Spot of rain overnight. – Owl

A number of beaches across Devon have been hit with pollution warnings today (July 6). It comes after sewage was discharged into the sea following rainfall in recent days.

Maxine Denton www.devonlive.com 

Charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) have highlighted the locations where sewage and pollution may contaminate water via an interactive map. The SAS map warns that storm sewage has been discharged at a number of beaches across Devon.

Sewage dumps are often blamed on heavy rainfall as overflows are used to prevent drains being overwhelmed. However, the side-effect is sewage ending up in the sea.

According to SAS, a sewage pollution alert means “storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours” and a “pollution risk forecast or incident alert” means there is potential for sewage to be in the area.

According to the Safer Seas & Rivers Service map, the following beaches in Devon have sewage pollution warnings in place as of today:

• Plymouth Hoe East
• Westward Ho!
• Woolacombe Village
• Ilfracombe Hele
• Lynmouth
• Sidmouth
• Budleigh Salterton
• Teignmouth Holcombe
• Meadfoot

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is calling for an end to sewage discharges into all bathing waters, and high-priority nature sites, by 2030. In 2023, there were 584,001 recorded discharges across England, Scotland and Wales – an 51 per cent increase on the previous year – with sewage released into waterways for a total of 12,966,322 hours.

Swallowing water that could be contaminated with faecal matter could lead to gastroenteritis, hepatitis, giardiasis, skin rashes, amoebic dysentery, nose, ear, and throat problems, pink eye, and other respiratory illnesses. Symptoms to look out for include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, inflamed stomach and intestines.

A sweeping victory for Richard

23007 votes to Simon Jupp’s 16307. This is way beyond our expectations – what a testimony to Richard, everyone who worked on his campaign, and to the good sense of the voters here in the Seaton area and around the constituency. It’s the first time that Sidmouth has not had a Tory MP for 189 years!

Divided opposition helps Tories cling on in Exmouth & Exeter East

While we are celebrating Richard Foord’s tremendous victory, spare a thought for our neighbours in the Exmouth & Exeter East constituency. Here, the combined Labour and Lib Dem vote was almost 26,000, compared to a Tory vote of 14,700, but division between the opposition candidates cost them the seat. Tory David Reed held on by just 121 votes over the Labour candidate Helen Dallimore, with Paul Arnott for the Lib Dems behind them.

I strongly supported Paul, not only because he would have been an excellent MP but also because I believed he was best placed to beat the Tory. The chart below shows how the Lib Dems had consistently been the main challengers in the area before Claire Wright’s Independent campaigns – and Claire was supporting Paul. Yet many polling projections, applying oversimplified national models, were unable to take into account of the unusual situation created by Claire’s legacy, and projected Labour to beat the Tories – which Dallimore’s campaign naturally capitalised on. Meanwhile, other projections, which I shared, showed Paul winning.

The actual result shows that both parties had substantial support. Labour’s advantage in ‘tactical’ recommendations may have pushed them ahead of the Lib Dems – but not enough, since other projections suggested the Lib Dems were ahead. Thus the competing campaigns and projections proved a recipe for failure. Neither national party gave strong backing to their candidate, which added to the confusion.

The lessons are that First Past The Post is a brutal system. In Devon, where the Tories will always be strong, we need a consensus on the challenger – as we had with Richard after his by-election win. Really, we need to end the need for tactical voting by introducing Proportional Representation. Let us hope that Labour members will now push Keir Starmer to rethink his opposition to this. We also need PR to avoid the return of a Tory government in 5 or 10 years’ time.

Yesterday Owl received a comment  posted under the pseudonym “Delen Hallimore”, using a politically misleading email id, it read:

Conservatives Hold Exmouth & Exeter East  Well done, guys! Your tireless support for the Lib Dems must be significantly responsible for this vote split, right?

Owl understands that yesterday social media was awash with similar outbursts of anger. The one on the “Watch” provoked a number of riposts which Owl has placed on “hold”.

On Thursday, Labour won a huge majority; 63% of seats but with only 34% of the vote on a low turnout.

Locally: Exmouth & Exeter East has a Conservative MP with a wafer thin majority (121); Honiton & Sidmouth has a Lib Dem MP (previously, Sidmouth had been represented by Tories for 189 years); Devon County is Conservative controlled and we have a coalition district council, led by the Lib Dem candidate in the election. 

Many may not be “overjoyed” with the election result but Labour is going to have to work with the political mix the “first past the post” system throws up.

Sir Keir Starmer surely set the right tone in his first speech: Sky news (extract)

“…When the gap between the sacrifices made by people and the service they receive from politicians grows this big, it leads to a weariness in the heart of a nation, a draining away of the hope, the spirit, the belief in a better future, that we need to move forward together.

Now, this wound, this lack of trust, can only be healed by actions, not words.

I know that. But we can make a start today with the simple acknowledgement that public service is a privilege and that your government should treat every single person in this country with respect.

If you voted Labour yesterday, we will carry the responsibility of your trust as we rebuild our country. But whether you voted Labour or not, in fact, especially if you did not, I say to you directly, my government will serve you.

Politics can be a force for good. We will show that. We’ve changed the Labour Party, returned it to service and that is how we will govern. Country first, party second……

…….And so my government will fight every day until you believe again. From now on, you have a government unburdened by doctrine, guided only by the determination to serve your interest, to defy, quietly, those who have written our country off.

You have given us a clear mandate, and we will use it to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics. End the era of noisy performance. Tread more lightly on your lives and unite our country.

Four nations standing together again, facing down as we have so often in our past, the challenges of an insecure world committed to a calm and patient rebuilding. So with respect and humility, I invite you all to join this government of service in the mission of national renewal.”