London Playbook PM from Politico

SEWAGE FOR DAMAGES: Along the few kilometers the River Lim weaves between Uplyme village and the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset, there are multiple points sewage can flow in. Human, animal and manufactured waste trickle in from numerous directions alongside the tributaries of fresh water. The sources include sewage works, home and agricultural slurries, and roads, to name a few.

Trolling the water: One of the culprits is a porthole tucked under a bridge right before the river meets the English channel. When an underground cathedral used for sewage storage fills faster than management firm South West Water can pump and treat it, the porthole belches the overflow out into the sea. Overflows are meant to be restricted to rain deluge events, which fill the infrastructure quicker. But the porthole — and others like it along the river — discharged for around 1,300 hours in 2023, up from around 1,200 in 2022.

Water warriors: The River Lim Action Group has been investigating pollution in the water and sounding the alarm about it. As a result, South West Water has upped its measurement and maintenance efforts, but more is needed to improve the current “moderate” cleanliness classification from official watchdogs. “We’ve been getting special treatment because we’ve made such a stink,” says Vicki Elcoate, a driving member of the group. “But we need a thorough, systematic solution to all these problems.”

Issue politics: The national political parties have picked up on concerns about similar sewage problems across Britain. The Liberal Democrats were the first to weaponize it against the governing Tories in target seats. Labour is now making noise too and the Tories are upping their game. Ministers handed Dorset council £4.63 million to tackle some of the land runoff issues affecting Poole Harbor, for example, and ministers have begun to talk tough about failing water bosses. No local Conservatives were available to talk to Playbook PM, however. 

Votes for water: Constituencies around Dorset are prime Lib Dem targets in the so-called “Blue Wall” of southern Conservative heartlands. Davey is hopeful of seizing Dorset council as a staging post during local elections this week and is using the sewage issue as a battering ram. Last month he visited West Bay beach just east of Lyme Regis alongside Giles Bristow, CEO of the Surfers Against Sewage campaign. The beach had a number of pollution alerts in 2023. 

A sodden shame: The pollution amounts to “hundreds of thousands of local tragedies in a national picture of shame,” Bristow tells me as we walk along the River Lim from Uplyme to the sea. Thatched cottages are dotted along a gravel path high above the river, the track bordered with bluebells and wild garlic flowers. The trail crosses the stream then opens out to a small meadow. Hidden in the trees is a South West Water treatment plant. I’m sure I detect a subtle smell of rot in the breeze.

Closed for sewage: The path becomes a single lane road flanking the river as we head towards the urban center of Lyme Regis. Bristow points out a pipe draining road surface water into the stream. There’s a sign on a bridge crossing an old fjord: “Reduced water quality is predicted. Swimming and paddling is not advised.” Children used to paddle in the area in summer, but now sewage fungus grows on the plants and rocks. 

The open seas: In the center of Lyme Regis the river flows through a mill then cuts deep between the  beautiful old buildings. There are a couple more bridges under the coastal road and footpath before the water hits the sea. The overflow gate sits low beneath the final bridge, its chin out of view under the water. Around the corner is Church Cliff Beach, which was stripped of its safe swimming designation because sewage was pooling at the shore. 

It’s not that bad, honest: “The River Lim has good water quality but that can sometimes be impacted by periods of heavy rainfall,” a spokesperson for South West Water said. Campaigners point out 10 of the overflow discharges occurred during the summer of 2022. The spokesperson added: “The most frequent and largest change to the water quality comes from agricultural runoff from fields, upstream of any of our infrastructure.”

Message discipline: Along the coast, the cliffs at Seatown rise up then fall towards the West Bay beach Davey visited to illustrate the sewage issue. But there’s a mismatch between national and local Lib Dem messages on sewage. Nick Ireland, Lib Dem group leader on Dorset Council who stands a good chance of becoming council leader this week in what would be a historic win in a Conservative stronghold, argues voters aren’t raising the sewage on the doorstep. 

Retail politics: “Across the South West it is a big thing and the politicians are jumping on the bandwagon,” Ireland tells me over lunch at the Posh Partridge cafe in Dorchester. But he insists voters are more focused on the cost of living crisis, ailing NHS services and demands for new housing. 

Nevertheless: It’s clear the national Lib Dems reckon polluted water is a vote-winner — and the Greens took the Lyme Regis council seat from the Tories at a 2022 by-election, which suggests it’s resonant, at least in affected wards. “It’s an issue that has captured the imagination of the whole country,” Bristow argues. Elcoate adds: “People will vote for the parties who support efforts to clean all this up.”

Residents of Tipton St John are being asked for their views on the proposed relocation of the village primary school to Ottery St Mary.

Philippa Davies www.sidmouthherald.co.uk

A consultation was launched on the school’s website, and on Devon County Council’s ‘Have Your Say’ website, on Wednesday, May 1.

It sets out the plan to rebuild the school at Thorne Farm in Ottery St Mary, and provides links to relevant documents. These include a report commissioned by the Department for Education on four possible sites for the new school, two of which are in Tipton St John: Carters Field and land south of Otter Close. The other two were Thorne Farm and the King’s School playing fields. The report considered the suitability, constraints and planning considerations of all four sites before recommending Thorne Farm as the best option.

