East Devon Tories must be beside themselves with excitement!
Credit: Guardian
Author Archives: East Devon Watch
Facebook site for examples of poor parking in East Devon
Slightly rude title but the photos speak for themselves!
And p,plenty for DCC transport supremo Stuart Hughes to get his teeth into!
Not much time for justice at the Ministry of Justice!
“David Lidington’s promotion will mean there has been six justice secretaries in less than eight years.
Ken Clarke (2 years 4 months),
Chris Grayling (2 years 8 months),
Michael Gove (1 year 4 months),
Liz Truss (11 months) and
Lidington (6 months).
#nocontinuity”
Well, that’s housing taken care of!
“Javid stays in post – with new housing extension
Sajid Javid is staying in post but his job title has changed slightly.
He is now Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – housing has been added to that list.
In his existing role, Mr Javid was already responsible for housing but I guess the move is supposed to reflect the priority given to housing by Theresa May, who has described the issue as her “national mission”.
Well, that’s sorted housing – NOT!
Otterton public meeting on traffic problems tomorrow
Strong and stable?
“Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle got off to a chaotic start as the Tories bungled the announcement of their new party chairman.
Patrick McLoughlin has left the role he has held since July 2016, however, there was confusion over who would replace him after the Conservatives hastily deleted a tweet announcing Transport Secretary Chris Grayling would take the position.
Brandon Lewis, the Immigration Minister, has been officially announced as the new chairman.
Braintree MP James Cleverly has been appointed deputy chairman, No 10 also confirmed.
In a second error, the official No 10 tweet naming Lewis misspelled ‘portfolio’.
And at 1pm, May was due to appear on the steps of Downing Street with Lewis and Cleverly to celebrate their promotions, but for reasons unknown she missed the key photo opp. …”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/patrick-mcloughlin-sacked_uk_5a5341ffe4b003133ec9bc53
“More than 3,000 families on East Devon council housing list”
“In the last three years, the list has grown by around 46 per cent, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by the Herald has revealed.
Council bosses have said one of the reasons for the rise is that many applicants cannot afford to rent privately or purchase a home in the district, so turn to the authority and housing associations for assistance.
The statistics, released by East Devon District Council (EDDC), revealed there were more than 620 people on the waiting list in Sidmouth, including 171 children.
Compared to the rest of the district, Sidmouth had the third highest number of families on the list. This included around 41 single parents, 229 households of one or two people, 31 families of three, 32 families of four, 12 families of five, 11 families of six and one family of seven.
In Ottery St Mary, there are 375 people on this list and, of this, 251 are adults. This mean that 33 per cent of those waiting were children, leaving Ottery with the highest percentage of children waiting on the list compared with anywhere else in East Devon.
Overall there are 156 families waiting in Ottery – this includes 95 households with one or two people, 25 families of the three, 24 families of four, six families of five, four families of six and two families of seven.
Across East Devon, as of November 30, 2017, there were 3,143 families on the waiting list.
When looking at the numbers for the last three years, the statistics showed that the amount of people on the list had slowly been increasing.
In 2014/15, there were 2,297 households waiting and by March 2017 there were 3,361.
Although, as of November 30, the number of households on the waiting list had dropped by around 6.9 per cent.
An EDDC spokeswoman said the authority’s housing register was one of its barometers of housing need in the district.
She added: “We are constantly monitoring movements in the housing register and trying to secure new affordable housing where needs arise.”
Housing completions for private housing (ie those ready to move into, not those with planning permission) are woeful, as developers drip-feed their expensive houses to keep prices high:
“Grenfell fire: KPMG quits inquiry amid conflict of interest furore”
“… The accountancy firm audits the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where the tower is located.
It also audits Rydon Construction, which refurbished the tower in 2015, and Celotex, which manufactured insulation material used in the tower. …”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42598976
Owl says: if conflicts of interest were taken as seriously in Devon, we would have many fewer councillors, almost no quangos and DEFINITELY no Local Enterprise Partnership!
Andrew Marr defends NHS and confronts May
“BBC presenter Andrew Marr confronted Theresa May over the state of the NHS, suggesting he could have died if he had waited five hours for an ambulance following his own stroke.
The political broadcaster, 58, who suffered a stroke in January 2013, pressed the PM on the crisis, which has led to thousands of routine operations being cancelled in January as the health service struggles to cope with winter pressures.
It comes after the East of England Ambulance Service apologised following the death of a pensioner, 81, in Essex who was left waiting nearly four hours for a crew of paramedics.
