Category Archives: Accountability

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30 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Claire Wright, Health and Social Care (local), Honiton/ Gittisham, Neil Parish, NHS (local)

Big meeting in Honiton on bed cuts: 11 July, Mackarness Hall, 7 pm, Claire Wright and Parish speaking

“A public meeting to update the community on the saga surrounding Honiton Hospital will be held next month.

The session, which will be held at the Mackarness Hall on July 11, from 7pm, has been organised by Honiton Senior Voice and the steering committee of Save our Hospital Services.

Honiton and Tiverton MP Neil Parish and Independent councillor Claire Wright have been invited to the meeting, as well as Honiton mayor Cllr John Zarczynski.

Cllr Wright recently proposed to Devon County Council that NHS Northern, Eastern and Western Clinical Commissioning Group’s (NHS NEW Devon CCG) decision to close all inpatient beds at Seaton and Honiton hospitals should be referred to the Secretary of State for Health.

The proposal was deferred until July but the meeting will be updated of any progress and given details of how to represent their view when the council meet.

June Brown, chair of Honiton Senior Voice, said: “We are far from giving up on saving our hospital beds and the ball has now been placed at the feet of NEW Devon CCG to answer the questions that have been raised by East Devon and Devon county councillors.

“As far as we are concerned the case for retaining the beds is overwhelming given the needs in this area and the pressures on Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and other services.

“We think our GPs also want these beds retained so hope to send a very strong message from this meeting to the NEW Devon CCG to answer the case made. In coming months we shall continue the fight to retain these beds.”

Senior Voice spokesman Tony Simpson added: “Staff at Honiton Hospital are already having to consider their futures and there is already uncertainty about what will happen after September by doctors, nurses and patients who may need in patient facilities locally.

“There seems little prospect that the alternative quality home care systems promised will be in place.

“Look around Honiton – almost every care agency is desperately advertising for staff on fairly low wages and sometimes without adequate training. There are just insuffient care resources being put in.

“We also call on our MP to organise a delegation to Jeremy Hunt from local bodies representing patients, professionals and health trade unions.

“Mr Parish should now be standing up in Parliament telling the government that he and the people he represents will not accept the closure of beds, maternity and other services at any price.

“We expect him to vote according to his constituent’s wishes.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/public-meeting-to-update-community-on-honiton-hospital-saga-1-5084040

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30 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, Planning System

Another building regulation dropped for developers

“The government must reverse its opposition to new building regulations that ensure homes, hospitals and schools do not overheat as the number of deadly heatwaves rises, according to its official climate change advisers.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recommended the new regulations in 2015 but ministers rejected the advice, citing a commitment to “reduce net regulation on homebuilders”. Without action, the number of people dying as a result of heat is expected to more than triple to 7,000 a year by 2040, the CCC warns in its annual report on the UK’s progress on tackling global warming. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/29/failure-to-update-building-regulations-could-triple-heatwave-deaths-by-2040

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, General Election, Inequality, Sleaze

Tory MP hates that social media is available to all – then retweets a picture of a pink penis!

“After a tumultuous day of U-turns and PR disasters in Parliament yesterday, Theresa May probably thought things couldn’t get much worse.

However, one of her Tory MPs has just gone and said something on social media that a huge section of Britain will find highly offensive.

In typical sneering Tory fashion, the Conservative MP for South West Devon, Gary Streeter, in a heated exchange with journalist Paul Mason, said:

“This is why i (sic) hate social media. It gives a voice to people who dont (sic) deserve one”.

Yes, you read that right. A Conservative MP doesn’t think ordinary people deserve to have a voice.

In a further display of how little this particular Tory MP understands about the real world, he promptly proceeded to retweet one of the numerous responses to his elitist outburst – a response which just so happened to be a GIF of a pink penis running through a forest.

One can only imagine the thought process that an elected representative must go through when deciding that retweeting a set of galloping gonads is a good idea.

To Mr Streeter’s peculiar retweet, another Twitter user replied:

“Gary… you retweet a penis running through a forest but won’t answer a polite question from one of your constituents… #confused”

We have contacted Gary Streeter for comment on his elitist comments, but presumably his head is still firmly inserted up his own backside, because he has not as yet had the good grace to respond.”

http://evolvepolitics.com/sneering-tory-mp-says-hates-social-media-gives-voice-people-dont-deserve-one/

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Sidmouth ward councillor not told about advanced development plans

“A leading Sidmouth councillor has said she is ‘alarmed’ after illustrations as to how Sidmouth seafront could look as part of plans to redevelop the Port Royal area of the town have were revealed.

