Heavy precipitation that can damage crops is also on the rise, since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. “In times when there is extreme heat or extreme precipitation, by protecting plants in this manner, it can actually benefit them,” says Madhu Khanna, an economist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who also won funding from the USDA’s new agrivoltaics grant. “So that’s another factor that we want to look at.” 

By Kemal Pasha swiftheadline.com

Khanna will be studying what the ideal solar array might be for a particular crop, for instance, if it needs bigger or smaller gaps between panels to let sunlight pass through. Height, too, is an issue: Corn and wheat would need taller panels, while shrubby soybeans would be fine with a more squat variety. 

Thanks to those gaps, crops grown under solar panels aren’t bathed in darkness. But, generally speaking, the light is more diffuse, meaning it’s bouncing off of surfaces before striking the plants. This replicates a natural forest environment, in which all plants, save for the tallest trees, hang out in the shade, soaking up any sunbeams that break through. 

Barron-Gafford has found that a forestlike shading under solar panels elicits a physiological response from plants. To collect more light, their leaves grow bigger than they would if planted in an open field. He’s seen this happen in basil, which would increase that crop’s yield. Barron-Gafford has also found that the pepper Capsicum annuum, which grows in the shade of trees in the wild, produces three times as much fruit in an agrivoltaic system. Tomato plants also grow more fruit. This is likely due to the plants being less stressed by the constant bombardment of sunlight, to which they’re not evolutionarily adapted.

But every crop is going to be different, so scientists have to test each to see how they react to shade. “For example, we probably wouldn’t recommend that somebody plant summer squash directly in the deepest shade, directly under a panel,” says Mark Uchanski, a horticultural scientist at Colorado State University who’s studying agrivoltaics and tested that exact scenario. “The better location for that might be further out toward the edges where it’s more likely to get a little bit more sun, because we did see a yield decrease in that case.” 

While setting up the panels entails some up-front costs, they might actually make farmers some money, as Kominek told Grist in this 2020 story before his panels were in place. They’d produce energy to run the farm, and the farmer can sell any surplus back to a utility. And since some plants—like those salsa ingredients in Barron-Gafford’s experiments—will use less water, that can reduce irrigation expenses. “If we can actually allow farmers to diversify their production and get more out of the same land, then that can benefit them,” says Khanna. “Having crops and solar panels is more beneficial for the environment than solar panels alone.” 

This kind of setup also cools the solar panels in two ways: Water evaporating from the soil rises up towards the panels, and plants release their own water. This is dandy for the panels’ efficiency, because they actually perform worse when they get too hot. They generate an electric current when the sun’s photons knock electrons out of atoms, but if they overheat, the electrons get overexcited and don’t generate as much electricity when they’re dislodged. 

Courtesy of Greg Barron-Gafford

A Devon woman [Dr Cathy Gardner] who is challenging the government over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic says a report from MPs has “skipped over” the initial failure to protect care home residents who were “sitting ducks”.

[The High Court judicial review starts on Tuesday, October 19.]

Edward Oldfield www.devonlive.com

Dr Cathy Gardner, from Sidmouth, has brought the case following the death of her father Michael Gibson, at the age 88 in a care home in April 2020, early in the first lockdown.

Dr Gardner, who has a Phd in virology, claims that the UK Government, and NHS England, unlawfully failed to do enough to protect the right to life of vulnerable care home residents in the early response to the virus.

A report from MPs on the Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, published on Tuesday, said the UK’s preparation for a pandemic was far too focused on flu, while ministers waited too long to push through lockdown measures in early 2020.

In the wide-ranging study stretching to 151 pages, MPs criticised the fact community testing was abandoned in March 2020 as a “seminal error”, said NHS test and trace was too slow and failed to have a big impact, and that thousands of people died in care homes partly due to a policy of discharging people from hospital without testing.

The MPs concluded that the “decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”.

Dr Gardner, who has a science background and worked in the pharmaceutical industry, said: “For me, the section on social care skipped over the surface. It mentions in the first paragraph that the arrangements to protect the elderly were of vast importance, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, but it does not go back to mention what were the measures to protect the elderly, what should have been done, and if they were not done, why not.”

She added: “Nothing was done for people in care homes. They were sitting ducks. The government has a legal duty to protect the most vulnerable. We have asked what steps were taken over the infamous protective ring around care homes, which was not there – we know it was not there.”

Dr Gardner, who represents Sidmouth Town on East Devon Council and is a member of the East Devon Alliance, has raised more than £130,000 with a public appeal to fund a legal challenge to the government, but the campaign is still £35,000 short of the total amount needed.

She said she was partly bringing the case in memory of her father, who was an assistant registrar and filled out thousands of death certificates. Dr Gardner said his own certificate is inaccurate as he was not tested for Covid, but it states his death was due to “probable” Covid-19, suspected to have been caught from a patient discharged from hospital to his care home in Oxfordshire.

Dr Gardner is bringing the judicial review alongside Fay Harris, whose father also died with Covid-19 in a care home. They argue certain key government policies and decisions led to a “shocking death toll” of more than 20,000 care home residents from Covid between March and June 2020. These include a policy of discharging around 25,000 patients from hospital into care homes – including the homes of the claimants’ fathers – without testing and proper isolation.

A judge has allowed the case to go forward to a full hearing which is due to take place over four days in the High Court, starting on Tuesday, October 19.

Dr Gardner said: “I would like the ministers involved to admit that they made mistakes, and that those mistakes cost lives. I am not interested in an apology, but I think the failure to apologise is disgusting. To me it is about admitting they were wrong. It is about the law, it is about, did you do what you were supposed to do?

“You had a legal duty to try and protect the elderly, just admit that you did not do it, and you should do better. Just have some humility about this, rather just waving the vaccine around like some shiny distraction.”

The claim to be heard in the High Court in London states that the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, “unlawfully failed to protect care home residents from the three principal routes of transmission of Covid: infection by other residents, by external visitors to care homes, and by care home staff.”

Dr Gardner said the claim sets out that the government failed to consider the health and wellbeing of care home residents when hospital patients were released without testing, or advice to care home staff on PPE or isolating new arrivals.

She said the government had so far refused to hand over key documents explaining why decisions were made.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Stephen Barclay defended the government’s handling of the pandemic. He told Sky News’ Kay Burley the Government “did take decisions to move quickly”, including on vaccines, and that both scientists and ministers were acting on information they had at the time.

However, he admitted he had “not had chance to read” the MPs’ report, which was circulated to the media under embargo on Monday morning and also sent to Government departments, including his own Cabinet Office.

Mr Barclay said: “It was an unprecedented pandemic, we were learning about it as we went through and of course, with hindsight, there’s things we know about it now that we didn’t know at the time.

“Of course there are going to be lessons to learn, that’s why we’ve committed to an inquiry, but the Government took decisions at the time based on the scientific advice it received, but those scientists themselves were operating in a very new environment where they themselves were learning about the pandemic.”

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Barclay was asked if the Government was too slow to go into the first lockdown – a key criticism in the MPs’ report. He said: “Well I think there is an issue there of hindsight, because at the time of the first lockdown the expectation was that the tolerance in terms of how long people would live with lockdown for was a far shorter period than actually has proven to be the case, and therefore there was an issue of timing the lockdown and ensuring that that was done at the point of optimal impact.

“And so it is a point of hindsight to now say that the way that decision was shaped and how long we could lock down for… because we now know that there was much more willingness for the country to endure that than was originally envisaged.”

Mr Barclay denied there had been groupthink on handling the pandemic, even though former health secretary and fellow Tory MP Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the Commons health committee, said there had been.

“No, I don’t accept that, and we followed the scientific advice throughout. We protected the NHS from the surge of pressure that we saw in other countries, such as Italy, and we can’t apply hindsight to the challenges that we faced,” Mr Barclay said.

Asked whether he agreed, however, that it was an “appalling error” not to introduce a second lockdown earlier, even though scientists on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) recommended one six weeks before it was introduced, Mr Barclay said: “No I don’t, because I think there were difficult judgments to be made. We followed the scientific advice throughout, we took action to protect our NHS, we got a vaccine deployed in record time, but I don’t shy away from the fact that there will be lessons to learn.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, when Covid-19 emerged in China, MPs said the UK policy was to mistakenly take a “gradual and incremental approach” to interventions such as social distancing, isolation and lockdowns. They said this was “a deliberate policy” proposed by scientists and adopted by UK governments, which has now been shown to be “wrong” and led to a higher death toll.

The MPs concluded that the “decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”.

After hearing evidence from people including the Prime Minister’s former adviser, Dominic Cummings, and former health secretary Matt Hancock, the MPs said it was only in the days leading up to the March 23 lockdown that people within Government and advisers “experienced simultaneous epiphanies that the course the UK was following was wrong, possibly catastrophically so”.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Mr Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018, admitted he was part of the “groupthink” that focused too much on flu and failed to adequately plan for a pandemic such as Covid.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the UK should have locked down earlier and “the Prime Minister is of course ultimately responsible, but some of the advice that he got was also wrong”.

