilage Foxenhole Quarry (Land South Of Tree Tops) West Hill Road West HillRef. No: 21/2531/FUL | Validated: Fri 15 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Lawful dwelling without occupancy condition Hidden Valley Cowley Exeter EX5 5ENRef. No: 21/2496/CPE | Validated: Tue 12 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Garage change of use, to a family room/studio accommodation for Air Bnb 20 Regents Gate Exmouth EX8 1TRRef. No: 21/2338/FUL | Validated: Mon 11 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

Almost £2bn will be invested by the government into building new homes on derelict or unused land in England, the chancellor is expected to announce in Wednesday’s Budget.

BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

The government said 160,000 greener homes could be built on brownfield land the size of 2,000 football pitches.

It also pledged to invest £9m towards 100 urban “pocket parks” across the UK.

However, concerns have been raised that not enough affordable homes are being built.

Nigel Wilson, chief executive of Legal and General, told the BBC’s Today programme the £1.8bn investment was the “right direction of travel”, but was “not enough scale right now”.

He warned people living in smaller cities and towns were being “left behind” due to not enough homes being constructed.

“You shouldn’t have to be rich to be green,” he said. “It’s very difficult for poorer people to get on the green (housing) ladder.

“There’s a lot of active listening going on (by the government), but we don’t just want CGI housing – we want real housing built across the UK.”

The government said the funding was part of its efforts to meet the UK’s net zero target by 2050.

It hopes the plans will help regenerate parts of England and support 50,000 new jobs.

The proposals also include creating so-called “pocket parks” – measuring the size of a tennis court – to create more green spaces.

More than 2.5 million people across the UK currently live further than a 10 minute walk from their closest green space.

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for housing, said people buying new homes would be “forced to fork out thousands to upgrade their homes in the future to cut their bills and reduce emissions”.

“In his Budget, the chancellor should bring forward new standards for greener homes to ensure all new homes are cheap to heat and produce minimal emissions,” he said.

The Labour Party and Green Party have not responded to requests for comment.

As well as funding for new housing developments, the chancellor is expected to confirm £65m to develop new software to help with the digitisation of the town planning system.

The first phase will see the system rolled out to up to 175 local authorities in England.

Does he have the “will or inclination” to stand up for women or does he just want to keep in with ‘the boys’?

The prime minister waffled about women lorry drivers having to urinate in bushes and female representation.

Sophia Sleigh www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

Boris Johnson has been criticised over a speech in which he heaped praise on police and talked about female lorry drivers urinating in bushes. 

The prime minister described how much he “loved” the police while speaking to women at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester earlier this month.

The comments were made two days after Johnson had been on TV urging the public to trust the police in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by serving officer Wayne Couzens.

However, some female Tories were less than impressed, with one telling HuffPost UK: “It was tone deaf really. Instead of lavishing praise on the police, perhaps he should have been talking about what they can do to rebuild trust with women.” 

The speech – made just a few days after Couzens’ sentencing – was described as “terrible” and “out of touch” by one Tory woman.

Johnson made the comments at a fringe event by Women2Win – a campaign to get more Conservative women elected.

He said: “Look at our policing I think the men and women in our police force are fantastic. I love them. I love the police and there’s several of them here protecting me, so I better be careful what I say. They are wonderful guys.”

In an apparent reference to Everard’s killing, he went on to say we all wanted to have a world in which women “can walk the streets safely” and their complaints are taken seriously.

Also in the speech, the PM pushed for more female representation in every profession, adding: “Look at the issue that’s obsessing the media at the moment – slightly too much obsessing the media.

“Why is it do you think my friends, it’s so difficult to persuade people to become lorry drivers and join the road haulage industry well why should they join when you when you’re told you have to urinate in the bushes?

“I’m speaking frankly about this, why should you when you have to sleep in your cabin, that’s not frankly what women want. It’s ridiculous.”

Labour MP Janet Daby has been calling for misogyny in police forces to be addressed and raising examples in the commons. 

She told HuffPost UK: “He is not helping the police by brushing off the issue and by keeping in with ‘the boys’.

“Critiquing the police is not about making them ineffectual or reducing their authority in society. It is about improving their standards and challenging them to be better and to provide a dignified and well-respected national service.”

She said sexism was “deep-rooted” in the police force and no different to the challenges other male dominated organisations have faced.

