Citizen scientists are being trained as the best hope to protect rivers from pollution and over-abstraction as data suggests the Environment Agency’s new monitoring programme leaves waterways unprotected.

(See also this post)

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

A £7m programme to set up citizen science testing in 10 river catchments across England is under way in an attempt to standardise the way volunteers carry out the monitoring.

Modelled on the testing carried out by volunteers at Chesapeake Bay in the US, the third largest estuary in the world, the project aims to create thousands of volunteer scientists who will monitor their local rivers and provide a grassroots voice to protect them.

“What we want eventually is to have thousands of people volunteering and monitoring their local rivers,” said Simon Browning of the Rivers Trust. “These could be 15-minute surveys or more detailed invertebrate surveys, which give us another level of data. We are trying to formalise the volunteer structure and standardise the monitoring so that we know the data is reliable.

“We want to bring along as many people as possible over all the river catchments across the country, so that by the end of the three years of the project there is no going back, we will see volunteers operating across the country.”

The aim is for the monitoring to be complemented by a network of sensors and the information will be gathered and shared into a central visualisation platform. The project, which is led by the Rivers Trust and United Utilities, is funded via the water regulator Ofwat’s first water breakthrough challenge, and involves academic partners. Browning, who set up a citizen science monitoring project for the Westcountry Rivers Trust which is ongoing, said the Environment Agency testing regime was no longer widespread or comprehensive enough.

The EA should monitor the chemical quality of rivers, focusing on levels of phosphates, nitrogen, ammonia and dissolved oxygen. But citizen data gathered in Devon exposed the holes in the new EA testing programme, adopted last year, which involves randomly selected sites for spot testing.

“Some of our river catchments have gone from being monitored 12 times a year to nothing,” said Browning. “So it is not so much a question of whether citizen science is better than EA monitoring but where there is no data at all, citizen science monitoring can empower communities and get them involved in understanding the issues in their rivers so that they can speak up and protect them.

“We want to see real benefits at a local level, with communities in towns and villages taking the local environment by the scruff of the neck and speaking up for rivers.”

Data from the River Creedy in Devon suggests the EA’s phosphate tests have dramatically reduced in 20 years. In 2000 the EA tested 12 sites for phosphates on the Creedy 12 times a year; totalling 144 tests. Testing started to drop off in 2014 with sample frequency reduced dramatically to a low of four times a year. By last year monitoring of the original 12 sites was abandoned altogether. Sites have been replaced with randomly selected areas as part of the new EA spot test system and there were 67 phosphate tests at these new sites in 2021, compared with a high of 189 tests conducted in 2002.

On the Creedy one of the new sample points is upstream of all sewage discharges, population centres or productive farmland. Critics say the new system is likely to misrepresent the scale of water pollution across the country.

“This detailed, local level spatial analysis [of the Creedy] reveals a huge shift in monitoring approach,” said Browning. “Long-term sampling sites have been wound down and abandoned, new ones initiated with a much-reduced sampling regime – one year in five – and at ‘random’ locations that are in no way representative of overall water quality at the waterbody scale.”

Annual funding from the government for monitoring activity has halved in recent years. The agency said its new River Surveillance Network testing was designed to provide a robust assessment of the health of rivers nationally over time. The agency said it welcomed the various emerging citizen science initiatives, which promised to deliver practical results in a collaborative manner.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We continue to take tens of thousands of water quality samples every year as part of our work to keep rivers clean. In recent years technological advances and increased efficiency has enabled us to concentrate our resources, and target areas where the environment will benefit most.”

“We’ve had seven housing ministers in the last five years and none of them have sorted it out.”

Dave Doyle www.bristolpost.co.uk

The cost of private home rental in our region grew by the fastest rate ever in the twelve months up to June, Bristol Live can reveal. Prices were 4.1 percent higher in June of 2022 than in June of 2021 – the largest year-on-year increase since comparative records began in 2006.

Taking the twelve months to July 2022, private rental prices had risen by 4 percent – the third largest rise of any UK region. Only the East and the East Midlands saw faster increases, of 4.1 and 4.3 percent respectively.

The record-breaking hike in home rental came at the same time that workers across Britain saw their regular pay fall by 3 percent, according to separate figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Ashley Day is the founder and director of Bristol Property Centre, an award-winning independent letting agent based in Redland. He called the average rise of 4.1 percent “quite modest”, suggesting that prices had jumped by much more in many cases.

