Simon Jupp is paid from the public purse to be Member of Parliament for East Devon.
Cullompton is not in this constituency.
So what is he doing with political campaigning material in his hand in Cullompton, and who is paying for it?
Why are Exmouth eating places getting the cold shoulder?
Exmothians, are you getting full representation from your MP? – Owl
An investigation has been launched after people gained entry to an abandoned police station and found and filmed confidential coroner’s files.
“Blowing in the wind” – Owl
The highly confidential documents included medical details and photographs of a number of people who died in an accident.
Footage of people inside the old Heavitree Road Police Station in Exeter has been posted on the internet.
Police said security measures had been strengthened at the site.
Devon and Cornwall Police said officers arrested a man in his 50s, from the Wiltshire area, on Thursday on suspicion of burglary, abstracting electricity, improper use of public electronic communications and unlawful obtaining and disclosure of personal data.
He has been released on police bail while inquiries continue.
The police station has been closed since April 2020 and the adjoining Exeter Magistrate’s Court is also derelict.
Due to the content of the videos, Devon and Cornwall Police has made a referral to the Information Commissioner’s Office and said it would fully support its inquiries.
The force said: “The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has taken action to re-secure the former Heavitree Road Police Station site and strengthen security measures.”
The boss of a company behind a major sewage leak at a Yorkshire beach has been handed a 65 per cent bonus increase in a move that has sparked outrage on social media.
Jack Peat www.thelondoneconomic.com
Northumbrian Water has come under fire after sewage from its pipes was discharged onto Saltburn Beach, a Blue Flag spot that attracts hundreds of visitors in the summer.
The company blamed heavy rainfall for flooding its pipes, but it remains one of the six worst water companies in the UK according to the regulator, Ofwat.
Despite its poor environmental performance, Northumbrian Water chief Heidi Mottram pocketed a £215,000 bonus, up from £130,000 the year prior, accounts show.
The jump in Ms Mottram’s bonus took her total compensation last year to £781,000.
Northumbrian also paid out £159 million in shareholder dividends during 2022 despite posting a pre-tax loss of £50 million for the year, accounts first reported by the Sunday Times show.
The company, which supplies water and sewerage services to more than 4 million people in the north-east of England, Suffolk and Essex, met or exceeded just five of 12 performance criteria set by the regulator.
It failed to meet targets on water quality, stopping leaks and preventing sewer overflows running into people’s homes, among other issues.
Somerset council forced to close parks, allotments and tennis courts after insurance blunder
The seafront tennis courts have been shut and walkers told to stay away from a popular park. Allotment holders have been barred from their plots and classes at a community centre cancelled.
Steven Morris www.theguardian.com
At what should be its busiest time of the year, the Somerset seaside resort of Clevedon has been forced to close down many of its amenities after its town council lost its insurance.
Notices were posted on facilities run by the town council declaring: “Access is strictly forbidden” and explaining the council did not have any cover for damage or injury sustained at its sites.
“Pretty much everything has ground to a halt,” said the town council chairman, Trevor Morgan. “It’s hit the council for six. We’re in uncharted waters. We have had our insurances revoked, which has meant we are unable to operate on a day-to-day basis. We have lost our public liability insurance, employers’ liability insurance and fidelity insurance. It’s created a really difficult situation and we’re stuck.
“There’s very few insurance companies in the UK that will insure lower tier local authorities. We haven’t got many companies we can go to. We’re finding it challenging at the moment.”
Morgan said he could not reveal why the insurance policies had been revoked. “We’ve been told we can’t make that public at this stage. I’m not being difficult. I can say it’s not anything to do with the actions of our staff.”
As well as amenities being closed, the council’s offices are shut and its four staff members are on indefinite paid leave. Outsider contractors and suppliers are being paid. But lots of fun stuff has been halted.
The seafront tennis courts are closed as is Herbert Gardens, an area of greenery donated to the town in 1865. Six sets of allotments have been shut, meaning lovingly tended fruit and veg may wither in the warm spell. The Barn, which is hired out for activities such as dance and exercise classes, has been closed, apart from a children’s centre area.
It follows a miserable year for the town, famed for its wonderful pier (which remains open).
In May the council announced that it had not been able to agree a committee structure, meaning that meetings were being halted and decisions put on hold.
There has also been a bitter row over a road scheme featuring a bright pathway nicknamed the “yellow brick road” that critics said defaced the town’s Victorian seafront.
Morgan accepted that Clevedon’s reputation had taken a dent. “We’ve had a few turbulent months,” he said. “We’re getting too much attention for all the wrong reasons.”
Thanks to the help of North Somerset council, toilets and a skateboard park have remained open.
But Hannah Young, a North Somerset and Clevedon town councillor, said she was very sad at what was happening.
“I have been working hard with council staff, some other councillors and North Somerset council to try to avoid this and to find a solution.
