The swimming and bathing ban at Exmouth [and Sidmouth Town and Jacobs Ladder and Beer] has now been lifted from today, (August, 19) following a pollution issue earlier in the week.

person Adam Manning www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

Exmouth and Budleigh beach was closed on Tuesday, (August, 16), after pollution in the sea following the heavy rain over that weekend. 

Budleigh re-opened on Wednesday.  A temporary alert was raised for Exmouth Beach in relation to a storm water overflow on Monday.

Between 15 May and 30 September EDDC receives daily ‘pollution forecast’ from the Environment Agency for all the registered bathing waters (Exmouth, Budleigh, Ladram, Sidmouth Jacobs Ladder, Sidmouth Town, Beer, and Seaton). 

These forecasts are based on a range of factors including rain over the various river catchments, wind, known pollution events etc.

This is a forecast of potential pollution risk not a report of a specific incident. 

These forecasts are also sent straight to the electronic signs which are located at all our beaches.  During an alert of this type, it is mandatory requirement that bathing is closed, and signs displayed.   

Because these alerts look at the whole river catchment affecting the bathing water, they are more frequent at Exmouth and Budleigh since the Exe and Otter catchments are much larger than the Sid or the Axe.

A spokesman for South West Water said: “A precautionary notice was raised on Monday at Exmouth Beach and has now been removed as there were no further discharges.”

East Devon District Council has confirmed that the ban on swimming at Exmouth beach has also been lifted.

More information on the Environment Agency website here 

 

Visitors to a Devon beach hit by a sewage pollution warning say water companies should invest more to cut storm overflows. There was anger and dismay at Holcombe Beach, between Teignmouth and Dawlish, with one woman saying she had let her young child swim in the sea, but told her not to put her head underwater.

Edward Oldfield www.devonlive.com 

A pebble-filled brook runs across the sand into the sea at the picturesque cove, which is crossed by the stone-built legs of a viaduct carrying the main railway line. The beach, which has a cafe at the bottom of a steep, narrow road, is popular with surfers, local people and holidaymakers. It has an entrance via a set of steps to the sea wall which carries the railway, and walkers can use the path alongside the tracks to reach Teignmouth.

Half-way up the hill to the village is a small brick-built South West Water building where a combined storm overflow can empty a mixture of rainwater and untreated sewage into the stream, if a heavy downpour threatens to overwhelm the system. On Thursday morning, a pollution alert was issued for the beach. It warned that storm sewage had been discharged from a sewer overflow within the previous 48 hours. The secluded beach was one of five along the south Devon coast with an alert still in place on Thursday afternoon, advising people not to go into the sea.

Walkers passing the South West Water hut on Smugglers’ Lane could detect a musty smell in the air where the brook runs alongside, but the water appeared to be clear and there was no sign of sewage. However, swimmers have in the past reported seeing human poo floating in the sea while they have been swimming off the beach. People in the area said it appeared South West Water was not investing enough to reduce the storm overflows. Others warned the pollution warnings threatened the reputation of Devon as a clean and safe holiday destination.

Teignmouth-born Sue Taylor has been running the Salty Dog Kiosk at the beach for six years, and knows when the storm overflows are particularly bad, because the pressure from the torrent of sewage and rainwater blows out a steel inspection cover in the road outside. She said: “We have had two months without any rain. Now they have had an hour of rain yesterday, and they are worrying about water quality. So what happens for the rest of the year?”

Sue Taylor, at the Salty Dog Kiosk at Holcombe Beach (Image: DevonLive/Reach Plc)

She said it appeared there was a lack of investment, with housing developments in the area being connected to the same Victorian infrastructure that was built for Teignmouth and Dawlish 150 years ago. She added: “Why are they not investing their money? Water rates are very high in the South West, among the highest in the country. They are not investing and putting in place new infrastructure to cope with the sewage.”

Ms Taylor said she was concerned about the impact of regular pollution warnings on Devon’s reputation as an environmentally friendly destination for visitors. She said two people that day had told her they had seen the pollution warning for Holcombe on the Safer Seas & Rivers Service phone app. She said: “People come and swim on this beach all year round. If they don’t come and don’t swim here, I lose trade from the business.”