Mr Hunt added: “There was a groupthink that the way you tackle a pandemic should be similar to a flu pandemic, I was part of that groupthink too when I was health secretary.”

Questioned on the impact of the Prime Minister’s personality early on in the pandemic, and whether Boris Johnson did not want to shut down the nation in case it was “unpopular”, Mr Hunt said that “every prime minister’s personality matters but in this particular case, on those particular decisions, he was following the scientific advice, and the question we have to ask is why across the whole of the system in those early months, everyone was advising the wrong approach?”

Mr Hunt also said that when images of the pandemic in Italy hit TV screens in the UK, the focus was on hospitals rather than other places such as care homes.

He added: “We say this was like a football match with two very different halves, and yes there were those very serious errors that… led to many tragedies.

“But in the second half of the match, we have the vaccine programme which was, we say, the most effective initiative in the history of British science and public administration, we had the discovery of treatments like dexamethasone in the UK which saved a million lives worldwide, we had that extraordinary response in the NHS which saw everyone who needed a ventilator and an intensive care bed, got one.”

Meanwhile, Tory MP Greg Clark, who chairs the Commons science committee, told BBC Breakfast that “other countries elsewhere in the world, particularly in East Asia” quickly mobilised testing capacity so they could test people in the community and isolate them, which “allowed them to get a grip of the pandemic earlier than we were able to do”.

He said increasing testing capacity in the UK was “painfully” slow, adding that if everyone coming out of hospital into a care home could have been tested “then undoubtedly we could have stopped the seeding of infections into care homes”.

In a joint statement on the publication of the Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Report, Mr Hunt and Mr Clark said: “The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future.

“Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective. The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.

“In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right. We record our gratitude to all those – NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers – who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.”

Barnstaple town centre has been described as ‘messy,’ ‘unsafe,’ and ‘not a nice place to be’ in emails sent to a local MP.

Ami Wyllie www.devonlive.com

The revelation comes as Conservative MP Selaine Saxby announced findings from a months long survey asking where locals would like to see £6.5 million spent in North Devon’s ‘retail capital.’

Results from the survey showed that locals were in support of a budget dedicated solely to restoring, cleaning and maintaining Barnstaple town centre.

Constituents have told Ms. Saxby that they actively avoid the town’s centre due to its run down appearance.

Ms. Saxby said the ‘Broken Window Theory,’ which suggests that scruffy and unkempt neighbourhoods lead to crime and disorder due to their ‘social neglect,’ summarises the rapid decline of Barnstaple.

Work with Barnstaple in Bloom has been a short-term solution to the issue and Devon County Council and North Devon Council have both been invited to see the positive impact a ‘small amount’ of money can do.

Ms. Saxby hopes the Government’s investment will help put the centre of North Devon back on track as thriving hub, but know that financial backing is only the beginning.

She said: “This will not solve all the problems we are currently seeing like littering and anti-social behaviour”.

She added: “Barnstaple town centre needs to adapt and be a social destination, a place to spend time and not just money.”

While her survey found a lack of interest in pedestrianisation of the town centre, there was overwhelming support for improved public transport links, including the Barnstaple to Exeter train link.

Having a visible ‘front desk’ for the NHS, local Police and North Devon Council in the centre of town was also a highly supported idea.

Ranked as the most ‘economically vulnerable’ neighbourhood out of all 457 that Devon County Council look after, Barnstaple was awarded the funds as part of the Government’s ‘Future High Street Fund.’

Ms. Saxby has welcomed this funding, and wants to find creative ways to best spent the money and ‘build back better,’ while warning that a one-time lump sum is not a total fix.

She said: “The Pannier Market, Butchers Row, and the Boutport Street entrance to Queen Street car park are the current focuses of the Government and North Devon Council’s investment.

“These should not, however, be the only focuses.

“Investment and changes need to encompass and benefit the whole of the town centre and while I am encouraged with what is happening, we cannot wait around for the next big funding round.

“I will continue to lobby for government investment, but we do need our councils to do more, and we can all play our part by supporting the town centre, buying local when we can, helping keep Barnstaple clean and tidy, and reporting anti-social behaviour.”

Owl posted this comment yesterday:

“I really enjoy East Devon Watch, but please could it be in darker type – I find the grey print really hard to read. I have mentioned this before and was told it was up to the designer, so please could you mention it to him or her. Thank you. Best wishes, Liz Rhodes”

This is beyond Owl’s skills set, but help was volunteered by one of the original site designers who has “tweaked” the type appearance. For which Owl is very grateful.

Liz reports that the changes are “fantastic”.

A bit more “joined up” thinking might help as well. 

Owl recalls that the “promised”  GP surgery site on the Alfred’s Way development in Newton Poppleford was used by Clinton Devon Estates to build a couple more houses instead. The NHS, in its wisdom, however, insists that Newton Poppleford inhabitants must use Ottery St Mary GP facilities. The only way to get to the surgery by public transport is to go into Exeter and out again. A short journey as the crow flies takes all day by bus. There is a surgery on the Exeter to Sidmouth route!

Real sustainability should be a prerequisite of major planning decisions.

Plan for £34 million boost to Devon’s buses

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Devon could get a £34 million boost to its bus services, if the county council’s bid for a pot of government funding is successful.

The council’s ruling cabinet has agreed to bid for the cash from the government’s £3 billion ‘bus back better’ programme to improve local bus services across England.

But whilst the plan was broadly welcomed by councillors from across the political spectrum, one Lib Dem thought transporting people in “huge buses” was a blast from the fifties and that more people should be hitchhiking.

The county’s proposals, being developed in partnership with Devon’s bus companies, aim to make buses cheaper to use, greener, more frequent and more reliable. A public consultation will start across Devon in November.

Also included are plans for regional zone tickets to simplify fares, by working with neighbouring councils, and bringing in ‘young person’ tickets for 16 to 18 -year-olds, one of the age groups most heavily reliant on buses.

An additional £7.5 million could also be spent on bus priority measures to speed up journey times in urban areas such as Exeter, Exmouth, Barnstaple and Newton Abbot, as well as improving bus stops and other infrastructure in the rest of the county.

A council report said: “Bus is the main form of public transport in Devon, providing services to a large range of people, many of whom have no alternative means of transport. The opportunity provided by the government to bid for extra funding will provide a quantum leap in how the bus service operates in the future.”

Councillor Andrea Davis (Conservative, Combe Martin), cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport told the meeting: “It’s very ambitious, it supports Devon County Council’s carbon reduction. It’s about operating services, cutting fares, lots more services and frequent services so that residents have the choice over the mode of transport that they use.”

Councillor Alan Connett (Lib Dem, Exminster & Haldon), opposition leader on the council, said it was a “very exciting set of proposals” and added: “If successful it would bring an enormous benefit to Devon and for the bus passengers across the county who use them. There’s much to be applauded here and I really do hope the bid is successful.”

Leader of the Labour group Councillor Rob Hannaford (Exwick & St Thomas), while saying the “proposals to make buses greener, cheaper and more reliable is really welcome,” pointed to the current problems at Stagecoach South West, including a shortage of drivers and industrial action, as reasons for why the council should look into public ownership of buses, as has recently happened in Manchester.

RMT union members are currently set to walk out over pay for 24 hours on Monday 18 October. Stagecoach has offered drivers a 9.7 per cent increase, linked to productivity changes. It says passenger numbers are below pre-covid levels, with fares insufficient to cover day-to-day costs of running the serice. The RMT says the offer comes with strings attached which equate to “savage cuts.”

Devon County Council’s new plan calls for greater integration with the rail and coach network in Devon and better cooperation with other neighbouring councils to recognise that journeys often cross county boundaries.

The strategy also sets out targets for moving towards zero-emission vehicles. The council has been involved in two previous unsuccessful bids for reduced emission or electric vehicles. The report says: “The challenge in a county like Devon is the range of the vehicles versus the length of the routes operated.”

However, Councillor Julian Brazil (Lib Dem, Kingsbridge) said the report was a “massive, missed opportunity,” and claimed the council should be doing more to get people sharing smaller vehicles and even hitchhike.

“The old fashioned idea of transporting people in huge buses around rural lanes, or indeed on roads that were built for horse and coaches and not for double decker buses, I think is going back to the fifties.

“Instead, we should be looking to introduce some kind of hybrid bus-taxi service using the information technology that’s available to us, using people carriers. Looking to introduce things like a hitchhiking app that encourages more people to hitchhike, car-sharing…

“That’s what this report should be encouraging. More innovative, forward-thinking and ground-breaking ways of delivering truly public transport to all areas – not just towns, but to rural areas as well.”

The cabinet unanimously agreed the main principles of the plan, to submit the bid and to launch a public consultation. From the start of November, the Department for Transport will assess the bids submitted by each authority and respond with a funding package for the next three years.

