Fourteen Devon beaches have been marked as a “pollution risk” by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) following heavy downpours yesterday (July 4). This is out of a total of 47 areas in Devon that SAS monitors live.

Every time it rains our beaches are “off limits” for 48 hours. – Owl

Elliot Ball www.devonlive.com

All but one (Paignton Sands) of the monitors are operational. This means roughly 30% of Devon’s beaches are currently considered a “pollution risk” as of today.

The main contributing factor to polluted beaches is urban runoff, which sees fertilizers, pesticides, oil, and untreated human and animal waste all entering waterways, such as rivers. They then eventually end up at our beaches.

The contaminated water largely remains on the surface. This can make it dangerous to enter the water. According to Surf Today, some experts even suggest waiting 72 hours before entering the sea again after it rains.

Swallowing water that could be contaminated with fecal matter could lead to gastroenteritis, hepatitis, giardiasis, skin rashes, amoebic dysentery, nose, ear, and throat problems, pink eye, and other respiratory illnesses. Symptoms to look out for include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, inflamed stomach and intestines.

Devon beaches marked as pollution risks

Seaton – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. The Seaton Sewage Treatment Works discharges disinfected sewage into the River Axe Estuary two and a half kilometres from the bathing water.

Beer – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. Three sewer overflows surround Beer with one discharging from Beer car park, one discharging 600m North East and one slightly further to the South.

Sidmouth – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.Two sewer overflows are located at Sidmouth, one discharges through a long sea outfall some 600m out to sea while the other discharges into the River Sid, just under 400m to the east.

Budleigh Salterton – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. There are three sewer overflows in the area, one discharges directly onto the beach, another 400m east and another that discharges 1.3km away into the sea.

Sandy Bay – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Exmouth – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.There is a sewer overflow discharging through an outfall to the south east which may affect bathing water quality especially after heavy rainfall.

Dawlish – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. There are five sewer overflows covered by the Safer Seas Service here within 650m off the beach which can operate in heavy rainfall.

Holcombe – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. A sewer overflow discharges into the Holcombe Stream 40m upstream of the beach.

Meadfoot – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Mill Bay – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Mothecombe – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. There are no sewer overflows directly on the beach at Mothecombe however a number of urban areas (Ermington, Ivybridge etc.) can discharge into the River Erme whose estuary Mothecombe is located in.

Plymouth Hoe East – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. There is a sewer overflow that discharges SW of the beach and a number more in the surrounding area that support the city of Plymouth.

Plymouth Hoe West – Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours. There is a sewer overflow that discharges south west of the beach and more are located in the surrounding area which support the city of Plymouth.

This is scheduled for next Tuesday, 11 July at 6.00pm in Blackdown House, streamed live on the EDDC Youtube channel. 

In October 2022 Verita Consultancy Ltd were appointed by East Devon District Council (EDDC) to carry out an independent investigation into the actions of the council following the allegations, criminal charges and subsequent conviction of former councillor John Humphreys.

The aim of the investigation is to understand the actions of staff and Councillors in the handling of matters relating to former councillor John Humphreys, and to recommend any improvements required for the Council with particular reference to safeguarding issues.

The purpose of the extraordinary full council meeting is to discuss and agree the recommendations of the Verita report.

There are now two Verita reports published in the public domain:

Independent investigation into the actions of EDDC following the allegations and criminal charges against John Humphreys This is a revised version of the original report that was withdrawn in March, following the receipt of further information.

Supplementary Report to the above which reviews the further information received from Devon and Cornwall Police that appeared to cast doubt on the accuracy of the evidence gathered originally.

It has taken longer than expected to conduct this supplementary work, partly because it spanned the period during which the elections were held, mainly because of “shortcomings in the retention of important information”.

In paragraph 24 of the supplement, Verita catalogues, over four pages, the sequence of key events and tasks (50) that needed to be completed for this phase of the review.

As Verita acknowledges, the commissioning group: led by the EDDC Finance Officer with Chair EDDC, originally Cllr Ian Thomas, now Cllr Eleanor Rylance, Cllr Sarah Jackson the Portfolio Holder for Democracy and Transparency and Cllr Jess Bailey; has had to work hard with them to facilitate progress and resolve barriers. 