Ms Taylor added: “The beaches are very important to the economy of Teignmouth. We rely on the beach, because that is what people come to Teignmouth for. People who go to the seaside want to know that it’s safe for them to go in the water. They want to know the water is clean, and the environment is good. So many people are more aware these days, and if somewhere doesn’t tick all the boxes, they will go somewhere that does. Teignmouth has got a blue flag for its clean beach, and we need to keep it that way. If it is down to South West Water, they need to pay to make sure they stay that way. They have a responsibility to the public.”

South West Water station in Smugglers’ Lane, Holcombe (Image: DevonLive/Reach Plc)

James Atkinson, 55, had walked to Holcombe from his home in Dawlish. He said: “The issue is that the water companies are not investing. I think the issue is privatisation, in my view. They know the problems, but they want to wait for it to go away, for public attention to move on.” He added: “I don’t think private water companies invest enough. They have plans, but I think their plans are always a few years behind what is happening. I don’t think they are prepared to take a punt on the future. They are just happy to get away with what they can get away with now.” He suggested the government should provide more public information to tell people about the importance of using less water.

A woman from Teignmouth, visiting the beach with friends, said: “They are a private company, they are a profit-making business, they could invest the money. It boils down to money at the end of the day.” She added: “I think it is pretty sad to see, it is lack of investment by profit-making companies. They are taking the money, they are not investing the money.” She said more should be done to reduce water use in public buildings, including schools, to cut waste and conserve supplies.

The list of Devon beaches with no-swim warnings on Thursday covered Teignmouth Holcombe, Dawlish Town, Exmouth, Sidmouth Town, and Beer. Earlier warnings issued in recent days have ended for Teignmouth Town, Wembury, Goodrington, Paignton, Budleigh Salterton and Saunton in North Devon.

The Environment Agency which monitors designated bathing water also issued precautionary advice not to bathe in the sea at Dawlish and Exmouth. The alerts follow heavy downpours which have triggered storm overflows to discharge untreated sewage mixed with rainwater into the sea. The outflows are legally allowed to prevent pipes which carry a mixture of rainwater and sewage backing up to flood roads, homes and businesses. Downpours can also wash animal waste and fertiliser into rivers and seas, causing a pollution risk.

Holcombe Beach, near Teignmouth (Image: DevonLive/Reach Plc)

South West Water, which provides water and sewerage services in Devon, said the Environment Agency’s Pollution Risk Forecast system triggered precautionary alerts when the weather posed a potential risk to water quality. Alerts were also raised in relation to stormwater overflows which may temporarily impact bathing water quality, but they were also precautionary.

A South West Water spokesperson said: “In recent days we have seen heavy localised rainfall which followed the prolonged period of hot and dry weather. As a result, the rain hasn’t been able to permeate into the ground and a significant volume has run into our network, which can cause our storm overflows to trigger. We continue to invest in our network to reduce the use of storm overflows as part of our WaterFit plan.”

The company says its plan will “dramatically 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.” It says storm overflows act as a legal safety valve to prevent sewers becoming overloaded and flooding homes, roads and businesses. South West Water achieved 100 per cent coastal bathing water quality for the first time across 860 miles of coastline earlier this year.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) announced the passing of Councillor Valerie Ranger, better known as Val, on Wednesday, August 10. Val lost her 18 month-long battle with stomach cancer on Tuesday, August 2.

Mary Stenson www.devonlive.com

Friends of Val, Liz Dowen and Lesley Woolley, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for Val’s stomach cancer treatment, paid tribute to the ‘inspiring’ local woman. The announcement of her passing said: “It is with a sad and heavy heart that we have to announce that Val passed away on Tuesday 2nd August 2022. Val fought this awful disease with such courage and determination. She was an inspiration to us all.

“With a constant smile on her face to the end and a determination to never give up, we have much to learn from her life, values and spirit. A truly inspiring and loving person who will be so missed, she made our community a better place to live. We will never forget her. Thank you to all of you who supported this appeal and gave Val precious time and hope.”

Val has been an active member in her local community for thirty years, starting out by doing voluntary work in 1992 in Sidbury in where she lived. She helped Second World War vets who had been denied disability benefits after being injured during the war.

Following on from her voluntary work, Val also taught at Exeter College from 1993 until 2020 when she had to leave due to her illness. She mainly worked with Access to Higher Education students, who are mature students seeking career changes and university access.