PROPOSED BUS IMPROVEMENTS

Improvement to rural services

• Provision of at least four return journeys Monday to Saturday for all communities with a population of over 500.
• Exploration of alternative models of delivery including Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), expansion of Fare Cars or fixed routes

Evening and Sunday services

• On improved inter urban and city corridors; a service of at least three journeys per evening and on Sunday.
• Expansion of hourly night-time services for routes carrying over 2 million passengers* per annum. Inter-urban services
• Improvements to services identified in the Exeter Transport Strategy up to a maximum frequency of 15 minutes.
• Other services into Exeter to gain an additional journey per hour, plus those to strategic towns such as Barnstaple, Newton Abbot or Plymouth currently carrying over 100,000 passengers* per annum.

Devon “Lynx” services

• Strategic links improved between centres of population.
• Better connections with the strategic rail and coach network. Examples of possible links included in Appendix A.

City and town services

• Towns with a population of 20,000 to gain an additional journey per hour if carrying over 100,000 passengers* per annum.
• Towns with a population of between 5,000 and 15,000 to gain a minimum provision of an hourly off-peak service.

From a correspondent:

A friend fell in the centre of Exeter at about 8.30 pm on Saturday evening.  It was a bad fall and she had obviously hurt her arm and her collar-bone and was in great pain.  A local shopkeeper called an ambulance and 30 minutes later called again and was told there were none available. 

After one and a half hours lying on the concrete pavement the ambulance service sent a local taxi to pick her up.  The lady’s partner had to get her into the taxi for the journey to RD&E A&E and had to help her out when they got there as the taxi driver was not allowed to touch her.  

She had dislocated her shoulder and spent 12 hours in A&E before she was allowed home.

Ministers and civil servants are required by policy to set instant messaging chats to delete automatically, it has been revealed, as a judicial review over the government’s use of self-destructing messages was given the go-ahead.

Cabinet policy obliges ministers to delete instant messages

Haroon Siddique www.theguardian.com 

The not-profit organisation the Citizens says the use of disappearing messages, which has been described as “government by WhatsApp”, violates British law on public records and freedom of information.

Its legal challenge comes amid concerns that the likes of WhatsApp and Signal, which have a disappearing messages option, are being used to avoid scrutiny of decision-making processes, including on significant issues such as the government’s coronavirus response.

At a high court hearing in London on Tuesday, it was revealed that the Cabinet Office’s “information and records retention and destruction policy”, disclosed in response to the Citizens application for a judicial review, obliges officials to delete instant chats.

The policy says: “Instant messaging is provided to all staff and should be used in preference to email for routine communications where there is no need to retain a record of the communication. Instant messages history in individual and group chats must be switched off and should not be retained once a session is finished. If the content of an instant message is required for the record or as an audit trail, a note for the record should be created and the message content saved in that.”

The Citizens says making a separate note, as opposed to preserving the actual message, is insufficient to comply with the law. Other documents disclosed ban the use of personal phones, email and WhatsApp by ministers and civil servants. The Citizens, which is being supported by the campaigning law group Foxglove, says the policies are “a confusing, contradictory mess”.

It is challenging the lawfulness of:

• Use for government business of instant messaging services that allow messages to be automatically deleted, permanently, within a short period of receipt by ministers, civil servants and special advisers.
• Cabinet Office policy requiring the use of automatic deletion within all instant messaging services.
• Use for government business of personal devices, email and communications applications in breach, it says, of the government’s own policies.

After Mrs Justice Lang granted permission for the case to go to full judicial review, Clara Maguire, the director of the Citizens, said: “This is a good day for democracy. Lack of transparency has been at the heart of the UK government’s disastrous handling of the Covid catastrophe as today’s parliamentary report points out so clearly.

“It says that a culture of secrecy contributed to tens of thousands of excess deaths. We believe this case goes to the very heart of this problem and we look forward to proving government by WhatsApp is not only dangerous but also unlawful.”

The non-profit organisation argues the use of instant messaging makes it impossible to carry out required legal checks about whether a message should be archived for posterity. Information that could be useful to a public inquiry, or otherwise fall within the scope of a freedom of information request, may be lost as a result.

Cori Crider, the director of Foxglove, said: “Government by WhatsApp is an existential threat to Britain’s historical record. From people in positions of public trust, the law – and the country – require more.”

In July, the information commissioner announced an investigation into the use of private correspondence channels at the Department of Health and Social Care.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “Ministers will use a range of modern forms of communication for discussions, in line with legislative requirements, and taking into account government guidance.”

The joint parliamentary committee report “Coronavirus, lessons learned to date” can be found here.

A good summary of the key findings  can be found here.

A more critical review: “Hard hitting” Covid reports fails to land a single punch can be found here.

Two comments from Owl:

We  urgently need to know the: who, what, where and when; and

The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt’s participation as one of the Chairs, given his responsibilities as a former Health Minister, was/is totally inappropriate.

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary www.thetimes.co.uk

The findings of the joint select committee report into the government’s Covid response came as a surprise to no one, but to read the litany of monumental and tragic errors catalogued so clearly is still devastating.

We all remember watching in horror as desperate scenes unfolded in northern Italy last year and questions started to be asked as to why we weren’t locking down here. Instead, race meetings and European football fixtures went ahead. The pubs remained open.

We all heard the demands of the World Health Organisation to “test, test, test”, but here testing was abandoned in early March.

We were all angered as our brave NHS staff pleaded for PPE to replace the flimsy bin-bags they were forced to wear or visors and goggles they had to purchase from local DIY stores. Doctors said they were abandoned like lambs to the slaughter.

Most shameful of all was the failure to protect care homes. In the rush to free up hospital beds, the frail were quickly discharged without a test. The virus inevitably spread with an unforgiving ferocity. Boasts of a “protective ring” now ring sickeningly hollow.

The need to free up so many beds was a consequence of needing to find “surge” capacity in the NHS. But that in turn reflects a cold reality: that for ten years the Tories have run the NHS into the ground. The deepest financial squeeze in NHS history, cuts to 15,000 beds and shortages of 40,000 nurses meant we entered the pandemic desperately unprepared.

The reality is that the NHS and social care sector needed protecting even before the pandemic hit.

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The running down of our health service, social care and public health capacity meant that ministers were slow in their eventual response. As the virus began to spread rapidly in the UK, Boris Johnson took an approach that differed from almost every country around the world; he kept society open for longer, favouring herd immunity.

Government officials — experts in “nudge theory” — were sent out to tour TV studios extolling the virtues of allowing the virus to rip through the strong while the weak “cocoon”.

Nadine Dorries tweeted videos of a bucket overflowing with water to explain the approach. Inside government, figures joked of mass “chicken-pox parties”. Meanwhile, our dedicated public health medical experts (none of whom had a seat on Sage) looked on aghast.

The line being taken by uncomfortable Tory ministers is to say that this is all passing judgment with hindsight. But Labour raised questions with the approach throughout March 2020.

As country after country closed its borders or introduced testing of people returning home, in public statements we asked why the prime minister had not done the same. We demanded mass testing and contact tracing to be protected, and support for people to isolate when sick — a demand to this day still not fully met.

Highlighting the monumental scale of the failures experienced at the start of the pandemic is not being done for political point-scoring. It is crucial that the mistakes from the pandemic are learnt, to ensure that catastrophic failures on this scale never happen again.

This means starting a public inquiry now. There is no reason to wait.

But it also means preparing for the coming winter. As case rates remain high, we need proper ventilation for businesses and schools. We need the rollout of vaccinations for children to be sped up, and we need to target the areas that have the lowest vaccination rates to drive up the number of people being jabbed.

Our NHS too must be given support this winter. Today, the Royal College of Physicians has issued a stark warning about hospitals’ ability to cope with winter. No doctor should be forced to make a choice between Covid care and cancer care. But without a proper plan to keep infections down and reduce the pressures on hospitals this winter, it is likely that once again our NHS will be faced with this difficult choice.

Covid has not gone away. We can learn to live with the virus, but that is not the same as pretending that it no longer exists.

The lessons from this report must be that ministers keep on top of the virus — and that preparing for a pandemic can never come too soon.

UK’s high Covid case rates buck trend as western Europe outperforms east

Experts have suggested this may be because most western European countries retained significant distancing and other Covid-related restrictions when they opened up during the summer, while England decided to drop almost all of its measures.

Jon Henley www.theguardian.com 

Higher vaccination rates are translating to lower Covid infection and death rates in western Europe than in parts of central and eastern Europe, the latest data suggests – except in the UK where case numbers are surging.

Figures from Our World In Data indicate a clear correlation between the percentage of people fully vaccinated and new daily cases and fatalities, with health systems in some under-inoculated central and eastern EU states under acute strain.

The outlier appears to be Britain, which – though now overtaken by multiple EU states – has vaccinated a similar share of its population to most western European countries, but has an infection rate that more closely resembles those in the east.

Slower vaccination programmes in central and eastern Europe combined with an easing of most social distancing requirements over the summer have led to a dramatic surge in Covid cases in some central and eastern European countries.

