Despite what many see as the inevitability of an overall Labour victory nationally when voters go to the polls, history suggests that non-Conservative votes are likely to be spread between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party in what in the future will be the South Devon constituency.

Polls indicate that the Conservative candidate could win with as little as 34 per cent of the vote.

Totnes pulls together to oust Tory MP

Mario Ledwith www.thetimes.co.uk

For decades, the market town of Totnes in Devon has been almost entirely under the control of the Conservatives, making it one of the safest seats in the country. Without a sudden change in Britain’s voting system, polls show that things may well stay that way in the near future, despite the dismal poll ratings for Rishi Sunak’s party.

So, with no sign of reform on the horizon, campaigners in the constituency representing what they describe as the “progressive vote” have decided to take matters into their own hands. Giving themselves the sole task of unseating the Tories, the group has launched a series of events aimed at crowning a single candidate who can successfully compete at the forthcoming general election.

Those behind the so-called South Devon Primary believe that selecting a “People’s Champion” is the only way of securing victory.

Attendees showed their appetite for change on a question and answer board

Despite what many see as the inevitability of an overall Labour victory nationally when voters go to the polls, history suggests that non-Conservative votes are likely to be spread between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party in what in the future will be the South Devon constituency.

Polls indicate that the Conservative candidate could win with as little as 34 per cent of the vote. The campaigners say that they have decided to act because Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system is “no longer fit for purpose”, having been developed when there were only two main parties.

In response, Anthony Mangnall, Totnes’s Conservative MP, has accused those hoping to anoint a unity candidate of seeking to “restrict democracy”.

Although rare on the mainland, electoral pacts have been a feature of elections in Northern Ireland. Under such agreements, unionist parties have joined together to select one candidate to prevent a republican party from winning. The Totnes concept differs in that it is an unofficial endorsement, separate to the parties’ own campaigning, with losing candidates remaining on the ballot.

The successful candidate from the South Devon Primary will be chosen through voting at seven town hall events across the constituency over the next fortnight. The first of those took place on Saturday in Totnes, a town of 9,000 residents whose independent spirit came to national prominence in 2012 when they united to block Costa Coffee from opening a branch.

As nearly 300 people packed into its Civic Hall and a further 160 gathered outside a pub where the primary was being live-streamed, hopes rippled at the prospect of upsetting the electoral status quo.

Those who had gathered were hoping to hear pitches from the Labour, Lib Dem and Green candidates, with a vote for the candidate deemed most likely to win an election being submitted at the end.

However, as the event neared, it was clear that the attempt to reshape the town’s voting framework had stumbled. Labour, which has not yet chosen a candidate, did not send anybody to speak up for the party. Those in attendance had to focus instead on the pledges of Caroline Voaden, the Lib Dems’ prospective candidate, and Robert Bagnall, the Greens’ prospective candidate.

The organiser of the South Devon Primary and the sitting Conservative MP give their views to Times Radio

The organisers — Anthea Simmons, Simon Oldridge and Ben Long — told the audience that they themselves were not members of any political party. Addressing the elephant in the Civic Hall room, Oldridge said of the lack of Labour representation: “It’s disappointing and frustrating. We would love to see their candidate here.” He added: “The vast majority of people want to get behind someone for a change.”

Simmons told the room that she was an “ex-tribal Tory” who had voted for the party in 2015 before growing disillusioned. “We need better democracy,” she said. “It’s time to see off these Tories.”

The candidates began the two-hour session by introducing themselves and stating why they were the best person to defeat Mangnall. They drew laughs, applause and some awkward glances during long-winded responses as George Monbiot, the event chairman, Guardian columnist and environmental activist, tried to steer proceedings. He hailed the event as “groundbreaking”.

Perhaps inevitably, the candidates agreed on the need for proportional representation. Other areas of consensus included tackling second-home ownership, Airbnbs, assisted dying and taking utilities, such as water companies, out of the private sector.

Voaden acknowledged that ultimately neither the Lib Dems nor the Greens would be making government policy after the election, but she insisted that MPs could stand up for local issues on the opposition benches.

The constituency will be slightly redrawn during this year’s vote and will be known as South Devon, rather than Totnes. At the 2019 general election, Mangnall won the seat with 53.2 per cent of the vote, compared with 28.8 per cent for the Lib Dem candidate and 17 per cent for Labour.

Outlining her reason for attending the event, Voaden said: “I am here because I don’t want to be represented in Westminster by a Tory MP for a minute longer and by an inept, corrupt and cruel government lost in the political wilderness.”

The South Devon Primary will announce its unity candidate when voting is completed after its seventh event. Voaden, who said she was in politics because she was passionate about proportional representation and opposing Brexit, appeared confident that she would get the nod when the votes are counted in Brixham this month. “I do not want to be standing there on election night on that platform by Anthony Mangnall’s smug face because he has won this election by a thousand votes. Visualise how that will feel.”

Tories promised post-Brexit freedoms would be used to reduce regional inequality in England but have failed to deliver.

“The Tories’ begging-bowl approach to levelling up forces leaders to spend time, effort and taxpayers’ money bidding for uncertain and tightly ringfenced pots of money. This sticking-plaster approach won’t give local leaders the tools they need to drive growth in their local area and live up to their best potential.” (Justin Madders, the shadow levelling up minister).

Is Exmouth’s Gateway project really the most pressing way of spending money in the town? – Owl

Kiran Stacey www.theguardian.com 

Less than a fifth of the projects approved by Michael Gove to improve towns across England have been completed, the government has admitted, in the latest sign of the problems facing his levelling up agenda.

Responses from Gove’s department to freedom of information requests show that fewer than 20% of the projects sanctioned under the £3.6bn towns fund were on track to be finished by the end of February. Fewer than half will have been completed by the next election, even if it is held in November, the figures show.

The data is the latest example of how difficult the Conservatives have found it to meet the promises the party made at the last election to use post-Brexit freedoms to reduce regional inequality in England.

The Guardian revealed last year that councils were having to scale back or freeze levelling up projects because of soaring costs and that Gove’s department was handing back nearly £2bn of housing money after struggling to find projects to spend it on.

Jack Shaw, a local government expert who uncovered the figures, said: “Given this was a flagship policy priority at the last general election, the expectations on the government to deliver new infrastructure in places that have historically been ignored were high.

“Inflation and interest rates have prevented some projects from making progress, but the government has also failed to respond to those changes and has instead asked places to reduce their ambition. Come the election, current evidence suggests the government will have failed its pledge to ‘level up’ communities.”

The towns fund was announced immediately after the last election, with Gove promising it would give “underinvested towns the much-needed funding and support to get going on their long-term plans”.

The fund was a key plank in his levelling up plan to improve infrastructure outside London and major cities. Projects include a new investment zone around Blackpool airport, an industrial centre in Grimsby and the regeneration of Bedford’s train station.

Since then, however, high inflation has eaten into large parts of Gove’s budget and made it increasingly difficult to complete building projects. The Guardian reported last year that at least £500m had been lost from levelling up projects because of rising costs, with leisure buildings, high streets, museums and public spaces all being hit.

Many councils have stalled or reduced their plans as a result of higher costs, and some say they have found it a lengthy and bureaucratic process to get Whitehall officials to approve their alterations to the original plans.

