Councillors at East Devon District Council (EDDC) will be asked to ratify a decision by its Cabinet to progress a way forward for the Seaton Jurassic site.

eastdevon.gov.uk

Following a recent decision by EDDC’s cabinet to agree to the freehold disposal of the Jurassic Centre to Seaton Tramway. At its Full Council meeting on Wednesday 18 October 2023, councillors will be asked to ensure the capital receipt received by the council is reinvested in Seaton in projects relating to the natural environment and links between Jurassic Discovery and those other sites ensuring that the town benefits.

Jenny Nunn, CEO of Seaton Tramway said:

“We welcome the decision made by the EDDC cabinet which if agreed by councillors at the council will give visitors and local people the attraction the area deserves bringing in much needed revenue and job creation to the local economy. The Jurassic Discovery will also accommodate a Dino themed soft play area as well as a visitor experience that will give visitors a snapshot of life 100 million years ago picking up the global story of the dinosaurs and why they became extinct with a mix of modern technology and animatronic exhibits from the Natural History Museum. It will also offer the chance to reflect on earth’s timeline and the issues we face today whilst highlighting the Jurassic Coast with a free to view area pointing to fun things to explore at our local Jurassic coastal centres. With Seaton Tramway as the new owners, we will build on our success as a top visitor attraction expanding on our existing offer with community and educational projects alongside our new initiatives for the exciting, new, and fun vision we have for Jurassic Discovery.”

Councillor Paul Arnott, Leader of East Devon District Council added: 

“We are delighted that the long and winding road to turn around this flagship centre for Seaton, the Axe Valley, and East Devon has brought us to where we are now. I have had the great privilege of engaging personally with the Tramway organisation to secure this viable outcome. We are very fortunate to have such a brilliant organisation both able and willing to take the building on to a fresh start as the Jurassic Discovery Centre. I wish Jenny and her terrific team all the best for the future and thank them for their commitment in helping achieve this outcome.”

The centre had closed in September 2021 when the original operator Devon Wildlife Trust withdrew from the site. Since then, the original volunteers involved in the project, other stakeholders in the centre, Devon County Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund have come together and worked collaboratively to develop a way forward for the benefit of Seaton and the wider area.

Following completion of the sale in the next few months it is hoped that the new Jurassic Discovery will re-open ready for the 2024 visitor season.

If the Bibby Stockholm is reopened will it be used to hold active tuberculosis patients (see report from Oxfordshire below)? – Owl

Diane Taylor www.theguardian.com 

Dorset council is facing an urgent high court challenge by one of its local mayors about the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum seekers in Portland.

The case has reached the high court in two days and is the first time the council has been challenged directly in the high court in relation to the barge. It comes days before the Home Office is due to return people to the barge, which has been empty for more than two months after deadly legionella bacteria was discovered onboard.

The Home Office has issued notices to asylum seekers saying they will be returned to the barge on 19 October. The Guardian understands that 29 of the original 39 people who spent just under five days onboard from 7-11 August are due to return. Others have made arrangements to stay with relatives or have been granted leave to remain.

Individual legal challenges against returning to the barge are under way by some people.

The Home Office has issued fresh guidance called Failure to travel to the Bibby Stockholm vessel, saying that support will be terminated for those who “fail to take up the offer of accommodation on the vessel”.

The high court on Wednesday rejected a challenge by the mayor of Portland, Carralyn Parkes, acting in a personal capacity, against the Home Office, claiming its use of the Bibby Stockholm to accommodate asylum seekers there breaches planning rules. In that case, government lawyers argued that Dorset council, the local planning authority, had no planning jurisdiction over the barge.

The judge in the case, Mr Justice Holgate, suggested that any claim about a planning contravention needed to be directed against the council rather than the Home Office so Parkes swiftly launched a case against Dorset council and issued proceedings in the high court on Thursday.

In her latest case, Parkes is seeking a decision by the high court that the council has erred in law in determining it cannot take planning enforcement action against the use and stationing of the Bibby Stockholm barge connected to a finger pier and access road in Portland harbour. She claims this failure of the council to take enforcement action is enabling the Home Office to push through its plan to house approximately 500 asylum seekers on the barge, circumventing the proper planning process.

If a judge decides the council can take planning enforcement action against the Home Office for use of the barge this could be another roadblock in government efforts to accommodate asylum seekers there.

The siting of the barge in Portland has attracted criticism from those who support people seeking asylum and those who do not. Far-right activity in the area has increased since the arrival of the barge.

Parkes said: “I have been really reluctant to take my local authority to court. Although I am acting as a private individual, as an elected town councillor I recognise the difficult position that the home secretary has put Dorset council in. However, I also strongly disagree with Dorset council’s ongoing determination that it does not have jurisdiction over the Bibby Stockholm barge.

“I feel very strongly that the decision to accommodate people in this way in Portland has been imposed upon us, as the local community, without any consultation. I am very concerned about the risks to the vulnerable people who will shortly again be accommodated on the barge.”

In the case earlier this week, Dorset council was an interested party and made written submissions to the high court that while it does not consider the area of water where the barge sits to be within its planning jurisdiction, areas onshore “remain under active review and consideration including as to possible planning enforcement action”.

