Daily Archives: 28 Aug 2023

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Planning applications validated by EDDC fro week beginning 14 August

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At least 26 English councils ‘at risk of bankruptcy in next two years’

“Levelling Up” in action. – Owl

At least 26 councils in some of Britain’s most deprived areas are at risk of effective bankruptcy within the next two years, according to a leading local government group, which says many authorities simply have “nothing left”.

Rob Davies www.theguardian.com 

Britain’s local government network has been shaken by a string of financial collapses in the past two years, starting with Slough and followed by Croydon, Thurrock and most recently Woking, which announced a deficit of £1.2bn in June after a risky investment spree.

The quartet could be only the tip of the iceberg, according to a survey of 47 councils in northern England, the Midlands and on the south coast, which revealed mounting anxiety that rising costs will blow irreparable holes in budgets that fund crucial local services.

Five members of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) – a collective of 47 urban councils – said they were in such dire financial straits that they were considering issuing a notice of their inability to balance their annual budget for 2023-24.

A further nine Sigoma members said they may have to in effect declare bankruptcy next year. The group called on the government to provide additional funding to local authorities struggling to manage.

A spokesperson for the government said it had already agreed extra funding, adding that councils were ultimately responsible for their own finances and should not take excessive risks with taxpayers’ money.

The growing threat of a wave of effective bankruptcies is said to be driven by the dwindling of cash reserves usually held over to plug gaps in budgets.

Councils said the most common cause of financial pressures was increased demand for children’s social care services after the government said these should be given equal priority with adult social care and funded accordingly.

Other significant factors cited were sky-high inflation costs and related wage rises, the local authorities warning that an imminent increase in the cost of borrowing would add to the financial pressure they face.

Sigoma said it understood that at least 12 other councils across the country, which are not part of the group, were considering issuing a section 114 notice – an official declaration of inability to balance their books – in 2023-24.

Sir Stephen Houghton, the Labour leader of Barnsley council and the chair of Sigoma, said: “The government needs to recognise the significant inflationary pressures that local authorities have had to deal with in the last 12 months.

“At the same time as inflationary pressure, councils are facing increasing demand for services, particularly in the care sector.

“Pay increases are putting substantial pressure on budgets, and so the government must ensure that local authorities have the additional funding they need to fully fund these pay increases or risk impacting future service delivery.

“The funding system is completely broken. Councils have worked miracles for the past 13 years, but there is nothing left.”

Houghton called on the government to provide clarity on the timing of local government funding reforms.

Some recent local authority bankruptcies have come in the wake of financial scandals, including a disastrous property investment binge by Woking’s Tory council and a doomed borrowing spree at Tory-run Thurrock.

Labour-run Slough revealed a “catastrophic” £100m black hole in its budget in 2021, while Labour-controlled Croydon announced its third bankruptcy in two years in November 2022.

A government spokesperson said: “Councils are ultimately responsible for the management of their own finances … local authorities should not take excessive risk with taxpayers’ money, and we have established the Office for Local Government to improve the accountability for performance across the sector.

“We recognise all councils are facing pressures and, as well as making it a priority to halve inflation, we have introduced a one-off funding guarantee to ensure that every council sees at least a 3% increase in core spending power before any local decisions on council tax rates.

“We are also providing around £2bn in additional grants for social care.”

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Lucy Letby case: more babies face harm unless NHS ends ‘defensive leadership’

Could the dangers of “Defensive Leadership” also apply in the case of John Humphreys and the safeguarding of children? – Owl

More babies will be harmed unless “systemic changes” are made to end the “defensive leadership” and unacceptable treatment of whistleblowers in the NHS, the health service ombudsman has warned in the wake of the Lucy Letby case.

Andrew Gregory www.theguardian.com 

Rob Behrens said there were “lots of similarities” between the spate of baby death scandals in recent years and the failure of executives at the Countess of Chester hospital to act on repeated concerns raised about the neonatal nurse.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, he said rapid changes must be made to England’s maternity and neonatal services or more babies would suffer.

