The opening of a new supermarket in a Devon new town will be the beginning of a “vibrant and much used town centre”, a local councillor says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Morrisons has confirmed it was “working hard” to open the store between Badger Way and Tilllhouse Road in Cranbrook, near Exeter, in early 2025 or sooner.

East Devon District Councillor for Cranbrook and town council member Kevin Blakey said that, despite the long delays, he believed the opening was “worth the wait”.

He said the new supermarket would allow people to shop locally, rather than having travel to Ottery St Mary and Exeter.

The council said work for the new town centre, which began in October 2022, was set to includes shops, a nursery, residential apartments, a market square and the supermarket.

Mr Blakey said the design and the layout “looked good” and, come the new year, it would be a “massive improvement for many” nearby.

He said: “Some people have argued that it has just been a vast housing estate, and there is an argument for that; but the economics come into play here, which is the money doesn’t appear out of nowhere.

“It comes from development, the infrastructure around Cranbrook and any other developments that come from selling houses.

“[For] retailers, there has to be enough people resident here to make it worthwhile opening”

Mr Blakey said he believed the supermarket would be the biggest part of the town centre and, economically, the most important, helping, with other shop units, to let the town benefit from an increased footfall.

He said: “It is the beginnings of what we are pretty certain will be a vibrant and much used town centre; not just for the people who live in Cranbrook, but for those in the surrounding villages which, perhaps… do not even have a village shop anymore.”

He added the whole development was created based on it being “the first town in Devon for 500 years, adding it was “never going to be built overnight”.

Morrisons said: “We are looking forward to welcoming customers and we’re working hard to open the store very early next year, or sooner, if regulations permit us to do so.”

Covid is on the rise in England, and experts have warned that more must be done to prevent and control infections after a “capitulation to the virus”.

Nicola Davis www.theguardian.com 

Prof Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said those working in the field were perplexed by the current attitude to the battle against Covid, as the latest figures showed an increase in hospital admissions.

The latest data for England from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed that hospital admissions increased to 3.71 per 100,000 population for the week between 16 and 22 September 2024, compared with 2.56 per 100,000 the previous week.

The percentage of people with symptoms who have tested positive for Covid, based on tests at sentinel “spotter” laboratories, has also risen in the last week to 11.8% compared with 9.1% in the previous week.

Altmann described the prevailing stance on the virus as a “capitulation”. “To those who work in this field, the current attitude of acceptance to losing this war of attrition against Covid is puzzling and a little desperate,” he said.

“The data, both in the UK and US, show that the current Omicron subvariants are hugely successful at punching through any dwindling population immunity, so that we tolerate huge prevalence of around 12%. Our capitulation to the virus is a combination of a population where most are now many months or years from their last vaccine dose, and that vaccine dose was in any case poorly cross-protective for the very distinct current variants.

“Clearly, there is behavioural polarisation between those who are worried by this and look for mitigation, and those who think we must learn live with it and paid too high a price for our earlier measures,” he said.

Dr Simon Williams, from Swansea University, added that surveys suggest there is also a large group of people who are not thinking much about Covid at all. “Part of this is psychological – for two to three years it was something people had to think about all the time and is something that for many had many negative memories and feelings attached to it,” he said.

While Altmann said debate around measures needed to be properly informed and data-driven and to avoid extreme stances, it was important not to trivialise the impact of the virus.

“Those at the weaker end of the immune response spectrum may often experience four or more breakthrough infections per year. These may range from mild to those needing several days of work, with all the associated economic costs, plus any additional NHS burden,” he said.

Altmann also stressed the impact of long Covid, noting that it is thought to affect around 400 million people globally – with 3% lost workforce and a global cost estimate of $1tn annually – and can arise even in vaccinated people following reinfection.

The latest Covid data comes as a new variant is expected to become prevalent in the coming months. Known as XEC, it was first identified in Germany over the summer, and cases have already been identified in the UK. It is thought to have emerged from two other Covid variants, themselves descended from the BA.2.86 variant.

However, experts have said that, at present, XEC is not thought to cause different symptoms from previous variants and does not appear to be fuelling a surge in cases. It is also expected that Covid vaccinations and past infections will continue to offer protection against severe disease.

While bookings for the NHS autumn Covid booster jabs opened this week, Altmann said they should be offered more widely, together with increased use of lateral flow testing to avoid the spread of Covid.

Williams added that it was strange that more had not been done to clean indoor air and improve ventilation in public spaces including schools.

But while he backed offering boosters more widely, he also raised concerns: “I worry that again this autumn we will see a relatively low uptake of the booster among priority groups, including younger adults with a compromised immune system.”

Clear as mud to Owl.

South West Water has updated Sidmouth Town Council on their work in the town to add ‘sewer improvements’ around The Ham.

Adam Manning www.sidmouthherald.co.uk

The latest Sidmouth Town Council meeting took place on Monday September 2, where representatives for South West Water Charlie Ford and Kathy Merchant, gave an update to Members regarding the ongoing Remedial Works Project and installation of a new tank at The Ham. 

The work they are doing on The Ham is split into four parts. Which is currently in the ‘design phase.’ Work is due to start in October.

Find out more about the work on the South West Water website. Sidmouth Sewer Improvement Scheme | Projects and Investments

The first is Infiltration, which is water from manhole covers, to stop infiltration we’ll be lining, repairing and replacing our pipes and manhole covers in hotspot areas. We call this rehabilitation work.

The second part is building a bigger storm overflow in The Ham. The third is building new sewers which has one to hold the foul flows and one to hold surface water. 

The last part is ‘significantly reducing’ reliance on the storm overflows in Sidmouth and investing in their maintenance – upgrading their screens and relocating our monitoring chambers. 

A spokesman for South West Water said: “This work will help reduce the impact of overflows on the environment, and allow us to better monitor, check and maintain the overflows.

“But we know that sometimes the sewer system is struggling to cope. Our investigations tell us that this is for a number of reasons including population growth in the area, groundwater entering the sewers, and the age of some of our assets.

“We’re on a mission to reduce the impact the town’s sewerage system is having on the environment.

“We’ve done a lot of investigating and surveying to find the best solution for Sidmouth’s sewerage system. Some of those are still ongoing, and we’ve got others planned as the scheme moves forward.”

South West Water also said they are ‘working fast to reduce spills in Sidmouth. Sidmouth has enjoyed Excellent bathing water for many years now.’