Dear Owl

I have fished our rivers for more than 60 years. Where we now are was predicted when the National Rivers Authority was subsumed into the EA in 1996.

The EA do not publicly accept that they are short of money and people and still employ people whose job is to promulgate platitudinous drivel.

I recently subscribed to a petition and have posted the government’s response below. It did not fill me with confidence.

Roland Craven, Ottery St. Mary

“Dear Roland Craven,

The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Give the Environment Agency the funds and freedom to protect English rivers”.

Government responded:

     The Government recognises the importance of protecting the natural environment and are investing accordingly to progress our 25 Year Environment Plan and its commitment to clean and plentiful water.

     We are determined to build back greener following the pandemic and progress our 25 Year environment Plan and its commitment to clean and plentiful water.

     The Government recognises the importance of protecting the nation’s natural environment and we are investing accordingly.

     The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Spending Review settlement provides a £4.3 billion cash increase over the rest of this Parliament to £7 billion in 2024-25.

     The settlement will allow us to deliver on the Government’s ambitious environmental agenda to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, achieve Net Zero by 2050, increase resilience to flooding and coastal erosion, support innovation and progress the levelling up agenda.

     The settlement delivers against the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan for nature’s recovery and includes more than £250 million in public investment over three years to include, among other things, tackling nutrient pollution in rivers and streams.

     The Spending Review 2021 also sets a stretching new target to raise at least £500 million in private finance for nature’s recovery every year by 2027 and more than £1 billion a year by 2030.

     The Government has taken powers in the Environment Act 2021 to create new, legally-binding targets in four priority areas including water. These new targets will be an important mechanism to drive

environmental improvement and meet our ambitious objectives for the water environment in the 25 Year Environment Plan.

     The Act places clear duties on water and sewerage companies to progressively reduce the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows and improve transparency of reporting when discharges occur.

     The Environment Agency is driving transparency with 80% of storm overflows now having Event Duration Monitors and all overflows will be monitored by the end of 2023, allowing water companies to report the frequency and duration of spills to the Environment Agency (EA) each year so they can  assess compliance. The Environment Agency is acting on new information, suggesting that some water companies in England may indeed not be complying with their permits and a major Environment

Agency/Ofwat investigation has been launched.

     We are committed to funding the EA to improve the water environment. For example, we are providing additional funding to the EA to increase their farm inspection regime nationwide over the next 18 months. In 2021/2 this includes an expectation of a fourfold increase in farm inspections undertaken nationally with plans to scale up further in 2022/3.

     Whilst necessary to uphold basic standards, enforcement of the regulations alone are not sufficient because farmers need advice to understand the risks posed to water by agriculture and funding support

where actions beyond regulatory requirements are needed to reduce pollution further.

     We are expanding the Catchment Sensitive Farming Programme, almost doubling its funding by providing an additional £17 million over the next three years to enable it to cover 100% of farms in England. Over the last 15 years this programme has been one of the main ways to help farmers tackle pollution which results from manure, fertiliser and soil running off into rivers when it rains. It provides free 1-2-1 advice to farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management

of nutrients, soils, animals and infrastructure among other things.

     Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Click this link to view the response online:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/586378?reveal_response=yes

The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate.

The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee:

https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee

Thanks,

The Petitions team

UK Government and Parliament

From today’s Western Morning News:

DESPERATE measures to get elderly patients out of hospital and into social care are to be undertaken in the Westcountry in response to a health care crisis.

Cornwall Council yesterday declared a critical incident in adult social care, echoing a similar warning from the National Health Service.

The council pledged to work with its 70 homecare providers and 222 care homes to find accommodation for 180 patients, who have finished their hospital treatment but are currently blocking beds needed for new cases.

It has also called on residents to help out neighbours or friends recently discharged from hospital to ease the pressure on the system.

Cllr Andy Virr, Cabinet Member for Care and Wellbeing said: “These extraordinary circumstances require a different level of response in our care system, which is currently unable to meet demand – particularly for hospital discharges. This approach will see us work as one system, sharing risk in order to meet these increased demands, and I’d like to say a big thank you to those families and service users who are helping support us in this.

“If you have a friend or neighbour who was recently discharged from hospital please consider how you might be able to help in their recovery. It can be something as simple as running an errand or making a phone call to check they’re OK.”

The council is also asking the voluntary sector to mobilise resources to support efforts to free up 100 beds within two weeks.

Hospitals across the South West have reported huge pressure during the coronavirus crisis, made worse by the problem of finding care for patients ready to go home.

Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has produced a bonus episode for fans following the show’s nail-biting finale.

Ted Hastings, Steph Corbett and Steve Arnott face one of their most difficult challenges to date after they came face-to-face with a serial liar in the latest episode.