Daby said she was not convinced Johnson has the “will or inclination” to stand up for women.

A No10 spokesperson said: “This was a truly sickening crime – and as the PM said at the time, we know that officers will have shared in the shock and devastation felt by the whole country.

“We’ve been clear that the police must raise the bar and investigate crimes against women and girls thoroughly so that victims feel more confident coming forward to report them and more perpetrators are brought to justice.

“Our Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy – launched this summer – will also help drive long-term change to prevent more of these crimes from happening in the first place and ensure victims get the support they need.”

Conservative MPs are calling on the housing secretary, Michael Gove, to hand greater decision-making powers over new housing to local people in an attempt to boost acceptance of new developments.

Robert Booth www.theguardian.com 

Steve Baker and Greg Smith, Tory MPs in house-price hotspots in Buckinghamshire, are backing a plan to strip councils of decision-making powers over some new developments and incentivise residents instead to approve new schemes.

The proposal to extend localism comes as Gove and his advisers rethink government planning reforms, which ran into angry opposition in the Tory shires because they reduced local participation in planning and gave developers a freer hand.

Baker and Smith are backing an idea floated by the Social Market Foundation thinktank to allow residents of streets or villages to vote on whether to accept additional development in their close vicinity. The theory is that they are more likely to support allowing more extensions or new homes on underused sites if they stand to benefit themselves from the planning consents.

“It is clear that we cannot continue with our current planning system,” said Baker. “Costs and disbenefits are imposed on individuals without adequate inclusion in the process or adequate compensation being provided. We need to give the public the opportunity to say ‘no’ to planning proposals, but the incentives to say ‘yes’ because they see the gains for their community.”

The government has said 300,000 new homes need to be built each year to meet demand. In the last 12 months for which data is available – up to the end of June 2021 – 183,450 were built in England.

The report, written by John Myers, who runs the YIMBY Alliance (yes in my back yard) campaign, suggests villagers “should have more power to allow high-quality, attractive development next to the village when they see benefits for the community”.

“In towns or cities, residents of a stretch of street should have the right to conduct a street vote to set out the rules for new extensions or more ambitious development,” Myers writes. “A mews vote could similarly allow residents of houses surrounding a stretch of waste ground to give permissions to add new mews cottages.”

Greg Smith, the MP for Buckingham, said: “Planning in the UK is broken. Driving through our villages, signs proclaiming ‘no to xxx houses’ or ‘no new development here’ are commonplace – and politicians ignore that at our peril. This new paper proposes a fundamentally good principle of genuine localism and people power.”

Rishi Sunak admits £7bn transport pledge has only £1.5bn of new money

www.independent.co.uk 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has admitted that his £7bn pre-Budget pledge for new transport projects contains only £1.5bn of new money.

Extra spending will go on train and tram upgrades in England’s cities, Mr Sunak said as he seeks to fend off protests that pledges to the north and Midlands are being broken.

Pressed on how much of the money was new, the chancellor conceded £4.2bn had previously been announced. “What we’ve done is top that up by £1.5bn,” he told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday.

He added: “It’s a great example of levelling up in practice, and it’s ultimately just going to create growth in all of those places.”

Mr Sunak would not be drawn on whether metro mayors would also be told that HS2 will be built in full to Leeds, and whether a stop for Northern Powerhouse Rail would be confirmed for Bradford. “It wouldn’t be right for me to speculate,” he said.

Fears have been growing that the HS2 scheme’s eastern leg is to be significantly trimmed or even scrapped as part of the upcoming integrated rail plan.

The Independent has learned that a new station in Leeds and a new line connecting the city are likely to be given the go-ahead – but trains will be forced to slow down and run on existing tracks between Yorkshire and the Midlands in a scaling-back of the HS2 leg.

Labour’s West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin expressed her dismay at the lack of commitments over HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail from the chancellor – warning him not to “water down” pledges.

“What is important for us is that stop in Bradford. We can’t have a watered-down version of our transport network,” she told Sky News. “We have been underfunded for decades.”

She added: “Now is the opportunity for government to be bold, to be ambitious and to come with us with our vision for West Yorkshire to have that London-style transport system that will really make us that powerhouse we can be.”

Mr Sunak pointed out that Conservative mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street and Labour’s Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham had welcomed the announcements he had made.