A Dorset council spokesperson said: “Dorset council is very disappointed at Ms Parkes’s decision to issue a judicial review proceedings claim against the council. She will be aware that, after much consideration and having taken advice from king’s counsel, Dorset council decided it was not appropriate to use public funds to actively pursue legal action against the home secretary regarding the siting of the Bibby Stockholm at Portland Port.

“The council continues to stand by the decision it made in July this year that the Bibby Stockholm is outside of its planning jurisdiction and so does not have planning enforcement powers.”

Oxfordshire asylum seeker ‘being moving to Bibby Stockholm’ www.oxfordmail.co.uk 11 August

An asylum seeker with tuberculosis in Oxfordshire has been told by the Home Office they are going to be moved onto the Bibby Stockholm barge, according to national reports. 

Dr Dominik Metz, a GP for more than 250 asylum seekers in Oxfordshire, says he is trying to prevent the move and has warned of a “public health catastrophe in the making”.

He told the i newspaper that one in 10 of his patients have received letters from the Home Office saying they would be moved to the barge including one who is under “active treatment” for latent tuberculosis (TB), which could pose a public health risk if it became active and spread.

It’s all going pear shaped: headlines and the gist of the stories over just two days. – Owl

Rishi Sunak left thousands of Afghans eligible for UK stranded in Pakistan ‘to save money’

Rishi Sunak left thousands of Afghans eligible to come to the UK stranded in Pakistan hotels in a bid to save money, the High Court has heard.

Around 2,300 Afghans who worked alongside British armed forces have been stuck in hotels in Islamabad for months after the UK stopped chartering flights last November and insisted families must find their own place to live in Britain before relocation. www.independent.co.uk 12 October

Growing number of people face 18-month waits for NHS care in England

The number of people waiting longer than 18 months for NHS treatment in England is growing, figures show, despite ministers vowing to have eliminated such long waits six months ago.

The government promised to end all waits of a year and a half by April this year. Figures published on Thursday show 8,998 people were waiting more than 18 months for treatment at the end of August, up from 7,289 at the end of July.

Overall NHS waiting lists have hit a record high. NHS England figures show 7.75 million people were waiting at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July. It is the highest number since records began in August 2007. www.theguardian.com  12 October

Just 557 prison spaces left as jailed population hits new all-time high

[The National Audit Office raised the alarm in a report published in February 2020 – while Rishi Sunak was chancellor – saying that without intervention demand for prison places was on course to exceed supply sometime between October 2022 and June 2023.]

The average length of prison sentences increased by a third in the decade to 2019 as governments sought to appear tough on crime, while recent efforts to bolster police numbers and chaos in the court system have seen the backlog of trials hit an all-time peak of more than 65,000.

Consequently, there are more suspects than ever awaiting trial behind bars, some trapped for more than five years, while the backlog of rape cases involving bailed defendants has also hit a new high to reach more than double the average between 2014 and 2019, The Independent revealed last week.

Overcrowding has led to prisoners being kept in harrowing conditions, with some doubled up in cells and kept locked inside for 23 hours a day, forced to choose between exercising, showering or calling loved ones, with little access to rehabilitation programmes. www.independent.co.uk 13 October

“I’m not even sure what he [Boris Johnson] means – bollocks to the science or does he mean bollocks to the patients?” Prof Chris Brightling.

The UK’s most senior civil servant, Simon Case, described the government as looking like a “terrible, tragic joke” in its handling of the Covid pandemic in expletive-laden WhatsApp messages handed to the Covid inquiry.

Diane Taylor www.theguardian.com 

The messages – which are likely to prompt questions over Case’s professionalism – also lamented that Boris Johnson’s wife, Carrie, appeared to be “the real person in charge” at Downing Street.

Case, who had been permanent secretary at 10 Downing Street and was appointed as head of the civil service in September 2020, expressed frustration at the government’s handling of the pandemic, writing in one message: “not sure I can cope”.

In messages read to the inquiry on Friday, Case said: “The government doesn’t have the credibility needed to be imposing stuff within only days of deciding not too [sic]. We look like a terrible, tragic joke. If we were going hard, that decision was needed weeks ago. I cannot cope with this I cannot cope with this.”

Lee Cain, who was Johnson’s director of communications until November 2020, said Carrie “doesn’t know wtf she is talking about”.

The messages appeared on the screen during today’s session of the inquiry which is focusing on core UK decision-making and political governance. They are thought to have been from 14 October 2020.

A letter from Dominic Cummings contained an email dated 13 July 2020 about “the problems of the No 10/CabOff (Cabinet Office) set up that is relevant to the inquiry”.

He said it was copied to the PM “but he never engaged seriously”.

Case wrote: “Am not sure I can cope with today. Might just go home. Matt just called, having spoken to PM. According to Matt (so aim off, obvs), PM has asked Matt to work up regional circuit breakers for the North (as per Northern Ireland) today – and to bring recommendations. I am going to scream …”

Cain asked: “Wtf are we talking about.”

To which Case replied: “Whatever Carrie cares about, I guess.