“I’ve run BPC for ten years and supply has never been like this,” said Ashley. “Some tenants are offering up to £100 more than the landlord is asking for.”

The difficulty and expense of renting in the city is a popular topic amongst members of the Reddit forum r/Bristol, as suggested by the title of the weekly general discussion thread: “Buying, selling, moving, renting, lost property and general chat should go here.”

“I would say it’s an average price, not the best deal but equally nothing super high,” replied Party-Efficiency7718. “Good value in the current market I’d say in that location. Unfortunately, the market is messed up.”

“Just been notified that our rent is going from [£1,400] per month to [£1,900] in Horfield, and I am in disbelief,” wrote user Beardy_Will, in another thread. “Landlord reckons it is reasonable as the local letting agents told him to charge [£2,000]. Of course they tell him that as it is in both their interests to do so.”

Jeetz88 replied: “I really struggle to understand how they can justify a massive rent increase just cos some other locals are charging more. Pure greed.”

Spiralling rents come down to supply and demand, the property expert explained. “There’s simply not enough property,” he said. “There was a time we were advertising 30 properties in a month – at the moment it’s about 10 or 15.”

Many landlords are selling up due to changing regulations, which are making it less profitable to let. “Landlords can’t claim back the interest on their mortgages any more,” said Ashley. “It’s perhaps one of the only businesses in the country where they can’t claim back a legitimate business expense.

“They are also talking in Parliament about making the minimum energy efficiency band C, so landlords are exiting before they have to spend to bring property up to that standard. It can be very expensive, especially in older properties.”

He added that some landlords are capitalising on a buoyant post-pandemic sales market, cashing out and further reducing the stock of housing available in the city. And there is very little renters can do about it.

“There isn’t a situation I can see where people are going to be renting in Bristol for what you might call a reasonable amount,” said Ashley. “You can look at areas slightly further out, like Mangotsfield or Warmley, but it’s still very competitive out there.”

He added: “Try and stay where you are, if you can. If I was a tenant now, I’d probably come armed to a viewing with a tenant CV which you can hand to the agent. And offer what you feel you can afford – but don’t go beyond your means.”

The solution to the situation is “supply, supply, supply,” Ashley says. “There’s not enough student housing, so students are coming into the private sector. The council aren’t building enough social housing, and the private sector is shrinking because landlords are selling.

“We’ve had seven housing ministers in the last five years and none of them have sorted it out.”

Investigations have begun after a South West construction went bust leaving hardly any cash to pay £15m in debts and a huge black hole in its pension fund. Liquidators sorting out the affairs of Henry W Pollard and Sons Ltd, which had been in business for 161 years before it went belly up in 2021, have sent a confidential report on the directors’ behaviour to the Government.

Remember the £60million collapse of Midas – Owl 

William Telford www.devonlive.com

Furthermore, the liquidators, at South West accountancy and business consultancy Bishop Fleming LLP, revealed, in documents filed at Companies House, that they are also probing “alleged pension-related misrepresentations in the company’s financial statements.” The company’s pension scheme is owed £4,954,000.

The documents revealed the liquidators have recovered pension documents from the company’s books and records, and from relevant third parties but, as of July, were awaiting further information. Meanwhile they have sent a report to Whitehall, under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, and said: “We can confirm that we have submitted a report on the conduct of directors of the company to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. As this is a confidential report we are unable to disclose the contents.”

Pollard, which had worked across the region, ceased trading and entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation in July 2021 leaving buildings such as Plymouth’s £13m Teesra House apartment block in limbo. The business was headquartered in Bridgwater but had a key office in Plymouth, where it opened a base at Millbay’s Cargo building in 2015. Pollard had also been leasing three units at Queen Anne Place, Cattedown and documents reveal it owes cash to small firms throughout Devon and Cornwall.

The newly published joint liquidators’ annual progress report reveals that assets of nearly £1m have been collected so far and two freehold properties are on the market. One secured creditor, a bank, has been paid £400,000 from cash in the Pollard bank account, and claims from ordinary preferential creditors, 29 employees, have been dealt with. A claim from HM Revenue and Customs for £256,145 in taxes is being reviewed but it is expected this will be paid.