A report by Thurrock council last November showed the authority struggling under the pressures of higher inflation.

The council was due to spend £22.8m on improving Tilbury town centre, including a new community hub, a youth centre, new cycle paths and a new jetty. In November local officials warned there had been “significant cost price inflation” since the plans were submitted, forcing them to review the entire scheme to make sure the council did not overspend.

The report added: “There has been a significant delay in the confirmation of the business cases due to the need for further reassurance and assessment work on governance by [the levelling up department] and the commissioners.”

The figures unearthed by Shaw show that out of 973 towns fund projects, only 154 are due to have been completed by the end of February. By the end of November, that figure rises to 385, just 40% of the total.

More than 170 projects are due to finish in March 2026, the official deadline given by Gove for spending all the towns fund money. A few are scheduled for completion after that date, but officials indicated this could be because they were relying on other sources of funding to finish the projects.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “All of the money which was allocated from the towns fund is on track to be spent by March 2026 as planned, with more than 100 projects already completed. The rate at which projects are being completed is entirely consistent with the delivery timeframes we have set out.”

Labour said the problems were a further indication of the issues with ministers in Westminster trying to dictate how local authorities across the country spend their money.

Justin Madders, the shadow levelling up minister, said: “The Tories’ begging-bowl approach to levelling up forces leaders to spend time, effort and taxpayers’ money bidding for uncertain and tightly ringfenced pots of money. This sticking-plaster approach won’t give local leaders the tools they need to drive growth in their local area and live up to their best potential.”

Good question for an “excellent quality 3 star” beach.

Detailed analysis of latest Environment Agency testing data shows the water in Budleigh may not have been fit for swimming for around 30 days in the 150-day May to September sampling season. That’s about 20% of the time. Does that measure up to an “Excellent” rating?

What is the message for all year round bathers?

Well if it’s not safe during the summer during heavy rain and for 48 hours after, as this analysis concludes, probably pretty crap most of the time! [Including as we go to press]- Owl

Petercrwilliams fightingpoolution.com

One of the most frequent questions we hear is “Is it safe to swim off the beach at Budleigh?” In this post, we’ll take a look at the water quality data, and offer some guidance on how best to check before you swim – Summer and Winter. Note: we are not providing advice on whether it is safe for anyone to swim on any given day!

Firstly, it’s the role of the Environment Agency (not South West Water), to regularly test bathing water during the Summer months, and to categorise all designated bathing beaches from the results. In particular, each sample is tested for the levels of E-Coli and Enterococci present in the water. High levels of these bacteria in bathing water can – and do – cause sickness and diarrhoea to swimmers and other beach users, so there are defined thresholds, above which, bathing is ‘Not Advised’.

At the end of each bathing season, the EA look back over all the samples taken in the last 4 years and, depending on the % of samples tested which are worse than the POOR level, the beach is assigned a star rating of Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor. Budleigh currently has an ‘Excellent’ rating, though as can be seen in the chart below, we are very close to slipping down into the ‘Good’ category.

Budleigh Water quality trend. If the blue ‘Actual’ average moves above green line, we slip down to ‘Good’ status. Chart (c) Environment Agency 2023

It’s probably important to consider that the water rating is more a measure of how many bad water days we get, rather than the cleanliness of the water on the majority of ‘normal’ days. This may reassure some swimmers who worry that the water may always be quite polluted.

We can do that by analysing the results of the EA water samples taken, and seeing the bacteria concentration levels of each of the 63 samples taken over the last four years, from very cleanest (left hand side of chart below), through pretty toxic (right hand side).

Majority of days (80%+) have ‘Very Low’ to ‘Low’ levels of pollution.

Below Green line shows water is EXCELLENT, but above Orange line – water quality is POOR

This clearly shows that the water really is pretty clean on around 80% of days in the May-Sept period, BUT it also shows just how highly polluted the water can get (up to 3 times worse than the ‘Poor’ level) after incidents of pollution or high rainfall.

So how do the EA sample Budleigh’s bathing water?

• Critically the EA only sample the water in the Summer ‘swimming season’, from May to September. This is a major issue for us – as many Budleigh folk swim all year round. This is a national issue, but with more and more people swimming all year round, it’s important that we campaign to see how this can be changed
• The Environment Agency aim to sample the bathing water 20 times in the season, so about once per week. Testing water quality is not quick, so results of each test are not available for several days after sampling. This means that we cannot check the current actual water quality on the EA web site. The main purpose of this sampling appears therefore to determine the next year’s water quality rating, as well as to identify any major issues
• To try and resolve that, the EA run a computer analysis every morning during the bathing season, to forecast the likely pollution level at the beach that day. This results in a straight ‘OK’ or ‘Bathing not Advised’ status. This status is displayed at Steamer steps, on the electronic board near the Longboat Cafe, and online via the LoveBudleigh web site. During the season, this should give the most accurate forecast on swimming conditions.
• During the 2023 season, there were 16 days when the EA declared ‘Bathing not Advised’

The chart below shows how the 2023 daily forecasts compare with the subsequent water quality measured from the samples. For each day of the season, RED in the first column identifies any days when the EA declared a Pollution Risk forecast. BLUE in the second column shows the 20 days when a water sample was taken, and Red or Amber in the third column shows if any of those samples were subsequently found to be POOR.

What this shows is that whenever the EA sampled the water within 48 hours after an EA declared ‘Pollution Risk’ day, the subsequent sample showed E-coli or Enterococci levels close to or greater than POOR levels.

This suggests that the water may not have been fit for swimming on around 30 days in the 150-day sampling season. That’s about 20% of time. That’s appears worse than the ‘Excellent’ rating would indicate.

One possible reason why our figures look worse than the official rating, is IF the EA suspend normal sampling if a Pollution Forecast is active. Although this possibility would appear to make a mockery of the whole sampling process (as they would only then sample the water when they were pretty sure it was ‘clean’!), there does seem to be scope for them to do this within the regulations. Looking at the pattern of testing days in the chart above, there are a couple of occasions when the sampling pattern suggests that this could have happened. To find out IF the EA have ever suspended or changed the sampling dates, we’ve raised an Information Request on EA to ask that question.

What the sampling results do show is that the Pollution Forecasting system appears to be a good indicator of when not to swim – but perhaps prudent to wait 48 hours before going back in after a Warning, rather than just 24 hours.

So during the bathing season, the EA Pollution Forecast, via the LoveBudleigh web site, is probably the best indicator of whether it’s safe to swim. But what about the other 7 months of our swimming year?

The most useful tool outside of the season is probably the Surfers Against Sewage app, SSRS. This takes input from all of the local sewage overflow sensors, and it produces an alert for the beach IF any of these sewage overflows registers a prolonged discharge (the actual time threshold is specific to each sewage overflow point). It’s also of note that there appear to be significantly more sewage discharges by South West Water outside of the sampled bathing season.

What SSRS does not take into account is any agricultural pollution coming in from the River Otter, which is a significant contributor to the water quality. That’s why we want the EA to extend their pollution forecasting and water sampling to all year round. In the meantime, do download and use the ‘SSRS’ app, for all ‘out of season’ swimming. However, it’s probably also prudent to avoid times when the river has been particularly high after heavy rain – and certainly avoid the area by the river mouth and brook outfalls.

