It has now been confirmed that the Home Office, despite assurances to the contrary, has bussed in more than 50 asylum seekers to be housed in an Ilfracombe Hotel.

[Government in such a mess over asylum seekers it no longer consults local authorities, or even communicates with Tory MPs. – Owl]

Joseph Bulmer www.northdevongazette.co.uk 

The decision by the Home Office was made without consulting North Devon Council or Ilfracombe Town Council despite both bodies and North Devon MP Selaine Saxby raising concerns about Ilfracombe’s suitability.

Reports received by the Gazette suggest that 55 people were bussed into Ilfracombe late last night (November 2) and have been housed at the Dilhusa Grand Hotel.

It’s also been reported that security guards have been posted at the door to the hotel, who have been referring the public to the Home Office.

Gazette editor Joe Bulmer attempted to contact the hotel for clarification on the rumours but was told ‘no comment’ before being hung up on.

In October North Devon MP Selaine Saxby and North Devon Council both raised concerns about an apparent plan to house asylum seekers at the Grand Dilkhusa Hotel in Ilfracombe.

After a conversation with ‘a home office minister’ Ms Saxby issued a statement stating the hotel would not be used for this purpose. The Home Office appears to have U-turned on that decision.

Leader of North Devon Council, Councillor David Worden has issued a statement regarding reports on the current use of the Dilkhusa Grand Hotel in Ilfracombe.

Councillor Worden said: “Last month, North Devon Council received formal notification from the Home Office of the potential use of the Dilkhusa Grand Hotel, Ilfracombe as a contingency hotel to accommodate asylum seekers.

“We wrote to the Home Office and Clearsprings Ready Homes, the Home Office accommodation provider, raising significant concerns over the process and the suitability of Ilfracombe for this type of accommodation. North Devon MP, Selaine Saxby, raised similar concerns with Ministers and the Home Office directly and asked for an urgent and detailed consultation with North Devon Council.

“At a multi-agency forum on Friday 7 October, we and other agencies repeated concerns that Ilfracombe is an unsuitable location for use as asylum accommodation due to its remoteness and the likely impact of the loss of an operating hotel on the local economy. Following this, on Thursday 13 October, we were advised that a decision had been made not to progress the hotel as asylum contingency accommodation.

“It has come to our notice that the Dilkhusa has now been commissioned and there are currently 55 people in the hotel who have arrived in the UK seeking asylum. We were not consulted or formally notified about this change in direction from the Home Office, nor do we have a full understanding at this stage of their intentions for the hotel’s future use.

“Both we, Devon County Council and Selaine Saxby MP are urgently seeking to gain a full understanding of the situation from the Home Office and Clearsprings, and we will review any appropriate actions we can take in light of the information we receive.

“We recognise our responsibility to help people seeking safety in the UK and look forward to re-engaging with the Home Office and Clearsprings.”

North Devon MP Selaine Saxby has issued a statement condemning the Home Office’s U-turn on the issue, she said: “I have been made aware overnight that it appears that the Dilkhusa has been used to house asylum seekers, this is in direct contradiction to the written advice from the Home Office received less than two weeks ago that the site was not suitable.

“I continue to make enquiries at the Home Office and work alongside North Devon Council, who were also unaware of the change of plans. I consider the manner in which this decision appears to have been taken to be wholly unsatisfactory and I will continue to press for the Home Office to get to grips with this situation, and to work with councils to find solutions, not allow hotels to take decisions which are based on their own financial benefit, rather than considering the local community, economy and even the well being of those seeking asylum.”

A Home Office spokesperson refused to confirm or deny using the Ilfracombe hotel to house asylum seekers: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.

“The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6million a day. The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.

“The Home Office does not comment on operational arrangements for individual sites used for asylum accommodation.

“We engage with local authorities as early as possible whenever sites are used for asylum accommodation and work to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people.

“We continue to ensure the accommodation provided is safe, secure, leaves no one destitute and is appropriate for an individual’s needs.

