Richard Foord www.msn.com 

I’m proud to live in our beautiful part of the world – and to be elected to represent my neighbours in Parliament. Having been born in Somerset, I served our country in the Army for over a decade. I was promoted to the rank of Major after completing tours in Iraq and with the United Nations in Kosovo.

When I left the Army in 2010, my wife and I chose to move to Devon in order to settle down and raise our family. From rolling hills, to hospitable towns, to beautiful beaches – we really do have it all in our part of Devon.

But I can see how our area has been let down by the Government. Their focus is on winning over people in the north of England, rather than paying attention to places like Devon.

People feel particularly let down by Boris Johnson. He lacks the moral courage to lead and do the right thing, with many lifelong conservative voters switching their support to the Liberal Democrats as a result.

On Thursday last week, people in Devon spoke for the country and made history by electing me to represent them in Parliament. For the first time in 100 years, Tiverton and Honiton does not have a Conservative MP. This is a political earthquake and sends a clear message that our communities won’t be taken for granted any longer.

I am deeply humbled by their support and will work tirelessly for everyone in our area. Indeed, on my first day in Westminster I got straight down to business by tabling a motion calling for a cut to rural fuel duty.

This cut would bring down the price of fuel in rural communities like ours by 10p a litre. This would reflect the fact we are more reliant on our cars than those living in urban areas and would help ease the cost of living pressure people are feeling.

I hope other West Country and rural MPs will join me in this cross-party campaign, because it is the right thing to do for the people we represent. On top of this, we need to see greater action taken to help those struggling with the cost of living. With families struggling to put fuel in their cars and food on the table, Liberal Democrats are calling for a cut to VAT and a cap on the cost of heating oil.

The Government is raking in £40billion extra in tax due to rising prices, so it’s only right they give some of that money back to you. Cutting VAT would bring down prices in the shops and put £600 back in your pocket.

Many people in our part of the world rely upon heating oil to keep their homes warm. Yet there is no cap on the price of heating oil, meaning we’re seeing eye-watering price rises without any support from the government.

A cap would keep costs down, by ensuring the Government steps in to shield people from sharp rises in prices. We also need to see action to bring down ambulance waiting times, improve local dentistry services and stop water companies dumping raw sewage in our rivers.

I promised to be an active and vocal champion for our part of the world – and I meant it. I will continue to bang the drum for Devon and make sure the issues we face here are raised loudly in Westminster. The Conservatives have taken our part of the world for granted for far too long. As your Liberal Democrat MP, I won’t take anyone for granted.

The privatisation of NHS care accelerated by Tory policies a decade ago has corresponded with a decline in quality and “significantly increased” rates of death from treatable causes, the first study of its kind says.

Andrew Gregory www.theguardian.com 

The hugely controversial shakeup of the health service in England in 2012 by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, forced local health bodies to put contracts for services out to tender.

Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash has since been handed to private companies to treat NHS patients, according to the landmark review.

It shows the growth in health contracts being tendered to private companies has been associated with a drop in care quality and higher rates of treatable mortality – patient deaths considered avoidable with timely, effective healthcare.

The analysis by the University of Oxford has been published in the Lancet Public Health journal. “The privatisation of the NHS in England, through the outsourcing of services to for-profit companies, consistently increased [after 2012],” it says.

“Private-sector outsourcing corresponded with significantly increased rates of treatable mortality, potentially as a result of a decline in the quality of healthcare services.”

With a record 6.5 million patients now waiting for care, and private companies being lined up to help tackle the backlog worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, the research will prompt new fears over the potential harms of the increased outsourcing of NHS care.

“Our study suggests that increased for-profit outsourcing from clinical commissioning groups [CCGs] in England might have adversely affected the quality of care delivered to patients and resulted in increased mortality rates,” the authors said.

“Our findings suggest that further privatisation of the NHS might lead to worse population health outcomes.”

The study examined the impact of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 in England, which “intensified pressures on the NHS to outsource service provision from state-owned providers to private, for-profit providers”.

Researchers analysed data showing how much 173 CCGs in England spent on outsourcing between 2013 and 2020, which grew from 3.9% to more than 6.4%. In total, £11.5bn was handed to private companies over the period, although the amount varied considerably between CCGs.

The analysis shows that an annual increase in outsource spending of 1% is associated with a rise in treatable mortality of 0.38% – or 0.29 deaths per 100,000 people – the following year. Researchers claim 557 additional deaths between 2014 and 2020 might be attributed to the rise in outsourcing.

The authors speculated that the higher mortality might be due to private companies “delivering worse-quality care, resulting in more health complications and deaths”, or because greater competition for contracts may result in for-profit providers prioritising shorter waiting times “at the expense of quality of care”.

“While some have argued the Health and Social Care Act would improve the performance of health services by increasing competition, our findings add merit to longstanding concerns it could instead lead to cost-cutting and poorer health outcomes,” said the study’s lead, Benjamin Goodair of the University of Oxford.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of British Medical Association, said the doctors’ union had repeatedly raised concerns about ministers throwing “huge amounts of money at private firms rather than investing in rebuilding our health and care system”.

“A policy of outsourcing with minimal oversight, governance or transparency is one which is going to lead to diminished quality and poorer patient care, which is exactly what today’s Lancet study shows,” he said.

The waiting list for NHS care in England this month hit 6.5 million. Dr Danny Bhagwati, vice-chair of the Doctors’ Association, said: “Given the scale of the backlog and proposed solutions involving the use of the private sector, this data highlighting the risk to patient safety must result in the government looking at the regulation of this sector urgently.”

Further analysis looked for any association between outsourcing and preventable mortality – deaths avoidable with effective public health instead of medical interventions.

None was found, suggesting the relationship between contracting out NHS services and treatable deaths is linked to quality of care, rather than as a result of general trends in population health outcomes.

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“We have raised the alarm for years over the false promotion of outsourcing as better for healthcare and better for the NHS,” said Alan Taman, a spokesperson for the campaigning organisation Doctors for the NHS. “This vindicates what we have been saying.”

The authors acknowledged several limitations to their research. Their findings are not evidence of a causal relationship between outsourcing and deaths, so other factors cannot be ruled out.

Nigel Edwards, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, cautioned that the study “leaves many questions unanswered – not least whether outsourcing is directly responsible for these outcomes or is simply associated with them”.

However, the study’s co-author, Dr Aaron Reeves, of the University of Oxford, said: “These results clearly have implications for the NHS privatisation debate, suggesting that increased outsourcing to the private sector could lead to a decline in the quality of care provided to patients.

“While more research is needed to determine the precise causes of the declining quality of healthcare in England, our findings suggest that further increases in NHS privatisation would be a mistake.”

When NHS outsourcing has run into trouble

Hospitals

In 2012, Circle became the first profit-driven health firm to be put in charge of an NHS hospital when it took over Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire. However, it handed the contract back to the NHS in 2015 after the hospital experienced financial problems and could not keep up with the rising demand for care, which was branded “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission.

Eyecare

Vanguard faced legal action over a series of eye operations carried out in 2014 at Musgrove Park hospital in Somerset. A confidential report on Vanguard said the operations appeared rushed and that surgeons were allowed to continue practising even after patients reported serious complications. The hospital terminated its contract with Vanguard after just four days.

Mental health

The main private mental health hospital chains that treat NHS patients have been criticised by coroners and inquest juries dozens of times over the last decade for providing unsafe care. The Priory, Cygnet and Elysium have been censured at least 37 times for mistakes and lapses in care involved in the deaths of patients, including several children.

Unless he can turn things round in normally solid farming areas, Boris Johnson’s MPs may send their former thoroughbred to the knacker’s yard

Paul WaughChief Political Commentator inews.co.uk 

“Our farmers, who art in Devon, hallowed be thy name.” Ahead of their apparently daunting task in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election, that was my guess of what a Lib Dem Lord’s Prayer would sound like.

In the end, it was Boris Johnson who faced a Devon retribution for his twin sins of Partygate and appearing out of touch over the cost of living crisis.

After overturning a whopping 24,000 Tory majority, new Tiverton MP Richard Foord was this week sworn in, with Lib Dem leader Ed Davey at his side.

Tory MPs had jeered Davey in Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this month when he called for the extension of the rural fuel duty relief scheme to areas like “Cumbria, Shropshire and Devon”.

Conservatives knew the choice of geography was hardly coincidental, given the Lib Dems have held a seat in Cumbria since 2005, won a by-election in Shropshire last year and were campaigning hard to win another in the West Country.

But with Davey and his party having the last laugh, several Tories are very nervous indeed that their countryside core vote risks crumbling before their eyes. Some even worry that Johnson has spent more time trying to hold onto “Red Wall” urban seats at the expense of rural areas.