Next time, we’ll take a look at where on the beach the Environment Agency take their samples, and why this might either under- or over-estimate the cleanliness of the water – depending on where you decide to swim.

Latest poll damning 

Support for the Conservative Party has plunged to the lowest level since 1978 with just a fifth of British voters now backing Rishi Sunak’s party, according to a new poll.

Archie Mitchell www.independent.co.uk 

The bombshell survey, showing the Conservatives as 27 points behind Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, would spell electoral oblivion for Mr Sunak’s party if replicated at a general election.

The Ipsos poll, published on Monday, shows Mr Sunak could hold on to as few as 25 seats – 351 fewer than Boris Johnson won in 2019 – in what would be a historic defeat.

It also predicts Sir Keir could secure as many as 537 seats – 340 more than Jeremy Corbyn managed at the last election and equating to a landslide which would eclipse Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 win.

Calculus election predictor using Ipsos data based new constituency boundaries

The survey showed support for the Tories at just 20 per cent, the lowest since 1978 when Ipsos started tracking the poll. Ipsos is a multinational market research firm and the poll is the latest in its monthly independent Political Monitor.

It comes just weeks after a Tory bust-up over a series of secretive polls trying to discredit Mr Sunak, including one poll that warned of a Tory wipeout unless he was removed as leader.

In the latest survey, Labour’s support has dropped to 47 per cent from the 49 per cent it had in January.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats were backed by 9 per cent of the electorate, while support for both the Green Party and Reform UK was at 8 per cent – double what it was in January.

Ipsos’s previous lowest score for the Conservatives was 22 per cent, recorded by John Major in December 1994 and May 1995, only a few years before Sir Tony’s election win.

The slump in Conservative support follows a series of bad headlines for Mr Sunak at the start of 2024, with confirmation that the UK had entered a recession at the end of last year, two large by-election defeats in Wellingborough and Kingswood and an Islamophobia row over comments by now-suspended Tory MP Lee Anderson.

There is also public frustration at near-record NHS waiting lists and record high net migration, with Mr Sunak failing on four of his five key pledges to voters including to “stop the boats” and grow the economy.

Ipsos head of political research Gideon Skinner said: “The historical comparisons continue to look ominous for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives. The Ipsos Political Monitor series started in the late 70s and has never recorded a Conservative vote share this low.”

He added that individual support for the PM is also heading downwards, with Mr Sunak’s approval rating hitting -54, a record low.

“Combined with Labour taking leads on issues of economic credibility to go with their traditional strengths in public services, this means the Conservatives face big challenges across a number of fronts if they are to turn the situation around,” Mr Skinner said.

In a further worrying sign for the Conservatives, Labour is now seen as having a lead on which party would best manage the economy, compared with October when the parties were neck and neck.

The public also believe Labour’s Rachel Reeves would make the best chancellor, with just a fifth satisfied with the job Jeremy Hunt is doing.

It will pile further pressure on the government to come up with an offering in Wednesday’s Budget, with right-wing Tories clamouring for tax cuts while others want Mr Hunt to ensure better funding for public services.

The poll was based on a survey of 1,000 British adults between February 21 and 28.

• Sycamore: shorten back on south side by approximately 2m. Reason – to leave a more balanced form. Ash: reduce height and side branches by approximately 2-3m to a suitable side branch. Reason – to relieve weight and lessen the likelihood of branch breakage. Elm: remove to as near ground level as possible. Reason – dying. 9 Garrett Close Seaton EX12 2FERef. No: 24/0401/TRE | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a single storey rear extension which would extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 4m, for which the maximum height would be 3.5m and for which the height of the eaves would be 3m 46 Arcot Park Sidmouth EX10 9HURef. No: 24/0400/GPD | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of single storey side extension. Addition of two storey side extension. Knapp House Pound Lane Uplyme DT7 3TTRef. No: 24/0398/FUL | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Agricultural unit extension Hogsbrook Farm Woodbury Salterton Exeter EX5 1PYRef. No: 24/0397/FUL | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension 45 Sid Park Road Sidmouth Devon EX10 9BRRef. No: 24/0402/FUL | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Discharge of condition for 23/2102/ADV: Condition 6 (individual signage letters) The Old Sorting Office 52 – 54 High Street Budleigh Salterton EX9 6NBRef. No: 24/0396/DOC | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Rear and side single storey extensions Barafundle Bunts Lane Seaton Devon EX12 2HYRef. No: 24/0390/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Application for Permission in Principle for 4-9 houses Land South Of Park Lodge Talaton Road FenitonRef. No: 24/0378/PIP | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of x2no. outbuildings to be replaced with 2 bed detached chalet bungalow [re-submission of 23/2485/FUL] 34 Raleigh Road Ottery St Mary EX11 1TGRef. No: 24/0392/FUL | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Willow: overall reduction, reducing height by approximately 4m, reducing width of canopy by approximately 2m, maximum cut diameters 100mm, cutting to viable growth points wherever possible. Crossway House The Street Musbury Devon EX13 8AURef. No: 24/0376/TCA | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of porch extension [resubmission of 18/0097/FUL] 5 Parkhayes Woodbury Salterton Devon EX5 1QSRef. No: 24/0375/FUL | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed extensions, alterations and part garage conversion 29 Cranford Avenue Exmouth EX8 2QARef. No: 24/0372/FUL | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Discharge of condition for 23/1508/FUL: Condition 4 (Plant Noise Assessment) 86 High Street Honiton EX14 1JNRef. No: 24/0365/DOC | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Discharge of condition for 22/2718/FUL: Condition 3 (cladding) 38 Cranford Avenue Exmouth Devon EX8 2QARef. No: 24/0370/DOC | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Unknown
• Construction of 1 no. timber frame commercial unit Millers Farm Shop Gammons Hill Kilmington Devon EX13 7RARef. No: 24/0363/FUL | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Removal of condition no.4 (Agricultural Occupancy Condition) from planning permission 83/P1768 – Change Of Use To Agricultural Contractor’s Depot. Following approved 23/1793/CPE, The condition needs to be removed to allow the dwelling to be occupied as an unrestricted C3 dwelling Thornfield Tytherleigh Devon EX13 7BGRef. No: 24/0355/VAR | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed replacement of conservatory with single storey extension Passlands Membury Axminster EX13 7TERef. No: 24/0350/FUL | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Discharge of condition for 23/2278/FUL: Condition 3 (Materials) 67 Bicton Street Exmouth Devon EX8 2RURef. No: 24/0359/DOC | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• A small scale (10 pitch maximum), tent only, campsite for up to 60 days per annum, including moveable toilet facilities, operated under Part 4 Class BC of the GPDO. Holly Farm Alston Axminster EX13 7LGRef. No: 24/0360/R77 | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing bungalow and garage with construction of a replacement house and integral double garage. Lindridge Elsdon Lane West Hill Devon EX11 1UBRef. No: 24/0352/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed replacement porch with timber cladding 3 Hill Court Hillhead Colyton Devon EX24 6NJRef. No: 24/0346/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement garden shed, height increase and repairs to existing chimneys, re-roofing of porch and replacement window. Church Terrace Cottage Dunkeswell Honiton EX14 4QZRef. No: 24/0348/FUL | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement garden shed, height increase and repairs to existing chimneys, re-roofing of porch and replacement window Church Terrace Cottage Dunkeswell Honiton EX14 4QZRef. No: 24/0349/LBC | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Silver birch: remove to ground level.; Ash to be reduced to wall height. Peppercorn Cottage Brampford Speke EX5 5HGRef. No: 24/0336/TCA | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of Lawful development for rear extension 1.5m from existing wall, remove store shed and extend to the side by a maximum of 4.48m.Barafundle Bunts Lane Seaton Devon EX12 2HYRef. No: 24/0330/CPL | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Refused
• Retrospective planning application for the installation of one 7KW Air Source Heat Pump (Resubmission of 22/0974/FUL) 11 Mill Lane Branscombe EX12 3DSRef. No: 24/0321/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of storage building and erection of a one bedroom bungalow. Southlands Gardens King Street HonitonRef. No: 24/0325/FUL | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition no. 2 (approved plans) of planning permission 20/0779/FUL – New industrial unit for B1, B2 and B8 use. Proposal for reduction in the size of the building Coverstructures House Exeter Road Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1RERef. No: 24/0282/VAR | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of rear single storey extension, and new front porch 5 Dunsford Close Exmouth Devon EX8 2HWRef. No: 24/0266/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Annexe extension 4 Swains Road Budleigh Salterton EX9 6HZRef. No: 24/0262/FUL | Validated: Tue 20 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey en-suite side extension14 Highcliffe Close Lympstone EX8 5HFRef. No: 24/0243/CPL | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Site Log Cabin Brackenrigg Cathole Lane Yawl Devon DT7 3XDRef. No: 24/0216/FUL | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing garage and erection of garden office building Norwood Blackhorse Broadclyst EX5 2FTRef. No: 24/0208/FUL | Validated: Wed 21 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposal for change of use of land to site 3no. timber cabins for holiday accommodation; landscaping and construction of pond. Twistgates Farm Upottery Devon EX14 9PERef. No: 24/0195/FUL | Validated: Fri 23 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing dwelling; construction of replacement dwelling with integral annexe; construction of carport; construction of storage building; and associated works. Timbervale Sowton Exeter EX5 2AGRef. No: 24/0097/FUL | Validated: Thu 22 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Permission in principle for the erection of 9 no. dwellings Land At Ford Farm WoodburyRef. No: 24/0043/PIP | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposal to create a new wildlife pond. Gilletts Farm Yarcombe Devon EX14 9AZRef. No: 23/2759/FUL | Validated: Mon 19 Feb 2024 | Status: Awaiting decision

