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 
Well done, Owl, say I.
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Although I live in the Greater London area, I’ve found your service invaluable. Thank you.
I look forward to a continuance – as long as you have the resources to do so easily.
I hope you can R & R – even enjoying the summer (such as it is!)
Please accept my thanks and good wishes.
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thank you owl, you’ve certainly earned a rest. Look forward to your return.
Avril Denton
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One thing is for certain. Whatever the colour of the government, be it local or national, it will need to be held to account.
South West Water, and its directors and owners, will need to be reminded of their responsibilities. Sewage being the primary concern.
A hiatus maybe, but don’t be away too long.
Happy Holiday.
Bumsrush
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Thank you Owl, I look forward to reading your words every day. You do a brilliant job in drawing our attention to so many important issues that we would have been unaware of. Thank you again and enjoy a break, you deserve it. . But please do not stay away too long.
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This is an invaluable service so I hope you can keep it going. Yes, we have a better government in place (it would be hard for it to be any worse than what we had) but, as has been mentioned above, the national government, local governments and SWW all need to be held to account.
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