Driven by the more infectious Delta variant, the Baltic states of Lithuania (771) and Latvia (737) have the highest rolling seven-day average of new daily cases per million, according to Our World In Data, with Romania (678) and Estonia (675) not far behind.

The same countries, with Bulgaria, are also enduring among Europe’s highest daily fatality rates per million, with Romania on a rolling average of 14 and Bulgaria on 13, followed by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on 9, 5 and 3 respectively.

Those figures stand in stark contrast to some of the best-performing countries in western Europe: new daily infections per million in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and France are more than 10 times lower, at about 38, 43, 59, 59 and 76 respectively, with figures for daily deaths per million similarly down at between 0.5 to 0.9.

Health systems in Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia are struggling to cope, with hospitals running at 80% to 100% capacity. Romania last week postponed all non-essential operations, Bulgaria is battling a wave of fake vaccination and PCR test certificates and Latvia has declared a medical emergency.

“If the current flow of patients continues, in one or two days the health system will collapse because we already don’t have enough place to accommodate the sick,” the director of Bucharest’s Matei Bals hospital, Cătălin Apostolescu, said last week.

On Thursday there were 14,457 new Covid cases in Romania in 24 hours, in a country of just over 19 million, while Friday’s death toll was the highest of the pandemic so far, with 385 people dying from coronavirus. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the country is envisaging sending critically ill patients abroad.

“I fear we are already in the Italy scenario,” said the head of the national vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiță, referring to the healthcare system in northern Italy becoming overwhelmed in March 2020 during the first wave of the virus.

The correlation with vaccination progress appears plain. Again according to Our World In Data, Bulgaria and Romania have the EU’s lowest immunisation rates, with just 20% and 29% of their total populations having received two doses.

Latvia and Estonia are performing better at 48% and 43%, but even those figures are a very long way from the percentages recorded by many western European countries.

Portugal has now fully vaccinated nearly 86% of its total population, Spain nearly 79%, Italy more than 68% and France more than 66%, with any increase in cases having only a very limited impact on fatality figures.

Official data shows more than 70% of confirmed infections and 93% of deaths in Romania are in unvaccinated people, “We are still a battlefield, sadly,” said Adrian Marinescu, the medical director of the national institute for infectious diseases. “Vaccination is often the difference between life and death for a vulnerable person.”

Bulgaria and Romania face the additional challenge of political crises. Bulgaria is heading into its third parliamentary election in less than a year while Romania’s government was toppled last week in a no-confidence vote, leaving politicians in both countries reluctant to impose tougher restrictions for fear of upsetting voters.

Britain is in the unusual position of having fully vaccinated a relatively high percentage of its population (just over 66%), but also having Europe’s fifth-highest infection rate, at 534 new daily cases per million people – not far behind the Baltics and between eight and 12 times higher that France, Italy and Spain.

After a hugely successful early vaccination rollout, the UK has been overtaken by seven EU states, partly because many continental countries began vaccinating children over 12 as early as June – although other factors, such as strong incentivisation through vaccine passports, have also helped boost vaccination rates in countries such as France.

While the UK’s relatively high vaccination rate means deaths per million are a fraction of the daily total in Bulgaria and Romania, they are still the highest in western Europe, significantly above such countries as Spain, France, Italy and Germany.

Experts have suggested this may be because most western European countries retained significant distancing and other Covid-related restrictions when they opened up during the summer, while England decided to drop almost all of its measures.

Germany and Italy, for example, still restrict large gatherings, while Spain enforces social distancing in schools. Many countries also require proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter public spaces such as museums and theatres, as well as cafes and restaurants, and masks are still mandatory on public transport and in shops.

Christina Pagel and Martin McKee, members of Independent Sage, an expert group critical of the UK government’s approach, wrote last week in the Guardian that the UK was pursuing what they termed a “vaccine just” strategy, while much of western Europe had opted for “vaccine plus”.

“Both require vaccinating as many people as possible,” Pagel and McKee wrote. But while Britain had relied only on vaccines – where it was now starting to fall behind – “face coverings and vaccine passports remain widespread across western Europe”. They said England, “not for the first time, is the odd one out in Europe.”

Coronavirus infection rates have gone up in all ten areas of Devon.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Torridge continues to have the highest coronavirus infection rate in Devon, as the area recorded a rate of 451.1 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending October 7, according to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency.

The lowest infection rate is in Mid Devon, where the rate is 291.8 cases per 100,000 people.

In Devon as a whole, the infection rate is now 357.9 cases per 100,000 population – slightly higher than the national average, which is 356.6 cases per 100,000 people.

A total of 4,330 people tested positive for coronavirus across Devon in the week which ended on October 7. The county-wide weekly total has increased by 566 cases compared to the previous week, which means the infection rate was up 15 per cent in the last week.

The infection rate is higher than the national average in 4 areas of Devon. It is lower than the national average in 6 areas.

Deaths

In the week ending October 7, a total of 11 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test across Devon, which is 8 fewer than the week before.

Cases reported in each of the ten areas

There was a rise of seven per cent in cases in East Devon over the week ending October 7, and the infection rate is now 336.3 cases per 100,000 population.

East Devon recorded 498 positive Covid-19 tests over the seven-day period, and that is 33 more than the previous week.

Teignbridge saw a total of 463 cases in the week ending October 7, which is 37 more than the previous week. That is a rise of nine per cent.

In Teignbridge, the most recent coronavirus infection rate is now 342.9 cases per 100,000 people.

In Torridge, there were 310 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 55 more than the previous 7 days.

Torridge has the highest infection rate in the region. The infection rate in Torridge is up slightly compared with the previous day and the week-on-week trend is up by 22 per cent.

In North Devon, the latest infection rate is 410.5 cases per 100,000 people and the number of cases has gone up by eight per cent.

A total of 403 people tested positive for Covid in North Devon over the seven days ending on October 7, which is 29 more than the week before.

In Exeter, the number of cases is up by nine per cent compared to the previous week – leaving the infection rate at 315.0 cases per 100,000 population.

There were 420 positive Covid-19 tests in Exeter in the week ending October 7, which was 35 more than the previous 7 days.

There were 241 positive tests over the last week in West Devon, which is 68 more than in the previous week.

The week-on-week trend in West Devon is up by 39 per cent and the latest infection rate is 429.3 cases per 100,000 people.

Plymouth recorded 1016 coronavirus cases, which is 126 more than in the previous seven days.

The latest infection rate in Plymouth is 386.5 cases per 100,000 people and that is up 14 per cent week-on-week.

The trend is up in Torbay, where there were 478 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 130 more than the previous 7 days. That is up by 37 per cent compared to the previous week.

The latest infection rate in Torbay is 350.9 cases per 100,000 people, which is lower than the national average.

South Hams is an area where the trend is up. The latest infection rate here is 293.4 cases per 100,000 people.

There were 258 cases recorded in South Hams, which is 17 more than the previous week – a rise of seven per cent.

Mid Devon, which has the lowest infection rate in the region, recorded 243 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 36 more than the previous 7 days.

The coronavirus infection rate in Mid Devon is now 291.8 cases per 100,000 people and is up by 17 per cent week-on-week.

Regeneration projects in Devon and Torbay have been awarded more than £8.4 million of Government funding.

www.devon.gov.uk

The Devon and Torbay One Public Estate Partnership has announced that it has received £7,056,470 of Brownfield Land Release Funding (BLRF), and £1,360,474 of Self and Custom Build Grant funding to help drive economic recovery.

Councils are supported through the One Public Estate programme to deliver initiatives which create economic growth by unlocking land for new homes and jobs; providing new opportunities to save on running costs or generating income funding; or transforming services.

The Devon & Torbay One Public Estate partnership is made up of 10 local authorities (Devon County Council, East Devon District Council, Exeter City Council, Mid Devon District Council, North Devon Council, South Hams District Council, Teignbridge District Council, Torbay Council, Torridge District Council and West Devon Borough Council) as well as the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon & Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, the NHS, and South Western Ambulance Service.

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills, said:

“The Devon and Torbay OPE Partnership has successfully received the full amount of its bid in this latest round of funding, highlighting the benefits of working closely together. All of these schemes will regenerate and redevelop sites to open up opportunities for housing and economic growth as we look to ensure a strong recovery right across Devon.”

The successful bids for BLRF Funding are:

Exeter City Council –

Exeter City Council has been awarded £5,966,470 for the following sites:

• Cathedral and Quay car park

• Mary Arches car park

• Bonhay Meadows

• Belle Isle

• Exeter Canal Basin

Councillor Laura Wright, Deputy Leader of Exeter City Council, said: “This is excellent news for Exeter. This funding will help kick-start some very innovative housing projects which have been identified for key strategic sites in Exeter. We need to create more quality homes in the city but, to protect the greenfield ridges surrounding Exeter, we need to prioritise building on previously developed brownfield sites. So it is excellent news that the funding is now in place to further progress these important schemes.”