“I was always told that Dom [Dominic Cummings] was the secret PM. How wrong they are. I look forward to telling select cttee tomorrow – ‘oh, fuck no, don’t worry about Dom, the real person in charge is Carrie’”, Case added.

A witness to the inquiry Alex Thomas, formerly at the Cabinet Office and now at the Institute for Government, described some of the language in the messages as “unfortunate”.

“It’s clear to me that the consistency of decision-making was something that could be criticised and be a cause for concern,” he said. “They are not comfortable to read. If you are a victim or related to someone who suffered or died from Covid this is appalling to read. It should be called out as regrettable.”

Prof Chris Brightling and Dr Rachael Evans, both experts in long Covid, also gave evidence to the inquiry, which was attended by members of various long Covid support groups.

In notes that appeared on the inquiry screen Johnson scribbled “bollocks” on one and on another said: “Do we really believe in long Covid. Why can’t we hedge it more. I bet it is complete Gulf War Syndrome.”

Brightling said: “I’m deeply saddened and extremely angry at the same time. I’m not even sure what he means – bollocks to the science or does he mean bollocks to the patients?”

Evans said of Johnson’s comments: “It’s just another unbelievable thing. It’s shocking and beyond disappointing. We have people here living through this absolutely dreadful illness and to see your own prime minister has written something like this …”

The inquiry continues.

Police have made referrals for 24 fines over a lockdown-busting party at Tory headquarters during the coronavirus pandemic.

David Hughes www.independent.co.uk

The fixed-penalty notices related to a “jingle and mingle” event in December 2020 at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) for activists on behalf of Shaun Bailey’s unsuccessful effort to be London mayor.

Lord Bailey, who received a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours, has previously apologised “unreservedly” for the event organised by his campaign team, and said it was a “serious error of judgment”.

Both Lord Bailey and Tory aide Ben Mallett – who became an OBE in Mr Johnson’s honours list – attended the gathering at Matthew Parker Street on December 14, 2020 – when Covid restrictions were in force.

The investigation into the party was reopened in July this year after a video clip published by the Mirror showed staff appearing to dance, drink and joke about Covid restrictions.

The BBC also published an invitation, revealing the event was called “jingle and mingle”.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “Having assessed that new evidence, the Met has made 24 referrals for fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to the ACRO Criminal Records Office for breaches of Covid-19 regulations.”

Lord Bailey has been contacted for comment.

At the time of the event London was under Tier-2 restrictions which banned indoor socialising between people from different households.

But on the day the party was held, concern about rising cases led to the announcement that London would move to even stricter Tier 3 restrictions on December 16.

A Conservative Party spokesman said the gathering was “unauthorised”.

“Senior CCHQ staff became aware of an unauthorised social gathering in the basement of Matthew Parker Street organised by the Bailey campaign on the evening of 14 December 2020,” the spokesman said.

“Formal disciplinary action was taken against the four CCHQ staff who were seconded to the Bailey campaign.”

The Met added that a second investigation into a gathering in Parliament on December 8 2020 continues.

The December 8 gathering, said to have been arranged by Commons Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing, was cited by Mr Johnson in a scathing statement accusing Sir Bernard Jenkin of “monstrous hypocrisy” for allegedly attending the event before sitting on the cross-party panel which found the former prime minister had lied to MPs with his partygate denials.

Private equity’s sweetheart deal with tax authorities was always a ‘charade’ – Good Law Project

goodlawproject.org 

Documents released to Good Law Project show how Norman Lamont and Nigel Lawson pushed Inland Revenue officials to give private equity fund managers special treatment.

For more than 35 years, managers of private equity funds have been taxed as if they were making investments.

But most private equity funds aren’t vehicles for managers to invest in startups. Instead they allow managers to borrow money, buy companies, strip out their assets and then resell.

The managers of these “buyout” funds aren’t investing – they are trading – but they still pay tax at a sweetheart rate of 28% rather than the 47% they should pay.

All of this dates back to a shady deal that the private equity industry cut with the Inland Revenue – now HMRC – back in 1987, a story we can now tell, thanks to a cache of documents released when Good Law Project helped Dale Vince to challenge this outrageous practice.

The industry had been preparing the ground with Norman Lamont, a former investment banker serving as Financial Secretary, since July 1986. When they met with the Revenue in September, they outlined their demand: that private equity income “must be taxed as capital”.

The civil servants were wary, with one official calling the arrangements a “charade”, but under pressure from Lamont and the Chancellor Nigel Lawson they eventually understood that the Government was “anxious to help” the industry and caved in.

The deal has continued for 36 years, at a cost to the Exchequer, in the last year for which we have data, of around £420m a year – enough to pay the salary of 16,000 nurses.

“HMRC has now conceded the key argument raised by Vince and Good Law Project, accepting that the money managers receive from buyout funds – known in the trade as their “carried interest” –where appropriate “would be taxable as trading income in the hands of UK tax resident individuals. HMRC would expect such individuals to file their self-assessment returns accordingly.”

This admission means the policy can now be reversed – collecting back taxes – without the need for any legislation. But with a Government in hock to wealthy bankers there’s little prospect of any immediate change.

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