Scandalous spending tracker

That’s right, the UK Government has scandalously spent £125,554,393,254 since 2019.

As Chancellor and now Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has had responsibility for government spending for almost all of this period.

Posted by Best for Britain www.bestforbritain.org 

It’s easy to become numb to the scale and frequency of the Government’s fiscal ineptitude and dodginess, and all at a time when ordinary people struggle to pay bills and public services are crumbling.

The total does not include the catastrophic hit to public finances from the Government’s Brexit deal which has crippled businesses, slowed economic growth, and is estimated to be costing around £100bn per year. Similarly, the total does not include the titanic economic cost of the disastrous mini-budget which increased bills for mortgage payers across the country and which ended Liz Truss’ premiership after 6 weeks.

It does, however, include figures like the devastating £290m sunk on the Government’s cruel, unworkable and unlawful Rwanda Deal. It also includes a whopping £2.3bn spent on cancelled parts of HS2, and £50m spent on a new helicopter for top Tories. 

We’ll keep it updated as new revelations come to light so check back to get the latest eye-watering figure. What’s clear is that every day this government remains in power is more money wasted. Find out what we’re doing about it at GetVoting.org.

The data

The total figure is an estimate using publicly available data. You can find the full list of scandalous spending along with sources here. 

We’ve categorised each entry as either a Crony Contract (such as giving government contracts to Conservative chums), a Duff Deal (like blowing billions on stuff that doesn’t work) or an Outrageous Outgoing (including spending silly money on interior design).

Keep informed

Make sure you keep up to date, join Best for Britain’s mailing list and be the first to hear about our work and campaigns.

Does this government reinforce success? Invest in preparedness for the next pandemic? Of course not. – Owl

It changed the treatment of Covid-19 patients across the globe, saved thousands of lives by pinpointing cheap, effective drugs during the pandemic, and earned Britain widespread praise from international groups of scientists.

Robin McKie www.theguardian.com 

But now government support for the UK Recovery programme is to end. In a few weeks’ time, central financing for the programme will halt. The scheme will only be able to continue thanks to funding from a group of US-based philanthropists.

The move has dismayed senior scientists who say it is another worrying example of the UK’s life sciences sector being short-changed by government. “We knew Recovery had huge potential and that was realised in a very short period during Covid. But now that dream is being unrealised,” said Prof Peter Horby, one of the co-founders of Recovery.

And it is not just the value of Recovery that has been ignored as the pandemic has ended, added Horby. “Britain did some of the world’s best clinical trials, vaccine development, and genomics work, but a lot of that has just been thrown away or starved of investment. Yet we badly need to be alert to the dangers of future pandemics.”

Recovery – the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy – is a drug-testing programme that, at the height of the pandemic, involved thousands of doctors and nurses working with tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across Britain. Trials were carried out in intensive care units and wards crammed with seriously ill patients.

“In day-to-day, regular clinical medicine, it’s absolutely critical to work out the difference between what you think might work, what actually works – and what doesn’t,” said Prof Martin Landray, Recovery’s other co-founder. “Recovery did exactly that.”

The programme managed to pinpoint four effective medicines, while conclusively showing that eight overhyped drugs were not. For example, the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine – widely touted by Donald Trump as a Covid-19 treatment – was shown to provide no help for patients. By contrast, dexamethasone, a cheap treatment for inflammation and arthritis, was found to reduce deaths by a third among patients on ventilators in ICUs. No other nation came close to matching these achievements.

“Other countries, including Canada and the US, have made it clear they are extremely envious of what Britain did with Recovery and are preparing to spend considerable sums in setting up similar schemes – at a time when we seem to be losing interest collectively in the programme. And I think that is a shame,” added Landray.

Recovery in the UK will survive thanks to Flu Lab, an American philanthropic organisation dedicated to battling the future flu epidemics, with the programme being extended to investigate new treatments for flu as well as Covid under the new deal.

The decision by the UK government not to continue to support Recovery comes against a worrying background, which has seen Britain fall badly behind other countries in conducting clinical studies, where new medicines are tested on volunteers to make sure they are safe and work, and to monitor any side effects. The Swiss firm Novartis recently scrapped a large trial of a cholesterol drug in Britain, for example.

“We’ve been dropping down the league table when it comes to doing trials so that we are now below Italy, Poland, France and many other countries. The state of the NHS is part of the problem but it is nevertheless worrying,” said Horby.