Appearing in a pre-recorded interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister acknowledged more needs to be done, telling the interviewer: “Of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”
Mr Marr claimed funding was not the sole issue facing the service and said the cancelled operations were “part of the plan”.
Presenter Mr Marr challenged her, saying he would not be interviewing her if he had experienced the same delays following his stroke.
“If I’d been waiting for five hours before I’d seen a doctor after my stroke I would not be here talking to you,” he said.
“This is about life and death and up and down the country people are having horrendous experiences of the NHS,” he added, before asking what the PM would say to the daughter of an elderly woman who waited hours to see a doctor.
Mrs May replied: “Obviously you’ve raised an individual case with me which I haven’t seen the details of and I recognise that people have concerns if they have experience of that sort.
“If we look at what is happening across the NHS, what we see is that actually the NHS is delivering for more people, it is treating more people and more people are being seen within the four hours every day than has been a few years ago.
“But of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”
On funding, it was suggested to Mrs May that she had done nothing to address increased pressure on the social care system.
The PM replied: “Well yes, we have done something about it, Andrew. I’m sorry, you’re wrong in that.
“We have put extra funding into the social care system and we have worked with hospitals and with local authorities to identify how we can reduce those delayed discharges, ie patients being kept in hospital when they shouldn’t be.”
Mrs May said the Government is working on its long-term plans for social care but would not be drawn on whether there is a need for a brave and radical look at how the NHS is funded.
Asked about whether she agreed with Mr Hunt’s suggestion of a 10-year funding plan, Mrs May replied: “Of course what we’re operating on at the moment is the five-year forward view for the NHS which is the forward view that the NHS themselves came forward with.
“They brought those proposals together.”
Pressed further on cash, Mrs May said: “You keep talking about the money but actually what you also need to look at is how the NHS works, how it operates.”
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said of the PM: “She hasn’t got a plan to get those people off the trolleys and corridors.”
He added to the same programme: “Her only plan apparently is to promote this Health Secretary. They should be demoting this Health Secretary.
“If she promotes this Health Secretary tomorrow it’s a betrayal of those 75,000 people in the back of ambulances.”
Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson, performing at the end of the programme, appeared to show his support for the health service by wearing a t-shirt with the NHS’s logo above the Nike tick.”
So, who knows best? May or GP Sarah Wollaston?
“OPINION:
More money and tighter integration can save Britain’s NHS
The Chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, Sarah Wollaston, writes that integrating social care with health, and providing more sustainable funding, is crucial, arguing that “it is time to stop viewing health as a bottomless pit but rather as one of our greatest successes.
Investment should be a source of national pride. I cannot think of a better way for Mrs May to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS than by helping to make sure that it has a sustainable long-term future.”
Source: FT Online, Express p26
EDDC’s justification for Exmouth seafront “planning lite” application
Would you or I get away with this?
Exmouth Town Council arranging hurried meeting on 6 January 2018.
Let’s see what they think (Tory dominated, don’t build up you expectations!)
From EDDC to Town Councillors – how to justify the unjustifiable!
One for the Scrutiny Committee? Oh no, wait – not allowed to discuss individual planning applications! But maybe CAN investigate how there are double standards in planning – one for their own officers and one for everyone else.
No – even that’s not right! One for EDDC and its developers and one for the rest of us.
“Queen’s Drive Temporary Uses Planning Application Response to Concerns Raised by Exmouth Town Council
1. CONCERN ABOUT TOO LITTLE DETAIL IN THE APPLICATION.
The lack of detail in the planning application is a result of the tight timescale that we are faced with in delivering the temporary uses.
Time is a key driver for the delivery of the Temporary Uses project. We aim to have new facilities available by early spring 2018.
In order to achieve this, we have to secure a planning permission first, before starting work on the installation of the new facilities.
We also have to go through the research and then procurement process to find the suppliers (and operators where appropriate) for the new facilities.
We realised that if we are to achieve this tight timetable, we would need to undertake tasks concurrently. So we would need to submit a planning application without necessarily knowing the detail of exactly what the facilities would be and who would be supplying them.
We discussed this with our planning advisor and the Local Planning Authority and identified that we could submit a planning application that provided a general description of what we propose to do (and was therefore without too much detail), where (if approved at committee), the planning authority could put conditions on the permission and request the detail at a later time.
We agreed on a strategy for the planning application that would show the three zones for the three different “themes” of what will be on offer. Namely: children’s play, food and drink, and a range of one-off events.