Senior doctors on Letby’s unit repeatedly raised concerns about her link to the growing number of unexplained deaths. But it was not until early July 2016 that her appalling crimes were finally ended.

Health workers must be “able to raise patient safety issues” and the “tribal approach” between different professions such as doctors and nurses must be eradicated, Behrens said.

Dr Stephen Brearey, a consultant paediatrician who was the first to alert an executive to Letby’s connection to unusual deaths and collapses, has claimed there was an “anti-doctor agenda” among the hospital’s executive team, which, he said, explained partly why senior executives treated the consultants’ concerns as “a case of doctors picking on a nurse”.

Behrens said: “The Letby case is unusual and horrific and not representative of the intentions and actions of the overwhelming majority of dedicated NHS staff. That said, it raises questions yet again about a dysfunctional, adversarial culture in many NHS trusts, sub-optimal methods for reporting and investigating wrongdoing and unacceptable attitudes to whistleblowing and raising concerns.

“Although the appalling actions of Lucy Letby are extremely rare, unfortunately the culture of fear in NHS trusts is not isolated to this case. Leaders dismissing the concerns of staff is a pattern of behaviour that we see repeated across the NHS.

“Some still pay a heavy price for speaking up and this victimisation discourages others from coming forward. It is unacceptable and against the principles of what the NHS stands for.”

Behrens added: “The reality is that the picture across many maternity services in the NHS is bleak, and the evidence to support this keeps mounting. Maternity services have had more policy recommendations than any other health area and there have been recent, significant, and well-documented major service failures.”

Three major inquiries since 2015 have laid bare serious failures that led to babies being harmed or dying at the Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent NHS hospital trusts. A fourth inquiry, into the Nottingham hospital trust, is now under way.

Last week, the government announced a fifth inquiry, into how Letby was able to murder seven babies and attempt to kill six others. Pressure has been mounting from bereaved families and experts calling to strengthen the investigation to a statutory inquiry where witnesses would be compelled to give evidence.

Behrens has this week written to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, saying he supports the calls to upgrade it to a statutory inquiry.

He told the Guardian that despite the many inquiries into baby deaths in the NHS, there had been “insufficient change and implementation”, progress was too slow and patients remained in danger. “It is a tragic inevitability that until comprehensive, systemic changes to maternity care are taken seriously, more women and babies will be harmed.”

Behrens said he had identified four specific failures in the Letby case that matched patterns he had uncovered while investigating harm to patients in other NHS maternity and neonatal services.

“First, the trust leadership, both management and board were too defensive and more concerned about the reputation of their organisation than patient safety. Secondly, the board was insufficiently inquisitive or assertive and failed to show effective leadership at a critical time.

“Third, those clinicians who tried, repeatedly, to raise their concerns about the deaths were directly prevented from having the issues discussed, called troublemakers and threatened with disciplinary measures. Fourth, there was a reluctance to carry out serious incident reviews of the deaths and little or no appetite for commissioning wide-ranging independent reviews.”

People generally work in the NHS “because they want to help” and that “when things go wrong it is not intentional”, Behrens said. But the intended commitment to patient safety was often “undone” by a “defensive leadership culture across the NHS”.

While acknowledging some new NHS safety initiatives in recent years, including the creation of a specialist maternity investigation unit, he said there were “huge challenges still to be addressed”. There must also be a strategic review of the multiple public bodies tasked with patient safety so they are better coordinated and more accessible to the public.

Asked about the consequences if changes were not made, Behrens said: “Not only will families experience compounded harm, where those who have been harmed or bereaved are then subject to inadequate apologies, delayed responses, a lack of accountability and insufficient investigations, but at a systemic level, the harms and deaths will continue to happen.

“From what I have seen in casework over the years, if defensive leadership, which enables defensive cultures, is allowed to continue, more patients will be harmed and even die. We’ve seen it time and again in the various independent inquiries that have taken place.”

In a statement released after the Letby verdict, Dr Nigel Scawn, the medical director at the Countess of Chester hospital, said staff were devastated by what had happened and “committed to ensuring lessons continue to be learnt”.