“What the money announced yesterday was about is about what we call intracity transportation, and that’s about how do we get people who live in and around a city to be able to get into the middle of it and out again easily,” the chancellor said on Sunday.

Mr Burnham praised the government and said there was now more “alignment” between regional leaders and Whitehall, as his city region appeared to be the big winner from Treasury announcements.

It was confirmed Greater Manchester would be handed £1bn in capital funding for the infrastructure elements of the transport plan at the budget on Wednesday.

‘Prosperous’ cabinet ministers’ seats in line for millions of development cash.

www.independent.co.uk 

Seats held by seven cabinet ministers are in line to receive tens of millions of pounds of development cash despite previously being judged as not needing the funds, triggering fresh accusations of bias in “levelling up”.

The constituencies of Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, and Stephen Barclay, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, are on a list of “priority places” ahead of a new £1.5bn annual fund.

Yet all three – plus those of Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis, trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, chief whip Mark Spencer and Robert Jenrick, the former communities minister – had been classed as “most developed” and unlikely to receive grants.

The revelation, from research for The Independent, has provoked a fresh outcry over a post-Brexit shake-up of development spending, after delays that have already swiped around £1.5bn from needy areas this year.

Independent experts warned ministers are ignoring where “need is greatest” and making a mockery of Boris Johnson’s celebrated pledge to level up the country.

Labour accused the government of “funnelling money to richer cabinet ministers’ constituencies”, after similar controversies over different funding pots.

The long-promised UK Shared Prosperity Fund – to replace the loss of the £1.8bn-a-year EU structural funds – is already mired in controversy, after being delayed until next year.

The government promised to match the pre-Brexit grants – to build local economies by attracting businesses and jobs – but even a stopgap £220m fund, for 2021-22, has yet to hand out any money.

A total of 100 “priority places” were announced, across England, Scotland and Wales, for that stopgap UK Community Renewal Fund to help them “prepare” for grants from the £1.5bn Shared Prosperity Fund to follow next year, although other areas will also be eligible.

That list sparked anger by excluding some poorer areas – Liverpool, Sheffield, Knowsley, Carlisle, Plymouth and Preston – that received the EU funds.

Now research by the House of Commons library has revealed that seven cabinet ministers’ seats were in low-priority “most developed” areas under the old scheme – but are now first in line for many millions of pounds each.

They are in the local authorities of Richmondshire, in North Yorkshire (Mr Sunak’s constituency), King’s Lynn & West Norfolk (Ms Truss’s), Fenland, in northeast Cambridgeshire (Mr Barclay’s), Newark and Sherwood, in Nottinghamshire (Mr Spencer’s and Mr Jenrick’s), Northumberland (Ms Trevelyan’s) and Great Yarmouth (Mr Lewis’s).

Of the 49 council areas in England that were considered “most developed” but are now “priority places”, no fewer than 35 have Conservative MPs, or a majority of Conservative MPs.

The New Economics Foundation think tank hit out at the way the fund has been set up, accusing ministers of wasting “a golden opportunity” to target areas still suffering from the loss of old industries.

“These delays and its allocation process – which seems to pay little heed to where the need is greatest – are a missed opportunity to give people greater control over their local economies,” said Frances Northrop, NEF associate fellow.

Professor Steve Fothergill, of the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University, also condemned a “badly flawed” process that would aid “distinctly prosperous areas” at the expense of poorer ones.

He criticised the use of local authority district data – when local economies stretched much wider – and population density as a criteria, “a discriminator in favour of rural areas” which tend to be Tory.

“The civil servants have screwed this up with a formula that’s generated some bizarre and silly results,” Prof Fothergill said, while rejecting the idea of a “political fix”.

He added: “EU structural funds have been the largest source of funding for economic development for 30 years. The government can’t be serious about its levelling up agenda if this list is used for allocation of the Shared Prosperity Fund.”

And Steve Reed, the shadow communities secretary, said: “Funnelling money to richer cabinet ministers’ constituencies, at the expense of poorer ones, will do nothing to fix the regional inequalities the Conservatives have created and worsened over the last decade.”

The Shared Prosperity Fund is due to start next April, but bids have not yet been sought – and there are doubts over whether all funding will be replaced, with only an annual “average” of £1.5bn to be spent.

With ministers and officials in Whitehall making the decisions on allocations, there are also fears of a power-grab that will undermine the union.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities defended the way areas were chosen and confirmed it would enable them “to take full advantage of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund when it launches next year”.