“I welcome the government’s ambition for the UK to become a scientific superpower but if you look at what is happening today, we seem to be heading in the wrong direction.”

This point was backed by Landray, who warned that it was crucial the UK was prepared for the arrival of future pandemics. “You don’t get ready to fight the next war by disbanding the army just because it’s peacetime,” he told the Observer.

Jeremy Hunt has given over £100k to local Tory party in effort to retain seat

Jeremy Hunt has been forced to contribute more than £100,000 of his own money to his constituency Conservative party to bolster his chances of re-election, official records show, amid warnings that he is set to lose his seat.

Aletha Adu www.theguardian.com 

Hunt’s Godalming and Ash constituency is a target seat for the Liberal Democrats, and a Survation poll projects that he is on course to become the first chancellor in modern times to lose at a general election.

Electoral Commission records show that he has given £105,261 to the South-west Surrey Conservative association over the last five years.

The chancellor’s personal donations to the association under the last three Conservative prime ministers stand in stark contrast to the total £4,447 he gifted under the leadership of Theresa May and David Cameron.

The most recent accounts for Hunt’s local association have warned that its “balance sheet is at a less than satisfactory level”. A note stated that members’ annual subscriptions were due to increase this year.

Donations to the chancellor’s association were down by almost 50% in 2021. South West Surrey received only £42,693 in donationsthat year, down from over £80,000 in 2020.

A Labour source said: “This tells you everything you need to know about the state of the Conservative party, with the chancellor seemingly spending more time dishing out personal cheques to prolong his political career than fixing the economy his government has wrecked.

“And on the same day the chancellor is talking about clamping down on money being wasted, he might want to look at how he is spending some of his own money.”

Hunt said on Sunday: “I hope to be chancellor after the election.” However, the poll in his constituency shows the Lib Dems on 35% of the vote, the Tories on 29% and Labour on 22%. When local voters were asked to outline the issues that would determine how they would vote, health and the NHS was top, while only 4% said tax was a key issue.

Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “It’s no wonder that Jeremy Hunt is on the brink of his losing his seat when people across Surrey are furious they can’t get GP appointments, that their hospitals have been left to crumble, and water firms are still allowed to pollute their rivers.

“In the chancellor’s own back yard, food bank demand is surging after his government failed to get a grip on the cost of living crisis. Liberal Democrats are fired up in Surrey to oust Conservative MPs who have taken people for granted.”

Correspondence with Karen Crawford, Exmouth resident and year round swimmer, reveals how South West Water (SWW) could be “gaming” the much trumpeted tougher regulations to their, but not our, advantage.

Water companies now have to fit emergency discharge monitors (EDM) on combined sewer outfalls to report spills and their duration (not volume). This will be a metric which politicians will use to demonstrate that our rivers and bathing waters are “improving” and water companies will use to award bonuses and avoid penalties. 

SSW claim that they are investing £38m in Exmouth and Sandy bay to reduce pollution.

It seems that, so far, an impressive £14m has been invested in upgrading the main Exmouth discharge pipe out to sea from Sandy Bay/Straight Point. 

Do you remember seeing this strange floating structure off Straight Point in 2022?

This means that much more treated water can be discharged in normal circumstances and raw sewage in times of overload. Possibly four times as much.

However, improvements to the Maer Lane treatment works are only at an initial or “concept” stage for starting in 2028. I.e.there will be no increase in treatment capacity until at least then, realistically a lot, lot later. And we continue to build more houses.

Meanwhile, SWW is giving priority to upgrading the pumps at surrounding sewage pumping stations. These are tanks used to collect local sewage which is then pumped to the treatment works. Improving the pumps means they will be able to reduce the discharges at 5 or 6 EDM sites by increasing capacity to send more sewage directly out to sea through the trunk main. So 5 or 6 potential discharges could be reduced to a single, combined one, instead.

Remember, SWW committed to building treatment works for the new development locally at Cranbrook but changed their mind and used Countess Weir. Now, Maer Lane and Countess Weir have no spare capacity at all. Both treatment works discharge at the first sign of rain.

So investing in increasing the pipe capacity from Maer Lane into the sea and upgrading the pumps at pumping stations, is a quick win for the government and SWW but doesn’t do anything for us or the environment.

Sandy Bay has already gone from “Excellent” to “Sufficient” bathing water quality in just a few years. 

It all seems a bit topsy-turvy to Owl who would have thought that the first priority would be to increase treatment capacity.

Evidence can be found here.

The wildlife charity WWF-UK shelved a report that warned how intensive chicken production is devastating the River Wye, the Observer can reveal.

Jon Ungoed-Thomas www.theguardian.com 

Since 2018, the charity has received more than £6m in donations from the supermarket chain Tesco, which has faced action from campaigners over the decline of the Wye because many of the intensive poultry farms in the river’s catchment area are in its ­supply chain.

The charity was due to publish a report on fixing the food system, which included the impact of intensive chicken farming on the river. One source claimed the proposed 2022 report was pulled after concerns were raised about the potential fallout.

WWF said this weekend the report failed to meet its rigorous standards and the decision was not linked to any partnership.

But a source with knowledge of the decision said: “Shelving the report was completely the wrong thing to do. They didn’t want to rock the boat. The attitude was: ‘We’re going after a partner. What’s the point?’”

WWF’s partnership with Tesco ran from 2018 to 2023 and focused on tackling environmental impacts in the food system. The supermarket provided funding in the range of between £500,000 and £2m for each year of the partnership.

In the summer of 2022, WWF, which has been concerned about the effects of global food production on wildlife and ecology, was scheduled to publish a report on fixing the food system called “Feeling the Bite”. It warned that about a million species were threatened.

The hard-hitting report said in the UK and around the world “how we eat is driving a food production system that is destroying the planet”. It warned that a “broken” food system was putting an impossible strain on nature.

As well as highlighting the threat globally to Asian elephants and the maned wolf in South America, it documented the plight of the River Wye as a case study.

It warned that the increase in phosphate-rich manure produced by poultry farms was causing deadly algae blooms that “suffocate plants and fish, and leave birds such as kingfishers and dippers without food”.

The report was set to be published in 2022 but, the source claims, it was proposed that publication be deferred and the Wye case study removed amid concerns that environmental campaigners would highlight WWF’s partnership with Tesco.

A decision was later taken to shelve the report in its entirety. The source said that once the Wye case study had been removed, it raised questions about the report’s overall strength.

Tesco said this weekend it did not have any involvement in the report or the decision for it not to be published.

Dave Lewis, the former chief executive of Tesco, is chair of the board of trustees at WWF. The charity said he also had no involvement in the project or the decision-making surrounding it.

Natural England announced in May last year it had downgraded the condition of the River Wye to “unfavourable – declining”.

Tesco has faced criticism over its role in supporting an unsustainable supply chain in the Wye catchment.

Charles Watson, founder and chair of the charity River Action, which raises awareness of river pollution, said the boom in poultry production in the Wye catchment area had been fuelled by demand from Tesco, as well as other supermarkets. He said: “Tesco’s logo is stamped all over the Wye.”

WWF has agreed a number of corporate partnerships in recent years, including with Aviva, HSBC and the consumer goods company Reckitt. The charity’s corporate donations and income totalled £16.7m in the year to 30 June 2023, out of a total income of £94m.