“I joined the council to protect and improve our community facilities and services. Town councils in other local towns seem to do this really well. I hope now that all councillors will put the interests of the community above their own to sort this out quickly. Clevedon deserves better.”
Stuart Bannerman, the head coach of North Somerset Tennis Academy, who runs classes and camps on the council courts, said: “A lot of people are affected by this – it’s my busiest time of year. I coach some players who have been training for next week’s Avon championships. They have been affected. I don’t know how long this will go on for. It’s embarrassing.”
All depends on whether you are a public or private sector worker.
And which spreadsheet the Tories are singing from……
Yesterday Rishi Sunak declared that there is “light at the end of the tunnel” as new figures showed that British workers benefited from the fastest rise in basic pay since 2001 in the second quarter of the year. Official data shows that average weekly pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 7.8 per cent in the three months to June, on a par with inflation (8.2% for private sector, 6.2% for public sector). He added: people would soon start to see the benefits with wages growing faster than prices.
Yet throughout the lengthy industrial disputes with teachers, NHS workers and other public sector employees, ministers have repeatedly warned that meeting their demands could exacerbate the UK’s inflation problem.
Expectations are that inflation will fall by a smidgeon but then rise again in the autumn prompting fears over more interest rate rises.
“Funding systems for public services are trying to balance a range of different aims. But if one of the aims is for people to be able to access consistent public services across the country, then the current systems are not fit for purpose.” – Kate Ogden, a senior research economist at the IFS
Larry Elliott www.theguardian.com
The government’s levelling up plans for England are being hampered by a funding system that is “not fit for purpose” and deprives the poorest areas of the financial support to match their needs, a leading thinktank has said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the method for allocating money to pay for public services is out of date, based on inadequate data and skewed in favour of the better-off south-east.
Calling for urgent reform, the thinktank said the funding system was doing a “poor job” in ensuring money was being spent in the parts of England where it was most needed.
The IFS said the most deprived 20% of areas were getting a smaller share of local government and police funding than they were estimated to need, while the least deprived 20% were receiving a bigger portion than their needs required.
Boris Johnson launched a white paper on the levelling up policy in early 2022. Last summer, Rishi Sunak admitted taking money from deprived urban areas in order to give it to other parts of the country.
The IFS said that, in 2022-23, day-to-day spending on the NHS, local government, schools, police and public health in England amounted to more than £245bn, the equivalent of £4,310 per person, but there were “substantial differences” between the share of funding that areas receive and the share they would receive if funding was allocated in line with differing levels of need.
Kate Ogden, a senior research economist at the IFS, said: “Funding systems for public services are trying to balance a range of different aims. But if one of the aims is for people to be able to access consistent public services across the country, then the current systems are not fit for purpose.
“Differences in levels of funding for local government, police and public health services across England do not reflect today’s patterns of need as they are based on data that are now years out of date.”
Ogden said that it would take “several years at least” to address the issue but urged the government to set out a timeframe for reforms if it is serious about making funding systems fit for the future and aligning funding for public services with its goals for “levelling up”.
The IFS said the differences in geographical spending were especially stark for local government, after repeated delays to reform the funding system. The most deprived 20% of areas received 9% less than their estimated needs while the least deprived 20% received 15% more.
Wokingham in Berkshire received 45% more local government funding last year than it would have done had money been allocated in proportion to need, while Hounslow in west London received 31% less. This was only partly explained by them setting different council tax levels, the IFS said.
Even if all areas set the same council tax rates, the thinktank said the south-east would still receive a share of funding that was 9% higher than its share of estimated spending needs, and the north-east 5% lower. This meant inconsistent funding across England for services such as social care, housing, transport, leisure centres and libraries.
NHS funding was better targeted, the IFS said, with two-thirds of areas receiving a share of funding within 5% of their share of estimated needs. This reflected the fact that NHS spending was based on relatively up-to-date assessments of what was required in various parts of the country.
A growing numbers of councils have warned that they are running out of funds, leading to tough choices over cuts to local services. Councils including Kirklees in West Yorkshire and Hastings in East Sussex on the south coast have recently joined the list of local authorities sounding the alarm over their finances.
The IFS research showed that the vast majority of areas received a lower share of funding than their share of estimated spending needs for some services, and a higher share of funding for some other services. But a small number of areas received a markedly lower share of funding than their share of spending needs across a range of services. Dudley in the West Midlands received £127 per capita less for the NHS, £122 less for local government and £47 less for police services than if the nationally-available funding were allocated in line with estimated relative spending needs.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “Levelling up is a long-term programme of reform that sits at the heart of our ambition as a government. After listening to feedback from local government, we will work with the sector in the next parliament to take stock of the challenges and opportunities they face before consulting on any potential funding reform.
“Through the 2023/24 local government finance settlement, the most relatively deprived areas of England will receive 17% more per household in available resource than the least deprived areas.”
East Devon Watch 