“The selection process for the UK Community Renewal Fund is transparent, robust and fair to help identify areas most in need of funding,” a spokesperson said.

New evidence has emerged that the government is paving the way to implement “plan B” measures in England to combat the spread of Covid-19, amid warnings from health chiefs that a “vortex of pressures” is encircling the NHS.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com 

In the clearest sign to date that Whitehall is actively considering additional measures, the Observer has learnt that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) contacted local authorities on Friday to canvass their level of support for the “immediate rollout of the winter plan – plan B”.

The disclosure comes as senior doctors warn that operations are already being cancelled due to NHS staffing shortages and scientists warn of “a triple whammy” of respiratory illnesses this winter, with Covid, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes cold-like symptoms but can be serious for children and older adults.

Boris Johnson has so far publicly resisted suggestions that he should order the implementation of plan B, a menu of measures which includes the use of vaccine passports at higher-risk venues and mass gatherings, as well as legally mandating the use of face masks in some settings.

However, in a memo marked “official – sensitive”, the agency states that it was urgently seeking the views of council chief executives and leaders to be fed directly into the Cabinet Office. “This is a tight turnaround as you might appreciate and so a response by close of play would be really helpful,” it states.

A UKHSA spokesperson said they would not comment on leaks, adding: “It is part of UKHSA’s role to provide advice to the government on the ongoing response to the pandemic.” A government spokesperson said: “We are monitoring all the data closely, and the prime minister has been clear that it does not yet show that plan B is necessary. But it is ready should we need to act to avoid a rise in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.”

Downing Street is still hoping that an accelerated booster jab programme can fend off the need for additional measures.

The prime minister on Saturday issued a desperate call to arms for everyone over 50 to have a booster jab when offered one. “Vaccines are our way through this winter,” Johnson said. “We’ve made phenomenal progress but our job isn’t finished yet, and we know that vaccine protection can drop after six months. To keep yourself, your loved ones, and everyone around you safe, please get your booster when you get the call.

“This is a call to everyone, whether you’re eligible for a booster, haven’t got round to your second dose yet, or your child is eligible for a dose – vaccines are safe, they save lives, and they are our way out of this pandemic.”

A further 44,985 Covid cases were reported on Saturday, more than 4,000 fewer than the previous day. Another 135 deaths were reported in England. It came as one of the government’s scientific advisers said he feared another “lockdown Christmas”. Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said putting measures in place now in order to “get transmission rates right down” was key to having “a wonderful family Christmas where we can all get back together”.

Despite ministerial claims that thousands of beds remain available in the NHS, senior doctors said that operations were already being cancelled. Dr Stephen Webb, president of the Intensive Care Society, said: “In many places, the planned urgent surgery that needs to be done is being cancelled. This is not because of a lack of physical beds, it’s because of a lack of staffing to be able to open those beds. We’ve heard about urgent cardiac surgery being cancelled, major bowel surgery being cancelled, because these patients needs post-operative intensive care beds. That’s not just in one or two areas – that’s across the country.”

NHS officials warned that Covid pressures were adding to staffing issues, efforts to deal with surgery backlogs, long waits in emergency departments and difficulties caused by other infections. “It’s a whole bundle of issues coming together, which form a vortex of pressure,” said Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers. “What Covid has done is exacerbated these challenges and thrown some extra things in.”

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, who has already called for plan B measures, said: “You [the government] have got to recognise that we need a national mobilisation. You’ve got to recognise there is a health and care crisis coming over the next three or four months and accept it, acknowledge it and encourage the public to do everything they can to help. We may need to just get used to the fact that the booster campaign needs to happen every six months and prepare for that, so I welcome the fact that government has stepped up the message there.”

A senior scientist also warned that the nation faces “a triple whammy” of respiratory illnesses this winter. On top of Covid and flu, comes the threat from disease triggered by RSV, one of the most common causes of coughs and colds in winter. For most people, infection causes mild respiratory illness but in the very young and the elderly, RSV infections can trigger severe illnesses such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia and can lead to hospitalisation and even death.

“We had very few – almost no cases – of RSV last year and that is a worry,” said virologist Prof David Matthews of Bristol University. “Immunity to RSV only lasts a couple of years after previous infections. Because of lockdown RSV rates were very low in the UK last winter. That means there is very little RSV immunity left in the population. For good measure there is no RSV vaccine to protect against the disease.”