The group met 13 times in 13 weeks.

This has now become a very involved and complicated inquiry.

To gain a flavour of this Owl reproduces the “Findings and Conclusions” of the Supplementary Report.

This is a review of the additional information provided by the Police.

However, it is necessary to read everything in the context of both reports.

Glossary:

LADO Local Authority Designated Officer

MAS Multi- Agency Safeguarding

fMO former Monitoring Officer

From the Verita Supplementary Report to EDDC dated June 2023.

3. Findings and conclusions

 Findings

73. We set out below the key findings of this phase of the investigation. 

F1 The minutes of DCC’s LADO MAS meeting of 9 March 2016 record that “The Chief of East Devon District Council had been made aware of the situation”.

F2 The fMO has denied that he received a copy of those minutes and maintains that he is unaware of the statement made in them about “The Chief”. Although the minutes of the meetings indicate that they were to be sent to those attending, we have been unable to get definitive confirmation from DCC that the minutes of the 9 March 2016 meeting were sent to the fMO. 

F3 Having seen the correspondence between the fMO and the Police we find that it reinforces our view that the fMO was under strict instructions from the Police not to let Humphreys know that he was aware of the circumstances. 

F4 Whatever his reasons for asking how he should engage, if at all, with Humphreys, our view is that he did not and this was consistent with Police advice, and with the evidence he had already given us. 

F5 The statement in the minutes of the DCC LADO MAS meeting on 9 March 2016 is not attributed to any person or organisation. We found no-one who was able to substantiate or corroborate the statement. We do not know which person or organisation made the statement. 

F6 The CEO, after delaying the release to Verita of his answers to our questions, has denied any knowledge of this statement. 

F7 We were unable to contact the three former DCC officers who attended the meeting as they had left the Council.  

F8 Our attempts to validate the information were reliant on DCC, the Police and EDDC holding comprehensive contemporaneous records. In the case of DCC and EDDC we found shortcomings in the retention of important information.

F9 We found no reliable evidence, other than this statement, to confirm that the CEO of EDDC had been made aware of any developments in respect of Humphreys. 

Conclusions 

74. We consider that the record in the minutes of the meeting on 9 March 2016 cast doubt on the evidence given by the fMO and the CEO in the course of our original investigation. 

75. The statement was, however, recorded in the formal minutes of a LADO MAS meeting, and we have no evidence that it was subsequently amended. In our view it is more likely than not, on the balance of probabilities, that the comment was made in the course of that meeting. 

76. Although the precise wording of the statement may be open to misinterpretation, we conclude that the reference to “The Chief” could only mean the CEO of EDDC. 

77. However, because we have been unable to corroborate this statement, we conclude that it does not constitute sufficiently reliable evidence that the CEO of EDDC was aware of the Humphreys situation.

One rule for them, another one for us. – Owl

The Metropolitan Police is reopening an investigation into possible Covid breaches at a Conservative ‘jingle and mingle’ Christmas party in 2020.

The force also announced it has launched a new probe into a gathering in Parliament during the same month.

Miriam Burrell www.standard.co.uk 

The decision to reopen the investigation into the Christmas party at Tory headquarters comes after “new evidence” was provided to officers, specifically a video of two aides dancing together when the UK was under lockdown measures.

The Met said on Tuesday evening: “Following assessment of new evidence that was not previously provided to officers, the Met is now re-opening an investigation into potential breaches of the regulations at an event in Matthew Parker Street on 14 December 2020.”

The Met is also opening a new investigation into potential Covid breaches at a birthday gathering at Parliament on December 8, 2020.

Allegations were made to police on June 15 this year that senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin attended the birthday party when pandemic restrictions were in place.

Sir Bernard told the Telegraph: “It is not appropriate to comment on a continuing investigation.”

But the force will not open an investigation into further potential breaches of the regulations in Downing Street, and Thames Valley Police will not investigate potential breaches at Chequers, the grace and favour country residence, when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

Police said in a statement: “The Met and Thames Valley Police have assessed material referred by the Cabinet Office regarding potential breaches of the Regulations between June 2020 and May 2021 at Downing Street and Chequers.