2. CONCERNS ABOUT RESIDENTIAL AREA AND NOISE.
The District Council will have to apply for necessary licences to cover the hours of opening for the operation of the events on site. Again, as yet we do not know the detail of what the events will be as we are still in the research and planning stages. We would not expect that any event would be later than midnight. But note that this will only be on odd occasions – not every night. This application will be heard by the Licensing Committee in due course.
3. CONCERNS ABOUT THE FILLING IN OF THE PONDS.
We do not yet know the specific engineering solution for how the ponds will be filled in. It is thought that this will be loose material topped with sand. Whatever is used to fill the ponds could be removed in the future if required.
4. CONCERNS ABOUT THE TIMING OF SUBMISSION.
We are aiming for the application to be heard at DMC on 6 March 2018.
To meet this date and allow for the lead in period for the application to be processed, we therefore had to submit the application before Christmas (early December). It was not until early December that we had finalised the application ready for submission.
Alison Hayward
EDDC 3 January 2018”
“A THIRD of Tory donations come from a tiny group of rich men who enjoy lavish dinners with Theresa May”
Owl says: The Conservative Party – DEFINITELY for the FEW and not the MANY!
“More than a third of donations to the Tories last year came from a tiny group of super-rich men who enjoy lavish secretive dinners with Theresa May.
Research reveals how much Britain’s party of government depends on a band of millionaires for survival.
And it comes despite Mrs May vowing in 2007: “To restore public trust we must remove the dependency of the political parties on all large donors.”
Labour analysed donations by the 64 people – 62 of them men – who attended ‘Leader’s Group’ dinners, hosted by the Prime Minister and other senior ministers, in the first half of last year.
The Conservative Party trousered £12.9million from these donors or their firms in 2017, Labour’s research shows – 39% of all cash donations to the Tories across the year declared so far.
More than a third of the dinners’ attendees were on the Sunday Times Rich List, which brings together the 1,000 wealthiest people in Britain.
And almost half were from the world of finance including hedge fund bosses Sir Michael Hintze, a billionaire knighted under David Cameron who gave £345,000, and Andrew Law who gave £604,000.
Financiers at the dinners gave £4.5million between them – while £3.7million came from Brexit backers.
Ferrari-collecting JCB billionaire Lord Bamford and his family, the 35th-richest people in Britain and prominent donors to Vote Leave, topped the list by giving £2.5million to the Tories personally and through their firms in 2017.
Major donor diners also included Addison Lee cab firm founder John Griffin, housebuilding billionaire John Bloor, and spread-betting tycoon and former Tory co-Treasurer Peter Cruddas.
Other attendees were oil tycoon Ian Taylor who rejected a knighthood in David Cameron’s 2016 ‘crony honours’, and Arbuthnot private bank boss Sir Henry Angest and Tory chief executive Sir Mick Davis – both knighted under Mr Cameron a year earlier.
The only two women among the 64 diners gave £328,000 between them.
Socialite, philanthropist and friend of Bill Clinton Alisa Swidler gave £87,000 while Lubov Chernukhin, the banker wife of Russia’s former deputy finance minister, gave £241,000.
David Cameron denied Ms Chernukhin was a “Putin crony” in 2014 when it emerged she had paid £160,000 for a tennis match with the then-Prime Minister and Boris Johnson.
The Conservative Party website boasts tycoons can pay £50,000 to join the Leader’s Group and attend private dinners with Theresa May and ministers as part of efforts “to defeat the rise of socialism”.
Despite David Cameron promising to publish regular lists of attendees, those for the first half of 2017 were only released several months late after pressure from the Mirror.
We revealed Theresa May dined on lobster and beef with several donors at a secret London venue hours after confirming millions of people’s benefits would be frozen.
No minutes of the dinner meetings are ever published, and the Conservatives refuse to say what is discussed at them.
And the meals are limited to a tight circle of ministers, with only Mrs May, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond and five other Cabinet ministers taking part in the first six months of 2017.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said: “The Prime Minister once said her party needed to remove its dependency on large donors and that she would not be driven by the interests of the rich and powerful.
“But after having to wait almost a year for the Tories to come clean about who is buying access to her and her senior ministers, we can see that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“As always with the Tories, the real decisions are made with a small group of wealthy backers.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-how-third-tory-donations-11798246
The only campaigning newspaper group in East Devon closes
Owl says: a sad loss. But not surprising when competing titles from Archant Newspapers (Midweek Herald, Sidmouth Herald, Exmouth Journal) for example received 80% of EDDC’s advertising.
