So apparently is “Tractorn Porn” Neil Parish, the Claas candidate.

Split votes very welcome! – Owl

Lewis Clarke www.devonlive.com

The Conservative candidate who saw a majority of 24,239 swing 30 per cent to a Lib Dem win has said she would stand again to become an MP. Helen Hurford was chosen as the Conservative candidate for the Tiverton & Honiton by election to replace porn watching Neil Parish. The election on June 23 saw a historic victory for the Lib Dem’s Richard Foord, where there was a swing of 38.1 per cent to his party, with the Tories seeing a swing of 21.7 per cent in the opposite direction.

This result was the sixth-largest swing against the governing party since 1945; in addition, the Conservative Party’s 24,239-vote majority from the 2019 general election is the largest ever overturned in a by-election.

Before the announcement of the result, it was reported that Helen and her team had locked herself in a dance studio where the vote was taking place at Lord’s Meadow Leisure Centre in Crediton. LBC journalist Theo Usherwood announced on Twitter: “The Tory candidate Helen Hurford in the Tiverton by election has just locked herself in the dance studio at Crediton sports centre.” After the announcement she did not make a speech, and exited the building swiftly.

In one of her first public appearances since the election, she spoke to Ewan Murrie at BBC Radio Devon, where she was asked whether she would stand again. She said: “Absolutely. Of course, I will. I’m not a one-trick pony. Politics is a dirty game and if you truly believe in your community and you want to represent your community, you’re going to rough ride. I truly believe in my community, and I would stand again.”

She added that while she would support whoever was Prime Minister come September 5, she would prefer Liz Truss: “Whoever is voted, I will support 100 per cent, that’s what we all need to do in the Conservative Party. Moving forward, having been defeated in the by election here in Tiverton and Honiton, the message that I receive repeatedly is trust and somebody that we can trust and get behind and I think Liz represents that.

“The repeated message that I received on the doorsteps was that people were really unhappy about partygate and that that was the main protest that happened during that byelection. Liz is squeaky clean when it comes to partygate, so I think that she will go well with constituents here. They will know we’ve listened to them during the by election and acted upon it.”

On why Liz stuck by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his cabinet, Mrs Hurford added: “Liz is loyal. She’s a loyal person to the Conservative Party and stayed loyal to Boris Johnson when he was the leader. She did her job, and she did it really well. She had a very tricky job. What she also represents is somebody who is determined to do what’s right for the people of this country.”

She said it was ‘tricky’ to explain what went wrong during the by-election: “Boris has a huge amount of support here. You knock on one door and are told ‘if you’re not supporting Boris, I’m not going to support you’. You knock on another door where they say, ‘if you’re supporting Boris, I’m not going to support you’. It really is that diverse.

“I’ve listened to the people of Tiverton and Honiton and heard them loud and clear when they repeatedly said they did not want a Prime Minister who has broken the Covid regulations. We would be ignoring what they’ve warned us in the by election. They spoke loud and clear with that protest vote. We cannot afford to keep ignoring the electorate.”

Guess which area is one of the most expensive three for both!

Levelling up looks to be a forgotten dream. – Owl 

Matt Mathers www.independent.co.uk 

Millions of people across the UK were hit with the news last week that the average household energy bill will rise to a staggering £3,549 from 1 October.

The increasing cost of gas and electricity is being driven by the rise in wholesale gas prices, worsened by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Households were already reeling from an increase in their bills after the price cap rose in August.

And the worst is yet to come: the price cap will rise again in January and some analysts predict it could peak at more than £6,000 by April.

The government has already announced financial assistance for the cost of living crisis and the two candidates to replace Boris Johnson have pledged to provide more help.

While energy regulator Ofgem sets the price cap, gas and electricity customers across the UK pay varying amounts for their bills depending on where they live.

In England, those living in London pay the most for their gas, shelling out £0.0427 per kWh, resulting in an average bill of £581 per year, according to analysis by price comparison website money.co.uk.

Southern England is the second-most expensive area for gas and the South West is third, with customers there paying £575 and £574 per year respectively.

The North East, Yorkshire and East Midlands were the least expensive.

The amount people pay for their electricity also varies across the UK.

Top 10 most expensive areas for gas and electricity

(The Independent, source: money.co.uk)

People in Merseyside and North Wales are charged the most for keeping the lights on, according to the analysis by money.co.uk, whose findings were based on data from 2021.

Residents living in those two areas pay, on average, £0.2241 per kWh – an average yearly bill of £807.