The initial consultation will run until June 19. On June 24 the governors of the Otter Valley Federation, which runs Tipton Primary, will meet to decide whether to go ahead with the proposed relocation. If they do proceed, there will have to be a formal four-week consultation, ending on July 25, and the ultimate decision will be made by the Cabinet of Devon County Council in September.

As part of the initial consultation a drop-in session, open to all those interested in the proposal, will be held on Wednesday, May 22 in Tipton St John village hall from 4pm until 7pm. Governors from the Otter Valley Federation will be available to answer questions as well as officers from Devon County Council and representatives from the Diocese of Exeter.

While there has been a campaign for the rebuilding of Tipton St John Primary for many years, a large number of people feel strongly that it should be in the village. A petition has been launched on Change.org arguing that the primary school is the heart of the Tipton St John community, and pointing out that even if it relocates, measures will still be needed to tackle the flood risk in the village.

But there is also a view that Tipton Primary needs a new school building as soon as possible, and the relocation to Thorne Farm is the quickest way to achieve this.

Responses to the consultation can be sent to Tipton St John Primary School via email admin@tipton-stjohn.devon.sch.uk or by post. All responses will be shared with Devon County Council.

A new group of Covid variants is spreading fast, putting the UK at risk of a fresh wave of infections in the coming weeks, scientists warn.

Tom Bawden inews.co.uk

Cases involving the variants, nicknamed FLiRT, have soared this month to account for around a quarter of total UK Covid infections.

They are replacing JN.1, the dominant variant they are descended from, that until recently accounted for virtually every case of the virus in the UK.

At the moment, the new variants appear to be largely replacing JN.1 rather than driving up Covid cases overall – which remain at around three year lows.

But there are fears that its continued spread could start to push overall cases higher, given that it seems to be more contagious and that vaccines don’t work as well against it, scientists say.

At the same time, the immunity the British public has built up from vaccines and previous infections is likely to be waning after several months of very low levels of the virus.

“It is likely we are about to enter a new wave of infections due to the global increase of new subvariants of the current dominant variant JN.1,” said Professor Christina Pagel, of University College London.

“I expect prevalence to increase in the coming weeks as we see the arrival of new variants that seem to be replacing the JN.1 variant that caused the Christmas 2023 wave.”

“Essentially, JN.1 has mutated further and several of its children have found mutations that help them spread much faster than their parent,” Professor Pagel explained.

The FLiRT variants involve two key mutations from the JN.1 virus which mean it can spread more easily.

One sees a mutation, known as F, being replaced by another, known as L. The other involves mutation R being supplanted by mutation T – giving the main letters for the term FLiRT.

Although some scientists are expecting a new wave, they predict that it will be considerably smaller than that seen in the run-up to Christmas last year, when more than 2.5 million, or 4.6 per cent of the UK population had Covid.

That’s because the new subvariants are not as different from their “parents” than some previous subvariants were from theirs, while the two mutations have been around before, earlier in the pandemic, in some previous variants – but not since JN.1 became the dominant variant.

As such, the population may have some enduring immunity to those mutations but its hard to be sure, scientists say – as effect of any given mutation varies according to the variant it’s found in and is difficult to predict.

Professor Pagel said: “When the JN.1 wave hit around the world last December, it was significantly different to previous circulating variants and caused a substantial wave. Since these new FLiRT offshoots are more similar to JN.1, and we are heading into summer, hopefully any wave caused by these new subvariants will be smaller.”

Other scientists agree there is a risk that FLiRT could cause a spike in cases – although there is a good deal of uncertainty about whether this will happen and how big any outbreak may be, other than that is is likely to be smaller than the last wave.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, said: “One FLiRT variant now accounts for 1 in 4 of all Covid infections in the US and so it is possible that these variants will cause a small wave of infection over the next few months.

“These mutations have been seen before in previous Covid variants but not in the context of JN.1. This makes it difficult to predict the behaviour of the FLiRT variants as many folk will have some immunity due to previous infections.

“As the FLiRT variants are derived from JN.1 it is also likely that previous JN.1 infections will provide some protection. Recent data suggests that a previous JN.1 infection will provide good protection but that the modified booster vaccines currently available are unlikely to be effective against FLiRT variants,” he said.

Professor Eric Topol, of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, believes FLiRT could deliver “a wavelet but not a significant new wave of infections”.

He argued that these new subvariants are not sufficiently different from their parents to overwhelm the immunity people have collectively built up.

Paul Hunter, professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “While we don’t know for sure, I doubt that we will see a major wave over the next few months. My guess is that infection and hospitalisation rates will probably decline further as we move into the summer, but probably slowly rather than any dramatic fall.”

“With the exception of 2022, when there were serial waves associated with new Omicron subvariants, there has been fairly strong evidence of “seasonal forcing” of Covid infections from the very first year,” said Professor Hunter, a member of the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Protection Research Unit, which contributed to national and international panels, including Sage and NERVTAG during the pandemic.