Torbay Council –

Torbay Council is receiving £675,000 for the redevelopment of Brixham town centre multi-storey car park and £415,000 to carry out groundworks at Torre Marine.

The multi-storey car park was demolished in 2004. It is hoped that this funding can help deliver a scheme that will see up to 70 residential units built on site. The project will address the aspirations of residents by bringing forward more affordable housing in the area. The new housing will be built without the loss of any car parking spaces, delivering on Brixham’s Town Centre Regeneration Strategy.

Torre Marine has been the subject of various planning consents over the years but none have been delivered. The funding will be used to try to develop a viable scheme to build 78 Assisted Living care units to be maintained and managed by a registered provider. The aim of the project is to address an under supply of extra care units within Torbay, helping to reduce waiting lists for such specialist accommodation and improving health outcomes for residents.

Councillor Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council, said: “It is fantastic that Torbay has secured this funding to allow us to hopefully accelerate the development of these two key sites, if initial investigation works go to plan. In Torbay this summer we have seen record numbers on our housing waiting list and a severe shortage of care accommodation. The lack of housing supply has created a housing crisis in Torbay, therefore a project to accelerate the building of new housing is great news for our residents and local community.”

The Self and Custom Build Grant Funding has been awarded to:

Teignbridge District Council –

Howton Field £585,474

Orchard Lane £275,000

Teignbridge District Council Executive member for housing, Councillor Martin Wrigley, welcomed the funding: “Custom and self-build homes are an attractive option for many people so receiving funding to cover some of the high infrastructure costs on these council owned sites is welcomed. Our plans for 10 – 20 custom build homes at Howton Field near Newton Abbot are well advanced with planning permission already achieved.

“The Orchard Lane site at Dawlish was highlighted in our recent local plan sites option consultation and so any building would be subject to the outcome of that consultation, member consideration and approval as well as planning permission being sought for around six affordable custom or self build homes. If approved, some of the funding would enable us to offset the open space loss by improving play equipment on a nearby site.”

North Devon Council –

Bicclescombe depot £500,000

This government grant is going to enable North Devon Council to deliver the necessary groundworks and infrastructure to release the former Bicclescombe Depot site in Ilfracombe for up to 15 serviced building plots, including affordable housing. It is a great opportunity to open up a site to local residents to build their own homes, but it needs this up-front investment to make it suitable for housing.

There are over a hundred people on North Devon’s register seeking suitable building plots so there is demand for this type of opportunity. Once the Council has secured outline planning permission and delivered the infrastructure, individual serviced plots will be made available for those wishing to physically self-build their own home or those who wish to commission a new home that is delivered by professionals on behalf of new homeowners following a collaboration between a developer and an owner to design or customise their home to suit their individual needs.

North Devon Council’s Lead Member for Economic Regeneration, Councillor Malcolm Prowse, says: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring this site back to life and offer local people a chance to build their own homes. This site has long been a thorn in our side due to the complications on site making it unviable but thanks to this government investment, we can finally overcome all of those hurdles to the benefit of the community and the local economy.”

Almost £58 million has been allocated by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to councils across the country to develop brownfield land into quality housing to help people onto the property ladder while transforming derelict local areas.

An innovative scheme which has allowed Devon’s district councils to improve their kerbside waste collection services and improve recycling rates has won a national award.

eastdevon.gov.uk

The Devon Authorities Shared Saving Scheme was recognised as the ‘Best New Idea’ at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Celebration Awards 2021.

The award was accepted by Devon County Council working with and on behalf of five of Devon’s waste collection authorities, East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, Teignbridge and Torridge District Councils.

The scheme has led to savings of £6.8m in treatment costs for the County Council, and half of this extra money has been shared back with the five District Councils which has enabled them to improve their waste collection services.

It has also increased recycling rates for those authorities and improved recycling collection services for over 250,000 Devon households.

The Scheme has allowed the five authorities to change their kerbside collections knowing that savings that they generate in cheaper treatment costs or a reduction in waste volumes will be shared back with them to fund further initiatives and improvements.

It has also supported the introduction of separate weekly food waste collections and partly subsidised separate garden waste collections which has improved the amount of food waste collected.

Average recycling levels within the five District Council areas have improved overall from 47.9% to 55.2% with a reduction in waste volumes of 25kg/head (6%).

Councillor Roger Croad, DCC’s cabinet member responsible for waste said:

Congratulations to Devon County Council’s waste team for delivering this innovative scheme and our district council colleagues – this is a great example of Devon’s councils working together. It has improved local services for more than a quarter of a million people and it’s great that it has been nationally recognised.”

Councillor Geoff Jung, the chair of the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee (DASWC) and East Devon District Council portfolio holder for Coast, Country and Environment said:

I’m delighted that Devon’s councils have been recognised nationally. It shows yet again that by pooling our expertise and knowledge for the greater good of Devon we can, increase efficiency, improve recycling rates and reduce costs to enable us to continue to improve the services we can offer.”

A leading national charity is calling on the UK government to ban some domestic flights and do more to promote rail as a greener alternative to help tackle climate change.

Rob O’Connor www.infrastructure-intelligence.com 

The increasingly influential Campaign for Better Transport is calling for measures to curb the number of domestic flights with a ban on certain routes and the equivalent train journey made cheaper, along with mandatory emissions labelling on airplane tickets. It also wants to see Air Passenger Duty (APD) maintained – rather than cut in the upcoming Budget as the government has indicated it might – and a frequent flyer levy introduced.

The plan would mean an end to flights between Manchester and London, London and Edinburgh, and Birmingham and Glasgow, with people offered cheaper train tickets instead, and anyone taking more than three international flights a year would be required to pay a frequent flyer levy.

Paul Tuohy, Campaign for Better Transport’s chief executive, said: “Cheap domestic flights might seem a good deal when you buy them, but they are a climate disaster, generating seven times more harmful greenhouse emissions than the equivalent train journey. Making the train cheaper will boost passenger numbers and help reduce emissions from aviation, but any cut to air passenger duty – coupled with a rise in rail fares in January – will send the wrong message about how the government wants people to travel and mean more people choosing to fly. The government has led the way with bold climate ambitions, now it needs to take similarly bold actions to make those ambitions a reality.”

Campaign for Better Transport is calling for the following measures to help tackle climate change, reduce carbon emissions from aviation and boost rail passenger numbers:

• A ban on all domestic flights where the equivalent train journey is under five hours; [This would rule out domestic flights from Exeter to London, Manchester, Leeds and put Norwich on the borderline – Owl]
• Cheaper trains tickets to compete with budget airlines;
• No cut to Air Passenger Duty and a frequent flyer levy on international flights in the upcoming Budget;
• Stop all plans for airport expansion until ‘net zero flights’ are a reality;
• Make airlines label their tickets with comparison train emissions so that people can make informed choices.

Campaign for Better Transport is warning that without further measures to help reduce emissions from transport, the UK will struggle to meet its climate commitments. With the Budget falling just days before the start of the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, the charity warns that any cut to APD will damage the UK’s environmental credibility ahead of the international conference.

The charity argues that many of the most popular domestic flight can be completed by direct train instead, bringing the UK closer to achieving net zero carbon emission. When check in and landing times are factored in, many of the journeys take a similar amount of time by train, but the charity argues one of the reasons people fly is the cost of the equivalent train journey and that more could be done to ensure rail is always the cheaper option.

To prove the benefits of travelling by train, Campaign for Better Transport’s Paul Tuohy and Norman Baker, a former Lib-Dem MP and transport minister in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government between 2010-2013, ‘raced’ from London’s Piccadilly Circus to George’s Square in Glasgow on Friday 8 October by plane and train respectively. Door to door the plane journey was two minutes quicker but released almost seven times the amount of greenhouse gases.

Yesterday Owl wondered why Dominic Raab had not intervened in the spat between the Treasury and Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy mistakenly thinking that this might be part of the “Deputy Prime Minister” job description. Wrong! – Owl

Dominic Raab Not In Charge Of Country While Boris Johnson Holidays In Marbella

Sophia Sleigh www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

The new deputy prime minister Dominic Raab is not in charge of running the country while Boris Johnson is on holiday, No10 has said. 

Dominic Raab was demoted from his post of foreign secretary but handed the title of deputy prime minister amid a tussle in the recent reshuffle.

But despite Raab being made second-in-command, the prime minister’s official spokesman insisted today that Boris Johnson continues to be “in charge” while he is on holiday.

The PM is currently holidaying with his family in Marbella, Spain, following the Tory party conference in Manchester last week.

Asked if Raab would step in to run the country, the spokesman replied: “As you’ve seen, the prime minister continues to be in charge as is always the case.

“The deputy prime minister has an important role to play and including in stepping up for the prime minister in parliament.

“Obviously we’re in recess at the moment, but as you’ll have seen the prime minister has taken some calls with leaders already today and there’ll be others to follow.”

The spokesman said Raab, who is also the justice secretary, was not currently on holiday. 

Raab previously came under fire for his family break in Crete when he was foreign secretary as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban amid the withdrawal of western troops.

