Owl has been posting daily for four and a half years and will now pause to reflect on how East Devon Watch should respond to the new political scene.
It has been an eventful time with Owl covering key events including:
the pandemic in all its phases;
Ben Ingham’s “last stand” and the changing of the guard in East Devon including the eventual retirement of EDDC’s Chief Executive, Head of Paid Services, Director of Planning and Returning Officer, Mark Williams;
the “Rainbow” coalition inspired by Eileen Wragg and led by Paul Arnott;
Sasha Swire’s “Secret Diary”;
the First Million Hits;
Alderman John Humphreys’ conviction and sentence for historic child rape, and “who knew what and when”;
the fall from grace of “Tractor Porn” Neil Parish and the election of our first LibDem MP Richard Foord;
the short, damaging, history of three Tory Prime Ministers and a lettuce;
the funding crisis in local government;
Various “goings on” in other neighbouring councils;
the sewage crisis from denial to acceptance;
the 2024 election which saw Conservative reduced to the lowest number of MPs in the party’s history and the LibDems winning the most seats for 100 years.
sadly, Owl has also had to record the deaths of Val Ranger and Sandra Semple both of whom had been significant “agents for change” in East Devon.
East Devon Watch has now become a fantastic archive of more than 19,000 articles, dozens of which are read every day.
As a reader, if you have any views, email them to: eastdevon.owl@gmail.com
East Devon Watch 