But it is estimated by the liquidators that there will be just £612,563 available for unsecured creditors, meaning they will get just 4p in the £1. If this turns out to be the case it means the pension fund, for example, would receive only £198,160 of the near £5m it is short.

Pollard’s statement of affairs indicated there were 265 unsecured creditors whose debts totalled about £8.7m. But liquidators have already received claims totalling about £15.25m from 196 creditors.

In the progress report the liquidators said: “The significant difference in value relates, principally to four claims totalling about £5m which pertain to live contracts and which had not been incorporated within the directors’ statement of affairs.”

Out of the unsecured creditors, trade creditors are claiming £4,482,999, employees want £182,368, Somerset District Council is owed £1,089,150, and contract counterclaims amount to £4,542,728. When the pension scheme deficit of £4,954,000 is added in it brings the total to 15,251,245.

The liquidators said it is not known how much cash they will be able to collect, and said: “The extent to which retentions and book debts are recoverable is entirely uncertain at this stage.” Future legal costs and fees are unknown at the moment too.

Other documents filed at Companies House have revealed that many of the unsecured claimants are small and mid-sized companies spread across the South West. Among the dozens of companies owed money are Plymouth firm XCAV8 (SW) Ltd, which is claiming £130,181; Bridgwater’s Blake Joinery Co, owed £221,950; Plymouth’s Beaumont Drylining Ltd, owed £97,595; another Plymouth firm, PCB Electrical Service, which is claiming £134,393; and DMH Interiors, in Weston Super Mare, which is £105,243 short.

The smallest claim is for £17 but most are for hundreds or thousands of pounds, and they come from companies in the aforementioned towns and cities and in Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Tavistock, Bath, Taunton, Saltash, Torpoint, St Austell and Swindon, among many places in the South West, and even from outside the region, including companies in Birmingham, Bolton, Coventry and Manchester.

Pollard had been involved in multi-million pound building projects throughout the West Country and was in profit before the coronavirus pandemic and had a healthy turnover, but the administration of an important client in 2019 left it £715,000 out of pocket.

Among projects Pollard worked on was Kingsditch Industrial Units in Cheltenham, and it was working on Weston Mews townhouses in Bath, Alexander House care home in Exeter, and the eight-storey Teesra House block, at Mount Wise in Plymouth, was close to completion but still covered in scaffolding at the time of the Pollard collapse.

Pollard directly employed about 50 people and its most recent results revealed turnover of £24m, up 20%, in 2020 and a profit of £170,888. That was before the Covid pandemic, although accounts released in January 2021 said the firm has been able to maintain work at all its sites and was tendering for £40m of contracts.

Chris Philp, the new chief secretary to the Treasury, is facing questions over his financial interests, after it emerged he still has a substantial stake in a property finance group and is director of an investment company.

Out with the old orthodoxy and in with the new? Nothing new in questionable links between Tories and business. – Owl

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Philp, who is the chancellor’s deputy and sits in the cabinet, is a member of a partnership that owns Pluto Finance, which offers multimillion pound loans to property developers.

It has provided loans for developments including £260,000+ “pocket” flats in Croydon and luxury blocks in the City of London whose developers earlier this year applied for an exemption to avoid having to offer affordable housing.

In his government job, Philp has responsibility for Treasury spending policy in relation to housing and planning.

The Treasury declined to say whether Philp would be required to sell off his interests, put them in a blind trust or be recused from discussions on housing policy.

Asked how Philp would be managing his financial interests, a government spokesperson said: “The ministerial code sets out the process by which ministers, following their appointment to a new role, should declare and manage their interests, working with their permanent secretary. The chief secretary to the Treasury is now going through this process in line with the ministerial code, following his appointment just last week.”

The Treasury is currently without a permanent secretary, after Tom Scholar was removed from his post by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, last week. The role is now being shared by two acting directors, Beth Russell and Cat Little.

According to the register of members’ interests, Philp has a shareholding of more than 15% and is a partner in Pluto Partners LLP, Pluto Silverstone Co Invest LLP, Pluto Monza Co Invest LLP, Pluto Development Partners LLP, and Pluto Capital Management LLP.

Pluto Partners is ultimate owner of Pluto Finance (UK) LLP, a firm that arranges loans for property developers.