The eastern side of East Devon has now not only lost community hospital beds and transport links it has lost the only titles not simply regurgitating press releases passed off as “news” but actively supported the community with real news and genuine investigative journalism.
“A series of newspapers covering Devon, Dorset and Somerset has closed blaming a fall in revenue.
The View From series was based in Lyme Regis, Dorset, with editions covering Axminster, Seaton and Honiton in Devon, Bridport, Dorchester and Weymouth in Dorset, and South Somerset. …”
http://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/newspaper-series-covering-east-devon-1019184
“Conservative party’s refusal to admit plunging membership numbers is embarrassing, says Grant Shapps”
“A former Conservative chairman has warned Theresa May that the party’s refusal to admit to its plunging membership rolls is “embarrassing”.
Grant Shapps urged the Prime Minister to “come clean” about how few people are paid up members – after a party campaigner suggested the figure is as low as 70,000.
It is four years since the Tories, under David Cameron, reluctantly revealed their membership total, refusing to respond to requests since for up-to-date information.
Most estimates put the figure at around 100,000, but the head of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy said he believed it had dropped to just 70,000.
In stark contrast, Labour said it had 552,000 members last summer. Both the Scottish National Party (118,000) and the Liberal Democrats (103,000) also reported six-figure totals.
Now Mr Shapps, who was sacked as chairman in 2015, has said “transparency” is vital, even if the membership figure turned out to to be “embarrassing”.
He warned that “coming clean about membership is step number one” in rebuilding the Conservative Party’s campaigning strength for the next general election.
Mr Shapps told the BBC that he had first told Mr Cameron, in 2013, that it was “embarrassing not to publish the figures and it will help us increase the membership – and it did”.
And he said the party needed to follow the lead of Labour and the Lib Dems in allowing members to play a role in policy formation.
The criticism comes after a report by academics at Queen Mary University, suggested at least 44 per cent of Tory members are over 65 and 71 per cent are male. …”
House of Lords: “best day care centre for elderly in London”
“As if the House of Lords did not already look like a private members’ club, an investigation by The Times has revealed that peers can continue to use the House of Lords’ subsidised dining rooms even after they retire.
That means former politicians, who were not elected but selected for the role – are enjoying cheap food and drink thanks to taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.
In all, £1.2million per year is used to subsidise food and drink in the House of Lords.
A menu from the chamber, published following a Freedom of Information request in 2013, revealed a pint of draft beer cost £2.60 and a bottle of House of Lords claret is £14.80.
Meanwhile a two-course table d’hôte lunch costs £15.50, with main courses including sirloin beef and whole sea bream stuffed with olives and tomatoes.
Is it any wonder that Lib Dem life peer, Lord Tyler, described it as “the best day care centre for the elderly in London” in an interview for the BBC’s documentary Meet the Lords last year? …”
OUR NHS
Age segregation in housing must end says think-tank
Owl says: They don’t mention age segregation by affluence, where rich older people can segregate (and isolate) themselves in luxury apartments, leaving the poorer elderly to try to rent inadequate housing. Now where might they be …!
“Britain must create 500 cross-generational housing, care home, school and nursery sites to break down “age apartheid” and heal social divisions, a think tank says.
The first wave of institutions should be set up within five years, it said, to reverse decades of social change that has increasingly kept younger and older generations apart.
The report by United For All Ages, which seeks to bring people together across generations, said that Britain was one of the most age-segregated countries in the world, resulting in loneliness and divided communities. This was driven in part by trends in housing, with many families living farther apart. High house prices meant that market towns and rural communities often had ageing populations while more inner city communities were dominated by young people, it said.
The problem was exacerbated by the diminished role in some communities of local shops, churches, pubs and clubs as retailers moved out of town or online, church attendance fell and pubs closed.
Changes in workplaces were also a factor, it said, as some industries attracted younger or older workforces while flexible or home working meant it was less common for people to mix with colleagues from several generations at work.
The study called on care providers, schools, planners and developers, ministers and local authorities to help to reverse the trend by creating institutions for shared use.
One example is a network of more than 450 multigeneration meeting houses developed in Germany as part of a government response to its ageing population. These host day care services for older people, parent-andtoddler groups, homework clubs, education courses and cafés, supported by volunteers. The report calls on nurseries, primary schools and care homes to develop similar spaces on their sites.
