Takes you back to the Tory shenanigans in East Devon during May/June 2000. – Owl 

Walkout, anger and tears mar Torbay mayor-making meeting

Tory group’s U-turn leaves Mayor-elect stunned

The bitter power struggle for control of Torbay Council boiled over into angry scenes at the annual mayor-making meeting.

Guy Henderson – Local Democracy Reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Traditionally a ceremonial occasion with no hostile debate involved, it ended with tears, cries of ‘shame’, accusations and a mass walkout.

Afterwards councillors said future co-operation between Conservative and opposition members of the council was ‘in tatters’.

The row centred on the appointment of a new civic mayor for the bay. In February the council had been unanimous in nominating long-serving Liberal Democrat councillor Swithin Long (Barton with Watcombe) for the role. His nomination was even seconded by Conservative council leader David Thomas (Preston).

Cllr Long had invited friends and family to the mayor-making meeting and had already accepted invitations to charity events in the opening weeks of his mayoralty.

But two days before the meeting Cllr Thomas announced a sudden U-turn, saying the Tory group would not, after all, be supporting Cllr Long’s nomination.

He maintained that it was traditional for the council to appoint one year’s deputy mayor into the next year’s top job, having served a year’s ‘apprenticeship’, and that would mean Tory councillor Hannah Stevens (Furzeham with Summercombe) getting the job.

But he also conceded that the Tory group’s abrupt change of mind had come as a result of the balance of power on the council shifting.

The death of Prosper Torbay councillor Patrick Joyce, who jointly formed the group after leaving the Tory group, has led to a by-election which will take place in Wellswood next month. If the Conservatives win Wellswood back, it will mean there are 18 Tories and 18 opposition members of the council, giving the mayor the crucial casting vote when debates are split.

Some councillors have described the next mayor’s role as that of ‘kingmaker’, and both Conservatives and the opposition are keen to make the role theirs.

However, the fallout from the U-turn over the mayoral nomination was bitter. Cllr Long himself said: “I am genuinely shocked and disappointed that this is becoming a political event.”

And Katya Maddison (Shiphay), who is the other member of the Prosper Torbay group in the opposition, said it was ‘an example of bad faith’ and ‘casual reneging on a commitment’.

And she told her former Tory colleagues: “The Conservative party needs a clean-out, and I question whether you are fit for the job.”

Opposition leader Steve Darling (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe) said the position of mayor had been ‘dishonoured’ by the wrangle, and warned that squabbling could damage prospects for Torbay.

“This is creating a poisonous brew,” he said. “We should be coming together and championing Torbay.”

And Cllr Darren Cowell (Ind, Shiphay) went on: “This is a sad day. A coach and horses has been driven through an arrangement based on trust.

“The role of civic mayor is non-political, but today it has been weaponised.”

Voting went down strict party lines, with the motion to have Cllr Long as mayor defeated, along with one for Cllr Kelly Harvey (Lib Dem, St Marychurch) to be his deputy.

Cllr Thomas then succeeded with a motion to put off setting the political make-up of the council’s committees until after the Wellswood by-election on 6 June, instead of doing it on the same day as the mayor-making as normal.

Almost all of the opposition councillors had walked out of the chamber in disgust before the vote was completed.

Bodies have been left to decompose at NHS hospitals across England, according to reports by inspectors.

The Newsroom www.newschainonline.com

Officials from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) have told how inadequate storage facilities and lack of freezer space means some bodies have been left for too long at unsuitable temperatures.

Official HTA guidance says that bodies should be moved into frozen storage after 30 tdays in fridges or before, depending on the condition of the body.

However, a series of reports show NHS trusts are not always adhering to these rules and keep bodies for far longer in fridges.

In one case at Leeds General Infirmary, reported last year, the HTA said: “The inspection team noted a body that had been in storage for 70 days that had not been placed into frozen storage despite being released by the coroner.

“This body showed signs of decomposition and had soiled shrouding.

“A second body had been in storage for 47 days, had also been the subject of a coroner’s release notification and had not been placed into frozen storage and showed signs of decomposition.”

Inspectors also found there was no cleaning schedule for the body store at Leeds General, and “the door from the visitors area to the staff office is not fitted with a lock…This allows potential access to the main mortuary.”

At the Royal Blackburn Hospital, inspectors in 2022 found major flaws, including discovering “two bodies in an advanced state of decomposition as a result of not being moved into frozen storage after 30 days”.

Elsewhere, at King’s College Hospital in London, inspectors reported “critical” shortfalls in 2022, with mouldy and infested conditions for body storage.

The report added: “At the time of the inspection there were several adult bodies which had been stored in excess of 30 days in the fridge units.