A WWF spokesperson said: “We are a science-led organisation and on reviewing drafts of the report, we concluded that it did not meet our rigorous standards. The decision not to proceed with this report was not connected to any individual case study within it or our relationships with partners.

“We are deeply concerned by the devastating impact that pollution is having on the UK’s rivers, particularly the Wye, and have taken the government to court over its failure to act on river pollution. We continue to work to drive action to tackle the food system’s impacts on the environment, both in the UK and overseas.”

A Tesco spokesperson said: “This report was not part of our work with WWF and we were not involved in its development, nor any decisions about publishing it. The work of our partnership with WWF was aimed at tackling the biggest environmental impacts of our food system, including helping to protect water quality and biodiversity in supply chains.

“We’re committed to playing our part in protecting the River Wye, alongside other actors across the food industry, and have worked closely with local stakeholders since 2019 to tackle water pollution in the area.

“We’re also providing multi-year funding for a number of water catchment projects.”

A pensioner from Exeter who illegally dumped 7,000 tonnes of waste on farmland in East Devon has been jailed for failing to clear the land.

eastdevonnews.co.uk 

Roger Baker, aged 80, of Marsh Mill Court, Exeter, was convicted in August 2018 of dumping 7,514 tonnes of waste at Pynes Farm, Poltimore, in East Devon and ordered by magistrates to remove it all to a permitted site by September 2019.

Earlier this month Baker was jailed for six weeks after the Environment Agency checked the site and found Baker had repeatedly ignored a court order to clear the waste.

After pleading guilty to failing to comply with a Regulation 44 notice to remove the waste to a permitted site, Exeter magistrates sentenced Baker to six weeks’ in jail, and ordered him to pay costs of £4,731.

Baker was told he must remove the waste on his release from prison.

Following the hearing, Richard Tugwell, an officer for the Environment Agency, said: “Baker showed a flagrant disregard for the environment and repeatedly ignored the court order requiring him to remove the waste.

“The court made it clear it still expected Baker to remove the waste after he is released from prison.”

After a conviction for dumping more than 7,000 tonnes of waste near Exeter,  Baker was jailed for continually ignoring a court order to remove the waste.

A case brought by the Environment Agency, Exeter magistrates heard on February 7, 2024, that five years on, Baker still had not removed any of the waste.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “An officer from the Environment Agency went to the site last month and found all the waste still in place with little sign Baker had any intention of complying.”

Open the spreadsheet and pour out the coffee Rishi, this could be a long session! – Owl

Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak will spend the weekend scrambling to piece together Wednesday’s Budget after being warned of a £2bn black hole in their original plans.

Arj Singh inews.co.uk

The Chancellor and Prime Minister were dealt a blow on Wednesday night when the Budget watchdog said their draft proposals were £2bn more expensive than allowed by the Government’s “headroom” – the amount of spare cash against a promise to get debt falling in five years.

They have since been working to repackage the Budget amid intense pressure for tax cuts that can drive economic growth and help the Conservatives close the opinion poll gap to Labour in an election year.

The pair were hoping for better news when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) delivered another key forecast late on Friday night, and were due to spend the weekend piecing together a near-final package before Wednesday.

Treasury sources have admitted that the process of pulling together the Budget had been “hard” amid a backdrop of weeks of gloomy forecasts from the OBR, which left Mr Hunt’s headroom before policy decisions of just £13bn, £6bn of which the Chancellor wants to hold in reserve to reassure markets.

It means Mr Hunt is deciding between a 1p cut to either income tax or national insurance – a smaller tax cut than he offered in the Autumn Statement – with hopes of a 2p cut or the unfreezing of some tax thresholds fading.

The Chancellor is still considering aping Labour’s policy to scrap the controversial “non-dom” tax status as he considers a range of measures to raise money to make the Budget add up.

Mr Sunak on Friday hinted at a cut to national insurance, which dropped from 12 per cent to 10 per cent in January after the Autumn Statement.

Asked if there could be further reductions in the tax announced on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said: “The Chancellor and the UK Government chose to cut national insurance; there were lots of reasons for that, but first and foremost it is a tax on work.

“I believe in a country and society where hard work is rewarded – that’s something that’s really important to me … and all the people in the Government, and cutting national insurance is rewarding hard work.”

The free-market Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), a think-tank influential among right-leaning Tory MPs, said the UK’s “stagnating” economy was a “disaster” for living standards and should be the “priority” in the Budget.

IEA executive director Tom Clougherty called for the scrapping of stamp duty, although this has been ruled out by Mr Hunt.

Mr Clougherty said: “If there is fiscal headroom for tax cuts, priority should be given to reforms that could have a meaningful growth effect.

“The Chancellor could make some helpful changes to corporation tax and business rates at limited cost to the Exchequer.

“The real prize, though, would be the abolition of stamp duties. There would be a fiscal hit from abolishing Stamp Duty Land Tax, but the distortions it causes in a tight housing market are so destructive that the cost is clearly worth bearing.”

Mr Clougherty also warned against abolishing non-dom status, claiming it would risk “unintended negative consequences too – with little fiscal upside”.

He added: “I hope this speculation doesn’t indicate a last-minute scramble to keep to the fiscal rules.

“Tax policy should be made for the long term – not on the fly in response to a rolling (and changeable) five-year debt forecast.”

In his latest newsletter Simon Jupp announces that he will be leading a parliamentary debate on Tuesday.

Richard Foord seems to have got there first.

He will be hosting an event in the fringes of the House of Commons on Monday. His guests will include the End Sewage Pollution Coalition, which includes the Rivers Trust, British Canoeing, the Angling Trust, River Action, Swim England, Surfers Against Sewage and the Women’s Institute. So it might be more productive.

This follows up his tabling of a bill in January to hand over  responsibility for collecting and reporting data on the number and duration of spills to the environmental regulator.

Owl fears the debate Simon Jupp will lead will seek once again to divert attention  away from the government’s record of privatisation, lax regulation and underfunding of the regulator and place all the blame on the water companies. 

Here is Owl’s summary of the first debate at the end of February last year:

Simon Jupp led the debate. Unfortunately his fellow Tories from Devon followed his lead, especially Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) and Kevin Foster (Torbay). [Though to give Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) her due, she did try to rise above this.]

They let SWW off the hook from the start:

For example, here is how Simon Jupp opened the debate:

….In recent years, a spotlight has been shone on storm overflows and CSOs. Water tourism is booming across our region, including windsurfing in places such as Exmouth and Sidmouth in my constituency. However, there is another reason why people have finally started talking about the issue: the Conservative Government have put in place a plan to improve our water, giving us all an opportunity to hold water companies to account.

People finally talking about the issue of sewage because the Tories have a plan? Really!

……Of course, in a perfect world, we would stop sewage spills completely and immediately. Sadly, that is virtually impossible in the short term; because of the pressure on our water infrastructure, we would risk the collapse of the entire water network, and the eye-watering costs involved mean we would need not just a magic money tree, but a whole forest.

No short term solution because it would cost? Why so little investment over the years?

Here is Owl’s summary of the second debate last September:

A second debate on South West Water’s record was hurriedly arranged to take place before MPs break up yet again. 