That tension is highlighted in the post-Brexit trade deals the Government is signing, with the UK-Australia deal in particular coming in for criticism. Although ministers insist the deal will boost British exports of cars and fashion, the Government’s own impact assessment revealed the deal will cost farmers and food producers almost £300 million due to Australian imports.

Today, the Commons International Trade Committee published a report which was scathing about ministers’ attempts to “rush” through Parliament the deal without sufficient scrutiny of its impact on issues like British animal welfare and agriculture.

When International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan decided at the last minute to back out of a session with the committee to discuss its report, chairman Angus Brendan MacNeil “empty chaired” her. With the notable backing of the five Tory MPs on the committee, they held a one-minute session simply to embarrass her for her absence. Trevelyan’s reason for cancelling her appearance, to announce the UK’s extension of steel tariffs, may have seemed to some yet another example of “Red Wall” concerns dominating once more.

The row also laid bare the relative lack of scrutiny over trade deals since Brexit. The UK Parliament now has less power to interrogate new international trade agreements and treaties than the European Parliament does (the long process of approving the Brexit trade deal was an anomaly). The Australian Parliament has more of a say over both the trade deal and the new AUKUS security pact than Westminster does.

However, there is a wider problem with the Prime Minister’s bare-bones Brexit deal and its impact on rural areas. Farmers were promised that EU subsidies would be replaced in full, but they are being gradually phased out, with basic payments being cut by 20 per cent this year.

There is also anger over Jacob Rees-Mogg’s decision to again postpone post-Brexit import checks on food imports from the EU. The National Farmers Union said the move left British farmers at an unfair disadvantage and posed a risk to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety.

Although Environment Secretary George Eustice, himself a farmer, has tried to offer reassurances about protecting farmers in trade deals (and is a big backer of Brexit freedoms to boost “gene-edited” crops), he’s also had to battle with complaints that leaving the EU has hit agricultural worker employment.

Before Brexit, under the now defunct Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme, about 60,000 to 70,000 seasonal farmworkers, mainly sourced from Bulgaria and Romania, would travel to the UK to work on farms.

The politics feel ominous too. Johnson sounded acutely aware of the problem when he recently accused the Lib Dems of going “around the country bamboozling rural communities”. The party has made council gains in its traditional West Country battleground and is also targeting Shropshire, Kent, North Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire. Rural voters who used to think they’ve nowhere else to go now see they can boot out their local MP.

There’s the risk of a pincer movement too from Labour. Back in 1997 when Blair won his landslide, Labour took an astonishing 170 seats in rural areas (compared to just 17 in 2019). A poll in April put Labour nearly neck and neck with the Conservatives among rural voters (36 per cent to the Tories’ 38 per cent).

Perhaps the biggest worry for the Tories is that the Prime Minister himself is the lightning rod for anger over the cost of living, over standards in public life and over worries that his oven-ready Brexit deal has turned out to be half-baked.

Johnson spent just one campaign day in Tiverton (including on a farm), but he failed to conduct a walkabout that would mean encountering members of the public in front of the cameras. His big asset in 2019 was that he could refresh the parts Tories couldn’t normally reach.

Now, from being booed by Royalist crowds at the Platinum Jubilee to shedding votes in normally solid farming areas, we seem to be witnessing a “reverse Heineken” effect, where he toxifies the parts of the electorate the Tories never normally lose. Unless he can quickly turn things round, his MPs may send their former thoroughbred to the knacker’s yard.

The number of holiday lets in England has risen by 40% in three years, BBC analysis of council figures suggests.

By Helen Catt  Political correspondent www.bbc.co.uk 

Tourist areas which already had large numbers of such properties – including Scarborough, the Isle of Wight, North Devon, the Cotswolds and Norfolk – have seen sharp increases.

Ministers are looking at whether holiday lets should be registered.

This comes amid concern that inflated property prices are pushing established residents out of many areas.

Estate agents have reported a surge in second home ownership during the pandemic, with many buyers now offering these as holiday lets.

The BBC has obtained data from 152 individual councils across England on short-term lets – available for at least 140 days of the year and registered for business rates rather than council tax.

Among the councils who responded to the BBC, there was a 40% increase in such accommodation – from 19,543 in 2018 to 27,424 last year.

This tallies with government figures for the same period – covering the whole country but not broken down to a council-by-council level – which also show a 40% rise.

Among the BBC’s findings, the seaside resort of Scarborough, which includes Whitby, had the highest number of holiday lets, rising from 2,032 in 2018 to 2,913 in 2021.

In second place was North Devon, where the figure went from 1,319 in 2018 to 1,758 in 2021.

East Suffolk was third, going from 1,475 to 1,614 over the same period.

Other areas where there was a sizeable number of holiday lets and a substantial increase between 2018 and 2021 included:

• The Isle of Wight – up 39%, from 908 to 1,262
• South Norfolk – up 97%, from 117 to 230.
• The Cotswolds – up 25%, from 802 to 1,002
• York – up 49%, from 448 to 669
• Great Yarmouth – up 44%, from 871 to 1,251
• East Riding of Yorkshire – up 51%, from 549 to 831

What’s the impact on local people?

Charlotte Bater grew up in the village of Georgeham in North Devon, close to the popular surfing beach at Croyde.

She had to leave a rental property 10 months ago after being served with a no-fault eviction notice and she and her children moved back in with her parents.

“It does put a whole stop on your life. You can’t plan anything. Everything comes back to: well, we don’t know where we’re going to be living. My children don’t know where they’re going to go to college. My youngest son, do you put him into nursery, do you not? I can’t start back at work.”

She says there are simply no properties available. “If they do come up, they are extortionately expensive. There’ll be two, three hundred going for the same properties – that’s for private rentals.”

In the village, banners outside the school show it has spaces – Charlotte says it used to be oversubscribed but now struggles with numbers “which kind of gives you an indication as well into how the community’s being affected, not just me”.

Her friend Emma Hookway set up a campaign group for North Devon and neighbouring Torridge.

“There’s a real fear in the area at the moment if you’re renting. One of my friends the other day. she got a phone call from her estate agent and she felt like crying instantly. She thought, ‘Oh, that’s it, it’s going to be sold. It’s going to be converted into a second home or a holiday let.'”

Emma cleans holiday lets and says she understands the importance of the tourism industry to the area.

“We understand that people want to move to the area, that people are wanting to have holidays, especially being locked up after Covid. But there’s got to be a balance and I think it’s more important for people to be able to have their first home.”

The government admits it only has a limited picture of how many properties across England are second homes and holiday-lets, particularly given the growth of online marketplaces such as Airbnb and Vrbo.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is looking at whether holiday lets should be registered, or even licensed.

It has now launched a call for evidence, promised in its Tourism Recovery Strategy in June 2021, on the impact of short-term lets on England.

Tourism Minister Nigel Huddleston said the government was “very aware” of the issues.

“There are many benefits to having more accommodation provision in the UK. It’s good for our tourism industry that there’s a variety of accommodation offers, but it can come with a downside as well so we want to get the right balance,” he said.

“One of the options is to license accommodation at one extreme, or we could end up doing nothing.”

MPs from several different parties have been raising concerns.

Lib Dem MP Tim Farron has previously called for more help for local people, and said the desire to buy second homes during the pandemic and the ease with which people can now advertise holiday lets online had pushed up prices.

“A bad situation has become entirely disastrous,” he said in a debate earlier this year, adding that the cost of an average home in his constituency, which includes parts of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, was now around 11 times the average wage.

Some holiday-let owners say they switched to paying business rates during the pandemic to be able to access Covid grants, which may also have contributed to the increase in numbers.

Simon Matthews, who runs a holiday let in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, said: “These businesses were as badly impacted by Covid as any other hospitality business, the grants were a lifeline to keep them viable.”

[ONS projection from 2011 base for 2020 gives a population of 148,080 for East Devon compared to 2021 census estimate of 150,800 for 2021 so no obvious discrepancy here – Owl]

Robert Booth www.theguardian.com 

Green belt land may have been torn up for housing unnecessarily, campaigners believe, after the 2021 census suggested population growth in many areas has been overestimated – in some cases by tens of thousands of people.

But the census also revealed other estimates were far too low – by up to 16% – meaning local politicians now face pressure to allocate more land for homes than previously anticipated.

The discrepancies matter because official population estimates are used to project housing need and building targets. They are likely to be seized on by campaigners for both more and less new housing. About 340,000 new homes are needed each year in England, according to one estimate, while 216,000 were built in 2019-20, the last year for which full figures are available.