“Whilst these bodies were subject to regular condition checking, signs of deterioration were present.

“Bodies required movement to freezer storage to prevent further deterioration however the long-term storage unit was at capacity.”

Meanwhile, inspectors in 2022 to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford found inadequate storage space and “identified a number of bodies which had been held in refrigerated storage longer than the recommended 30 days which were beginning to show signs of deterioration”.

The Health Service Journal (HSJ), which first reported on the issue, said it had found at least 10 cases across the country since 2022 where inspectors discovered one or more bodies had started to deteriorate.

A spokeswoman for the HTA said: “The management of the deceased in some licensed mortuaries was identified as a concern through the HTA on-site inspection process.

“The deceased should be stored at temperatures that preserve their condition and there should be sufficient storage provision and alternatives in place if needed.

“We expect all licensed establishments to be compliant with our standards and ensure the dignity of the deceased is maintained.

“When we find shortfalls we work with establishments to ensure an action plan for improvement is put in place, lessons are learnt and the issue is escalated within the establishment where necessary.”

Dr Magnus Harrison, chief medical officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Our aim is to provide a safe and dignified service in our mortuaries for people who have died, and unfortunately in this instance, this was not the case.

“We now have improved systems in place including better communication with our coroner and respective partners to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“Duty of Candour procedures are followed when next of kin information is available.”

A spokeswoman for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Following an inspection report in 2022 by the HTA, we have significantly increased the size of our mortuary provision.”

An Oxford University Hospitals spokeswoman said: “We take great care to ensure that our patients are always treated with compassion and dignity, including after death.

“Some deterioration of the deceased is expected in refrigerated storage, even for short periods, and would not normally fulfil criteria for notification under duty of candour guidance.

“Usual practice is to transfer deceased to frozen storage if they are to be stored for more than 30 days, though this depends on the condition of the deceased, location and availability of appropriate freezer space, and the likely timing of transfer to funeral directors, for whom receiving the deceased in a frozen state brings additional challenges and could delay a funeral.

“Freezing itself affects the appearance of a body, and therefore tends to be avoided when the deceased is likely to be moving to a funeral director’s care in the very near future.

“The OUH mortuary has recently been refurbished and expanded to increase its capacity in the context of rising regional and national demand for mortuary facilities.”

In 2021, David Fuller was convicted of the murders of two young women in Tunbridge Wells.

He worked at Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury from 1989 and sexually abused the bodies of 101 women and girls in the hospital mortuaries between 2005 to 2020.

Is this why he said so confidently: “We have a plan and it’s working”? – Owl

The personal wealth of Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty rose by £122m last year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Paul Seddon www.bbc.co.uk 

The couple’s fortune was estimated at £651m in the latest list, up from £529m in 2023.

This was mainly due to Ms Murty’s shares in Infosys, the Indian IT giant co-founded by her father.

It means they are richer than the King, according to the annual list of the UK’s most wealthy people., external

Charles III was ranked higher than the Sunak family last year, but his personal fortune is estimated to have grown more modestly over the past year, up £10m to £610m.

The Sunaks were ranked higher than the late Queen in 2022 – with Elizabeth II’s personal fortune that year evaluated at £370m.

However, estimating the personal fortunes of monarchs is tricky, while the wider wealth of the monarchy – which includes various estates and palaces – has been estimated at dozens of billions of pounds.

Mr Sunak became the first front-line politician to feature on the Sunday Times’ annual wealth list in its 35-year history when he appeared on it as chancellor in the 2022 edition.

At that point, the family’s wealth was estimated at £730m.

Mr Sunak worked as a hedge fund manager before entering politics and is personally wealthy, listing £2.2m in income, earnings, and capital gains last year in his latest tax summary.

But he owes his place at the top table of wealthy Britons mainly to his wife’s Infosys shareholding, estimated to be worth £590m last year.

Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Sunak’s latest appearance in the rich list, saying it was a “private family matter”.

But the PM’s official spokesman added: “When he’s been asked this question before he’s responded and asked that people judge him by his actions, including to support livelihoods during the pandemic though the furlough scheme as an example.

“That’s his focus and his priority and he should be judged on that.”

Tap water not even fit for dogs! – Owl

For Colin Sherratt, the first sign of trouble with his water supply was when his dog refused to drink from her bowl.

Jack Malvern www.thetimes.co.uk

Marney, a papillon, knew something was amiss long before the water company that apologised on Thursday for allowing a parasite to infect the water supply for 16,000 households and businesses in Brixham, south Devon.

Sherratt, 74, and hundreds of other residents have been exposed to cryptosporidium, a microscopic bug that causes diarrhoea and vomiting and can be fatal for people with weakened immune systems.