“Since Lucy Letby worked at our hospital, we have made significant changes to our services. I want to provide reassurance that every patient who accesses our services can have confidence in the care they will receive,” he said.

An NHS England spokesperson said: “NHS guidance is clear, staff should be supported to raise concerns and that these are acted on. We have reminded NHS leaders about the importance of this following the verdict.

“It has updated its Freedom to Speak Up guidance, brought in extra background checks for board members to prevent directors involved in serious mismanagement from joining another NHS organisation, and now when NHS staff raise concerns, action can be taken and overseen by a non-executive who can use their independent role to hold the organisation to account.”

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Save our seaside – campaign to give UK beach towns the same status as castles and historic houses

“Tackiness fundamental to their charm” Hmm? – Owl

[Sidmothians this may not be for you!]

The British seaside may be derided by some for being as tacky as the candyfloss stuck to the side of your mouth. Yet tackiness is fundamental to its charm, according to campaigners who say that seaside heritage sites should be protected as fiercely as castles and stately homes.

James Tapper www.theguardian.com 

The Seaside Heritage Network (SHN) says amusement parks, lidos and scenic railways are all part of the UK’s role in the creation of modern tourism and should be cherished.

The network is running a public vote for its first annual Bucket and Spade List – a top 10 of the UK’s best seaside places and experiences – which includes staples such as Blackpool Tower and Bournemouth’s beach huts, as well as the Victorian-era Kursaal in Southend, one of the world’s first amusement parks, and the Morecambe Winter Gardens, which has been revived through the work of local volunteers.

“There are all sorts of preconceptions about the seaside,” said Dr Kathryn Ferry, a founder of the SHN. “We want to draw attention to some of the real quality of the historical structures, as well as the intangible heritage of something that’s really British and crucial to our sense of identity.

“OK, so people have been getting on aeroplanes and going abroad, but domestic tourism used to be the tourism. It was an industry, it was economically important to our country and it’s not often recognised. We’re still seeing much-loved landmarks fall into disrepair due to lack of investment.”

Southend’s Kursaal was built in 1898 and included a music hall, funfair, 90 shops and a menagerie, then was transformed into Luna Park in 1910 with joy rides including a rollercoaster. It was still a destination for Londoners into the 1960s, but declined as the package holiday grew. The last attraction was a bowling alley which closed in 2020 and the only remaining tenant of the Grade II listed building is a Tesco Express.

“It’s a really important part of Southend’s heritage,” said Matt Dent, a local Labour councillor and part of Concrete Culture, a group set up by musician Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. “There’s a lot of people locally who have memories centred around it and a lot of people from east London who do too. It’s a huge waste that it’s not open to the public – there’s a lot of Victorian architecture that’s gorgeous.”

Although Southend-on-Sea city council owns the freehold, the 200-year-leasehold is owned by a global property investment group which has so far shown no sign of intending to invest, Dent said.

There are plenty of other seaside structures with uncertain futures. The Regent, a 1928 art deco cinema in Deal, has been closed since 2009. There is now a proposal to build townhouses on the plot, and a local campaign against the plans. The New Palace and Adventureland in New Brighton, Merseyside, was reportedly facing closure two years ago, although the owner appears to have had a change of heart after the growth in staycations following the pandemic.

The Weston-super-Mare Odeon cinema closed permanently in June, and Ferry hopes that it might receive support like the resort’s Birnbeck Pier, which closed in 1994 but was bought by the local authority in July and will receive substantial investment.

“You could go to a mill or a coal mine and think about our industrial heritage, and we’ve come to a place where we can celebrate that, and it’s taken a few decades’ worth of work to get to that point,” Ferry said. Cornwall and west Devon’s tin mines and mills became a world heritage site in 2006. “There are things on the Bucket and Spade List like the Morecambe Winter Gardens because people have been raising money to restore the building, and they’re doing brilliant work.” The theatre and concert hall, built in 1897, is receiving nearly £2.8m from the government’s Cultural Investment Fund to restore it as a 1,600-seat music venue.