In Coventry, the ONS had estimated the population at 379,387 but the census recorded only 345,300 people – a 34,000 difference. Campaigners said this meant some of the recently built housing around the city was in effect being planned for “ghosts”.

“The best remaining pieces of unspoiled Arden landscape in Warwickshire have been sacrificed for no good reason,” said Merle Gering, a campaigner. “There was enough brownfield land in the city to cater for all the likely growth to 2031.”

Guildford was estimated to be home to 150,352 people in June 2020 but the census showed it had almost 7,000 fewer the following March. The council had based a housebuilding target of 562 homes a year on ONS population projections, carried out before the census.

“My concern is that large areas of the green belt around Guildford have been allocated for development based on inaccurate and misleading statistics,” said Niels Laub, a member of the Guildford green belt campaign group. “Housing targets should be reappraised.”

The census will also increase pressure for higher housing targets in some areas. Before the population count was published, Cambridge city council and South Cambridgeshire district council launched a joint plan to build 33,500 additional homes by 2031. But the census showed that the 2020 ONS population estimate for Cambridge city of 125,063 was 20,637 people short, suggesting many more homes may now be needed.

The council said: “It is vital for more good quality, sustainable housing to be built in the area, which is why this continues to be a priority for both councils as they prepare their next joint local plan.”

The ONS estimates for Peterborough also missed more than 13,000 people, and in Oxford more than 10,000 people were missed.

A spokesperson for ONS said it expected differences between the census and its estimates and that it would “rebase” its figures using the census data. It said it was also planning a new approach using different data sources.

“The population continues to change and we recognise the need to understand those ongoing changes in a more timely and frequent way than ever before,” they said.

In 2020, MPs in Warwickshire called for an inquiry into the ONS estimates, telling Sir David Norgrove, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, that “bad decisions – to irrevocably destroy historic countryside – are being made on the back of bad data.”

In 2021 the Office for Statistics Regulation concluded: “Population estimates for some cities such as Coventry did seem to be inconsistent with, and potentially higher than, local evidence would suggest.”

The same problem was seen in “a number of smaller cities with large student populations”, it said.

“This is a last chance to restore regulatory credibility on a problem that should have been tackled a couple of decades ago.”

Nils Pratley www.theguardian.com 

Has Ofwat woken from its slumbers? There are encouraging signs. On the troubled issue of sewage – specifically, the vast quantities of the stuff pumped into rivers – the water regulator in England and Wales is suddenly talking as if it means business.

“From what we have seen so far, the scale of the issue here is shocking,” said David Black, chief executive, in unusually strong language as he added South West Water, owned by quoted group Pennon, to the list of firms targeted with enforcement cases connected to the management of treatment works.

There is a question of whether Ofwat has a right to be shocked. It has regulated the sector since privatisation 30 years ago, so should have uncovered the industry’s dirty secrets by now. But the joint investigation with the Environment Agency (EA) into potentially illegal spills at treatment works, launched last November, is shaping up – possibly – as a major event.

The stench of a scandal grows with every update. South West joins Anglian, Northumbrian, Thames, Wessex and Yorkshire on the regulator’s list for specific targeting. So more than half the sector is now in a process that can lead to fines of up to 10% of turnover.

The City is starting to take it seriously. Analysts at Jefferies, who recently hosted the chief executive of campaign group Surfers Against Sewage to address fund managers on the grim technicalities of waste dumping, have been warning for a while about “increasing regulatory risks for UK water”. They called Ofwat’s Pennon move “a strongly toned update that signals to us that further scrutiny and regulation is to come”.

About time too. Data from the EA revealed an astonishing 2.7m hours of spills in England in 2021. Only 14% of English rivers are deemed to be of good ecological standard, a grotesque statistic. Sewage isn’t the only cause of poor river health, it should be said, but the gamechanging development for the water companies may be better monitoring equipment.

One suspicion is that companies have been interpreting previously ambiguous data in their favour. Another is that claimed capacities at treatment works have not been maintained, leading to excess discharges. Both touch on basic licence conditions. If evidence of breaches is found, the authorities would be virtually obliged to get heavy.

Despite the regulators’ deserved reputation for timidity, there is a precedent. Southern Water was ordered by Ofwat to pay £126m to customers in 2019 for enormous spills plus deliberate misreporting of data, and a £90m fine followed in 2020 in a criminal case brought by the EA. The sums represented a rare instance of when owning a water company is not a one-way bet in which the customers pay via their bills. The owners of privately held Southern promptly sold it.

Customers should still brace to fund future upgrades of the network that are plainly needed to meet tougher storm overflow requirements. Jefferies put the cost at £23bn-£80bn, implying £69-£140 a year on average household bills. But the backward-looking focus of the Ofwat/EA investigation is the first event. It is vital that both bodies hold the line against inevitable corporate lobbying. This is a last chance to restore regulatory credibility on a problem that should have been tackled a couple of decades ago.

Together we won the by-election, but we need even greater unity to consolidate the victory

My column which should have appeared in today’s Midweek Herald

seatonmatters.org 

The Liberal Democrats have achieved an historic victory in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election. I warmly congratulate Richard Foord and wish him the very best as the area’s first non-Conservative MP for over a century. The result shows, as he says, that we have spoken for the country and told our disgraced prime minister, Boris Johnson, to go and to go now. 

But it is more than that. It is a rejection of twelve wasted years of Conservative government which have left Britain diminished by Brexit, our NHS and public services starved, and many people facing hardship this coming winter. Voters have recognised that far from being ‘levelled up’, the South West has been left further and further behind. People agree that the Tories have ‘taken Devon for granted’ as the Lib Dem leaflets rightly put it.

One of the good things for me about the by-election campaign was the chance it gave me to meet more readers of this column. One man I spoke to thought it was too anti-Tory. But now we know the result, it appears that my criticisms are in tune with what many residents are thinking. Previous Conservative voters are themselves becoming ‘anti-Tory’, because the party is no longer ‘conservative’ in the traditional sense. No wonder the three openly far-right candidates did so poorly – the extreme right is now represented by the Conservatives!

A grassroots progressive alliance

The result was the result of an impressively professional Lib Dem campaign but also of a genuine progressive alliance at the grass roots. Moderate former Conservatives, Labour and Green voters all joined together to prevent Boris Johnson’s candidate winning. Many activists from other parties including the East Devon Alliance of Independents joined the Lib Dem campaign. 

My Independent colleague Claire Wright ruled herself out to avoid splitting the Lib Dem vote, when it became clear that they had the best chance of winning. It has to be said that the Labour Party did themselves no favours by campaigning so vigorously only to lose their deposit. The Greens got almost as many votes without campaigning and their candidate wisely acknowledged that tactical voting was necessary.

Richard’s task is our task

Richard Foord faces a formidable task. He must speak up on all the issues he picked up in his campaign and address the consequences of decades of government neglect. While bedding in at Westminster, he also needs to make himself much more available and better known to voters than Neil Parish was, perhaps through public meetings and monthly surgeries in each of the area’s towns. 

These are not just Richard’s problems, however. The by-election campaign mobilised voters with the help of Lib Dem activists from all over the country, but the new progressive majority in the area is not strongly enough organised in our local communities. Lib Dems, Labour, Greens and EDA need to find ways of working together to build a support base which can make this week’s historic change permanent.

The challenge of consolidating the victory

The size of Richard’s victory gives me hope that it is more than a flash in the pan. Hard though it was, it could prove however to have been the easy bit. The Tories will try to sneak back in at the general election when boundaries change, presumably with a less hapless candidate. In this context, Richard’s majority will probably be squeezed. The votes ‘wasted’ on Labour and the Greens could be the difference between success and failure.

This takes us back to the national crisis. Johnson intends to defy the voters and cling on. To be sure of getting rid of him in the next election, the Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens need to come together at the national level. The crisis in our country is enormous and it requires a new kind of cooperative politics. Together we have won the by-election battle, but we need even greater unity to win the bigger prize.

Opposition parties in this campaign claimed the Conservatives’ dominance in rural England had led to them taking seats like Tiverton and Honiton for granted, with money being diverted into former ‘red wall’ seats in the north of England  – a suggestion they strongly denied.

Many voters expressed concern about the state of local services – and that ‘levelling-up’ meant money from the south being directed to the north. Lack of progress over a new Tiverton High School – backed by all major parties – was frequently mentioned, as were the area’s lengthy ambulance waiting times and struggles to access NHS dentistry.

Devon Tory MPs should be concerned

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

Richard Foord MP thanks voters

Tiverton and Honiton’s newest MP Richard Foord described his triumph in last week’s by-election as a “shockwave through British politics.”