“Hotels are a short-term solution to the global migration crisis and we are working hard to find appropriate dispersed accommodation for migrants, asylum seekers and Afghan refugees as soon as possible. We would urge local authorities to do all they can to help house people permanently.

“The total hotel cost is £6.8millon. The cost of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels is £5.6million a day. The cost of accommodating Afghans in bridging hotels is £1.2million a day.”

The cliffs at Budleigh Salterton capture the moment at which life on Earth almost came to an end

Fossil fuel burning once caused a mass extinction – now we’re risking another

George Monbiot www.theguardian.com 

Budleigh Salterton, on the south coast of Devon, sits above the most frightening cliffs on Earth. They are not particularly high. Though you don’t want to stand beneath them, they are not especially prone to collapse. The horror takes another form. It is contained in the story they tell. For they capture the moment at which life on Earth almost came to an end.

The sediments preserved in these cliffs were laid down in the early Triassic period, just after the greatest mass extinction in the history of multicellular life that brought the Permian period to an end 252m years ago. Around 90% of species died, and fish and four-footed animals were more or less exterminated between 30 degrees north of the equator and 40 degrees south.

Most remarkably, while biological abundance (if not diversity) tends to recover from mass extinctions within a few hundred thousand years, our planet remained in this near-lifeless state for the following 5m years. In studying these cliffs, you see the precipice on which we teeter.

Cop27: the climate carnage we’ve faced this year – video

The lowest stratum at the western end of the beach is a bed of rounded pebbles. These are the stones washed off Triassic mountains by flash floods and deposited in great dumps by temporary rivers. Because the forests and savannahs that might have covered the mountains had died, there was nothing to hold the soil and subsoil together, so erosion is likely to have accelerated greatly.

At the top of the pebble bed is a stony desert surface. The pebbles here have been sculpted by the wind into sharp angles and varnished with shiny oxides, suggesting the surface was unchanged for a long time. Above it are towering red Triassic sand dunes. Through a quirk of erosion, these soft deposits have been sculpted into hollows that look uncannily like fanged and screaming skulls.

We now know that there were two main pulses of extinction. The first, which began 252.1m years ago, mostly affected life on land. It coincided with a series of massive volcanic eruptions in the region now known as the Siberian Traps. The second, more devastating phase, started about 200,000 years later. It almost completed the extinction of terrestrial life, as well as wiping out the great majority of species in the sea.

Though we cannot yet be sure, the first phase might have been triggered by acid rain, ozone depletion and metal pollution caused by volcanic chemicals. As rainforests and other ecosystems were wiped out, more toxic compounds were released from exposed soils and rocks, creating an escalating cycle of collapse.

The second phase appears to have been driven by global heating. By 251.9m years ago, so much solidified rock had accumulated on the surface of the Siberian Traps that the lava could no longer escape. Instead, it was forced to spread underground, along horizontal fissures, into rocks that were rich in coal and other hydrocarbons. The heat from the magma (underground lava) cooked the hydrocarbons, releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. In other words, though there were no humans on the planet, this disaster seems to have been caused by fossil fuel burning.

Temperatures are believed to have climbed by between 8C and 10C, though much of the second phase of extinction might have been caused by an initial rise of between 3C and 5C. The extra carbon dioxide also dissolved into the oceans, raising their acidity to the point at which many species could no longer survive. The temperature rise appears to have brought ocean currents to a halt, through the same mechanism that now threatens the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which drives the Gulf Stream. As wildfires raged across the planet, incinerating the vegetation protecting its surface, ash and soil would have poured into the sea, triggering eutrophication (an excess of nutrients). In combination with the high temperatures and stalled circulation, this starved the remaining life forms of oxygen.