Questioning the prime minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, they delve into his deception around a BYOB party hosted in Downing Street during the height of lockdown.

Hastings concluded that the PM “knowingly and intentionally flouted the rules” because he believes he’s “above the law”. – The London Economic

Watch the clip on twitter in full here.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will not be hit by the expected sharp rise in energy bills in April because of a cap on the contributions they have to make towards their Downing Street flats.

Oliver Wright www.thetimes.co.uk

Under the rules, the prime minister and chancellor are allowed their “grace and favour” accommodation rent-free, with utility bills and council tax also covered by the government.

As part of an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs, unlike other “benefits in kind” paid to employees, their total taxable liability is limited to 10 per cent of their ministerial salary. This means they will not be expected to pay more when energy bills rise.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, is due next month to announce a rise in the maximum amount that energy companies can charge customers.

Analysts believe that, unless the government steps in to reduce taxes on bills, the cap could increase by about 50 per cent, pushing up the average cost of bills to almost £2,000 a year.

Johnson and Sunak will not have to pay the bill because of a longstanding agreement with the tax authorities that because they are expected to live in Downing Street for security reasons, it would not be fair to charge them the full cost of the benefit. The story, first reported by MailOnline, is likely to increase pressure on the government to take action to limit the effect on bills before Ofgem’s announcement.

A government spokeswoman said: “As has always been the case, the prime minister and chancellor are provided with residential accommodation in Downing Street.

“It is not possible to disaggregate the energy costs of 10-12 Downing Street, as it is one combined building.”

Asked what action was being taken on bills, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Discussions are still ongoing.”

“When did Tobias Ellwood become a ‘senior Tory MP’ to anyone other than anti-Conservative commentators?” sneered Sir Hugo Swire on Twitter after his former colleague had a pop at the PM. As chairman of the defence select committee, Ellwood is perhaps a touch more senior than Swire, once a minister in the Foreign Office (he outranked Swire in the army too), but there may be a personal reason for this envy. In 2017, Ellwood gave first aid to a dying police officer after a terrorist attack on the parliamentary estate. Swire’s wife, Sasha, noted in her diaries that her husband wished it had been him. “He has longed for the headline ‘Hugo the have-a-go hero’,” she wrote, “but it will never happen.”

Extract from Times Diary,Patrick Kidd www.thetimes.co.uk

The community will be at the heart of Honiton Town Council’s new beginning.

Councillor Jake Bonetta honiton.nub.news 

At last week’s Honiton Town Council meeting, following a vote on the council budget for the new year, six serving councillors stood up and abruptly left the meeting. It was then made apparent, following the meeting, that these councillors had tendered their immediate resignation from the town council. The council is now left with 11 members, of whom 10 joined the council within the last eight months.

This marks an important junction in the history of the council – [with new leadership] in important roles such as the chair and vice chair of the council […]. Now is also the time for councillors to focus on the wants of the town, and all projects – old and new – that need completing.

As the chair of the strategy committee, and one of the councillors looking into a new community strategy for the council, I was excited to see an article last week on Nub News which outlined some suggestions for the town. The community strategy will form the outline for future work of the council over the coming few years, and will mark a significant new step towards a transparent, open and revived town council.

It is clear from the responses to the article that the town is moving in the right direction, and that there are some brilliant ideas that can be worked on, or are already in progress. One example of this is the fantastic CUB building, next to the community college, which now houses a new and revitalised youth club for the town.

There are also new and exciting projects at East Devon District Council which will see a revival of the town’s green spaces, and I will personally work hard in conjunction with the “Wild Honiton” project which is set to transform our open space for the better.

This, I hope, will include the corner of New Street and the High Street, bringing much-needed regeneration to our town centre.

I am also pleased to say that I have been taking part in consultations with schoolchildren across Honiton, talking about planned upgrades for three parks across the town equaling an investment of over £150,000 just this year on Honiton’s play areas.

There is a lot of work to do, and a lot of brilliant plans for the year ahead. The Queen’s Jubilee weekend in June will see the town council bringing together groups from across the town, organising celebrations throughout the town on the 4-day bank holiday. I will also be working closely with my colleagues at East Devon District Council to see what can be done to make sure more recycling and litter bins can be installed across Honiton.

Obviously, these are just the plans and projects that I am involved in, and the change in leadership at the town council will allow many other projects like these from other people to also happen across Honiton. I would encourage anyone with any ideas for projects to get involved in the community strategy process once this goes public later this year, to help us help you.

In the meantime, let us look forward from this marker in the town’s history with hope and unity, for this is indeed the beginning of a new era on the town council.