It is also part owned by the Universities Superannuation Scheme as well as other members of the partnership.

Philp is also a director of an investment, consultancy and advisory company that he fully owns, Millgap Ltd. It is understood that Philp considers it to be not actively trading, although it is still registered as active at Companies House and is not recorded as dormant on the MPs’ register of interests or the list of ministerial interests from May this year.

His promotion to chief secretary of the Treasury comes at a time when Liz Truss and Kwarteng are prioritising growth above all other concerns.

Truss also appointed another businessman, Andrew Griffith, a former Sky executive, to financial secretary to the Treasury, but he has given up his interests in business since entering parliament.

However, Philp is not the only minister sitting in cabinet who has retained substantial business interests. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, still has a stake in Somerset Capital Management, an investment firm that he co-founded.

The practice of allowing ministers to retain substantial business interests appears to have increased under Boris Johnson’s government. Previously, ministers would have expected to sell substantial stakes in companies and give up directorships, or put them immediately in blind trusts.

The ministerial code states that it is the personal responsibility of each minister to decide whether and what action is needed to avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict, taking account of official advice from the permanent secretary and the adviser on ministerial interests. Truss has indicated, however, that she may not appoint a new adviser on ministerial interests following the resignation of Sir Christopher Geidt.

This is what a libertarian government looks like – Owl

The UK government could scrap its entire anti-obesity strategy after ministers ordered an official review of measures designed to deter people from eating junk food, the Guardian can reveal.

(In the 2019 survey, it found that 28.0% of adults in England were obese and a further 36.2% were overweight, making a total of 64.2% who were either obese or overweight.)  

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

The review could pave the way for Liz Truss to lift the ban on sugary products being displayed at checkouts as well as “buy one get one free” multi-buy deals in shops. The restrictions on advertising certain products on TV before the 9pm watershed could also be ditched.

The review, commissioned by the new health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, is seen as part of the prime minister’s drive to cut burdens on business and help consumers through the cost of living crisis.

Whitehall sources said the review was “deregulatory in focus” and is expected to lead to the new government jettisoning a raft of anti-obesity policies inherited from Boris Johnson, Truss’s predecessor in Downing Street.

It will also look at possibly ditching calorie counts on menus in many cafes, takeaways and restaurants – designed to encourage people to choose healthier dishes – which only became mandatory in April.

The review is so radical in scope that it may even look at whether the sugar tax, which began in 2018 and has helped make soft drinks much less unhealthy, should go too. Health experts have hailed the levy as a key initiative in the fight against dangerous obesity.

“There doesn’t seem to be any appetite from Thérèse for nanny state stuff,” one source said. Truss also made Coffey her deputy prime minister after taking office last week.

Officials at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the part of the Department for Health that formulates policies to tackle major public health problems, were said by a source to be “aghast” at the prospect of Truss potentially discarding strategies to counter junk food that have been agreed and approved by parliament.

Almost two-thirds of adults Britons are overweight or obese. Obesity costs the NHS an estimated £6.1bn a year to treat because it is an increasingly common cause of cancer, diabetes, heart conditions, painful joints and other health problems.

Johnson decided to make tackling foods high in fat, salt or sugar a personal priority as a result of his own admission to intensive care with Covid-19 in April 2020. A large majority of people who have needed life-saving care after becoming infected during the pandemic had high levels of excess weight, studies have shown.

The Obesity Health Alliance, a grouping of 50 health charities and medical organisations, said setting aside the government’s main weapons against obesity would be “a kick in the teeth”.

“We are deeply concerned. It would be reckless to waste government and business time and money rowing back on these obesity policies, which are evidence-based and already in law. These policies are popular with the public, who want it to be easier to make healthier choices,” said Katharine Jenner, the alliance’s director.

The unpublicised review has also provoked unease in Conservative ranks. James Bethell, a health minister until last year, said such a major U-turn could exacerbate Britain’s obesity problem. He challenged Truss’s apparent rationale for contemplating such an unexpected departure, which is that it would cut red tape faced by business and help promote economic growth – her key priority and the focus of the chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s emergency mini-budget, expected next week.

“Improving the nation’s health is one of the best ways we can increase productivity and workforce capacity and thereby drive growth. So I would be very surprised by any decisions that actually strive to make the UK less heathy,” the Tory peer said.