A paper released as a pre-print in September might explain why recovery took so long. Because so many of the world’s rich ecosystems had been replaced by desert, plants struggled to re-establish themselves. Their total weight on Earth fell by about two thirds. Throughout these 5m years, no coal deposits formed, as there wasn’t sufficient plant production to make peat bogs. In other words, the natural processes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and turn it into wood and soil or bury it as fossil carbon stalled. For 5m years, the world was trapped in this hothouse state. In the cliffs at the eastern end of the bay, you can see when conditions began, at last, to change, as the fossilised roots of semi-desert plants twist down through the ancient sand dunes.

The story the cliffs tell is of planetary tipping points: Earth systems pushed past their critical thresholds, beyond which they collapsed into a new equilibrium state, that could not be readily reversed. It was a world hostile to almost all large life forms: the monsters of the Permian were replaced nearly everywhere by dwarf fauna.

Could it happen again? Two parallel and contradictory processes are in play. At climate summits, governments produce feeble voluntary commitments to limit the production of greenhouse gases. At the same time, almost every state with significant fossil reserves – including the UK – intends to extract as much as they can. A report by Carbon Tracker shows that if all the world’s reserves of fossil fields were extracted, their combustion would exceed the carbon budget governments have agreed sevenfold. While less carbon is contained in these reserves than the amount produced during the Permian-Triassic extinction, the compressed timescale could render this release just as deadly to life on Earth. The increase in atmospheric CO2 at the end of the Permian took about 75,000 years, but many of our fossil fuel reserves could be consumed in decades. Already, we seem to be approaching a series of possible tipping points, some of which could trigger cascading collapse.

Everything now hangs on which process prevails: the sometimes well-meaning, but always feeble, attempts to limit the burning of fossil carbon, or the ruthless determination – often on the part of the same governments – to extract (and therefore burn) as much of it as possible, granting the profits of legacy industries precedence over life on Earth. At the climate summit this month in Egypt, a nation in which protests are banned and the interests of the people must at all times cede to the interests of power, we will see how close to the cliff edge the world’s governments intend to take us.

Council owned land in Bideford, Great Torrington and Northam are being considered for affordable or mixed housing developments after a “landmark” council decision.

[Independents form the largest grouping in Torridge, a District Council with no overall political control – owl]

Alex Davis www.devonlive.com

Torridge District Councillors voted overwhelmingly to support at a Full Council Meeting on Monday (October 31) after an evaluation of all council owned property by architectural consultants in July. In total, councillors voted to progress 11 of the 12 sites evaluated, which included a mixture of council owned garage units, vacant land, car parks, and offices spread across multiple parishes.

The full council decision does not mean that housing will be developed for each of the sites, with the studies only highlighting council land suitable for development. Before any planning applications are submitted, more detailed proposals and a business case will be presented to the full council. Proposals will also be drafted in consultation with elected ward members to allow residents to have their say on any upcoming applications.

The list of sites approved for further progression included:

• Pynes Lane Garages, Bideford
• Springfield Car Park, Chanters Road, Bideford
• End of Ethelwynne Brown Close, Bideford
• Land at Cliveden Road, Bideford East
• Land at Cleave Wood, Bideford East

• Bone Hill Car Park, Northam
• Jackets Lane, Northam
• Windmill Lane Offices and Car Park, Northam
• Garages, Tuckers Park, Bradworthy
• Land at The Crescent, Langtree
• Part of South Street Car Park, Great Torrington

The development of affordable housing in Torridge aims to tackle the ongoing housing crisis in the region, with a lack in affordable housing “pricing out” residents from their communities. In November 2021, Devon County Council said the lack of affordable housing was leaving many key worker vacancies unfilled, with suitable candidates unable to find a home in a nearby area.

Councillor Ken James – Leader of Torridge District Council said: “This was an important exercise to look at sites owned by the council and to bring forward those that were suitable for housing, which Councillors have previously agreed is a key strategic priority. The reports were commissioned to include a strongly weighted balance in favour of affordable or social housing and this will be our goal in decisions regarding the final agreement of designs for each site.