Those who spoke to The Times on Friday were unimpressed with South West Water’s apology for the contamination, which was traced to a damaged air valve at the Hillhead reservoir that appears to have allowed tap water to be contaminated with animal waste.

Susan Davy, the water company’s chief executive, has said that she is “truly sorry” for the outbreak.

Sherratt said: “The water company should be down on their knees begging for forgiveness. I went down to Broadsands yesterday to pick up bottled water and was waiting an hour and ten minutes to get six bottles of water.”

When he fell ill, he said, he wondered if it was because he had been to the town’s Pirate Festival at the beginning of the month.

“I can understand why people think they got it from the Pirate Festival because a lot of people have a bit to drink,” he said. “I don’t use Facebook so I only found out what it was when my daughter sent me a link on WhatsApp and I said ‘that’s exactly what your mother had a week ago’. She flew off to Rhodes and she was ill and vomiting the whole flight.”

The UK Health Security Agency said on Friday that 46 cases of cryptosporidium had been confirmed, up from 22 on Thursday, and that more were anticipated.

Residents have been given a “boil order”, requiring them to boil and cool water before drinking it or using it for cooking. They have also been offered bottled water.

Kayley Lewis, whose son, Jacob, 13, was admitted to hospital, called for Davy to speak to residents in person. “I don’t accept the apology,” she said. “I think they need to mean it and they can show that by keeping up maintaining the water pipes.

“The statement feels like they are covering their own backs, even after all this is finished they know the backlash they are going to get. They haven’t been quick enough to deal with it once they discovered the problem.”

Lewis added that the £115 compensation offered was insufficient. “The bosses need to come down here and arrange something in Brixham town hall and speak to the people who are affected and explain what happened and when.

“I was angry when I found out the cause, we had joked that it must be something in the water but only because we were sure it was a bug. When Jacob fell ill we were told to keep him hydrated so we fed him more water, which actually made him worse.”

At the reservoir, dozens of South West Water workers sought to deal with the fault, pumping water out onto nearby roads.

Tanya Matthews, 42, who was the first to complain on a local Facebook group on Monday that the water was making her ill, also said that the apology was inadequate.

“The day after I posted it they came round to test the water but they were still telling everybody to keep drinking it,” she said. “The water they took from my house they said would take 24 hours to get the results so they weren’t all negative. Why didn’t they put a boil order in place as a precaution while they tested? That delay has led to a lot more sick people.”

Matthews also said that the £115 was scant compensation for her partner, who lost a week of work to illness, or for the cost of travelling to get bottled water and lavatory paper.

Sam Hankin, 35, said he had suffered stomach cramps, but his five-year-old daughter Evelyn had been badly ill for two weeks and was waiting for GP test results to confirm whether she had been exposed.

“I think the trust has gone with South West Water, there wasn’t much there in the first place and it’s not what happened, it’s how they handled it,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll go straight back to trusting the water.”

From correspondent Kate Wilcox:

Since Exmouth Post Office was franchised to W. H. Smith in 2019,  there have been a number of occasions when the Post Office has been closed without notice.  This happened again on Wednesday 15 May and staff shortages were cited as the reason.  A number of elderly people had travelled into town to carry out business with the Post Office only to be told it would be open for the morning of May 16^th.  When local bus services are sporadic and unreliable, after making the effort to get into Exmouth town centre, it is frustrating and annoying to find that the Post Office is closed.  Other local post offices are not within easy walking distance.

The franchising of Post Offices to WH Smith in 2016 was met with fierce opposition from the CWU and members of the public. The All Party Parliamentary Group expressed its concern that WH Smith’s marketing director Roger Gale was unable to outline the organisation’s contingency plan in the event of WH Smith collapsing. MP and APPG chair Gill Furniss told RN: “I was left disappointed by the answers from Post Office officials. Despite the Post Office’s protestation that there will be a consultation on the closures, it was revealed that in fact the decision to close the Crown Post Office is final and not up for consultation.”

I wrote to Sir Hugo Swire, the local Conservative MP in 2019 at the time when the franchising was established, to voice my opposition and concerns for the future of a post office in the town centre should WH Smith close down.  These objections were brushed aside with no explanation of how the Post Office would deal with the eventuality.

There appears to be no enforceable regulation concerning the number of staff required to be available to run the post office or the hours of opening.  The WH Smith staff have no control over the opening or closing of the post office but they get abuse from angry customers who have had wasted journeys.

Yet again, the Conservative Government has allowed a public service body to be privatised with no regulation to protect members of the public from poor or non- existent service should the owners fail to meet their obligations.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Wilcox