Johnson has also been criticisied for taking his holiday during the ongoing energy crisis which has left some industries reliant on gas warning of shutdowns over the winter.

But Downing Street defended Johnson’s decision to go away, saying he was continuing to work on government business.

“The prime minister continues to be in charge as is always the case,” the spokesman said.

From an environmentalist:

The Environment Agency require two East Devon Landowners to pay substantial fees for environmental damage and two environmental charities benefit £106,000.

The Environment Agency rather than taking offending companies and individuals to court for environmental infringements often apply for civil sanctions known as “Enforcement Undertakings”

When the EA decide to impose a sanction, they apply the same safeguards as when they decide to prosecute. They will make sure that the recipient of a notice understands the case against them by setting out the alleged offence and the reasons for the proposed sanctions.

They also consider the victims and third parties (where they are known to them) whose interests have been adversely impacted by the alleged environmental incident. 

The Environment Agency will 

• ensure that affected third parties are appropriately compensated. 
• encourage offenders to engage with the local community, assess and fully remediate the impacts of the environmental incident. 

Both infringements in East Devon that the Environment Agency has reported are for sanctions concluded in the last 6 months (Between April and Sept) are in the parish of Woodbury. 

Mr Richard H Parr of Higher Bagmores Farm in Woodbury has agreed to a sum of £82,000. 

The offence was for operating without an “Environmental Permit” for a waste operation – Regulation 38(1) to the disposal of waste at Higher Bagmores Farm, Woodbury between June 2016, and March 2018. Mr Parr has also agreed to carry out restoration work, to obtain advice from an external consultants, to cease all waste movements into the site, complete construction of silage clamps on his site and to cover the Environment Agency’s costs.

Mr Parr has agreed that his contribution of £82,000 to go to North Devon Biosphere Foundation which is the Management Strategy which coordinates the delivery of the Action Plan for North Devon’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.  Their stated aims are to provide biodiversity and visitor added value function on the Tarka Trail between Braunton and Meeth and on Cycle Way 27 between Willingcott and Ilfracombe and to add further value for the North Devon and Torridge sections of the South West Coast Path

F W S Carter & Sons Limited of Greendale Business Park and owners of Hogsbrook Farm in Woodbury Salterton has agreed to a sum of £24000.

The offence was for operating without an “Environmental Permit” for a water discharge activity and waste operation – Regulation 38(1). It relates to sewage pollution on Grindle Brook and burning of waste at Hogsbrook Farm, Woodbury Salterton, Devon in May 2019.

The owners of Hogsbrook farm have also agreed to the diversion of roof water, the carrying out daily the monitoring and emptying of storage tanks, to implement a new farm waste management strategy, with an assigned responsible person, to construct a new covered area, and to cover the Environment Agency’s costs.

The Owners have also agreed to contribute £24,000 to Westcountry Rivers Trust. 

The West Country Rivers Trust is a charity set up in 1984 whose aim is to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, and estuaries of the Westcountry for the benefit of nature, people, and local economies and helping our Westcountry rivers flow freely and teem with life, while valuing our most precious of resources, water. 

Correspondence received from Cllr. John Loudoun, Ward Member,Sidmouth Rural 

Planning Application: 21/1723/MRES subsequent to 18/1094/MOUT

Following the appeal hearing in front of a planning inspector in July 2019, the planning application 18/1094/MOUT to build a business park on the land east of Two Bridges Road at Sidford was upheld. This provided the applicants with outline planning permission to progress with building there. The inspector’s decision left only the scale of the site’s infrastructure and its appearance to be determined at a later date by the District Council.

The scale of the buildings is now covered by this latest planning application, 21/1723/MRES. I understand that the appearance of the buildings, their architecture, will still remain to be decided upon at a later date, probably in early 2022.

The applicants have over recent months, as will be evident from looking at the site, been undertaking some significant preliminary landscaping and flood alleviation work, not least straightening the course of the brook that flows through the site.

As the District Councillor for Sidmouth Rural Ward within which this site is located, I attended a site meeting on 1 October with fellow Sidford Ward District Councillor, Marianne Rixson, to meet with the applicants’ agent, Joseph Marchant. We wanted to look at what works have been undertaken so far and to understand where the proposed buildings would be located.

The site has clearly had significant works undertaken so far and to my mind the works look as if the applicants are doing what has been required of them. Indeed, we were told that in the southern third of the site where the flood improvement works have taken place there will soon be about 2,200 native trees planted there. I understand that across the remainder of the site considerably more trees and planting will eventually take place. We were assured that as a result of all of the planting the site will become more ecologically rich than when it was a field.

I believe that the applicants’ intentions are that building work would not commence for probably another 24 months allowing the initial planting to mature.

I understand that the flood improvement work will make the site less liable to future flooding allowing a greater flow of water through the site, reducing potential flooding in local lower lying areas.

I noted that all the current ground levels of the flood improvement area would be its future ground levels. The plans submitted with the latest application show the cut and fill across the site to create the base levels.

When trying to understand where the buildings would be located and their scale, we were able to use the “Proposed Block Plan” site plan that is part of the latest application’s document submissions to the District Council.

The key information about the buildings that I took from our discussions was –

• The site layout, as set out in the Block Plan, is the same as included in the previous 2018 application, and there will be fewer buildings than originally proposed when the site was reviewed as part of the 2012 Local Plan process.
• Many of the buildings will now be a storey lower than had been proposed in 2012 and are as proposed in the 2018 application. The planning inspector included this detail in Condition 4 of his decision.
• The ridge heights of the buildings will be roughly no higher than those of the bungalows facing the site on Two Bridges Road, with the exception of the two larger buildings at the front of the site (coloured red and light blue on the Block Plan) that would be about the same height as the former police house facing them on Two Bridges Road;
• All the buildings, with the exception of two larger ones (coloured red and light blue on the Block Plan) closest to the Two Bridges Road, will be single storey at heights of about 5 metres to their eaves and 6 to 6.5 metres at their ridges.
• The two larger buildings will be two storey office buildings at a height of about 6 metres to their eves and about 7.5 metres to their ridges.
• The buildings’ height detail was covered at the planning inspector’s hearing.

In the run up to the site meeting Mr Marchant provided me with an informal letter in which he set out the applicants’ intentions and approach to the final phases of developing the site. Mr Marchant’s intention was to try to ease any remaining local resident concerns about what is, and will, be happening at the site, and he has allowed me to reproduce the content of his letter. His letter is below –

“As you know, in late 2019, we sought to vary the Conditions on the Appeal Decision in order to allow the landscape works to be brought forward early. The original Inspector’s Conditions meant that no implementation could occur until all designs for the buildings and other built elements were in place. The adjustment to the wording meant that we were able to bring forward the archaeological dig and the earthworks to secure the flood benefits, along with the landscape provision for new trees, hedges, new Devon banks and the meadow as early as possible, such that the landscape has a chance to mature as soon as it can. The applicants and I could see the benefit of landscaping maturing as soon as possible.

As I explained to you, having worked in this industry for over 25 years, I do know that in most cases where development is proposed, local residents are naturally concerned with impact. Where planting or the level of landscape to be provided is a significant element, this is not always fully appreciated or understood by local people, and, in some cases, averting this misunderstanding can reduce concern. I am conscious that understanding plans of the site remains a difficulty for some. With the benefit of the earthworks related to the landscape area, the new Devon banks, the flood basin and the enclosure to the tree zones of the site, it is now possible to depict where the planting will occur and therefore to more easily interpret the plans. I am pleased that you have agreed to view these works with me.

It may be that the turfing and tree and hedge planting will have started when we visit the site. The seeding has already occurred. This is the meadow rich seed mix for the main flood improvement area. Turfing is due to start at the end of this week and into next. In respect of the Devon banks along Laundry Lane, until recently, it has not been possible to lay this turf due to the dry weather, such that it would survive. With recent heavy rain, we can now proceed with this. The tree planting will also start in coming days. My understanding is that over 2200 trees and hedge whips have been ordered and will be planted across the site as planned. The ambition is that by the early spring of next year, these planted elements will be well established and will have a full growing season ahead of them next year. Some of the trees that will go onto the site will be quite significant in size and hopefully within a year or two, will have a significant impact.

I would hope that on the site visit, we can look at this element of the investment, such that you can advise any local people that may come to you with queries. I think it will also be of significant interest to see just how much open space is allotted to the development, which I think will be of comfort to many local people. Again, this is an element that I think may have been under appreciated from the technical documents. A site visit should bring this to life.

The second issue which I think has been of concern to many local people, has been the worry that the development may be overbearing in its height. As you know, the recent appeal scheme detailed the layout, which is fully approved. The height of the ridges and eaves was supplied as an indicative figure. This indicative figure enabled the modelling of the Landscape Impact Assessment. As you are aware, the greater majority of the development is single storey. A few buildings are two storeys.