Certainly it was felt quickly in Westminster, where Conservative chairman Oliver Dowden resigned shortly after the Devon defeat became the Tories’ second loss of the night.

Ripples also reached under-pressure Boris Johnson in Rwanda, there for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. If some in his own party have their way, he will not be a head of government for much longer.

Now the dust has settled on the result, we explore some key themes from the by-election.

No typical by-election defeat

The Lib Dems won this seat by eliminating a Tory majority of 24,000 – the biggest ever overturned at a by-election. The prime minister cannot therefore dismiss this result as a case of the mid-term ballot box blues typically endured by governing parties.

Furthermore, the predominantly rural constituency was about as safe as parliamentary seats go until Neil Parish’s much-publicised resignation in April.

No party other than the Conservatives had represented Tiverton or Honiton at Westminster – in one form or another – since the 1920s. Even then, only Tiverton went to the Liberal Party for a time between 1923 and 1924. Otherwise both towns have been blue since at least 1885.

Lib Dems a force in south west again

The south west has traditionally been a Liberal Democrat heartland, holding power in councils and returning MPs. The 2015 general election, in which they were decimated following their first taste of government in a coalition, put paid to that.

But buoyed by winning overall control of the new unitary Somerset Council in May’s local elections and widespread dissatisfaction with a government mired in scandal, the Lib Dems eyed Tiverton & Honiton as a potential win. Despite Labour coming second here at the last two elections, its focus was on the other by-election in Wakefield.

Mr Foord was always likely to be the more obvious option for disgruntled Tories, given the Lib Dems are well represented at local council level. By contrast, Labour have just two district councillors in Mid and East Devon combined.

But an overwhelming win for a party that campaigned to re-join the EU at the last general election – no longer its policy – in an area that voted leave in 2016, suggests Brexit is no longer the big issue for voters it once was.

Local issues matter

While the cost-of-living crisis was an overriding concern, local issues also played a big part in how people voted.

Opposition parties in this campaign claimed the Conservatives’ dominance in rural England had led to them taking seats like Tiverton and Honiton for granted, with money being diverted into former ‘red wall’ seats in the north of England  – a suggestion they strongly denied.

Many voters expressed concern about the state of local services – and that ‘levelling-up’ meant money from the south being directed to the north. Lack of progress over a new Tiverton High School – backed by all major parties – was frequently mentioned, as were the area’s lengthy ambulance waiting times and struggles to access NHS dentistry.

All the main parties chose local candidates – something that doesn’t always happen. All but two – the Lib Dems and the Conservatives – lost their deposits, meaning they couldn’t win enough support to bag five per cent of the votes cast.

But national issues matter too

Despite the reason for Neil Parish’s departure, many constituents spoke highly of him and the work he had undertaken locally since his election in 2010. But his Conservative successor as candidate, Helen Hurford, failed to impress sufficently enough with her local credentials as a former headteacher and businesswoman, suggesting national issues were important to voters.

Against a background of inflation above nine per cent, fuel hovering near £2 a litre, food and fuel prices soaring, and partygate fresh in the electorate’s mind, a candidate whose government has been in charge for 12 years didn’t have an easy sales message. Cabinet ministers pitching up to support Ms Hurford were kept well away from the media and from voters other than true blue supporters.

Lib Dem candidate’s Richard Foord’s campaign leaflets quoted Helen Hurford’s backing for the prime minister

The Lib Dems’ election machine exploited that. When Ms Hurford revealed she supported Boris Johnson in the week 148 of his MPs decided they didn’t, Richard Foord’s team quickly distributed leaflets with the PM’s photo and Ms Hurford’s quote.

Will tactical voting continue in the general election?

There is little doubt many voters felt forced into compromise at the ballot box. Many Conservative loyalists stayed at home on polling day or switched their vote. Labour’s vote collapsed, although both Labour and the Lib Dems deny the existence of any formal pact.

Labour was the nearest Conservative challenger in 2019 but it appears its supporters simply got behind the most likely challenger – in this case Mr Foord.

The Lib Dems were helped by an orange army of activists and a candidate whom the Economist said “looks Devonian, with an authentically unfashionable haircut.”

He also had the advantage of being a former soldier in a region with a high proportion of service veterans.

The scale of tactical voting in Thursday’s poll will worry some of Devon’s sitting Tory MPs, with the Lib Dems jumping 38 percentage points on their previous result.

East Devon MP Simon Jupp’s constituency is to alter considerably in the forthcoming boundary changes. He will have to choose whether to contest a new Exmouth seat that will include a huge chunk of south and east Exeter, or more rural Honiton.

In Newton Abbot, Totnes, Torridge/West Devon and North Devon, Liberal Democrats were second to the Conservative winner in the 2019 election – and all have smaller majorities to overcome if they are to win.

If the tactical voting approach seen in Tiverton and Honiton is replicated elsewhere in Devon and further afield at the next general election, it may hamper the chances of a fifth consecutive term in office for the Tories.

WHIPPED INTO SUBMISSION: Government whips are pretty feeling pleased with themselves after the outcome of last night’s vote on the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which passed its second reading by 295 votes to 221 — a majority of 74.

Extraordinarily: Not a single Tory MP voted against it — not Theresa May, who said the bill was “not legal” and would “diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world” … not Simon Hoare, who accused ministers of “playing fast and loose with our international reputation” and suggested this was all a “muscle flex for a future leadership bid” from Liz Truss … and not Andrew Mitchell, who said it “brazenly breaks a solemn international treaty.”

Instead … 72 Tory MPs abstained (including a number who will have been excused from voting). The abstainers include two former Northern Ireland secretaries — Julian Smith and Karen Bradley … two former attorneys general — Geoffrey Cox and Jeremy Wright … as well as May, a former PM, and Hoare, who chairs the NI select committee. More from POLITICO’s Cristina Gallardo.

Behind the scenes: A Tory MP texted Playbook last night that the rebellion had been whittled down by “a combination of veiled threats about losing the whip, political honors being dangled and an ability for the government to dupe MPs by lying openly about quite a technical bill.” They added that some MPs are reluctant to fall out with Tory leadership contenders who will be in the market for Euroskeptics to promote to Cabinet if they make it to No. 10.

(London Politico Playbook)

Memo to Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities:

At 13.8% over ten years East Devon has the highest growth for any local authority in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, or Dorset and second only to Trowbridge in the South West Region which also includes Gloucester and Wiltshire. 

It is higher than the population growth of the cities of Bristol (10.3%), Exeter (11.1%) or Plymouth with a paltry (3.2%).

It is more than twice the average for England and Wales, at 6.3%.

This is also well above the average of 8.3% increase from 2011 for the East of England, the region with the highest population growth.

Why did our local Tories do this?

Obviously a few landowners have made a killing, but our district has become more congested. We have lost valuable grade 1 agricultural land. We have lost hospitals and hospital beds.

Where are the benefits? What has a grateful government done to support us?

Has this provided affordable houses for local people?

Surely we have “done our bit” – Owl

For details and interactive map see this ONS site.

South West Water is under investigation over its treatment of sewage, the Water Services Regulation Authority has announced.

By Georgina Rannard www.bbc.co.uk

It joins five other water companies in England and Wales being probed over wastewater concerns.

Raw sewage was discharged into waterways 375,000 times last year, according to the Environment Agency.

South West Water said it was taking Ofwat’s decision “very seriously.”

Discharged raw sewage poses a serious risk to health and the environment.

South West Water cover Devon, Cornwall and small parts of Dorset and Somerset, areas of England that are popular with swimmers and surfers.

Investigations are ongoing into Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Thames Water, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water.

It has become common in England and Wales for members of the public to report seeing raw sewage in rivers, canals and along the coasts.

Condoms, toilet paper, and even excrement can be seen in the water and on riverbanks or beaches.

“As we gather and analyse more information, including data on storm overflow spills, our concerns have grown further about South West Water’s operation of its wastewater assets and environmental performance,” said David Black, Ofwat Chief Executive.

He called the scale of the issue so far “shocking” and told BBC News that Ofwat had never taken action on this scale before.

A South West Water spokesperson said the company would work “openly and transparently” with Ofwat. The company noted that it had recently announced its largest environmental programme in 15 years.

“This will reduce our use of storm overflows, maintain our region’s excellent bathing water quality standards all year round and reduce and then remove our impact on river water quality by 2030,” South West Water said.

The charity Rivers Trust told BBC News that the decision to open the investigation was “long overdue” and that “this kind of practice has become business as usual in the water sector.”

In January, MPs were warned that a “chemical cocktail” is running through all of England’s rivers.

Ofwat has the power to fine water companies 10% of their annual income.