The Times reported in July how a nursery had become the first in Britain to open a site at a care home. Apples and Honey nursery opened its second site in a bungalow in the grounds of Nightingale House, a residential home for elderly Jewish men and women in Clapham, southwest London. Last month Downshall primary school in Redbridge, east London, opened a day centre three mornings a week for older people with dementia and depression to share activities with pupils.
The report urges planners to go further with cross-generation housing shared by older people and students, encouraging homeowners who want to downsize to subdivide their properties to create housing for families, and overlapping training for people to work in care homes and childcare.
Stephen Burke, director of United for All Ages, said: “Britain is dogged by divisions — we are divided by class, income, race, geography and age. The mistrust that arises from such divisions is fuelled by the lack of connection between different generations. This can breed myths and stereotypes, misunderstanding, ageism and exclusion. That’s why we believe mixing matters.”
Source: The Times (pay wall)
London’s Metro newspaper tells us of of Swire’s clubable nature
“A fascinating Politico article details London’s private members clubs and the politicians who frequent them. As befits their stuffy image of pinstripe suits and ironed newspapers, most seem populated by Tory grandees – you can’t move in White’s or the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks without bumping into a HUGO SWIRE or Nicholas Soames.
Source: Metro newspaper, today, “Politics, Party and Pillow Talk” column edited by Guy Pewsey (page 20)
If, as one assumes, Swire is a member of one or both clubs, here are some details of them:
White’s
“The original old boys’ club, White’s is one of the oldest and most exclusive members’ clubs in London. Based in St James, it does not allow women in and Her Majesty The Queen is reportedly the only woman to have ever set foot through the door, according to the Daily Mail.
Prince William, Charles and the Duke of Wellington have all been members at some point, and David Cameron famously disowned the club in 2008 before becoming prime minister — despite the fact that his father was previously club chairman.
There is no online information about the club, but most reports suggest membership costs about £850 a year. New members will first need to be vouched for by some 35 signatories, the Daily Mail reports.”
Sublime Society of Beef Steaks (aka Beefsteak Club):
(Count Nikolai Tolstoy wearing the traditional Beef Steaks Society uniform:
“Members continue to wear the traditional uniform, and woe betide that impious dog who unwittingly infringes our ancient laws. Under the Recorder’s stern gaze he is doomed to crawl around the table in a white sheet, or suffer some yet more humiliating punishment.
The President traditionally wears a Beefeater’s hat, and when it succumbed to age and rough usage a new one was formally presented at a Dinner by the Constable and Governor of the Tower. When the Recorder’s hat similarly required replacement, the Governor of the Chelsea Hospital likewise attended as a Guest and presented us with the traditional Pensioner’s tricorn.
For many years now the Society has found a congenial home in the Jacobite Room at Boisdale, where portraits of Members gaze approvingly down on the antics of their successors. This is thanks to Brother Macdonald, a much-valued Member of the Society, who has succeeded to the mantle of Brothers Rich, Arnold, and Irving in providing us with a happy and lasting home.”
As the Society’s toast has it:
“May BEEF and LIBERTY be our Reward!”
https://www.boisdale.co.uk/blog/the-sublime-society-of-beef-steaks-1735/
Mid-Devon Scrutiny Committee consults residents on problems
“People are happier in Crediton than their neighbouring district towns of Tiverton and Cullompton a survey has found.
Members of Mid Devon District Council’s scrutiny committee went to the three towns between May and August to gather opinion after it was agreed a lack of consultation was a key issue for the public. …”
http://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/people-happier-crediton-thanks-community-1010711
Exmouth Fun Park temporary “attractions” – consultation extended to 17 January 2018
“The deadline for comments to be submitted on plans for temporary attractions for Exmouth seafront has been extended.
East Devon District Council has submitted plans for a temporary use of land, buildings and structures for a 12-month period for the purposes of entertainment, recreation and leisure on the site of the former Fun Park.
… The initial deadline for comments to be registered was January 12 – and some residents reported that during the Christmas holiday period, they were unable to either access the application or submit any comments.
An East Devon District Council spokesman said: “We are not aware of any issues with accessing the application on-line. It certainly appears to be working perfectly at the moment and the site was periodically checked over the festive period to ensure that it was working. We are therefore content that there is no problem with the system and our web-site.
“We have received some additional information from the applicant in the last couple of days. This information is now available on our web-site and to enable interested parties to review and comment on this information the consultation period has been extended to January 17, 2018.”
http://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/deadline-extended-comments-temporary-attractions-1011312
