Daily Archives: 10 Jul 2023

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10 Jul 2023

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 26 June

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10 Jul 2023

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Rural Coalition urges Government not to ignore England’s 9.7 million rural voters

Rural England’s population of 9.7 million risk being left further behind after the next general election if the political system continues to ignore the systematic inequalities facing rural communities and businesses, warn leading rural organisations.

rsnonline.org.uk

The Rural Coalition, an alliance of thirteen national organisations who champion a living, working countryside, has set out an urgent appeal for all political parties to empower rural areas in election manifestos to improve the prospects and opportunities for rural businesses and communities.

With rural areas a key battleground at the next general election the Coalition urges politicians to address the needs and potential of rural areas and ensure they are treated fairly with the rest of the country.

The roadmap, ‘A better future for rural England: An opportunity for change’, sets out nine policy principles to address the structural inequalities and weaknesses facing rural areas and the people who live and work in rural England.

Rural areas have long faced the challenges of failing infrastructure, poor connectivity and unfair funding systems that do not take proper account of the additional rural costs associated with delivering essential services, including healthcare.

That is why the Rural Coalition is calling on the next Government to implement the Coalition’s vision for rural England, including:

  • Produce a comprehensive rural strategy – create a cross-departmental strategy for rural England to deliver sustainable growth for communities and businesses.
  • Ensure fairer funding – revise funding metrics used to allocate funds for public services to address the systemic gap between urban and rural public funding.
  • Invest in rural infrastructure – upgrade capacity and resilience of the electricity grid; invest in reliable digital networks and create fit-for-purpose rural transport networks.
  • Adapt and mitigate for climate change – launch a coordinated approach from government and agencies to address the challenges posed by climate change.
  • Create a prosperous rural economy – invest in skills and retraining to increase economic diversity and attract new businesses.
  • Rural proof the design of services – develop service plans that avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and ensure accessibility for rural communities and businesses.
  • Deliver services locally – deliver services at as local a level as possible to ensure they meet local needs and are readily available to the community.
  • Empower the voluntary and community sector – enhance support and funding for the voluntary and community sector to help deliver vital facilities and services.
  • Devolve decision-making powers – devolve decision-making and responsibilities to the most local level, so services are tailored to rural needs.

Chair of the Rural Coalition, Margaret Clark, said: 

“Nearly 10 million people live in rural England, more than in Greater London. They should not be unfairly disadvantaged simply because of geography, but must have fair access to jobs, to housing and to basic services.

“Rural communities will play an important role in choosing who forms the next government. Addressing their needs and potential means a sea change in the way rural areas are perceived and treated. Achieving the economic and social growth envisaged will only prove possible with sustained effort across government to tackle the challenges of structural linequalities, fragile infrastructure and economic weaknesses which hold back rural areas.”

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BBC handling of sex allegations: same old questions

Who knew what and when; and did they act in a timely and appropriate manner that will withstand scrutiny in the daylight?

There is also confusion over police involvement:

Yesterday: The BBC initially claimed that they had been in contact with the police regarding the presenter who allegedly paid for sexually explicit pictures from a teenager.

In a statement, the force said: “The Met has received initial contact from the BBC in relation to this matter, but no formal referral or allegation has been made. We will require additional information before determining what further action should follow.”

Davie faces biggest storm of rocky stint as BBC boss

Tim Davie is facing possibly the biggest crisis of his crisis-strewn stint as the BBC’s director general after one of the corporation’s prominent male television presenters was suspended.

Jim Waterson www.theguardian.com

How Davie handles the crisis – and whether he survives it – could define his tenure at the helm of the broadcaster and shape the BBC’s future.

Running the BBC is like trying to steer an oil tanker through a narrow strait, while blindfolded, with the controls jammed. Add in the knowledge that there is always a giant storm somewhere on the horizon that will knock you off course for weeks and it is one of the most challenging management jobs in British media.

It requires a calm head, clear direction and a fair dose of luck. Yet Davie is still nursing his self-inflicted wounds over the Gary Lineker affair, when the director general attempted to assert his power by suspending the Match of the Day presenter for an apparent breach of the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, only to find himself forced to back down in the face of a strike by BBC presenters.