What are you doing to help Simon? – Owl

Patrick Butler www.theguardian.com 

Council leaders in England have said a multibillion-pound financial crisis caused by rising inflation could make local services unviable and even lead to local authorities going bankrupt, unless the government offers emergency funding.

The cross-party Local Government Association (LGA) said local services that were seemingly secure just three months ago were now at risk of closure or cuts as councils scramble to manage an unforeseen £2.4bn rise in energy and pay costs.

The Tory chair of the LGA, James Jamieson, said the impact on services would be “disastrous” and hamper councils’ efforts to support people through the cost of living crisis at a time when demand for services was rising, especially in areas such as adult and children’s social care, and homelessness.

“Soaring inflation, energy prices and ‘national living wage’ pressures are putting council services at risk. Budgets are having to be reset, with potential cuts to the essential services people rely on, in the middle of a cost of living crisis,” Jamieson said.

The LGA estimates that without adequate long-term funding – in effect a revisiting of the spending review settlement agreed last autumn – the collective increase in inflationary costs faced by English councils this year will be £2.4bn, growing to £3bn in 2023-24 and £3.6bn in 2024-25.

It argues that these pressures, coming on the back of more than a decade of austerity cuts to local authority funding, pose a “serious risk to the future financial viability of some services and councils”.

Jamieson added: “Inflation is not going to come down overnight. As our analysis shows, the impact on our local services could be disastrous. This will stifle our economic recovery and undermine government ambitions to level up the country.”

The Guardian revealed earlier this month that councils were anticipating a collective and unexpected £1.7bn shortfall this year as a result of inflation. The LGA has updated this to include estimates from England’s 181 district councils, as well as additional analysis of the impact of increases in the national living wage.

When budgets were set earlier this year, councils were typically factoring in average pay and inflation costs of about 3%. However, inflation is now at 9%, with the Bank of England predicting it will hit 11% by October.

Councils are required by law to balance their books each financial year, meaning that fixing financial shortfalls cannot be put off. This is likely to lead to job losses, and the abandonment or delay of building projects such as new schools or regeneration schemes. It could also result in service cuts, from libraries and leisure centres to road repairs.

Chart showing rising costs English councils face

John Boyce, the Liberal Democrat leader of Oadby and Wigston borough council in Leicestershire and an executive member of the District Councils’ Network, said: “This could push some councils over the edge, or they will have to make radical cuts. That’s difficult because we are already cut to the bone. Cuts means staff, and staff equal frontline services.”

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary, said: “There is a crisis on the horizon. The cleaners, carers, bin collectors and other council workers that kept this country going during the pandemic and are now struggling to feed their families deserve a pay rise.

“But councils have seen billions cut from their budgets in the last decade and are now facing billions more in extra costs due to soaring inflation. They cannot square this circle alone.

“Ministers are the only people who can get everybody round the table and find a solution to protect vital council services. They must urgently do their job to prevent yet more chaos.”

A government spokesperson said: “This year, we made an additional £3.7bn available to councils so they can continue to deliver key services, and we are working with the sector to understand the impact of emerging challenges.”

However, the LGA, which hosts its annual conference in Harrogate this week, said that inflation had already eaten through this year’s increase, and with the lion’s share of the three-year spending review increase falling in 2022-23, councils would be even more exposed in future years. It estimated a net funding gap of £1.4bn this year and £3.4bn next year, rising to £4.5bn in 2024-25.

“In Touch” with the PM (maybe he thinks it would count as affordable housing) – Owl

Susanna Reid floored as PM quizzed about £150,000 treehouse

Gemma Jones www.liverpoolecho.co.uk 

Susanna Reid appeared perplexed on today’s Good Morning Britain as a clip was shown of the Prime Minister being questioned about a treehouse.

Speaking to co-host Adil Ray, Susanna explained that there have been reports of Mr Johnson wanting to build a treehouse for his young son. However, the alleged plans are said to be costing around £150,000 – more than some actual houses cost.

She said: “He was asked about this by ITV News. Let’s see what he said.” The screen cut to a clip of the Prime Minister having a chat with a reporter.

The reporter asked him: “There are reports that you wanted to but a £150,000 treehouse for your son. Did you?”

He replied: “There is no such structure. There are all sorts of allegations made about my family.” The reporter interrupted him, as she said: “But did you want to build one?” He ignored her and continued: “If you look at the infrastructure that I have built, I am very very proud of it.”

After the clip, Susanna looked incredibly shocked as she said: “What treehouse costs £150,000?” Adil added: “Well, precisely.”

Guest Ranvir Singh said: “Clearly in his mind the treehouse is infrastructure. What a strange comparison to make.”

The Prime Minister and his wife Carrie wanted to build the treehouse during autumn 2020 but had to pull the plug after it raised security concerns. There were discussions about having Lord Brownlow, a Tory donor ranked the 521st richest person in the UK last year, fund the project, with plans for the treehouse drawn up for the country retreat, it has been reported.

Some No10 aides warned Mr Johnson against the project due to the cost and the matter of it being more expensive than some homes in many parts of the UK. A government spokesman said: “We do not comment on private or family matters which do not involve any ministerial declarations or taxpayer funds.”

Labour win Harlow by-election seat held by ex-councillor after his Twitter account retweeted ‘racist’ material

Charlie Ridler  www.msn.com 

Labour have won a seat formerly held by an ex-councillor who resigned after “racist” content was retweeted on his Twitter account. Kay Morrison will represent Bush Fair ward on on Harlow Council after beating Conservative candidate Emma Ghaffari by 112 votes in a by-election last night (June 23).

The former Conservative councillor Marco Lorenzini won the seat from Labour by just four votes in the May local elections, but only a week later had the party whip withdrawn and then resigned. In an earlier statement, Harlow Conservatives said they “utterly condemn” the remarks retweeted from Mr Lorenzini’s account, withdrawing the whip and calling on him to resign. A later statement by Harlow Council confirmed Mr Lorenzini had resigned.

Labour now hold 13 seats on the council, but the Conservatives still have a majority, holding 20 seats. Speaking to the local democracy reporting service after the result, Cllr Morrison said she was “absolutely delighted” by the victory.

Read more: Harlow Tory councillor quits days after winning seat over ‘racist’ and ‘abhorrent’ retweets

She said: “I know that quite a lot of Conservative voters have been disillusioned, and who would blame them with the behaviour of those MPs, and in particular the Prime Minister, in Westminster and the behaviour of a certain individual here in Harlow, really not acceptable.”

Conservative candidate Emma Ghaffari said the controversy surrounding Mr Lorenzini’s departure was not the main reason for the group’s defeat. She told the LDRS: “I do feel sad about it [the result] but we must move on, onwards and upwards.” Later she said: “The cost of living and other various factors came into play, but we just stick with local issues.” She said she could not comment on whether the Conservative group would be changing its vetting procedure for candidates.

According to Harlow Council’s website, the turnout was 22.97 per cent, 4.67 per cent lower than in May. Cllr Morrison received 594 votes while Ms Ghaffari received 482. Meanwhile, the Green Party’s Jennifer Steadman received 109 votes and Nicholas Taylor, standing for the Harlow Alliance Party, received 47.

Likes and retweets which had been made by Mr Lorenzini’s account emerged on Twitter on May 10, including one referring to a “Muslim invasion” and another saying white people are “the only race you can legally discriminate against”. Another mocked the recent casting of Ncuti Gatwa, a Black Scottish actor with Rwandan heritage, as the next Doctor Who.

A Harlow Council spokesperson said in an earlier statement: “Marco Lorenzini has resigned as councillor for the Bush Fair Ward with immediate effect.”

A statement shared by Harlow Conservatives on Twitter said: “We utterly condemn these remarks and have removed the whip from this councillor with immediate effect. This means he will sit as an independent councillor.

“These abhorrent views are not the views of the Conservative party and we utterly condemn them. There is no place in our party for such thought and we will never accept it.”

A later tweet from Harlow Conservatives said: “Our group calls unreservedly for the independent councillor to resign with immediate effect.” A third said: “Following this, we understand this Cllr has resigned.” Sharing the screenshots on Twitter, former Labour leader of the council Mark Ingall claimed Mr Lorenzini’s account was “spreading racist hate”. Nationally, the Conservatives also lost two Westminster by-elections to opposition parties last night, losing Wakefield to Labour and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon to the Liberal Democrats, according to reporting by the BBC.

.

“I’m surprised at a time when Wiltshire residents are facing a crippling cost of living crisis, a climate emergency and strike action that, apparently, there isn’t anything worth discussing at a council meeting.” (Leader of Lib Dem group, Cllr Ian Thorn) 

They are running out of ideas – Owl

Benjamin Paessler www.salisburyjournal.co.uk 

WILTSHIRE Council will no longer meet next month due to “insufficient business”. 