“Based on an assessment of that material and an account provided regarding the diary entries, and also having sought some further clarification, the Met and Thames Valley Police have each assessed the events in their jurisdiction and concluded that they do not meet the retrospective criteria for opening an investigation.”

The Met said it had previously investigated the ‘jingle and mingle’ Christmas party but, “based on the information available at the time”, it did not issue any fixed penalty notices to partygoers.

It added: “The receipt of video evidence has resulted in the Met revisiting and updating the assessment.”

The footage, obtained by the Sunday Mirror, shows two workers on Shaun Bailey’s mayoral campaign team dancing while London was in Tier 2 of Covid restrictions in 2020.

The woman, Malin Bogue, is seen dancing in a red dress with Jack Smith, who works in Parliament for Tory minister Graham Stuart.

At the time Ms Bogue reportedly worked for Shaun Bailey’s mayoral campaign, which ended in defeat to Sadiq Khan in 2021, as did Tory aide Ben Mallet, who is also seen in the video.

Both Mr Bailey and Mr Mallet, who was handed an OBE in Mr Johnson’s resignation honours, attended the gathering. While Mr Bailey is not seen in the video, photographs show him at the event. He claimed he left the event before any dancing began.

Both Mr Mallet and Ms Bogue work for Moz Hossain KC, the barrister bidding to secure the Tory nomination to run against Mr Khan in next May’s City Hall elections.

Following the release of the footage, Mr Bailey apologised “unreservedly” and said it was for “others to decide” about whether he should be stripped of the peerage offered to him by former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Mayor Khan called for Mr Bailey to resign from the London Assembly in the wake of the scandal.

Mr Khan said: “We’ve heard mealy-mouthed apologies from those who have been caught out. We might ask why these are only forthcoming when the photos or emails appear in the papers.”

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats renewed calls for Mr Bailey’s peerage to be paused amid the police investigation.

Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak needs to confirm he will call for honours to be stripped from anyone found to have broken the law. Anything less would make a complete mockery of his pledge to lead with integrity.

“He should also step in to stop Shaun Bailey from taking his seat as a peer while this investigation takes place.”

Mr Bailey has been approached for comment.

In 2021 he said: “I want to apologise unreservedly for attending a gathering held by some of my staff in my campaign office last December.

“I gave a speech to my team to thank them for their efforts, before leaving shortly afterwards. It was a serious error of judgement at a time when Londoners were making immense sacrifices to keep us all safe and I regret it wholeheartedly.”

Thames Water has been accused by a judge of “either deliberate dishonesty or breathtaking blindness” as it was fined more than £3 million for polluting rivers near Gatwick with sewage.

Peter Chappell www.thetimes.co.uk

The debt-laden utility firm was criticised over a “reckless failure” as Judge Christine Laing KC said it had deliberately misled the Environment Agency during its investigation.

Nearly 1,400 dead fish were found in Gatwick Stream in Sussex and the River Mole in Surrey in 2017 after the UK’s biggest private water company pumped raw sewage into them for nearly 24 hours. Bream, perch and pike were among the species killed. The true number of deaths is believed to be much higher.

The interim chief executives, Alastair Cochran and Cathryn Ross, the former boss of Ofwat, the regulator, were questioned by MPs today over the firm’s £14 billion debt and fears that it may collapse and need to be taken into public ownership.

Judge Laing said the sewage leak at Crawley on October 11, 2017, was a serious pollution incident that had caused substantial environmental harm along a 2.8-mile stretch of water.

Lewes crown court heard that failures in systems and management at Thames Water resulted in raw sewage being pumped into an overflow lagoon instead of the company’s treatment works.

Technology that could have alerted staff to the inevitable pollution incident existed but was not being used, the court was told. Laing said it should have been obvious the pump was running in error and it seemed extraordinary there was no process in place to check.

Raw sewage was pumped into the lagoon for 21 hours. There were no alarms in place to alert staff and no physical checks were made as pumping continued even after the lagoon filled and overflowed. The court was also told the lagoon capacity was shallower than it should have been.