Val was known to share her vast range of skills as a teacher as she passed on her knowledge of shorthand to local Devon newspaper reporters.

Alex Richards, senior content editor at DevonLive, added: “It is with deep sadness we’re reporting on the passing of Val. There’s a generation of Devon journalists that owe her a great deal following her shorthand tutelage, just one of many strings she had to her bow. She was warm and witty, and we all found her a delight to work with. Our thoughts are with her friends and family at this difficult time.”

In 2013, Val began pursuing EDDC matters and was shocked by a ‘biased system’. The following year, she joined the parish council and then ran as an independent councillor for EDDC in 2015, proving to be a popular candidate after winning a clear majority. She was re-elected in 2019, becoming Vice-Chairman, a post which she remained in until her recent passing.

Putting locals first was one of Val’s core values as the GoFundMe page set up on her behalf explains: “She became part of the Democratic Alliance which is a collaboration between independent councillors, Liberal democrats and Green candidates in a bid to put politics aside and work on behalf of residents regardless of their political alliance.

“Along the way she was involved in ensuring Harpford Hall was retained as a community asset, and has campaigned for the retention of the red bridge over the River Otter to ensure residents have a safe walking route to and from Newton Poppleford and Tipton, as well as safety improvement measures on Four Elms Hill which should finally complete in July.”

In November 2020, Val received a stomach cancer diagnosis. In an October 2021 update on the GoFundMe page set up on her behalf, she described the first year with the illness as a “rollercoaster” but offered her thanks to “all those who have contributed to my fund, both financially but also with words of support and prayers.

“The response has been overwhelming and has made a massive difference to my physical and emotional well-being.”

After difficulty accessing treatment during multiple lockdowns, Val hoped that being open about her journey with cancer would encourage others to “take heart and feel able to doggedly pursue their doctors if they feel that something isn’t right and seek second and subsequent opinions if you are fobbed off or indeed written off.”

She expressed gratitude for the kindness of her friends for setting up the GoFundMe page and described Force Exeter and Honiton team hospice nurses as “brilliant”.

At its core is the so-called “productivity puzzle”, and Liz Truss is winning over a gullible Conservative party with the notion that cutting taxes is the way to unlock it. 

The gullibility of Tories to accept arguments that seem to be too good to be true has local form. Just think of the way they accepted our Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) claim to be able to double the local economy in 20 years on the basis of no evidence.

Like our LEP, Liz Truss’s claim doesn’t stand scrutiny either, read on. – Owl

Larry Elliott www.theguardian.com 

It will doubtless come as a surprise to British workers toiling in distribution warehouses, call centres or the NHS that Liz Truss thinks they could do with showing “more graft”.

Judging by comments made when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, the frontrunner to be prime minister thinks the UK’s economic problems are down to a working culture quite different from that in communist China.

Truss is right in one respect. The UK does lag behind many other western countries in the productivity league table. Across the G7 group of major industrial countries, the average worker produces 13% more an hour than the average British worker and the gap is getting bigger.

Official data also appears to show a divide between London and the rest of the country, with workers in the capital apparently 80% more productive than the national average. Truss suggests this is a mindset issue.

The idea, though, that the UK’s deep-rooted economic problems are caused by shirking or a lack of effort does not stand up to serious scrutiny. Britain has one of the most deregulated labour markets in the developed world and the average British worker puts in more hours a week than the European average.

Monitoring and surveillance in many workplaces are intense, with disciplinary measures for those that fail to meet quotas. This is a country where management has the whip hand and, for the most part, workers are not protected by unions. To the extent Truss’s analysis was ever true, it harks back to a labour market that has long since disappeared – now replaced by one in which an army of gig economy and self-employed workers toil away to make a living.

The real reason for Britain’s poor productivity lies elsewhere. UK business investment as a share of national output, or gross domestic product, is the lowest in the G7. It is a similar story with research and development, to which the UK devotes 1.7% of GDP annually, compared with an average of 3.1% for members of the developed country club, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Britain’s economic model is based on an abundance of cheap labour and under-investment in up to date capital equipment and product innovation. Skills levels are higher in a country such as Germany because the Germans invest more in training.

The difference between Britain and better performing countries is not that they work harder than we do, but that they work smarter than we do. Foreign-owned companies in the UK tend to have higher productivity, so if “mindset” is the issue then it is the mindset of management that counts.