The council had been due to have its next full meeting in Trowbridge on July 19. 

The decision was taken before the deadline for submitting motions and questions.

The leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat group, cllr Ian Thorn, said he is “flabbergasted” that the administration “seems to have nothing to discuss”. 

Cllr Thorn added: “I’m surprised at a time when Wiltshire residents are facing a crippling cost of living crisis, a climate emergency and strike action that, apparently, there isn’t anything worth discussing at a council meeting.

“Either there is no programme or activity to share with members at a council meeting or decisions are being taken elsewhere. Coupled with the sparse agenda in May, at least one cancelled meeting of cabinet and members being denied the opportunity to ask verbal questions at cabinet it all adds up to a pretty sorry state.”

The Lib Dems were planning motions on the cost of living crisis, disinvestment in companies that avoid paying tax and possibly something on pesticides.

In an email seen by the Journal’s sister paper the Gazette and Herald, Lib Dems cllr, Ruth Hopkinson, said she was “somewhat appalled” by the decision. 

Cllr Hopkinson, writing to the chairman of the council Stuart Wheeler, said: “I have no wish to sit through tedious meetings for no good reason, but there is a matter of principle at stake here.

“That principle is that all Councillors are elected to oversee the work of the Council & represent our residents. This decision reduces our ability to do that.”

The council’s leader, Richard Clewer, responded saying there were only two items that full council needed to make a decision over – a governance report around parish boundaries that will not come into effect until 2025 and “a very minor change around the constitution which can be covered in October”.

He said: “On that basis I don’t personally see that it is sensible to ask 98 members to (mostly) drive to county hall for a meeting that is not making any decisions that are urgent. 

“Instead I think it makes sense to save the travel and carbon emissions not to mention officer time.”

On the matter of motions more broadly, Cllr Clewer said: “I find that many of the motions that are brought to full council are based on national templates and call on Wiltshire to urge central government to take action. 

“They are politically motivated and of no benefit to Wiltshire Council or its residents.  There have been a few exceptions to that and those motions have been discussed in advance, worked on to make sure they are implementable and been put through on a cross party basis. 

“No one has raised any such motions with me over the last few weeks. I would also note that no motions were brought to the last full council.” 

Owl has been reminded of the hypocritical glossy flyer distributed by the Tories in March/April publicising Simon Jupp’s partisan comments about EDDC on the front page.

Neil Parish took a similar though less abrasive line. Even so, he has now been replaced by Lib Dem Richard Foord MP.

Maybe it’s time Simon took his own advice and, as the member of parliament for East Devon, listened to, and worked constructively with, the elected majority in the District Council in his constituency to make East Devon a better place to live and work in.

To use his words “East Devon deserves better”.

PS “Our MP’s work closely with our councillors” is a bit of a joke – Owl

A correspondent writes:

I find it disingenuous for Neil Parish to proudly say that in his 12 years in Parliament he never snitched on his colleagues and did not expect them to do it to him.  This implies that there were times when he could have done just that.

He pleads (to him) a lesser charge of “immorality” rather than “illegality”.

I expect my elected representative to behave both morally and legally in Parliament and outside it, but it is obvious I am not keeping up with the  times, where both immorality and illegality are not  just accepted by the Tory Party but actively encouraged.