As a consequence of verbose schoolboy debating antics from the proposer, Mr Liddell-Grainger MP (Bridgwater and West Somerset), and nothing new from the Minister replying to him, the debate ran out of time and lapsed. 

Owl’s take

The Tories are still in denial over the consequences of privatisation and the effect austerity cuts have had on regulators, trying to blame everyone else.

Richard Foord, MP for Tiverton & Honiton 

Everyone living near our beautiful coastline knows just how important a subject is the water quality. This is not only because many of us enjoy our local rivers and beaches recreationally, but because our blue vista is also a key driver of tourism, bringing people many miles to spend time here.

That is why the inaction of water companies like South West Water is particularly galling. Over recent years, they’ve made substantial sums of money from environmental vandalism – spilling hundreds of thousands of hours of raw sewage directly into our rivers and seas.

Thanks to the pressure of local communities and activists, a spotlight has been shone on the situation. I have affection for the creative genius that comes to the fore in a good English protest. Placards seen in Exmouth recently included: “Women Swimmin”; “No River Exe Crement”; “Species not Faeces” and my personal favourite “End Sewage Poollution”.

We see ever more reports of sewage spills at our beaches, all while Conservative ministers and MPs line up to pass the buck to water companies. We have to ask the question: where are the regulators amidst this mess? And behind them, where is the Government?

Hundreds of permits that allow water companies to dump sewage into Britain’s rivers have not been updated since the 1950s. Monitoring and reporting on sewage discharges is done ‘in-house’ by the water firms – with them holding sole responsibility to collect the data on the number and duration of spills, and for reporting too. This is a perverse situation that allows them to mark their own homework.

That’s why in January I tabled a Bill in Parliament to hand over this responsibility to the environmental regulator. I was pleased when the Environment Secretary announced he would be making this change not long afterwards, but just a few days ago it emerged that despite the announcement, there was no timeline for the change.

Next Monday I will be hosting an event in the fringes of the House of Commons on this very subject. My guests are the End Sewage Pollution Coalition, which includes the Rivers Trust, British Canoeing, the Angling Trust, River Action, Swim England, Surfers Against Sewage and the Women’s Institute.

I am also looking forward to hosting Jo Bateman, the Devon-based swimmer who is taking legal action against South West Water for dumping sewage into the sea near her home. We’ve invited the Conservative Government’s Minister for Water. Let’s hope he attends!

No it’s not Simon Jupp but Ian Liddell-Grainger – Owl

Bradley Gerrard, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has criticised Mid Devon for sending letters to three former councillors accusing them of alleged data breaches.

The Conservative politician, who is to contest the new Tiverton and Minehead seat at the next election, asked for a debate on “rogue councils” during a debate in Westminster.

He said that Mid Devon District Council had now “threatened its former leaders with legal action for disputing what has gone on with 3 Rivers.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger  continued: “There has been a lack of scrutiny and a lack of accountability,” he said. This is millions of pounds, and not thousands.”

The comments come as Barry Warren, Bob Deed and Christine Daw all received letters from Mid Devon District Council about a “serious matter concerning your handling of confidential data.”

The letters said the individuals “may have committed a data breach” and asked them to delete any confidential information and show the council proof of this.

The letters later state that failure to comply “may result in legal actions,” including fines or other penalties.

Mr Warren, formerly an independent councillor, led the authority for three months in 2023, taking over from Mr Deed who resigned in February last year after holding the position for four years.

Ms Daw quit as a Conservative party member the same month, but retained her cabinet position as an independent until the election last May when she didn’t stand for re-election.

The trio have all been critical of 3 Rivers Developments, the council-owned property company which is now in the process of being closed down, and the alleged data breaches include documents linked to the failed housebuilder.

Mr Liddell-Grainger added: “Can we please have a debate in government time about councils’ responsibility for dealing with situations that have gone wrong, and not suing their former colleagues who are trying to do their job?”

Mid Devon District Council recently conducted a ‘lessons learned’ review of 3 Rivers, highlighting 10 aspects it would do differently if it launched another wholly owned business again.

Some members of the public criticised this, claiming that the councillors undertaking the review didn’t have long enough to carry out their work and that the group’s terms of reference should have been free of constraint.

The authority has in the past also paid external consultants, including Devon Audit Partnership, to assess the operation and viability of the firm.

Two reports in 2020 outlined 33 recommendations to improve it, and these were approved by the full council.

In relation to the letter the council sent to the three former councillors, the authority said it takes its legal responsibilities as a data controller “extremely seriously”.

A spokesperson added: “It is a matter of some regret that the council has had to write to a small number of former councillors reminding them of the need to comply with data management practices.

“However, it is important that the council takes appropriate action to ensure the effective management of data in accordance with our policies.”

Extravagant baubles and flummery or regalia signifying the dignity of an historic office?

Seaton council would have had much more power as a self governing “urban district council” prior to the incorporation of “East Devon District” in 1974, with nothing standing between it and County. It was these councils that oversaw the council house building programmes of the 50’s and 60’s.

[Owl believes that many Urban District Councils were run by elected “Chairs” rather than “Mayors” and chains of office.]

The decision to spend more than £8,000 on a mayoral chain in a Devon town has left some residents “disgusted”.

By Miles Davis www.bbc.co.uk

Seaton Town Council considered various options but voted for a new replacement chain at a cost of £8,257.

Some people living in Seaton on the south coast said it was wrong to spend the money on a mayoral chain during a cost of living crisis.

The council said the decision had been taken “very carefully” with a cost to residents of 5p per household per year.

Anthea Parkin, a Seaton resident, said: “I’m absolutely disgusted. It’s a total waste of our money and it’s wrong in this economic climate.”

The mayoral chain in Seaton is engraved with the name of the mayor and there is no room for more links on the current chain.

The town has a population of just over 7,000 and is known for its tramway and Jurassic coastline.

Seaton resident Bob Chapman said: “I think it’s disgusting when there’s lots of other things that could benefit from that sort of money being spent on it in the town.

“It’s just a little piece of chain. Why don’t they go to Pandora and buy one for about £200?”

Another resident who did not want to give their name said £8,000 would be better spent maintaining the town’s public toilets.

Two of the councillors on Seaton Town Council said they voted against spending more than £8,000 on the chain at the meeting in November.

Councillor Cheryl Wood said she had called for the existing chain to continue to be used with future mayor’s names added to a plaque in the council chamber.

Neil Dyke, also a councillor, said he had suggested keeping the chain as it is and arranging a public consultation.

The current mayor, Amrik Singh, was not available for interview and Seaton Town Council sent a statement.

It said: “The current chain of office is now full and the cost of preserving it and replacing it with a new chain of office that will last for a minimum of 48 years was considered by the nine councillors present.

“The cost worked out at 5p per household per year, which was considered reasonable in the circumstances and the longevity the replacement chain would provide.”

Ken Newland used to serve as a parish councillor in Berkshire before moving to Seaton about 20 years ago.

He sympathised with the town council and said a lot of the unpaid work they did went unrecognised.

He said: “They have to stand out in a crowd. You’re not going to want somebody turning up in a tracksuit and not looking like they have some gravitas about them

“The regalia is part of the role and the role is important to civic society.”