“I appreciate that in some instances this has asked for a sacrifice of the current or partial use of some sites but this was carefully weighed in respect of the urgent need for housing in each area. I thank councillors for their support in bringing the chosen sites a step closer to delivery.”

Councillor Rachel Clarke – Lead Member for Housing Options and Homelessness said: “This is significant step towards delivering on our pledge to do everything we can as a council to alleviate the housing crisis affecting our residents in Torridge. The availability of affordable units seems to shrink with each passing quarter while prices have only increased. Anything we can do to reverse this trend is important and collectively we have taken a thoughtful approach to making a better use of some of our assets. I look forward to the final proposals being drawn up shortly and to see the plans implemented. In the meantime, we will also continue to look for other ways in which we can address this ongoing issue”

“Mr Bridgen has demonstrated a very cavalier attitude to the House’s rules on registration and declaration of interests, including repeatedly saying that he did not check his own entry in the register.”

www.politicshome.com

The Commons standards committee has recommended that Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen be suspended for five sitting days over his “careless and cavalier attitude” towards rules on lobbying.

The damning report found that Bridgen had failed to declare his relevant interests in the companies Mere Plantations “during eight emails to ministers and in five meetings with ministers or public officials”, despite having “received registrable financial benefits” from the company.

“Mr Bridgen has breached the rules of the House on registration, declaration and paid lobbying on multiple occasions and in multiple ways,” the report found.

“Each of these breaches could have led us to recommend a suspension from the service of the House.

“Mr Bridgen has demonstrated a very cavalier attitude to the House’s rules on registration and declaration of interests, including repeatedly saying that he did not check his own entry in the register.”

According to the report, Bridgen was approached by a constituent acting on behalf of Mere Plantations, which provides reforestation services.

The company paid for a trip for Bridgen to Ghana, and gave a £5,000 donation to his local Conservative Party association.

He also accepted an offer to act as an adviser for the company with a salary of £12,000 a year, but the role was later updated in the register as an unpaid position.

The committee found that Bridgen breached paragraph 14 of the Code of Conduct by failing to correctly register his interests in Mere Plantations, holding meetings with ministers on their behalf, and failing to declare his interests in emails to ministers and officials.

According to the report, Bridgen “accepts that his register entry was inaccurate” and insists it is “self-evident that he had not in fact accepted payment” from the company for the adviser role.

He argued that “his interests did not meet the test of relevance and did not therefore need to be declared”, and that his approaches by the company were not relevant as they constituted constituency work.

But the commissioner said his handling of the status of his adviser role with the company constituted “a mishandling of the conflict of interest of which he was aware”.

They also said his failure to declare his interests in multiple emails to ministers and officials was “a significant litany of errors”.

“The fact that Mr Bridgen had received a donation and a funded visit from Mere Plantations, and had a contract to be an adviser, was clearly relevant to his approaches on their behalf. He should have drawn those interests to Ministers’ and officials’ attention,” the report read.

Bridgen was also criticised for making “wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations” against the standards commissioner Kathryn Stone OBE by claiming she was set to be offered a peerage by Boris Johnson.

In an email to the committee on 8 September 2022, he said he was “distressed to hear on a number of occasions an unsubstantiated rumour” that Stone was in line for a peerage, and asked them to provide “reassurance” that the rumours were untrue.

The committee said the email “appears to be an attempt to place wholly inappropriate pressure on the Commissioner” and called it  “completely unacceptable behaviour”.

It has been recommended that he be suspended from the House for five days. MPs will be given a chance to vote on the findings before confirming his suspension. 

“England’s rivers and inland waters are as polluted as they were five years ago.” 

“Defra officials claimed they had made “a significant effort in preventing further deterioration”.”

“A sewage spill has occurred every two and a half minutes in England and Wales since 2016, according to Environment Agency figures obtained by Labour.”

Adam Vaughan, Environment Editor www.thetimes.co.uk 

England’s rivers and inland waters are as polluted as they were five years ago, according to a government report, with campaigners calling the lack of improvement a “shocking” indictment of environmental policy.