It will be close to the site of Eden Project Morecambe, an attraction similar to Cornwall’s indoor rainforest, and “those two things will mutually enhance the status of a resort that has had some major problems over the last few decades,” Ferry said.

Seaside buildings often receive less protection from English Heritage and Historic England because they have been altered due to the corrosive effects of salty sea air, according to Dr Allan Brodie, a visiting fellow at Bournemouth University who worked for both agencies and is a member of the SHN.

“There’s a plethora of plastic windows instead of original wooden sashes,” he said. “Therefore things don’t end up being listed.” Traditional shops may be well maintained, but the flats above them can be neglected, and in resorts with high levels of deprivation, it can be harder to meet heritage thresholds. “There are huge structural problems with seaside resorts and we argue they should be a special case for funding.

“I’ll take issue issue with anybody who slams the English seaside for being bad because it’s tacky. That’s one of the great things about it – it is tacky. We want to go there for a bit of tacky, and then go to a hotel. It’s got a decent ensuite, and a couple of decent restaurants around.”

Dr Anya Chapman, a member of the National Pier Society, said the trend was for more domestic holidays. “Inevitably we’re going to see a resurgence of more environmentally friendly forms of tourism – we certainly won’t be going to southern Spain or Greece in 20 years’ time in the summer.

“So we need to cherish the experiences we’ve already got, which are unique, because British seaside holidays were the first form of mass tourism in the world. We’ve really got something that we can be proud of.”

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Police ordered to investigate every theft and follow every ‘reasonable’ lead in solving crimes

Police forces have committed to follow all “reasonable lines of enquiry” in an effort to improve investigations and drive down crime rates.

First find your Police Officer ! – Owl

Sophie Wingate www.independent.co.uk

The standards setting body published guidance for officers in England and Wales to consider all potential evidence – such as footage from CCTV, doorbells and dashcams, as well as phone tracking – if it could lead to a suspect or stolen property.

The public will therefore know what they can expect from police when they report a crime such as burglary or theft, according to the College of Policing.

It said this will make the service more consistent across regions and solve more crimes.

While the pledge applies to all crimes, home secretarySuella Braverman implored officers to act on leads for phone or car theft, shoplifting and criminal damage.

She said it was “unacceptable” such crimes have been treated as “less important”.

The commitment, agreed by the Home Office, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing, comes as part of a “crime week” of policy announcements planned by the government.

But Labour branded it a “staggering admission of 13 years of Tory failure on policing and crime”.

Ms Braverman said: “The police have made progress in preventing crime across the country with neighbourhood offences like burglary, robbery and vehicle theft down by 51 per cent since 2010.

“Despite this success, since I became home secretary I’ve heard too many accounts from victims where police simply haven’t acted on helpful leads because crimes such as phone and car thefts are seen as less important – that’s unacceptable. It has damaged people’s confidence in policing.

“Criminals must have no place to hide. The police’s commitment today is a huge step forward towards delivering the victim-focused, common-sense policing the public deserve.”

The move comes on top of a previous commitment for forces to attend every home burglary in a new set of standards announced last year.

Ms Braverman has also asked for plans from police chiefs on how they intend to improve visibility in communities.

Policing minister Chris Philp said “there is no such thing as a minor crime” and all “merit proper investigation where there are leads to follow”.

“There are now record numbers of police officers and record funding that has gone into policing, including for more patrols in hotspot areas of crime, and to make neighbourhoods more secure with better street lighting and CCTV. Along with camera images, combined with facial recognition, this will mean many more offenders can be brought to justice.”

Head of the College of Policing, chief constable Andy Marsh, said: “It is critically important the public know that when a crime has happened the police will consider all reasonable lines of enquiry and, where appropriate, arrest the person responsible.”

He said the new guidance will support time-pressured officers “to make effective decisions on what is a reasonable line of enquiry”.

“It means all forces are working to the same standard as we come down hard on criminals and deliver what the public want from their police service.”

He added: “Our focus will be on where there is information we can act on.”

National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for investigations, chief constable Scott Chilton, said: “Crime has changed and got more complex in recent years, but we have also seen big changes in technology, such as video doorbells and dashcams, that can greatly assist an investigation.