The South West and North Scotland were the second most expensive areas for electricity on £796 and £793 respectively.

The least expensive areas were Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and the North West, according to the data.

Experts say that the amount people pay for their gas and electricity depends on a variety of factors – the main one being geography.

According to United Gas & Power, which supplies business, “this is usually because costs to providers also vary according to the area they are operating in.”

“Things like the charges your supplier has to pay to use local electricity wires and gas pipes have a knock on influence on your bill,” the supplier adds.

Serious vandalism at Sidmouth’s public loos at the Arches has left the town council with a £2,000 bill and concerns over the toilets’ future. 

Philippa Davies www.sidmouthherald.co.uk

Last week, in the run-up to the Sidmouth Airshow and Regatta weekend, the toilets on the seafront were deliberately wrecked. 

Waste pipes were kicked off, toilet seats smashed and hand driers broken. Toilet rolls and cardboard coffee cups were pushed into the pans, completely blocking the pipes. 

The toilets are the only ones in Sidmouth that are operated by the town council, which faced a race against time to get them repaired and working again before the weekend’s events. 

A council spokesman said: “You can imagine, ahead of the Airshow and the Regatta weekend, we did not want to have to close those toilets. 

“Our contractors worked industriously on Thursday and managed to fix all these problems and we got them up and working for the Regatta weekend. 

“But the bill was nearly two thousand pounds for just one spate of vandalism. It took the jetting company two hours to clear the pipes.” 

He said councillors will now be reviewing the way the toilets are managed and looking into ways of preventing vandalism – possibly by charging for their use. The town council takes pride in providing the facilities in such a prime position near the beach, but has limited funds for maintaining them. 

“We spend a lot on those toilets – and that bill is getting ever bigger. 

“Throughout this summer, there have not been many weeks that go by without something being broken in those toilets, be it a loo seat or a waste pipe, but this was the worst vandalism we’d seen for a long, long time. 

“We know the vast majority of people use the toilets correctly, we know the toilets are needed there. But they are all affected by this kind of vandalism, as soon as the waste pipes are broken or in this case completely blocked, we have to shut the whole lot while we get them cleaned. 

“It’s very disappointing that when you provide such a much-needed facility, a few people can ruin it for everyone else.” 

 

The UK government’s plan to cut millions of hours of raw sewage discharges by water companies each year is facing a judicial review on the grounds that it is unlawful.

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com

The conservationist charity WildFish is calling for the storm overflow reduction strategy, published on Friday, to be withdrawn immediately.

It argues the plan will allow storm overflows to continue dumping raw sewage for the next 28 years. In high-priority areas, the strategy will allow discharges to cause adverse ecological impacts for the next 13 years.

“WildFish lawyers have concluded that Defra’s [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] much-vaunted storm overflow discharge reduction plan is unlawful on many counts,” said Nick Measham, the chief executive of the charity.

“The plan allows or otherwise encourages the continuation of breaches of existing environmental laws by the water companies, by Ofwat and by the secretary of state himself, for many years to come, in some cases until 2050.”

Measham said the plan showed the government had no real appetite to deal robustly with the appalling sewage pollution of English rivers caused by water companies.

The government strategy was criticised by a number of organisations and members of the public, when it went out to consultation for being too weak with targets too far in the future.

The Rivers Trust said it was appalled that the government had not taken into account the thousands of responses to the draft consultation which were calling for much more ambitious targets.

Christine Colvin, an advocacy and engagement director of the Rivers Trust, said: “The requirement for this plan in the Environment Act gave government a great opportunity to right the wrongs on weak regulation and get on the front foot. It should have presented an open goal for a fresh start to stop sewage pollution in my lifetime. Instead they have scored an own goal.”

She said the government had stopped engaging with the storm overflow reduction taskforce, which was not given the results of the consultation nor invited to advise further on how the plan could have been strengthened.

Under government plans, by 2035 water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water, and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high-priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all waterways.

WildFish has begun proceedings against the plan by issuing a letter before action asking for the strategy to be withdrawn.

The storm reduction plan was published after a summer in which raw sewage discharges by water companies have resulted in beaches being closed and warnings issued about the quality of bathing water across the country. Last week a sewage leak by Thames Water killed fish stocks along a three-mile stretch of the River Ray. Thames Water said a sewage pipe had burst near Swindon.

Beaches in Sussex were shut after untreated sewage was pumped into the sea with the overflow captured on video.