Kicking the can down the road – Owl

So-called capitalisation directions are risky and regarded as poor accounting practice, experts say

[Somerset Council to get access to £77 million and Plymouth City Council to £72 million.]

“It’s a huge relief to see 19 councils not going immediately bust. But it’s a very temporary solution that stands normal accountancy practice on its head to get us to the other side of a general election. But that’s all it does.”

Patrick Butler www.theguardian.com 

A record 19 councils in England have been handed multimillion-pound government bailout agreements totalling £2.5bn to prevent them collapsing into bankruptcy in the next few months, in a move likely to trigger a new round of public asset sales.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has agreed that the councils can take the highly unusual step of using funds raised by loans, or the sale of assets such as land and buildings, to plug holes in day-to-day revenue accounts.

The move, which follows an emergency £600m cash injection for all councils in January, is seen as a way of ministers minimising the prospect of further town hall insolvencies before the general election, rather than a solution to the wider crisis.

Rob Whiteman, chief executive of Cipfa, the public sector accountancy body, said: “It’s a huge relief to see 19 councils not going immediately bust. But it’s a very temporary solution that stands normal accountancy practice on its head to get us to the other side of a general election. But that’s all it does.”

The announcement comes after the latest dire predictions about English council finances. A survey report issued by the Local Government Information Unit on Wednesday estimated that 14 of England’s 372 councils would go bust in the next 12 months, as they collectively struggle with an estimated £4bn shortfall.

The agreements, known as capitalisation directions, are not grants or bailouts in the conventional sense of a cash injection but an arrangement that allows councils to bypass normal accounting rules to convert capital sums obtained by loans or selling assets into revenue.

Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said the move was welcome but “we should not mistake this for generosity on the part of the government. They are simply allowing councils to borrow, and to sell their own assets.”

Birmingham council has already signalled that it intends to sell off up to £500m of as yet unidentified land, businesses and buildings from its £2.4bn asset portfolio, which includes the city’s central library, museum and art gallery, Aston Hall and the council’s stake in Birmingham airport.

Experts said capitalisation support is normally frowned upon as risky and short term, will not prevent cuts in council services, and is regarded as poor accounting practice. One told the Guardian: “It’s like you saying: ‘I’m selling my house to pay off my credit card bill.’ I’d say: ‘Are you sure you really want to do that?’”

Councils given exceptional financial support include Birmingham, Nottingham, Thurrock, Croydon, Slough, and Woking, all of which are in special measures after issuing formal section 114 declarations of bankruptcy in recent years.

Other councils in the list include Havering in east London, which had said that failure to get financial support would trigger immediate bankruptcy; and Somerset, which declared a “state of financial emergency” in autumn.

Strikingly, both North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire councils, created as supposedly more sustainable successors to Northamptonshire county council, which went bust in 2018, have been allowed to capitalise £10m between them to stave off effective bankruptcy.

The other councils are: Bradford, Cheshire East, Cumberland, Eastbourne, Medway, Middlesbrough, Plymouth, Southampton, and Stoke-on-Trent. It is unclear if any councils had been refused financial support by ministers.

Sir Stephen Houghton, chair of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities, said: “This exceptional financial support will be welcome as a stopgap for those councils that have applied, but will not provide a long-term solution.”

(Anywhere but Exmouth – Owl)

A Devon MP is calling for the immediate halt of a controversial trial of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) scheme in Exeter that has sparked a huge divide in the local community and is said to be impacting residents from far and wide. Simon Jupp, MP for East Devon, says that increased congestion is severely impacting those who use buses to get into the city and says it is ‘detrimental to sustainable public transport’.

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com

The scheme – which has seen bollards and two bus gates introduced in Heavitree and Whipton – has been in place for six months. The public consultation is ongoing.

Mr Jupp has written to councillor Danny Barnes, chairman of the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee (HATOC), demanding that the trial be immediately scrapped. The scheme was originally agreed by that committee and implemented on its request by Devon County Council in August 2023. It aims to remove through-traffic from Heavitree and Whipton’s key residential areas to create a safer and more attractive environment for people walking, wheeling and cycling.

The current intention is for the consultation to run until May 8. Supporters of the scheme claim it has already achieved its aims, but opponents say it is having a huge negative impact on car journeys, traffic on already heavily congested roads, the environment, businesses and people’s lives.

Stagecoach has confirmed ‘highways capacity and congestion’ in Exeter have recently been impacting the punctuality and reliability of its services and it is ‘actively’ working to address them.

The letter, which has been shared on Mr Jupp’s Facebook page, states: “I write to you with deep concern and frustration shared by local residents over the impact the Heavitree and Whipton Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) project is having on the Route 57 bus between Exmouth and Exeter.

“Many of my constituents in East Devon live and work along the Route 57 between Exmouth and Exeter. It is an incredibly popular service between two of the largest settlements in the county.

“That’s why I worked hard with Stagecoach South Wesy to get its 15-minute frequency reinstated last year. I am very worried about the detrimental impact the LTN is having on the reliability of this popular service which is harming passenger confidence and the sustainability of the frequency of the route.

“I have received numerous reports from constituents over an extended period of time that serious congestion on and around Heavitree Road caused by the LTN is leading to nearly 15-minute delays for Route 57 buses. This is totally unacceptable and must be put right.

“As chair of the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee (HATOC), the group responsible for how highway responsibilities are delivered in the city. I am urging you to take immediate action and scrap the LTN experiment in Heavitree and Whipton.

“The impact of the LTN is detrimental to sustainable public transport serving the city and surrounding areas, including my constituency. It is time to put the public first, not political ideology. I look forward to hearing from you on the steps you will take to address my concerns.”

Among those who commented on his post was a bus user who said: “All LTNs have done is cause chaos on the major roads into Exeter, especially Heavitree Road. It’s having a huge impact on all bus journeys, not just the 57.

“I’m a frequent user of the 4/44 and the service is so unreliable that often I can walk most of Heavitree faster than the traffic and without a bus even passing me but, unfortunately, I can’t walk all the way from the city centre to Cranbrook. The LTNs have done nothing but cause commuters stressful journeys and it’s time they were scrapped.”

Another added: “The boundary roads around the LTN are now regularly gridlocked with all the extra pollution and fuel costs to drivers. The other day, a bus journey through Heavitree that would normally take 10 minutes took nearly 40 minutes so you are quite right in pointing out the negative impact on public transport.”

The trial scheme has seen the installation of four physical modal filters – planters or bollards – to prevent access by all vehicles, and also four bus gates that can only be used by buses, emergency vehicles and certain other exempt classes of vehicle. Changes have been introduced in roads including Ladysmith Road, St Marks Avenue, Hamlin Lane, Whipton Lane and Vaughan Road.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach said: “We acknowledge and share the concerns around highways capacity and congestion in Exeter. Recent issues in the city particularly at peak travel times has regrettably impacted the punctuality and reliability of our services.

“We understand the frustration and inconvenience caused by these challenges and are actively working to address them. Our primary focus remains to serve the community getting residents and commuters where they need to go.”

Cllr Barnes and Devon County Council have been approached for a comment.