Four new members have been elected to Honiton Town Council. 

Philippa Davies www.midweekherald.co.uk 

Lisa Beigan, Jenny Brown, Cathy Maunder and Robert Fowles join the St Michael’s Ward after a by-election on Thursday, March 10. 

Two other candidates, Andrew Pearsall and John Taylor, also stood but were not successful. 

The election was held after six councillors resigned in January in protest against a rise in council tax. Another councillor had stepped down for unrelated reasons, and there was already a vacant seat on the council. 

This left four vacancies in the St Michael’s Ward, and four in St Paul’s. 

Three candidates came forward for the St Paul’s seats and were elected unopposed: Joseph Furneaux-Gotch, Debra Hulin and Caroline Kolek. 

Yesterday’s election saw a turnout of 15.6 per cent.

Lisa Beigan – Credit: Lisa Beigan

Lisa Beigan, who runs the Honiton Wine Bar with her family, secured 574 votes.

Cathy Maunder – Credit: Cathy Maunder

Cathy Maunder, who runs a business supporting families of children and young adults with special needs, won 460.

Robert Fowles – Credit: Robert Fowles

Robert Fowles, who promised to use his experience of working in major international organisations for the benefit of Honiton, gained 431 votes.

Jenny Brown – Credit: Jenny Brown

Jenny Brown, former hotelier and East Devon District Councillor, won 426. 

The other two candidates, Andrew Pearsall and John Taylor, gained 266 and 174 votes respectively. 

Debate between Yvette Cooper and Priti Patel (extract)

www.parallelparliament.co.uk

Yvette Cooper:

“…This has just been shameful. We are pushing vulnerable people from pillar to post in their hour of need. Week after week we have seen this happen. It is deeply wrong to leave people in this terrible state. Our country is better than this. If she cannot get this sorted out, frankly she should hand the job over to somebody else who can.”

Priti Patel:

“….Visa applications are important in this process. It is important that we are flexible in our response, and we have been. We are seeing that many Ukrainians do not have documentation. This country and all Governments, including probably a Government that the right hon. Lady once served in, will recognise that there was something known as the Windrush scandal and it is important that everyone who arrives in the UK has physical and digital records of their status here in the UK to ensure that they can access schemes—[Interruption.] Opposition Members may holler, but the process is vital in terms of verification, notification and permission to travel. It is important to give people status when they come to the United Kingdom, so that they have the right to work, the right to access benefits and digital verification of their status. That is absolutely right…..”

Boris Johnson has promised bereaved families will have their voices heard, as he published wide-ranging terms of reference for the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Heather Stewart www.theguardian.com 

The prime minister bowed to pressure last year and announced the inquiry, which will be chaired by the retired judge Lady Hallett.

The government has now published its draft terms of reference. These cover the public health response, including how decisions were made, and a wide range of other issues from shielding to lockdowns, the procurement of personal protective equipment to the closure of schools.

Hallett will also examine the economic response, including the furlough scheme, and how the NHS and wider health and social care system responded.

Announcing the draft terms of reference, Johnson said: “The importance of the inquiry working to understand the experiences of those most affected by the pandemic – including bereaved families – as well as looking at any disparities evident in the impact of the pandemic and our response.”

Hallett will hold a four-week consultation on the draft terms of reference. They include the necessity to produce a “timely” report, although the very broad remit suggests merely taking evidence may be a very lengthy process.

The inquiry is asked to produce a “factual narrative account” of the response to the pandemic – and then to identify any lessons to be learned, “thereby to inform the UK’s preparations for future pandemics”.

In doing so, the inquiry will “listen to the experiences of bereaved families and others who have suffered hardship or loss as a result of the pandemic”. It will not “investigate individual cases of harm or death in detail”, and Hallett will not be asked to apportion blame for any failures she identifies.

The families of people who have died from Covid-19 have long campaigned for a full public inquiry. Johnson initially rejected those calls, before announcing one in May 2021. But he stipulated the inquiry would not begin its work until this year, when the government hoped the worst of the pandemic would be over.

At the time, Johnson said it would take a “frank and candid” look at how the pandemic was managed.

An investigation by the health and science select committees has already pointed to a number of failures in the government’s response, including the pace at which Covid testing was ramped up, and the decision to discharge patients from hospitals into care homes without testing.

The committees took dramatic testimony from Johnson’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings, who claimed the prime minister consistently failed to grasp the seriousness of the pandemic in its early stages.

Becky Kummer, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: “The inquiry is a one-off and historic opportunity for the terrible suffering and loss of the past two years to be learned from, [and] to ensure these tragedies are not repeated in the future. The government finally publishing the draft terms of reference is a huge step forward, and we look forward to feeding into the consultation on them.

“Sadly, today’s announcement comes far too late. We will never know how many lives could have been saved had the government had a rapid review phase in summer 2020, as we called for at the time.”

Not entirely clear what John Hart is proposing, a single Devon-wide unitary authority perhaps?

But it looks like the end of our ineffectual Local Enterprise Partnership “Heart of the South West”.

Transforming our Devon communities

John Hart, Leader Devon County Council from this week’s Exmouth Journal

The term’s become something of a cliche but the Government’s Levelling-Up agenda could bring welcome benefits for Devon.

I’ve written here before about Team Devon and the close working relationship the county council has developed with district, town and parish councils across Devon originally to deliver help and support for vulnerable people during the pandemic.

But we have also been cooperating on the county’s economic recovery from Covid and the housing crisis affecting us. We have also linked up with Plymouth and Torbay to propose a county-wide devolution deal to the Government that will deliver both economic and social benefits for local people.