• T2/3 – sycamore – dismantle tree due to large amounts of lower trunk damage and proximity next to wall. T4 – sycamore – crown lift to allow highway clearance (5.2m) above parking area 15 Silver Street Ottery St Mary EX11 1DARef. No: 22/1365/TCA | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of roof of existing building The Croft Marsh Green Exeter EX5 2HERef. No: 22/1352/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 – copper beech – carry out a reduction/thinning of up to 35%, removing branch end lengths up to 5m, making cuts no bigger than 80mm to reshape and reduce the tree and manage it’s size between the buildings and retain it’s fantastic amentity value. 15 Silver Street Ottery St Mary EX11 1DBRef. No: 22/1354/TRE | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of agricultural building and concrete apron (dairy building 3) Rydon Farm Rydon Lane Woodbury Devon EX5 1LBRef. No: 22/1337/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of agricultural building and concrete apron (dairy building 2) Rydon Farm Rydon Lane Woodbury Devon EX5 1LBRef. No: 22/1336/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of Condition No. 1 (Approved Plans) on application 18/1169/FUL. 1 Laundry Lane Sidford Devon EX10 9QRRef. No: 22/1339/VAR | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of agricultural building and concrete apron (dairy building 4) Rydon Farm Rydon Lane Woodbury Devon EX5 1LBRef. No: 22/1338/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of agricultural building and concrete apron (dairy building 1). Rydon Farm Rydon Lane Woodbury Exeter EX5 1LBRef. No: 22/1335/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Lawful Development Certificate for the replacement of conservatory with single storey rear extension23 Moor Park Honiton EX14 2FPRef. No: 22/1341/CPL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Approved
• First floor side extension over existing garage to provide accommodation, porch to front and alterations to fenestration. 24 Butts Road Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1ELRef. No: 22/1343/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Site layout changes to allotments, landscaping and erection of sheds on plots Battishorne Way Allotments Battishorne Way HonitonRef. No: 22/1346/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install replacement windows and double doors to rear of property 58 Bicton Street Exmouth EX8 2RURef. No: 22/1347/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install replacement windows and double doors to rear of property 58 Bicton Street Exmouth EX8 2RURef. No: 22/1348/LBC | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed 1st floor extension over garage and internal alterations 5 Oakwood Rise Exmouth EX8 4PURef. No: 22/1329/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a two storey 4-bed detached dwelling and demolition existing dwelling. The Vicarage Stockland Honiton EX14 9EFRef. No: 22/1328/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• First floor side extension above existing garage to provide accommodation. 3 Walnut Grove Exmouth EX8 2ESRef. No: 22/1326/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side extension to create an annex. Holmwood Farm Dunkeswell EX14 4STRef. No: 22/1330/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of AHU plant for recovery ward at ground level. Exeter And District Community Health Service N H S Trust Exmouth Hospital Claremont Grove Exmouth EX8 2JNRef. No: 22/1321/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of 1st floor offices (Class E) to a 2no bed apartment (Class C3) 17A Manchester Street Exmouth EX8 1DFRef. No: 22/1334/PDO | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side/rear extension, loft conversion with rear dormer and demolition of single storey side extension. 2 St Budeaux Orchard Ottery St Mary EX11 1HJRef. No: 22/1325/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• T1-Scots pine growing in Beech hedge. The tree has moved in the direction it leans by roughly 1ft. Reduce 2 North facing (as viewed from Sid Park Road) over extended limbs by 2m to bring back in line with the rest of the crown and reduce weight on the side of the lean. Also reduce South facing (as viewed from Sid Park Road) limb facing down into the garden by 2m to leave the tree balanced. Grittleton Sid Lane Sidmouth EX10 9AWRef. No: 22/1318/TCA | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawfulness for loft conversion with rear dormer.9 Hill View Sidmouth EX10 9DFRef. No: 22/1317/CPL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Approved
• Construction of tithe barn to be used as multi-functional building for events and weddings, including hard standing for removeable stage. Thorn Park Family Golf Centre Salcombe Regis Devon EX10 0JHRef. No: 22/1315/FUL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side/rear extension. 27 Hill Drive Exmouth EX8 4QQRef. No: 22/1319/FUL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of existing butchery to Annex for carer’s accommodation Coly House Swan Hill Road Colyford EX24 6HERef. No: 22/1311/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, English Oak (Quercus robur) : Crown reduction of 2-3 metres on top, down to suitable growth points, and on the back side of the tree there are 3 large lateral limbs to be reduced by 2 metres back to suitable growth points to reduce the weight of the tree over the small brook behind the property. The reduction in height is also to keep the tree from reaching and buildings if it was to fail, and also to take some weight out of the tree and there are signs of decay at the base from what looks like old wounds and also they was a large branch that has failed sometime in the past causing a large wound on the back of the tree. 36 Livonia Road Sidmouth EX10 9JBRef. No: 22/1304/TRE | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Holly tree at NW corner of churchyard is approx 10m high, and for the past 18 months has been shedding lower branches. We propose cutting down to 600mm high to see if it will regenerate as a bush. The Sunday School Building Market Place Colyton EX24 6JSRef. No: 22/1307/TCA | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a new reservoir Otter Nurseries Gosford Road Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1LZRef. No: 22/1306/FUL | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of garage to habitable use to include removal of existing profiled sheet roofing, construction of new flat roof and alterations to fenestration. Barnpark Green Lane Tipton St John Sidmouth EX10 0AHRef. No: 22/1305/FUL | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of single storey side extension, erection of two storey side extension, erection of detached garage, removal of single storey side extension, demolition of detached garage and associated alterations to detached bungalow. Oaktree Lodge Oakhayes Road Woodbury EX5 1JTRef. No: 22/1308/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Erection of a garden office and demolition of garden shed. Seashells Longmeadow Road Lympstone EX8 5LWRef. No: 22/1303/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7. All Ash trees suffering from die back to be removed. Approximately four trees to be planted as replacements Roseacre Red Lane Axminster EX13 5TARef. No: 22/1299/TRE | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Beech tree : 2m tip reduction to help alleviate the pressure on the included bark union given their exposure to wind from the SW. T2, Sycamore : 3m reduction to balance the tree up with the recent storm damaged branches caused by squirrel damage and historic pruning cavities; reduce pressure on the main union with included bark (cobra bracing to be installed too as a backup) Marrak Crewkerne Road Axminster EX13 5TERef. No: 22/1298/TRE | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 3 spruce at the rear of the property overhanging the boundary. Prune back to boundary to a height of five metres Rookwood House Rookwood Close HonitonRef. No: 22/1302/TCA | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of Lawful Development for a Proposed single storey rear flat roof extension.4 Albert Place Exmouth EX8 1JQRef. No: 22/1296/CPL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Approved
• Replacement of existing conservatory with a new oak frames garden room, with alterations to fenestration and the decking area replaced and extended with a new patio. 20 Eastfield West Hill EX11 1XNRef. No: 22/1281/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of garage to annexe to include raising of roof and addition of dormer windows. The Coach House Trinity Hill Road Axminster EX13 5SLRef. No: 22/1285/FUL | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of existing garage/workshop, to be replaced with a new garage/workshop on existing foundations High Wotton Wotton Lane Lympstone EX8 5AYRef. No: 22/1280/FUL | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of dairy housing and feeding building at Highwood Farm Highwood Farm Cotleigh Honiton Devon EX14 9HYRef. No: 22/1262/FUL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed telecommunications upgrade within existing telecommunications compound. Telecommunications Mast At Mount Pleasant Exmouth Road AylesbeareRef. No: 22/1267/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Erection of a timber bay building for agricultural use. Centre Of Pond 271M From Knowle Cross Cottage Broadclyst Road From Bogmoor Lane Whimple Footpath Whimple EX5 2NZRef. No: 22/1259/FUL | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Outline application with all matters reserved for the erection of a two storey 2-bed adjacent dwelling. 65 Moorfield Road Exmouth Devon EX8 3QPRef. No: 22/1260/OUT | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement grounds shed at St Peter. St Peters School Harefield Lympstone Exmouth EX8 5AURef. No: 22/1246/FUL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed new access off highway to paddock and erection of 3no. stables. West View Payhembury Honiton EX14 3JARef. No: 22/1210/FUL | Validated: Tue 14 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Prior approval for the erection of agricultural storage barn for straw and fodder Higher Ash Farm Fenny Bridges Honiton EX14 3BLRef. No: 22/1213/AGR | Validated: Mon 13 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of 3no. 2-bed retirement bungalows with associated facilities (Class C2) Amberwood Nursing Home 231 Exeter Road Exmouth Devon EX8 3EDRef. No: 22/1112/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of conditions 5 (odour management), 7 (feedstock and feedstock delivery) and 10 (plant noise) of planning permission 17/0650/VAR (relating to the construction of an anaerobic digester Enfield Farm Biodigester Oil Mill Lane Clyst St Mary EX5 1AFRef. No: 22/1106/VAR | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of conditions 3 (odour management), 5 (feedstock and digestate) and 8 (plant noise) of planning permission 15/1512/FUL (relating to the extension of an anaerobic digester) Enfield Farm Biodigester Oil Mill Lane Clyst St Mary EX5 1AFRef. No: 22/1104/VAR | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of stables and construction of new stable/agricultural building with new riding arena. Owl Cottage Treaslake Farm Buckerell Honiton EX14 3EPRef. No: 22/1068/FUL | Validated: Thu 16 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of existing barns to a single dwelling, construction of a single dwelling with associated works and demolition of 2no. agricultural buildings. Cowley Barton Farm Cowley Exeter EX5 5EJRef. No: 22/1045/FUL | Validated: Wed 15 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Various works to include: Ground floor: Remove staircase leading up to bathroom; remove stair partition; remove floor in existing dining room down to original floor level; lime plaster walls in existing store; remove floor in existing dining room down to original floor level; remove floor in existing living room and make level with existing dining room; remove stair partition and replace staircase in living room; create new opening between existing store and living room; insert new partitions in store; repairs to stone wall in existing store and fit strengthened glass cover over well. First floor: new floor to create ensuite; new opening from bedroom to ensuite; new ceilings; removal of partition walls; strengthen and level floor and adjust door heights. Musgrove Farm Lane Past Musgrove Farm House Dunkeswell Devon EX14 4RRRef. No: 22/1037/LBC | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of agricultural building into two storey 4-bed detached dwelling & erection of triple detached garage; conversion of agricultural building into 3no. units of holiday accommodation; erection of 3no. shepherds huts; construction of paired vehicular accesses & parking courtyards; demolition of milking parlour and barn adjacent junction Agricultural Building Near Higher Wick Farm Wick Luppitt EX14 4TYRef. No: 22/0960/FUL | Validated: Fri 17 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

It is now ten years since redevelopment plans for Exmouth seafront were first put forward. But now fresh proposals for something to finally happen on the site are moving closer.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

The plans have faced delay after delay – so much so that the temporary attractions installed in 2018 have had to be made permanent. Several visions for the Queen’s Drive site have come and gone and fallen by the wayside.

But now, East Devon District Council aims to move a step closer to finally ending the long wait. The start of exciting new plans to regenerate sites across Exmouth town centre and its seafront are beginning, with the launch of public workshops and an online questionnaire.

The Placemaking in Exmouth Town and Seafront Group – which is being led by East Devon District Council – is looking to gather residents’ and visitors’ thoughts on the key themes and characteristics they want to shape future developments. An online questionnaire focuses on the future for Exmouth, looking for views on how various key sites can be improved.

Two workshops will be also held for the general public on Thursday 14 July, from 7pm until 9.30pm, and on Sunday 31 July, from 10am until 12.30pm, at Exmouth’s Ocean Queen’s Drive on the top floor. All the views gathered will be used to help shape developments in Exmouth town centre and seafront in the future.

Cllr Paul Arnott, East Devon District Council’s leader, said: “Exmouth is by far the biggest community in East Devon, and it is vital to listen to the opinions and wishes of local people. We are very grateful indeed to all the town councillors, local residents and stakeholders who have advised us on how best to approach this new consultation and now look forward to hearing what everyone wishes to say. Thank you for taking part.”

The questionnaire asked people if they agree or disagree over improvements focused around the Jurassic Coast, a traditional seaside theme, a unique selling point, being open all year around, and whether it should offer something to everyone.

Questions are also asked about whether improvements need to be made to the town centre, to make the town more environmentally friendly, sport and leisure facilities, open spaces, derelict areas of Exmouth, and arts and culture facilities.

South West Research Company will also be conducting 400 on-street face-to-face interviews in July and August – 150 and 250 interviews respectively, on behalf of the council.

Cllr Nick Hookway, East Devon District Council’s portfolio holder tourism, sport, leisure and culture, said: “At the first stakeholder session, which was held last Monday, there were many comments on how Exmouth needs to unlock the puzzle that visitors often experience when moving around the town centre to get to the Seafront.

“Exmouth is blessed with a superb seafront and together with the Exe Estuary Exmouth is an attractive place to visit. Exmouth is a lovely place to live and work in as well. However, there is a need to develop new places that will enhance the town, improve the visitor experience and provide better amenities for residents. New developments will lead to economic growth and provide job opportunities.

“EDDC would like to hear the views of residents as these new placemaking proposals are put forward. May I encourage as many residents as possible to take a few minutes to complete the consultation.”

It was back in 2012 when plans to redevelop the area between the old lifeboat station and the Maer first came forward, with the intervening period seeing several iterations of the plans not coming to fruition – with the scheme being referred to as ‘Exmouth’s Brexit’.

While phase 1 – the relocation of the Queen’s Drive road – and phase 2 – the watersports centre – have been completed and are open, phase 3, the longer term vision for the site remains in doubt.