Since then, sources at the corporation suggest that he has been on the back foot, keen to avoid confrontation and major clashes over policy that could create a new scandal. Instead, thanks to the alleged actions of one presenter, he finds himself in the middle of his biggest mess yet after being battered by a storm that he did not see coming.

The BBC presenter – who has not been named by media outlets, partly out of concern for privacy law – was suspended by the broadcaster on Sunday. The presenter allegedly sent £35,000 to a young person over three years in return for explicit images and videos. The young person’s mother claims that her child was only 17 when they began communicating with the BBC presenter – raising the possibility that any pictures sent at that age could count as child sexual abuse images.

The issue for Davie is that the mother says she took her story to the media only after the BBC failed to act on a complaint that she sent directly to the corporation in mid-May. She suggested that the BBC was scared to suspend the high-profile presenter and gave her a number that did not work.

It is already inevitable that parliament and other organisations will launch investigations into the BBC’s handling of her complaint. They are likely to focus on why it took almost two months between the mother’s initial complaint and the presenter’s suspension when the Sun put the story on its front page.

Sources at the BBC suggest there was a substantial difference between the complaint filed in May and the more severe allegations put to the BBC by the Sun last week. But Davie, already struggling to convince staff that they can confidently blow the whistle on wrongdoing, will have to prove it was not fear of negative publicity that led to the change in the BBC’s approach.

The BBC’s governing board also lacks an experienced chair to provide support, after Richard Sharp resigned last month over his own scandal. In Sharp’s place is the interim chair, Prof Dame Elan Closs Stephens, a Welsh academic who has only been in the job for a fortnight and does not have the same political connections as her predecessor.

To make matters worse for Davie, the BBC’s annual report – containing details of pay deals for its biggest stars – is due on Tuesday, meaning that he will have to be subject to questioning from journalists and asked to justify the remuneration of many of the BBC’s biggest stars.

The failure to name the presenter means that public interest in the story will remain enormous. Politicians are demanding answers. Staff are wondering whether they were sufficiently protected at work. The BBC has plenty of experience of scandals, but even old hands are shocked by the allegations against the presenter. One veteran employee compared it to the crisis in 2004 over the BBC’s reporting on the Iraq war. “This is Hutton on crystal meth,” they said.

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Police in line for funds to cope with holiday rush

Maybe, possibly, sometime. – Owl

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Holidaymakers pouring into Devon and Cornwall for summer breaks are putting local police services under mounting pressure.

The influx means increased pressure from car crashes, missing people and incidents around mental health issues. Now the government is to consider increasing police funding to help local forces cope.

The news has been welcomed by Devon and Cornwall’s police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez, who was part of a westcountry delegation that put forward the case for funding.

She has campaigned for years for Devon and Cornwall Police to receive extra money because the force area has more visitors than any other outside London.

As well as joining the delegation, she submitted evidence to the home office as part of a project to develop a new funding formula for policing.

In an answer to a question by North Devon MP Selaine Saxby, policing minister Chris Philp said “rurality, sparsity and seasonality, particularly seasonal tourism” are likely to be considered as part of a consultation into a new funding formula.

The formula determines how much each police and crime commissioner receives for their respective forces from central government, with the rest of the budget made up from the policing ‘precept’ added to council tax bills.

The current formula provides no financial recognition of the number of visitors that forces must deal with. The government intends to consult on a new formula ‘in due course’.

Ms Hernandez said: “At this time of year the number of incidents that Devon and Cornwall Police must deal with increases substantially. These incidents are not only crime related but are linked to road traffic collisions, missing people and calls for help from people who are experiencing mental ill health.

“Devon and Cornwall’s rurality and sparsity add to the challenge of dealing with the visitor influx and it is fantastic that those in Westminster have heard our message. I will continue to make the case that Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are worthy of additional central government investment so we can maintain the force area as one of the safest in England and Wales for our resident populations and those who choose to holiday in this wonderful part of the world.

“I look forward to taking part in the forthcoming consultation on this formula.”

Figures presented to the government in 2019 showed a 14 per cent increase in incidents between April and October in Devon and Cornwall, the largest increase amongst English and Welsh forces.