You may have seen that earlier this year, ours was one of nine bids from around the country invited to start discussions with Ministers and civil servants and that’s now underway with the aim of achieving agreement by the autumn.

This isn’t necessarily about asking for more funding – although that would be nice – but about taking on extra powers and influence to improve the economic and social conditions for the communities we all serve. For example, bringing together the responsibilities for areas such as skills and training that are currently spread across many organisations and having more say in how Government resources are spent in our communities something that is all too often determined by bureaucrats 200 miles away in London. I firmly believe devolving funding and power to the most local level possible is absolutely the right thing to do.

As well as skills and training, we’ve identified affordable housing, health and social care, and transport and digital connectivity as our key priorities alongside clean, Green economic growth to help pay for these improvements.

I believe this is a groundbreaking opportunity for our councils – working as a strong team – to partner with the Government on a deal that’s right for all our communities and best for business.

If we get this right, we could really transform the future for people and communities right across Devon.

We want to drive up skills and training, create more opportunities for our young people to find good jobs locally and deliver more affordable homes that meet the needs of local people.

We have world-beating examples of enterprise and innovation across our county and we must build on them to deliver opportunities for businesses and individuals and so drive up prosperity for all our residents. As well as our partnership in Team Devon and with Plymouth and Torbay, we propose working in close collaboration with our colleagues in the health sector, in business, our universities and colleges, towns and parishes, housing associations and national parks. There is real strength in our unity, which the Government has recognised, and by working together we can achieve much more for the people of Devon. It’s about us coming together to have one voice and being a credible partner with national Government and others to be able to get investment and development, having more power and influence on funding and decision-making locally.

But let me make it very clear. This is not about more bureaucracy. We do not believe elected mayors work well outside of big cities and conurbations. Instead, we believe our existing councils have already demonstrated they can work together strategically and we want to develop and refine this whilst respecting the sovereignty of our individual authorities.

And, if you will allow a political leader to say this, it is also above politics. Our current Devolution Deal proposals are backed by Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and non-aligned council leaders. What we all want is the best for Devon.

Stuart Andrew, who took over the job of Housing Minister on 8 February, has been battling unpopular development in his own patch!

From his web site:

www.stuartandrew.org.uk

Leeds City Council are currently exploring sites that they will consider allocating for houses over the next 16 years, with 70,000 houses being planned. Although the consultation on the Site Allocations Plan has now closed, Stuart is continuing to keep up the pressure on the Council, saying:

“It was great to see so many constituents get in touch with me, and contribute to the consultation. This has really caught the heart of the area. Many have joined me in saying that the site allocations plan, in their current plan, will have a terrible effect on the greenbelt across the area. We need to preserve these natural boundaries and our treasured landscape, which creates the unique identity of this area.

“I particularly want to praise neighbourhood groups like RGAG and the Aireborough Neighbourhood Development Forum, who have helped so many people understand what can be an incredibly complicated area of policy. I will continue to keep up the pressure to ensure that the independently appointed Government Inspector comes to an informed decision on whether the proposals need further review.

“The recent flooding across Yorkshire has highlighted the importance of getting planning right – we have seen areas that are proposed for development effectively turn into lakes, and I hope that the Council will heed the calls to reassess their plans.”

In order for Stuart to be able to communicate with you directly in order to update you on the Leeds City Council Site Allocations Plan, please sign up below. You can also read a copy of Stuart’s response to the Consultation via the attachment below.

 For more details on the Council’s proposals, visit the following website: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Site-Allocations-Development-Plan-Document-(LDF).aspx

The main NHS hospital in Cornwall has been forced to suspend almost all visiting after a “significant” spike in the number of patients with Covid.

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

Eighty-five patients at the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro have tested positive for coronavirus, meaning that many wards and bays are unable to take in new admissions.

According to the latest figures published by Cornwall council, the seven-day case rate for Cornwall is 376 per 100,000 people, compared with 313 for England as a whole.

A spokesperson for Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Over the last few days there has been a significant increase in the number of people in hospital who are Covid-positive.

“Although the vast majority of the 85 people have been admitted for another reason, it means we have many wards or bays unable to take new admissions.”

The spokesperson said the hospital would consider visits in “exceptional circumstances”, such as to say goodbye to a patient who is dying. The current visiting arrangements for maternity, neonatal and paediatrics remain unchanged.

“We will be making every effort to resume visiting as soon as we can, but we must reduce the number of people coming into our hospitals to a minimum, and it is likely we will have to keep this restriction in place for at least the next seven days,” the spokesperson added.

The trust’s deputy medical director, Dr Gill Derrick, said: “Although all patients are tested on admission, we are finding many have been unknowingly carrying the virus.

“When a Covid test later in their admission proves positive, it means we must close a bay, or in some cases a whole ward, for at least 10 days. This has a big knock-on impact for patients waiting for admission and ultimately ambulances waiting to hand over their patients. All of our health and care services continue to be under significant pressure.”

Dr Ruth Goldstein, of Cornwall’s public health team, said Covid was still causing “havoc” with many people’s lives. “Everybody seems to know somebody who has got Covid. It absolutely hasn’t gone away,” she said.

Andrew George, a Lib Dem councillor who speaks for the party on health issues in Cornwall, said: “The Conservative government sets the tone and climate as well as the rules. The prime minister follows public opinion rather than science, chases headlines and has no respect for his own rules.

“Ministers and portfolio holders must stand aside and let public health officials set standards for social distancing, mask wearing and personal hygiene. Because it’s evident the public have lost respect for those who set the rules.”