Truss pledged during the Tory leadership campaign to light a bonfire of obesity rules if she won. “Those taxes are over. Talking about whether or not somebody should buy a two-for-one offer? No. There is definitely enough of that,” she told the Daily Mail last month.

“What people want the government to be doing is delivering good roads, good rail services, making sure there’s broadband, making sure there’s mobile phone coverage, cutting the NHS waiting lists, helping people get a GP appointment. They don’t want the government telling them what to eat”, she added.

A leading health campaigner, who did not want to be named, said Truss’s readiness to abandon the approach to obesity was “ideological” and driven by her belief in minimal regulation of business.

Johnson legislated to ban junk food ads on TV before 9pm and online, multibuy deals, and sweet treats at checkouts, aisle ends and entrances in supermarkets. The measures were due to affect a wide range of foods such as snacks, breakfast cereals, pizzas, cakes, confectionery and desserts.

However, in May he delayed until 2023 and 2024 the introduction of all but the last measure, which is due to take effect on 1 October, subject to the review, citing soaring inflation and the pressure on families’ budgets as the reason.

That move led Jamie Oliver to stage a protest at Downing Street. The celebrity chef said: “To use cost of living as an excuse is wrong. It [action on obesity] is absolutely urgent and the excuses that he’s used for not doing it are absolutely not true.”

The Department of Health has been approached for comment.

“During today’s hearing it was revealed that the Independent Office of Police Conduct had made a request to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to “record and refer” a conduct matter in regards to the Chief Constable in their corporate sole under the Health and Safety at Work Act. However, it was noted during the hearing that the commissioner had declined this and the IOPC chose to refer the matter to themselves.”

(Devon and Cornwall police are facing a criminal investigation into alleged breaches of health and safety rules before the Plymouth mass shooting. Police sources emphasised that no individual faced criminal investigation. A “corporation sole” is a legal entity consisting of a single incorporated office. See report in national press)

Lisa Letcher www.devonlive.com

A watchdog investigation has been launched into Devon and Cornwall Police following the mass shooting in Plymouth last summer. The IOPC is investigating over potential breaches of health and safety legislation.

It related to the running of its Firearms Licensing Unit prior to the mass shooting in Keyham, in which five innocent people lost their lives. Jake Davison, 22, killed his mother Maxine, 51, after a row and then shot dead four others in a 12-minute attack.

The pre-inquest review (PIR) into the deaths of the five people murdered in Keyham on August 12, 2021 was held earlier today (September 13) at Plymouth Crown Court with the aim of preparing for the full hearing. That will now take place on January 17 next year.

During today’s hearing it was revealed that the Independent Office of Police Conduct had made a request to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to “record and refer” a conduct matter in regards to the Chief Constable in their corporate sole under the Health and Safety at Work Act. However, it was noted during the hearing that the commissioner had declined this and the IOPC chose to refer the matter to themselves.

In a statement released after the hearing, a spokesperson for the Independent Office of Police Conduct said: “We can confirm we have begun an investigation into Devon and Cornwall Police for potential breaches of health and safety legislation in the running of its Firearms Licensing Unit prior to the mass shooting in Plymouth in August last year.

“At the conclusion of our investigation into the force’s granting of a shotgun certificate and later return to Jake Davison of a shotgun, we sought specialist legal advice and have since decided to conduct a criminal investigation. Our investigation will examine whether the Office of the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, as corporation sole, may have committed any offences contrary to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. We have advised the force, the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Coroner and families of our decision.”

A statement in response, from Devon and Cornwall Police’s assistant chief constable, Jim Nye, said: “Devon and Cornwall Police’s thoughts remain with those families, victims and survivors a year on from the events of August 2021 in Keyham. Throughout the last year the Force has co-operated fully with the IOPC investigation, the coronial process and commissioned an independent review of the Force’s firearms licensing procedures by Durham Constabulary.

He continued: “We are aware of the latest developments from the IOPC investigation and continue to co-operate fully with them, while considering next steps the Force may choose to take on this matter. The Force notes this development is in its early stages and no determination in terms of potential corporate culpability has been decided.

“We continue to respect the coronial process in preparation for a full inquest in January 2023.”