Roger Giles from Ottery St Mary submitted this simple comment:

Andy Burnham ditched Steve Reed. He should ditch the stupid and damaging proposals that Steve Reed pushed through.

As an Independent town (1991), county (1993) and district councillor (1995), Roger was a tireless and effective scrutineer of local politics. He was joined in 2009 by Claire Wright following a similar trajectory.

Roger retired in 2019 after 24 years as a district councillor.

Between them, Roger and Claire, demonstrated what independent scrutiny can do to hold local majority politicians to account with Claire making early use of social media in her blog.

Between them they created an atmosphere in which the blog: Sidmouth Independent News (SIN) started in 2012 making regular posts critical of East Devon District Council.

And out of SIN, at the end of 2013, flew Owl with East Devon Watch.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to these pioneers.