The concern of many local people was that the scale of the buildings may expand to more closely represent the scheme that was supported by the Inspector in the 2012 Local Plan Inquiry. This was a much denser scheme. To put to bed that concern, I can confirm that the scale, as now submitted, will be as detailed in the LVIA of the appeal scheme, to exactly the heights that were identified at that stage.

The current Reserved Matter application will hopefully avoid a worry from local residents that somehow the Reserved Matter would be submitted showing two and three storey buildings across the site. The scale that is shown in the Reserved Matters application which is currently submitted is as low as possible, particularly given that the greater majority of buildings are single storey.

My hope is that a combination of a large part of the landscape being in the ground, and a confirmed position from the applicant on the scale of buildings, will mean that those most affected by the development will hopefully obtain some peace of mind, knowing that the single storey scale of the majority of buildings, to match exactly with L002 Rev A and SK001, and the positioning and extent of landscape works will mean that the development is much less impacting than they had anticipated, giving regard to residents’ outlook and relationship with the development site.

I look forward to being able to explore these things with you so that when you are approached by local people, you are able to put them at ease”.

I have been asked by some residents about what they might usefully say as part of the consultation on the latest application, for which the closing date is 14 October. The application and its supporting documents are accessible at –

https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=QV41TVGHFQE0 0

Given that the latest application is in effect about scale, I hope that the information that I have obtained will assist residents as they consider whether they are reassured by the scale of the buildings. Whatever residents’ opinions on the latest application, these can be made directly to the District Council as part of its current consultation process.

Further, I hope that Mr Marchant’s letter is helpful to residents and that the wider information I have set out here is also useful.

Since this note was drafted the Sidmouth Town Council’s Planning Committee has met and considered this application. It was unable to support the application giving its reasons as –

UNABLE TO SUPPORT

The Council continues to oppose the establishment of employment land in this location but subsequent to the approval on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate, viewed the application regarding scale without prejudice.

Members were unable to support the application regarding scale as they felt that the location of larger and taller buildings (Blocks N & K) closer and more prominently next to the road was detrimental to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They suggested that those buildings could be relocated further back into the site so that the height and size of buildings increased as the distance increased from the main roadway.

As a member of this Committee, I participated in the discussions and I and share its concerns about the scale of the two higher buildings at the front of the site and would welcome anything that could be done to reduce their scale.

[Formal closing date for public comments on 21/1723/MRES is 14 October]

The Times argues in its leader that Boris Johnson derives a break: “it will have escaped no one’s notice that having expended so much energy on jokes in his speech, he had nothing left in the tank for policies.”

[Who is funding the tank refuel, they are getting very expensive these days? – Owl]

• Common Ash (T003) : Fell to ground level. Common ash (T005) : Fell to ground level. Common ash (T006): Fell. Retain trunk at 3m in height for habitat. Common ash (T007) : Crown clean. Common ash (T008) : Fell. Retain trunk at 3 m in height for habitat. Willow (T009) : Crown reduce by 2-2.5 M to reduce lever arm forces on pollard points and cavitated trunk. Common ash (T012) : Laterally reduce lower branches by 2-2.5 m to reduce weight on leaning trunk. Pedunculate oak (T013) : Crown clean. Common ash (T014) : Fell. Retaining trunk at 5 m in height for habitat. Common alder (T015) : Turn into standing deadwood monolith by reducing larger upper canopy branches by 2.5-3 metres Reason: Appropriate arboricultural management Land At Tillhouse Road (Cranbrook Country Park) Tillhouse Road Cranbrook DevonRef. No: 21/2622/TRE | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed side extension and rear extension. 7 Gulliford Close Lympstone Exmouth Devon EX8 5DGRef. No: 21/2613/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey side extension, alterations and car parking. Highridge Lyme Road Axminster EX13 5BQRef. No: 21/2597/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• (T1) Removal of 4x holly stems road side showing increasing signs of deadwood. Approximately 10m tall. Lots of deadwood road side and showing signs of dieback whilst leaning towards the main road. (T2) 2m reduction in height on Birch tree with long extending limbs. To be reduced by about 2.5m leaving the tree approximately 10m tall. Woodcote Charmouth Road Axminster EX13 5SZRef. No: 21/2607/TRE | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use from garage to home office with external alterations to include fixed glazing and two roof lights to the southern elevation and folding/sliding doors and glazing to the gable of the west elevation Maple House Bickwell Valley Sidmouth EX10 8SGRef. No: 21/2595/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Creation of a driveway to replace existing front garden. 8 Bridgefield Ottery St Mary EX11 1HLRef. No: 21/2601/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of two agricultural buildings to a single storey dwelling and associated works. St Andrews Harp Lane Aylesbeare Exeter EX5 2JLRef. No: 21/2592/PDQ | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Steel framed apex lean-to building. Coombeshead Farm Dalwood Axminster EX13 7HSRef. No: 21/2586/AGR | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• G1 Group of 8 lime trees repollard at historical pollard points retaining branch collars and maximum cut diameter of 65 mm To allow more light in to the understory following best arboricultural practices. Applehayes Oakhill East Budleigh Budleigh Salterton EX9 7DWRef. No: 21/2585/TRE | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 Turkey Oak , T3 English Oak – Reduce second and third order branches by 2.5 meters to suitable pruning point leaving a balanced shape following best arboricultural practices. The trees will have a Finnished height of approximately 10 meters and a radial spread of 4 meters with a maximum cut diameter of 75mm. T2 Oak fell This tree is a heavily suppressed specimen growing between T1 & T3 removal of the tree would allow more light into the property and allow for replanting on the hedge bank. 14 Durham Close Exmouth EX8 5QURef. No: 21/2584/TRE | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Direct replacement of an existing single skinned steel oil storage tank in very poor condition with a new double skinned (bunded) plastic oil storage tank Higher Budlake Cottage Budlake Exeter Devon EX5 3JRRef. No: 21/2591/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition 2 (approved plans) of planning permission 14/1144/FUL (Demolition of barns and erection of ancillary building housing swimming pool and car parking, erection of replacement dwelling and retention of pond.) to allow for alternative design of approved replacement dwelling Knowle Farm Colyton EX24 6SGRef. No: 21/2574/VAR | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single-storey front extension. 16 Springfield Road Exmouth EX8 3JXRef. No: 21/2572/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 Pine. Fell T2 Holly. Fell Redstock Bickwell Valley Sidmouth EX10 8SQRef. No: 21/2579/TCA | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of covered swimming pool (amendment scheme to application 21/1255/FUL) Field View Slade Farm Slade Road Ottery St Mary EX11 1QNRef. No: 21/2576/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of agricultural field to car park and addition of a 125m hedgerow. Wildwood Escot Escot Park Ottery St Mary EX11 1LURef. No: 21/2569/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawfulness for the demolition of existing garage, construction of new garage and ground floor rear extension and internal alterations.4 Claredale Road Exmouth EX8 2EERef. No: 21/2570/CPL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Condition 3 – Within 3 months of the date of this permission a detailed plan of the track’s appearance, accessed from the road shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority and shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details. Land East Of Sunnyside MemburyRef. No: 21/1107/DOC3 | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of an agricultural workers dwelling and associated infrastructure Sunnylands Dalwood Axminster EX13 7EARef. No: 21/2562/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of greenhouse to form holiday accommodation The Garden House Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9AERef. No: 21/2556/LBC | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Demolition of existing conservatory and porch, construction of single storey wrap around extension. Victoria Dairy Barrow Road Payhembury Honiton EX14 3HXRef. No: 21/2557/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of disused recreational land to garden use in association with 4 and 5 cranford close 42 Salterton Road Exmouth EX8 2EQRef. No: 21/2566/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• First floor side and rear extension over existing garage and study Heatherdale Talaton Exeter EX5 2RARef. No: 21/2554/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Side extension of existing single garage to be converted into a double garage. 1 Temple Mews Temple Street Sidmouth EX10 9AXRef. No: 21/2555/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Beech : reduce by 1 – 2m via thinning second and third order branches to leave a natural form with a height of approximately 14m and a spread of 5m. T2, Birch : light reduction by 0.5 – 1m of second and third order branches to leave a natural form with a height of approximately 12m and a spread of 3m. Gaunts Sid Road Sidmouth EX10 9AFRef. No: 21/2551/TCA | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retention of satellite dish on west lawn and raising of the chimney above woodburning stove Oak Tree Cottage Combe Raleigh Honiton EX14 4UQRef. No: 21/2546/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Partial demolition of existing side extension with flat roof, and erection of a single storey side extension. Meadow Lea Boughmore Road Sidmouth EX10 8SHRef. No: 21/2542/FUL | Validated: Sun 03 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side extension. 2 Church Lane Feniton Honiton EX14 3BYRef. No: 21/2547/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension Boycombe Farm Farway Colyton EX24 6EGRef. No: 21/2537/LBC | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension Boycombe Farm Farway Colyton EX24 6EGRef. No: 21/2536/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Two storey side extension 5 The Burlands Feniton Honiton EX14 3UNRef. No: 21/2533/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of land to the siting of 15 self-storage units Bottom Barn Broadhembury Honiton EX14 3LNRef. No: 21/2530/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Notification for prior approval of change of use from Commercial, Business and Service (Use Class E) to Dwellinghouses (Use Class C3) under Schedule 2, Part 3, Class MA of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 Former Natwest Victoria Place Axminster EX13 5ABRef. No: 21/2540/PDMA | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing conservatory, erection of a single storey rear extension and Installation of a garden terrace Woodstock Woodbury Exeter EX5 1JDRef. No: 21/2535/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Re-instatement of door between kitchen and living room and new partion wall in living room to create pantry off the kitchen Laburnum Cottage Smallridge Axminster EX13 7LYRef. No: 21/2538/LBC | Validated: Thu 30 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective installation of two storage containers in yard area for a five year period Unit 4 The Harbour Axmouth Seaton EX12 4AARef. No: 21/2521/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement dwelling Courtlands (Eden Turf) Dulford Cullompton EX15 2EQRef. No: 21/2523/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Application Reference Number: 20/1838/MFUL Date of Decision: 18/06/2021 – Condition Number(s): 2. – Conditions(s) Removal: To accommodate design amendments with the view to improve the quality and deliverability of the approved scheme. Drawing replacement. Eldin House Fairfield Road ExmouthRef. No: 21/2517/VAR | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Details of layout, scale, landscaping and appearance of the building and the means of access thereto, pursuant to outline planning permission 18/1196/OUT (Outline application for two bedroom detached bungalow with off street parking space, and demolition of existing building) Land North Of Macwood Drive SeatonRef. No: 21/2499/RES | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Reserved Matters Application (access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale) for construction of 150 dwellings including affordable housing, landscaping, allotments, NEAP and associated site infrastructure; pursuant to outline planning permission reference 17/1019/MOUT. The proposal includes the discharge of conditions 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 34, 36 and 37 of outline planning permission reference 17/1019/MOUT Land North Of Old Tithebarn Lane Clyst HonitonRef. No: 21/2490/MRES | Validated: Fri 01 Oct 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Erection of an outbuilding 43 Elmores Well Avenue Tithebarn Exeter Devon EX1 3XGRef. No: 21/2487/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of holiday let to dwelling Goldcombe Farmhouse Gittisham Honiton EX14 3ABRef. No: 21/2474/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Cleaning of War Memorial (listed building) using approved methods, re-cutting and re-painting of letters as required, removal of flagpole and fixings and making good. Minor aesthetic works and improvements to curtilage. Chardstock War Memorial Chardstock EX13 7BSRef. No: 21/2461/LBC | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective erection of protectapet fence barrier along fence perimeter 34 Monmouth Way Honiton EX14 2GYRef. No: 21/2452/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Addition of fibre cement weatherboard to front apex of house and application of render to present brickwork on the front elevation 10 St Marys Park Ottery St Mary EX11 1JARef. No: 21/2385/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement & relocation of fuel tank in garden; replacement of felt roof to extension with single ply membrane with sedum finish 26 Bell Street Otterton Budleigh Salterton EX9 7HSRef. No: 21/2348/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement & relocation of fuel tank in garden, Replacement of felt roof to extension with single ply membrane with sedum finish 26 Bell Street Otterton Budleigh Salterton EX9 7HSRef. No: 21/2349/LBC | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side extension, reduction in length of garage to install patio area at rear of property 2 Whitehayes Close Kilmington Axminster EX13 7RRRef. No: 21/2233/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of 4 replacement fascia signs St Bridget Nurseries Ltd Clyst St Mary Exeter EX5 1AERef. No: 21/2230/ADV | Validated: Thu 30 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Off road parking in the front gardens of properties 9 & 10 Millrise. 9 Millrise Luppitt EX14 4UARef. No: 21/1922/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Part demolition of existing work units, retention of brick offices and single storey extension Station Yard HeleRef. No: 21/1298/LBC | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Part demolition of existing work units, retention of brick offices and single storey extension Station Yard HeleRef. No: 21/1297/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