Whatever the size of any wave, scientists urge the public to take up the offer of a spring booster, if they have one – and for others to consider a private jab if they can afford it.

Cllr Jess Bailey: “This does not address the fundamental issue that this council is not properly funded. It doesn’t address that at all, and I have no confidence that this will lead to any better services but just pointless bureaucracy and crumbs from the top table.”

Devolution is a ‘Devon fudge’ claim

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

Attempts by Devon’s opposition parties to delay a decision about getting more decision-making powers from goverment but combining their own powers has failed after the controlling Conservatives voted for the plan.

In an at-times febrile full council debate on devolution at Devon County Council, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent councillors raised concerns about the proposals.

The special meeting of the full council was called to ratify the cabinet’s decision this month to press ahead with plans to create a combined county authority, or CCA, with Torbay.

Councillor Alan Connett (Liberal Democrat, Exminster & Haldon) called the proposal a “right Devon fudge”.

“This is an extra layer of bureaucracy and suggests we want to spend more money on local government red tape than actually doing things,” he said.

“The £1 million pledged to fund the first three years of costs of running the CCA could be better spent fixing potholes, or solving road drainage problems.”

A significant part of the council debate focused on how Team Devon, an initiative that includes business, education, skills, and public sector members, would be factored into the CCA, and how much control Devon’s councillors would have in formulating that relationship and its influence upon the CCA.

Opponents questioned whether this was devolution as they saw it – bringing decision-making closer to the electorate – given it creates another level of government in which people are appointed rather than elected.

Concerns were also raised that Torbay, as one of Devon’s smaller districts, could disproportionately benefit from the deal given its smaller population than the Devon County Council area.

In spite of the disparity – Torbay’s 139,000 residents compared to the Devon County Council area’s 750,000 – both councils will have three voting members on the CCA.

Other fears raised included district councils seeing their relationship with Homes England diluted, concerns about the long-term costs and how these would be met, and the potential impact on residents if Devon and Torbay officers spend time working for the CCA.

Proponents of the CCA say the move will give the county greater control over adult education and skills, more say in transport and green issues, as well as a louder voice when it comes to securing cash from Homes England, the body responsible for funding affordable housing.

Part-way through the debate, Devon’s Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Caroline Leaver (Barnstaple South), put forward a motion to delay the decision because of what she and other opposition members deemed as lack of clarity about how the CCA would function.

But this motion was defeated, and the initial proposal to submit Devon’s bid to create a CCA with Torbay to the government was agreed.

Councillor Jacqi Hodgson (Green Party, Totnes and Dartington) had “real concerns” about the devolution deal. “There are positive aspirations, but how will it address housing pressures; the £16 million that has been given to the CCA won’t touch the surface,” she said.

“And with local transport, how are we going to do it? We have lots of plans, and Councillor Andrea Davis (Conservative, Combe Martin Rural) has done a huge amount, but buses are fading away as there is no money.

“Until we have money for services, there’s no point in plans.”

Councillor Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat, Dawlish) noted that the £16 million had now already been promised to Devon. “I appreciate a lot of work has been put into this process, but this proposal has been put together in a rush,” he said.

He added that the CCA “goes against the very principle of devolution” and feared that government minsters would be “double-checking” its every move and “drip-feeding money in a begging bowl, Hunger Games approach”.

Councillor Caroline Whitton (Labour, St David’s and Haven Banks) questioned “how this was a good idea for Devon”, and raised the prospect that Exeter, which she called the “economic centre of the county”, could not be guaranteed a voting member.

“As a Labour party member, I absolutely support devolution and having decisions being made closer to the people, but let’s make sure those decisions come to the all the people of Devon, and not, as in this deal, a very small minority overrepresented by Torbay and underrepresented by most of the people in our area,” she said.

“In my view, most of our residents will not feel the decision-making come closer to them, far from it. The decision-making is actually going further away, and that’s the reason we will certainly not be supporting it.”

The Lib Dem Cllr Leaver acknowledged that the consultation on devolution, which ran for six weeks over February and March, did show some support for it, but highlighted that more people did not approve of the way it was being set up.

“With the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, that goes to district councils now, but it is clearly stated that this will be going to the CCA,” she said.

“We have had no reassurance that any future money will be allocated fairly by default.

“The proposal for the CCA leaves so many questions and areas of uncertainty; for us we believe we should be looking at devolution for a coherent economic area, words which are used in the proposal, but I would seriously question whether Devon and Torbay is a coherent economic area.”

Cllr Leaver added that Devon’s patchwork of town and district councils already work well together and often struck agreements to ensure cross-border collaboration, therefore questioning the need for the CCA.

And Councillor Jess Bailey (Independent, Otter Valley) said that while council leader John Hart, who is standing down, had emphasised that it had been a long process to get to this point, she questioned the lack of clarity.

“For instance, why has Devon not established whether it will give district councils voting rights, as that could have been set out,” she said.

“And this does not address the fundamental issue that this council is not properly funded. It doesn’t address that at all, and I have no confidence that this will lead to any better services but just pointless bureaucracy and crumbs from the top table.”