The country is now highly vulnerable to RSV infections, Matthews said. “That is a real worry because infections are very capable of putting both the elderly and the very young in hospital and at present we probably have very little immunity to the disease.

“Together with influenza and Covid-19 we are facing a triple whammy this winter, one that could have a grim impact on the NHS. It is extremely worrying. It is another reason we need to keep Covid cases to a minimum and get vaccines – boosters and for children – into as many people as possible.”

“….Unfortunately, the government’s refusal to take COVID seriously since ‘Freedom Day’ has only encouraged the idea that COVID isn’t worth worrying about. Doing nothing now will just make it worse. This pandemic is far from over, and whilst it seems some would rather bury their heads in the sand, COVID-19 and its new variants have other plans.”  Professor Tim Spector

There are 11 areas of Devon within the ‘purple zone’ for high Covid infections.

[The Devon County Dashboard is beginning to show increases in infections amongst all groups except the 80+. Time for a policy change? – Owl]

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

The latest Government figures, which cover the seven day period between October 11-17, show that the 11 areas have rates of more than 800/100,000, with three areas over the 1000/100,000 mark, indicating more than one per cent of the population tested positive in seven days.

Tiverton East is the Covid capital of the Devon, with rates of 1212/100,000, closely followed by Kilmington, Colyton & Uplyme on 1130/100,000 and Winkleigh & High Bickington on 1086/100,000.

Woolwell & Lee Mill, Tiverton North & Outer, Ottery St Mary & West Hill, Hatherleigh, Exbourne & North Tawton, Tedburn, Shillingford & Higher Ashton, Willand, Sampford Peverell & Halberton, Okehampton and Honiton South & West are also all above the 800/100,000 mark and thus are shown in purple on the Government map.

At the other end of the scale, Central Exeter is the only area of Devon with a rate below 100/100,000, with St Thomas East, Pennsylvania & University, and St James’s Park & Hoopern also among the five lowest areas in Devon.

Infection rates in Devon are currently at 482/100,000, and have risen 25 per cent in the past week, although the rate of growth has been slowing down.

Mid Devon is 66^th, West Devon is 76^th, East Devon 93^rd, Torridge 125^th, North Devon 153^rd, Plymouth 164^th, South Hams 190^th, Teignbridge 196^th, Torbay 218^th, and Exeter 261^st out of 315 regions for infection rates

Devon Covid infection rates

The rates though are as high as they have been in the county since August 24.

Rates in 0-19s are the highest of any age group, but only in Torridge are they currently falling.

Official Government figures showed that numbers of patients at Torbay Hospital have gone from 18 to 24, North Devon District Hospital had risen from 15 to 17, while Derriford Hospital rose from 40 to 49, but in Exeter, numbers are down from 34 to 28.

In the last week, there has been seven deaths in Devon, none in Plymouth, and one in Torbay.

Online article contains a full listing of area infection rates. 

From the Devon Covid Dashboard for East Devon

A few weeks ago the rise in Covid case rates was concentrated in the 0-19 and 10-19 year old age groups, most likely attributable to school children and their families. Now all age groups except the 80+ are showing increases as the infection spreads more widely in the community. So far the government is holding Plan B on ice. A prudent government would also be preparing a Plan C. – Owl

Quote from Professor Tim Spector – (Owl’s emphasis):

“….As feared, cases have spilled over into the older age group which will certainly lead to more hospitalisations and deaths. The UK needs to act now to prevent the situation from escalating out of control ahead of winter. 

The two main reasons we’re seeing cases back at January peaks are the UK’s flagging vaccine programme, which has failed to get more than 67 percent of the population double vaccinated, and lifting most restrictions too early. As the ZOE COVID Study shows, the majority of new cases in the UK are in the unvaccinated. More needs to be done to encourage, cajole and educate people into getting their jabs, and support those who need them to get their booster shots. I’d also welcome the return of simple measures, such as wearing masks on public transport and in crowded, poorly-ventilated places, avoiding large indoor gatherings and working from home where possible. Unfortunately, the government’s refusal to take COVID seriously since ‘Freedom Day’ has only encouraged the idea that COVID isn’t worth worrying about. Doing nothing now will just make it worse. This pandemic is far from over, and whilst it seems some would rather bury their heads in the sand, COVID-19 and its new variants have other plans.”