“It is important to remember that each and every case is different and has different complexities, however, officers will use these new technologies when appropriate to gather evidence to build a case for prosecution. There are opportunities to identify offenders that we never had before, and that is something to be very positive about.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is a staggering admission of 13 years of Tory failure on policing and crime.

“Pursuing reasonable leads like CCTV is what the police should be doing, but – because of abysmal Tory management – over 90 per cent of crimes go unsolved, the proportion of crimes prosecuted has dropped by more than two-thirds and more criminals are getting off.

“Instead of supporting our brave officers to catch criminals, the Conservative government have cut neighbourhood policing by nearly 10,000, left a 7,000 shortage of detectives, and allowed the growth of appalling delays between the police, CPS and courts.

“The fact that the Tories are boasting about asking the police to do the basic minimum that victims of crime should rightly expect, whilst failing to tackle the underlying problems they have caused shows how badly they have failed over the last 13 years.

“The Tories are weak on crime and the causes of crime. Labour will put 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on our streets, increase detective recruitment and ensure more crimes are charged to keep our streets safe.”

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‘Wyke wiff’ causes outcry and residents to keep ‘smell diaries’

(Not to be confused with rotting seaweed. – Owl)

For many years, Wyke Regis has been lovingly named “Windy Wyke” thanks to its coastal winds – but now it has a more unfortunate term thanks to its smell. The “Wyke Wiff”, as coined by residents, is so bad that a councillor and resident of the Weymouth area has called on Wessex Water to investigate and take action after an increase in residents’ complaints.

Trevor Bevins www.dorset.live 

Cllr Kate Wheller says despite the company’s claim that all is well at their local treatment plant – a rise if people reporting problems suggests otherwise. She said: “There is a significant problem for Wyke residents and it does impact significantly upon them enjoying their gardens as they try to spend time with their families and friends during the summer.

“This is one more example of water companies, Wessex Water in this instance, showing scant regard for their customers and for the environment. I call upon them to investigate the source of the current problem and instigate corrective works as a priority.”

She has said that, in the past, residents have been encouraged to report to Wessex Water knowing that sometimes smells do occur, but are often short-lived. “Problems with smells from the sewage plant occur from time to time,.” the Weymouth mayor added. “Sometimes they are slight and relatively short lived and sometimes, as now, they are quite severe and prolonged (…) Sometime ago Wessex Water undertook a significant upgrade in their plant and their work practices to combat the problem, which seemed quite successful. In recent times they seem less keen to acknowledge any problem.”

In response to the water company’s statement that the treatment plant does comply with all the relevant rules and regulations, a leaflet campaign has now started in Wyke Regis to persuade the water company to do something to stop the smells. It advises people how to complain if they have been affected.

A Wessex Water spokesman said: “The site is operating normally and complies with all permits, along with an odour management plan which is being followed.”

Residents in Wyke Regis have been encouraged to report to Wessex Water knowing that sometimes smells do occur, but are often short-lived

Mr Orchard has also denied a residents’ claim of pollution from the plant following a fire in July: “Unfortunately our Weymouth water recycling centre suffered a third-party power outage which meant we had to use standby generators to maintain customers’ sewerage services.

“The site operated as normal throughout with no impact on the environment. Mains supply has now been restored and the generators have been removed.”

Said one resident: “We were asked by Wessex Water to keep a “smells diary” coming from the Langton Avenue treatment centre – but there seems little point, as we get the smells every day… which I have told the company, but they seem reluctant to do anything about it.”

The leaflet now being distributed lists a series of places to complain to include the environmental health team at Dorset Council, Wessex Water and South Dorset MP, Richard Drax.

It asks several questions including – has the smell from the water treatment plant become worse? Have you had to close windows and doors or been forced not to sit out in the garden because of the smell, or felt forced not to hang out washing, or felt unable to invite friends or family around because of the smell?

Said the leaflet: “ If the answer to any of these questions is yes I would urge you to make a complaint or this will become the new normal.”

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