Nor is it really the case that productivity is higher in London because workers in the capital have a “can do” spirit lacking elsewhere. As a paper from researchers at Sheffield Hallam University found, once adjusted for factors including the size of the working age population, the concentration of high productivity jobs in finance and the number of hours worked, the gap virtually disappears.

Truss’s team say the remarks made some years ago have been taken out of context but they seem pretty clear. If Boris Johnson’s probable successor thinks more graft is needed, she is completely misdiagnosing the problem.

Lib Dem MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, said beaches in his Devon constituency had been among those marked unsafe due to sewage.

“Local people and holidaymakers shouldn’t be forced to swim amidst human waste.

“Devon’s beaches are amongst the best in the world but the Government is turning a blind eye while private companies ruin them,” Mr Foord said.

See also: The tories just voted against an amendment to stop water companies dumping raw sewage into rivers Owl

www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk 

The average water company boss’s total pay rose by 20% over the last year as a “national scandal” of leaks and sewage being pumped into the sea continues, research has suggested.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats found the 22 water company executives across Great Britain were paid £24.8 million, including £14.7 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives in 2021/2022.

Pollution warnings were put in place on 40 beaches across England and Wales this week, mostly on the south coast, after flash flooding overwhelmed sewage systems.

Thames Water, which supplies 15 million people, is putting a hosepipe ban in place on August 24, as water levels in its reservoirs are “much lower than usual”.

Lib Dem environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “This is a national scandal. These disgusting polluting habits have made beaches unsafe in the middle of the summer holidays and harmed precious British wildlife.

“Hosepipe bans could have been avoided this summer if these water company CEOs bothered to invest in their rusting pipes rather than stuffing profits in their pockets.

“They are putting profit over the environment. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.”

He added: “This Government is guilty by association for letting water companies get away with this.”

Using information from the annual returns of each water company, the Lib Dems found the combined bonuses and salaries per water company boss rose by a fifth – or 21% – from 2020/2021 to 2021/2022.

This is an average rise in executive pay of nearly £200,000, with the average bonus alone rising by £100,000.

Lib Dem MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, said beaches in his Devon constituency had been among those marked unsafe due to sewage.

“Local people and holidaymakers shouldn’t be forced to swim amidst human waste.

“Devon’s beaches are amongst the best in the world but the Government is turning a blind eye while private companies ruin them,” Mr Foord said.

In a report published in July, the Environment Agency said water company bosses should face jail for the worst pollution incidents, describing the sector’s performance in 2021 as the “worst we have seen for years”.

The agency this week said that the risk of surface water floods caused by sudden heavy rain “reinforces the need for robust action from water companies to reduce discharges from storm overflows”.

David Black, the boss at water regulator Ofwat, said: “I was very clear with company remuneration committees in March that performance-related pay for CEOs should be clearly linked to their performance for customers, the environment and society.

“We are carrying out our own analysis and plan to report on whether we feel companies have clearly made this link.

“Performance-related pay can’t be a one-way street – if companies are not performing that should be reflected in executive pay.”

Water Company Executive Remuneration Total – 2020 & 2021

Company	Base pay	Bonuses, benefits and incentives	Pension	Total exec remuneration per company
South West Water	£1,129,000	£2,804,000	£259,000	£4,192,000

Companies house data on operating profits of water companies 2020/2021

Water company	Area	Name of company – Companies House	Revenue (£m)	Operating profit (£m)
Anglian Water	East	Anglian Water Services Limited	1,351.8	391.6
Northumbrian Water	North East	Northumbrian Water Limited	758.4	195.0
Severn Trent Water	West and East Mids, Chester	Severn Trent Water Limited	1,699.5	457.9
Southern Water	South East	Southern Water Services Ltd	819.8	138.8
South West Water	South West	South West Water Limited	543.8	198.3
Thames Water	Greater London, Thames Valley	Thames Water Utilities Limited	2,106.7	488.8
United Utilities	North West	United Utilities Plc	1,808.0	602.1
Wessex Water	South West	Wessex Water Services Ltd	516.9	160.4
Yorkshire Water	Yorkshire and Humber	Yorkshire Water Services Ltd	1,101.1	241.4
		Total	10,706.0	2,874.3