“Thames Water missed several opportunities to prevent this pollution incident from occurring,” Jamie Lloyd, a senior environment officer at the Environment Agency, said. “Staff appear to have been oblivious to malfunctions at the sewage treatment works leading up to it and did nothing to intervene. When the alarm was raised, no decisive action was taken until the damage was done.”

He said the company failed to take responsibility for several years and did not provide vital information to the regulator.

The judge said there was a failure to disclose readings which showed levels consistent with sewage entering waterways. The readings were only provided years later after it was revealed that an Environment Agency officer had taken a photograph of the readings being taken by a contractor on the riverbank. Thames Water tried to blame the omission on a mix-up caused by similar file names.

Thames Water continued to deny there had been a leak from its facility at complete odds with the evidence, the judge said. “This was either deliberate dishonesty or breathtaking blindness,” she said, adding that documents filed by the company with the Environment Agency were utterly misleading.

Thames Water pleaded guilty at the court. The company said it was sorry about the incident. “It should not have happened and we deeply regret the incident,” Ross said.

The six-year lag between the pollution incident and the successful prosecution is one of the reasons the Environment Agency is pursuing unlimited fines via civil sanctions, which the regulator believes will be much faster and for which the burden of proof is lower.

The scale of the fine is broadly in line with other recent penalties, such as the £2.65 million Anglian Water was ordered to pay in April over sewage released in the North Sea, but well short of the biggest fine to date, the £90 million Southern Water paid out in 2021.

The Times’ Clean it Up campaign has been calling for tougher penalties for water companies who cause major pollution incidents, and for better funding for the Environment Agency. This week it was revealed the regulator’s funding still remains below 2011 levels.

The Times is demanding faster action to improve the country’s waterways. Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign.

In his latest homily he says: 

“Sidmouth, Exmouth, Ottery St Mary, Seaton, Axminster, and Honiton hospitals alongside Seachange in Budleigh Salterton all help take the pressure off the RD&E and provide services for people closer to home.”

Who proposed closing or reducing the beds in them and who fought hard to keep them? Budleigh “hospital hub”, with its elderly population no longer has any beds.

The East Devon Watch provides an archive you can consult. See:

Swire diary shows Hugo fears of Claire Wright drove Tory about-turn on community hospitals.

Also, shouldn’t “The Long Term Workforce Plan” have been in place years ago? The turn around on staff will take years. – Owl

‘One of the PM’s priorities is to cut NHS waiting lists’

Simon Jupp www.sidmouthherald.co.uk 

He’s right, and we’re making the investment we need locally to achieve our aim.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, developed by the NHS and backed by the government, will meet the workforce requirements the NHS has for the future.

On training, the plan includes a commitment to significantly increase the number of domestic medical school, GP, adult nursing, and dental training places. I’m acutely aware of the challenges for people trying to get an appointment with an NHS dentist in East Devon, so a 40% rise in dental training places is a step in the right direction.

The plan also includes measures to provide more routes into NHS professions, such as expanding the number of apprenticeships so more medical students can qualify through this route.

Retaining more existing NHS staff is important to ensure talented people stay in the workforce. The plan will modernise the NHS pension scheme through new retirement flexibilities to retain the most experienced staff, whilst making it easier and attractive for retired staff to return.

The NHS workforce is already growing and is at record levels. There are 58,000 more staff compared to a year ago, including 5,800 more doctors and 14,900 more nurses.

We need these staff for our hospitals here, both now and into the future. Sidmouth, Exmouth, Ottery St Mary, Seaton, Axminster, and Honiton hospitals alongside Seachange in Budleigh Salterton all help take the pressure off the RD&E and provide services for people closer to home.

The multi-million-pound Exeter Nightingale Hospital has been kept open to help diagnose conditions and take pressure off the RD&E too. The South West Ambulatory Orthopaedic Centre has hit a major milestone as it completed its 1,000th knee/hip replacement since opening at the Nightingale in 2022. The Nightingale is now able to offer a range of orthopaedic, ophthalmology, diagnostic, and rheumatology services to local people.

We’re getting on with the job of cutting waiting lists. I’d like to thank everyone in the NHS in Devon for everything they do for all of us.