Making things up as we go along!

According to the Telegraph, Boris Johnson is reportedly now staying at a luxurious estate in southern Spain owned through a company by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, a government minister and close friend of the Johnsons. The house, according to reports, sleeps 13 and costs as much as £25,000 a week to rent, although it is unclear on what terms the Johnsons are staying there.

So, again according to the Telegraph, the Treasury on Sunday night accused Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, of making misleading claims about government plans to offer an energy bailout to struggling factories.

In a series of television interviews on Sunday, Mr Kwarteng admitted that factories facing closure because of soaring energy costs was a “critical situation”.

Questioned about whether he had asked for extra money from the Treasury to support them, he said: “I have not asked for billions. We’ve got existing schemes. I’m working very closely with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, to get us through this situation.

“I think he showed a great deal of flexibility when he allowed £500 million to be dispersed by local authorities for vulnerable consumers, and we’re working to see what we can do in terms of protecting industry.”

However, Treasury sources issued a swift rebuke to Sky News, with one saying: “This is not the first time the BEIS [Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] Secretary has made things up in interviews. To be crystal clear, the Treasury is not involved in any talks.”

Where is “Deputy Dawg” Dominic Raab, surely not on holiday as well? – Owl?

Radical plans for a new national care service under which health and social care would be delivered by the same organisation are being actively considered by the government for inclusion in a white paper next month, according to senior Conservatives and Whitehall sources.

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com 

The idea of local authorities and the NHS taking joint responsibility for social care, perhaps working from a single combined budget for the first time, would amount to one of the most far-reaching reforms since the NHS was founded in 1948.

At present, local authorities have responsibility for running social care services in their own areas. Critics say there is, as a result, insufficient incentive for cash-strapped councils to develop better care for people in their homes or in the community, as it is cheaper for them if those in need go into hospital where the cost is met from the separate NHS budget.

The result is that many people who could be cared for at home or in the community end up occupying much-needed hospital beds.

Similar systems operate in Wales and Northern Ireland, although there are variations in how much care is paid for by the state. The Scottish government is holding a consultation, due to end next month, on proposals for a National Care Service.

It is believed that health secretary Sajid Javid is examining how a new integrated service that would deliver better care and free up NHS beds across England could be delivered. It is understood there would be national standards for care, and conditions for carers.

The Observer has been told that prime minister Boris Johnson was keen to announce plans to integrate health and social care services last month when he revealed that National Insurance contributions would rise by 1.25 percentage points from next April, to raise £12bn a year for the NHS and social care. But at that time Downing Street remained unclear about how an integrated system could best work, so an announcement was put back.

Under the most radical option of all, local authorities would be stripped of any involvement for social care, which would come entirely under the NHS. Sources say, however, that this would involve too great an upheaval and prove hugely unpopular with councils, many of which are Tory controlled. Councils have already lost much of their responsibility over education.

Last night Tory MP and former health under-secretary Dr Dan Poulter, who works part time as an NHS psychiatrist, said: “There is a growing expectation that a substantive health and social care white paper will emerge in the next few weeks aiming to establish a national care service.

“If integration is to be a success, it is essential that reform does not just deliver parallel commissioning of health and care services but also services commissioned through a single pooled budget. Unified health and social care budgets are the only way to deliver both a more efficient health and social care system as well as properly joining up for the benefit of patients what is currently a badly fragmented system.”

Former Tory Cabinet Minister Damian Green, who has written extensively about social care added: “Running social care jointly between local authorities and the NHS would be an interesting idea but would of course still leave big questions about how you attract a bigger and better paid workforce, how you ensure appropriate housing so that people do not go prematurely into residential care.”

In his party conference speech last week, Johnson hinted at integration. He said: “In 1948, this country created the National Health Service but kept social care local. And though that made sense, in many ways generations of older people have found themselves lost in the gap.” He added it was not just about providing more money but reforming the system. “This government that got Brexit done, that is getting the vaccine rollout done is going to get social care done.”

The Covid-19 pandemic brought the social care crisis even more sharply into focus. Currently a shortage of about 120,000 care workers means 300,000 people are waiting for local authorities to assess their needs or provide care. In addition, many elderly people who end up in hospital because of poor local provision of care cannot free up beds once they are better because there are no places in residential care homes.

There are about 17,000 homes in England, most run as independent small businesses funded by local authorities or paying residents, making coordination with the large hospital trusts difficult.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Social care is in desperate need of wholesale reform but the cap Boris Johnson announced fails to provide the fix he promised. It’s vital care and health services are brought closer together to provide personalised care so people can stay at home and not be forced into a home.

“That’s why I’ve long advocated national care services, locally delivered within national standards, to provide the quality care people deserve.”

Sally Warren, director of policy at the King’s Fund, said: “In reality, people mean different things when they talk about bringing social care into the NHS. For some it means having social care services delivered by the NHS. For others, it means some shared accountability for how health and care services work together. Rather than spending energy shuffling responsibilities from local government to the NHS or vice versa, the important thing is to focus on improving the coordination of services so they work together to improve health and wellbeing.”