Planning permission for the redevelopment of a 3.6-hectare swathe of Queen’s Drive has been granted, and has been implemented, the council say, with the realignment of the road. The attractions currently on the Queen’s Drive space – the replacement for the former Fun Park now have planning permission to stay on the site permanently after two temporary were granted – but ultimately may not be the final use for the stretch of land.

In 2012, plans to redevelop the area between the old lifeboat station and the Maer, known as the Splash Zone, formed part of the Exmouth Masterplan which sets out future regeneration in the town The controversial plans divided opinion in the town in 2013 when more than 500 people completed questionnaires about the authority’s intention to redevelop the area between the old lifeboat station and the Maer, known as the Splash Zone.

When asked for a general opinion, 52 per cent of respondents of the questionnaires were in favour of the overall proposals with 41 per cent against. The remaining seven per cent did not express a preference. In December 2013, East Devon District Council’s Development Management Committee gave the go-ahead for the development of the Queen’s Drive area in Exmouth.

The outline permission includes the realignment of the road to give easier access to the beach and stunning views from the proposed new watersports hub, cafe and public open space. The detailed plans included luxury flats, shops, eateries, a multi-screen cinema and a new Harbour View Café and coastwatch tower.

At the same time, a new action group was launched to ‘save’ Exmouth seafront from developers, with Save Exmouth Seafront concerned that the £18m redevelopment would mean some of the town’s oldest most popular businesses closing. In October 2015, the Carriage Café on the seafront left the town. It had been open for nearly 50 years and the restored 1956 carriage business’s closing brought an end to an era for residents.

At around the same time, more than 1,000 residents and visitors took part in the Exmouth Seafront Survey, initiated by Cllr Megan Armstrong. Led by author and analyst Louise MacAllister, the survey aimed to discover if plans for a multi-screen cinema, outdoor water splash zone and adventure golf park were wanted by those who would be using the facilities.

East Devon District Council were then working with Moirai Capital Investments of Bournemouth to put forward proposals to “breathe new life into the nine acre council-owned seafront site at Queen’s Drive with a range of exciting leisure facilities”.

Organisers said the survey showed 95 per cent were against the redevelopment, it showed widespread support for the businesses at the time occupying the seafront and that many Exmouth residents felt their concerns regarding the plans had been ignored.

In April 2016, Exmouth residents went to the polls, and around 95 per cent of those who turned out to vote want more consultation on multi million-pound plans for Queen’s Drive. Called by concerned residents, the parish poll saw 4,754 people – 17.8 per cent of the electorate – take part. But the summer of 2016 saw Moirai Capital Investments sacked as the developer due to the length of time it had taken for them to bring more plans.

September 2016 saw the Jungle Fun attraction and Arnold Palmer Putting Course closed for the last time. Hours earlier, locals and tourists had flocked to the attraction for one last round. The crazy golf course was established around 40 years ago.

In November 2016, campaigners in Exmouth staged a protest march calling for further consultation on controversial seafront redevelopment plans. The Save Exmouth Seafront protesters set off from the lorry park in Marine Way and marched through Imperial Road, The Strand and Alexandra Terrace before finishing on the seafront.

April 2017 saw the reserved matters application for the seafront redevelopment approved. It meant the council could now go ahead and build the £18million redevelopment of a 3.6-hectare swathe of Queen’s Drive, but had no plans to do so. Had the application been rejected, it would have meant the outline permission for redevelopment would have no longer been extant and sent the project back to the drawing board. The Fun Park, run by the Wright family, closed after more than 40 years at the end of August 2017, with a vigil held and floral tributes presented.

A last gasp bid to reprieve the Fun Park from closure failed two weeks later, when East Devon councillors voted 26 to 21 against extending the lease of the Fun Park. The contents of the Fun Park were auctioned off the following day. The Harbour View café was also due to close at the same time, but has seen its lease extended, and is still operating now.

Floral tributes laid inside the swan at Exmouth Fun Park

October 2017 saw Grenadier reveal their plans for the Watersports Centre, before submitting the formal planning application in February 2018, which was then approved in June 2018 by eight votes to five, with a full opening taking place in the early part of 2021.

The temporary attractions for the seafront at the Queen’s Drive Space, which include the food and drink area and the dinosaur-themed play park opened in May 2018, having been given planning permission in March 2018. Permission was initially granted for one year, followed by a second permission for a further three years. That expired in March 2022, but the council agreed to make that use permanent earlier this year.

Work began at the end of 2018 to realign the Queen’s Drive road, which was completed in June 2019, although questions have been raised about where the funding for the road, which East Devon District Council paid for, actually came from.

At the end of 2019, HemingwayDesign and Lambert Smith Hampton submitted their vision for Phase Three for Exmouth Seafront to East Devon District Council. The suggested uses for the site include a new two storey café/restaurant on the existing Harbour View café site to the south of Queen’s Drive, a mix of playspace (including free play) and open public space on the remainder of the site, and an 60–80 bed 3–4 star hotel of high design quality.

East Devon District Council’s cabinet, when they met on Wednesday, February 5, 2020, agreed to launch a formal marketing exercise to identify developer/operator partners for the Queen’s Drive site. But the council’s scrutiny committee then unanimously agreed that the panel for the purpose of agreeing the selection criteria for the commercial development was not properly balanced, and expressed their anger at how they felt Exmouth residents were not being listened to.

The current view of the Exmouth seafront site

That process was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and a change of administration, in August, full council accepted that recommendation and sent it back to cabinet, who are now able to make the decision they wish over the future of Queen’s Drive, although as of yet, no firm plans have come forward.

That meeting saw councillors agree and express a desire to ‘Get Seafront Done’, as Cllr Joe Whibley put it, but that as Exmouth is the biggest town in East Devon, it was critically important to the economy and the reputation of the council that they do the right thing and get a scheme that is both popular with the residents and viable in the long term.

The ultimate decision over what happens with Phase 3 will lie with the council’s cabinet, as under the council’s constitution, it falls within their remit rather than that of full council. They have now launched this latest consultation to once again gauge the views of residents in the town ahead of more concrete plans coming forward.

If you need a copy of this consultation on paper, in large print, or in any other format, please email: exmouthconsultation@eastdevon.gov.uk or call 01395 519960 by Friday, 12 August, or can be filled in online at https://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/exmouth-consultation-summer-2022/

Dr Phil Norrey is a fine example of what we should be able to expect from a local authority Chief Executive – Owl

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Devon County Council’s long-serving chief executive, Phil Norrey, has announced his retirement. Dr Norrey has held the post since 2006 and is the longest-serving chief executive in the council’s history.

He joined the authority in 1998 as deputy director of education before being promoted to director of education. Dr Norrey, who will be 60 next year, said it was the right time for him to leave and hand over to his successor as a new senior management team takes shape at County Hall.

He said: “Devon County Council has been a huge part of my life and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with some excellent colleagues to provide vital services to the people of Devon. This year the council has been building a talented new senior management team and it’s the right time for me to hand over to a successor with different talents and ideas to lead the authority as local government faces many new challenges.”

Dr Norrey said among the highlights of his career in Devon were the major reorganisation of education in Exeter, leading the council through a period of austerity, Devon’s response to the pandemic when the county council was the regional lead authority and its current leadership of the Green agenda with his chairmanship of the Devon Climate Change Emergency Response Group and the production of the Carbon Plan to cut emissions.

The introduction of daily rail services from Exeter to Okehampton and the creation of new railway stations including Marsh Barton, which is currently under construction, would help encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport, he said.

Dr Norrey has overseen a number of major projects such as the development of two new towns at Cranbrook and Sherford, the South Devon link road and the creation of Exeter’s innovative Science Park along with two waste to energy plants in Exeter and South Devon .

“I’m also proud that we have been consistently one of the top councils for recycling waste and, as a keen cyclist, the network of cycle trails that we have developed across the county,” he said.

Dr Norrey led the region’s chief executives in preparing for Brexit and the pandemic and has chaired the regional and national societies of chief executives.

“One of my predecessors told me when I was appointed that I would probably not want to do the job for more than 10 years,” said Dr Norrey. “It’s now been 16 and a half years and I certainly never intended to go on past my 60th birthday.”

In his retirement he plans to follow his beloved Burnley football club as they attempt to return to the Premiership at the first attempt, to cycle around Devon more and to pursue his keen interest in local history.

Devon County Council leader, John Hart, said: “Phil Norrey has given nearly a quarter of a century of exemplary service to this county and I will miss his wise advice and counsel and his help and support.

“He has a local, regional and national reputation and it is fitting that he has been Devon’s longest-serving chief executive. I wish him all the very best for a long, healthy and happy retirement.”