Officials have admitted that no progress has been made on a key water pollution pledge to ensure three quarters of rivers and other bodies of water are close to their natural state.

Ministers promised four years ago to raise the share meeting a “good” ecological status to 75 per cent by 2027.

Yet the annual report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which was published last week, found that the figure remained at 16 per cent in 2021, unchanged since 2017.

Ecological status is a metric assigned using various water flow, habitat and biological quality tests. Most water bodies in England, 63 per cent, are ranked “moderate”.

In defending the lack of progress, Defra officials claimed they had made “a significant effort in preventing further deterioration” and that the figures showed the “high degree of challenge in meeting water targets.”

Labour said the standstill showed the government “can’t be trusted to clean up our water system”. The Environment Agency said water companies were to blame for a “shocking” environmental performance in 2021. The Conservatives and Labour both used their party conferences to promise tougher action to clean up rivers.

A Defra spokeswoman said: “We are going further and faster than any other government to protect and enhance the health of our rivers and seas.”

The Wye’s tributary, the River Ithon in Powys

A sewage spill has occurred every two and a half minutes in England and Wales since 2016, according to Environment Agency figures obtained by Labour.

Overburdened sewage works and pollution from agriculture are the main reasons that meeting a crucial target for improving the health of rivers has proved intractable.

The government’s goal is for 75 per cent of water bodies in England to have achieved good ecological status by 2027. But with almost half the time to reach that target having passed, the figure was 16 per cent last year, the same as in 2017.

Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones singer and now a campaigner against the pollution of rivers, said the lack of progress was unacceptable. He said: “The utterly chaotic, collapsing government we have surrounding us continues damaging the environment.”

At the Labour Party conference, Sharkey criticised the failure to clean up rivers. He described the standstill on lifting the ecological status of rivers to “good” as a “shocking indictment” of government policies.

The campaigner noted that the 75 per cent by 2027 goal, part of the government’s 25-year environment plan, is weaker than the 100 per cent by 2027 target the UK had under the Water Framework Directive when a member of the EU. “It’s clear the government has no ambition,” said Sharkey.

The Conservatives and Labour used their party conferences to make bold promises to improve the state of rivers. Ranil Jayawardena, the former Tory environment secretary, said he would raise civil fines from a maximum of £250,000 to £250 million.

Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, has promised to impose mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets and give the Environment Agency greater power and resources for enforcement.

He told The Times: “A Labour government will use the levers of power to hold reckless water bosses to account and implement measures to clean up our water system.”

A decline in water pollution monitoring is partly to blame for the failure to improve the ecological status of waterways. The Rivers Trust said that the number of ammonia monitoring sites had halved from about 8,000 in 2013 to 4,000 last year.

“It’s no surprise we’re not seeing an improvement. We can’t expect the patient to recover if we’ve walked out and turned the lights out in the ward,” said Christine Colvin, director for advocacy and engagement at the charity. Weak enforcement is another reason for the lack of progress, Colvin added.

Sir James Bevan, head of the environment agency, told the House of Lords last month that government funding cuts over the past decade had affected the agency’s ability to regulate water pollution. He said a “lack of boots on the ground” had meant not enough officials had been able to check sewage spills in person. Research appears to support his concerns. The average number of prosecutions brought against water companies dropped by 15.4 per cent between 2000 and 2010, and 2011 and last year, according to analysis reported this week.

Lord Benyon, the environment minister, said yesterday that the government would “continue to work with regulators on environmental and their other commitments”, after Ofwat fined 11 water companies last month.

Rankings released this week reveal how the different water companies are faring on their environmental performance. When looking at areas of private land and gardens flooded with sewage, the Consumer Council for Water found that Anglian Water, Severn Water and Thames Water performed best, while Northumbrian Water and Southern Water were the worst.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Our Storm Overflows Reduction Plan has brought in the strictest targets on sewage pollution and requires water companies to deliver their largest ever infrastructure investment — £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.”