Consultants are carrying out a scoping study to assess the feasibility of redevelopment of the area on behalf of Sidmouth Town and East Devon District Councils who are the major landowners of the site.

Plans were put on show on Monday and Tuesday at consultation events at Kennaway House in Sidmouth and revealed that the seafront could get up to 30 flats that stand five storeys high.

But Cllr Cathy Gardner, who represents Sidmouth on East Devon District Council and is also the leader of the East Devon Alliance, said she was very surprised on Monday when she saw a five storey block of flats revealed on the consultation boards.

Cllr Gardner said: “We are concerned and I was alarmed at what I saw. At this early stage of the consultation, we expected to see a review of what the limitations of the site are and what would be possible.

“What we certainly did not expect to see what a five storey flats building included in the consultation board.

“I am alarmed that we are looking at five storey building within this area of the seafront. There will be a lot of discussion over the next month about this and I am sure we will get a lot of comments about what people want, but this is not what we expected.”

She said that everyone accepts that the Port Royal area of the town, which includes The Ham, the riverside, the car park, fishing compound, the public toilets, the Drill Hall, the sailing club and the lifeboat station, does need something doing to it, but said that it should be something more in keeping with the town.

She added although it is a consultation exercise, it had the feel of something that was fait accompli, particularly as questionnaires as part of the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan survey asks residents their views about Port Royal area of the town are currently out with residents to fill in.

She added: “I am told that feedback from this will be taken into account, but it does seem to be putting the cart before the horse.”

The consultation boards say: “The existing lifeboat station and sailing club need to have a waterfront location for operational reasons, but there are no obvious technical reasons that would prevent the lifeboat station, sailing club, Drill Hall and toilet block from being demolished with an alternative development provided on that part of the Study Area.”

Under potential development opportunities, the boards say: “The development could comprise a building of between 3 and 5 storeys. It could be a single building incorporating various uses including a new lifeboat station, a multifunction unit that could incorporate the sailing club, other water related clubs already operating, public toilets and wider community use. Space could also be created for a café and restaurant. These could occupy the ground floor and first floor of the building.

“Up to thirty residential apartments with potential to be of various sizes could form part of this development occupying the second, third and fourth floors.

The illustrations on this board are only intended to give an impression of the scale and size of a building on the site and how it might appear in relation to other buildings nearby. It is not a proposal for how the building will look

“Pedestrianisation ofthe Esplanade from its junction with Ham Lane running eastwards towards Salcombe Hill would create an opportunity for a vibrant, active frontage to the new development on the allocated site where people can use the space free of traffic whilst maintaining access for emergency vehicles, e.g. lifeboat.

“An access road from Ham Lane could be created to provide additional pedestrian access through the site along with access for service vehicles, access to sailing club storage and some water users.”

The Ham and East Street car parks have also been included in the scoping study area, but as they are within a high risk flood zone, further discussion will be required with both the Environment Agency and East Devon District Council planning department before any proposals can be taken forward.

Consultants will use the feedback to produce a set of recommendations that balance community expectations with what is achievable in the area.

These recommendations are expected to be considered by Sidmouth Town Council and East Devon District Council later in the year.

You can fill in the survey here https://www.snapsurveys.com/wh/s.asp?k=14984725150…”

http://www.devonlive.com/leading-councillors-says-she-was-alarmed-by-sidmouth-seafront-redevelopment-plansrevealed/story-30416690-detail/story.html

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Democracy, Inequality

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No secret cabinet meeting for Grenfell Tower council

“A judge has ordered a London council to lift a ban on the media reporting on the first meeting of councillors to discuss the Grenfell Tower disaster, after a legal challenge by the Guardian and other media groups.

Downing Street had expressed concern after survivors of the fire and members of the media were barred from the Kensington and Chelsea council cabinet meeting on Thursday evening which was to hear a report about the blaze.

The council had opted to hold a private cabinet meeting to hear an oral report about the fire, citing the potential for disorder, and previous threats against staff. Such meetings are usually open to the public.

The meeting was to be led by the council’s Conservative leader, Nicholas Paget-Brown, who has been widely criticised in the wake of the fire.

However, a court application by the Guardian and five other media groups saw the high court order the council to admit members of the media with press cards.

Downing Street had said it wanted all parties involved in the fire aftermath “to be as open and transparent as possible, both with residents and the wider public, to ensure full confidence in the response effort”.

A spokeswoman said: “We would encourage everyone involved to respect this wherever possible.”

Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities secretary, had also urged the council to reconsider. “In order to deliver a response that survivors, residents and the wider public can trust, there is no room for anything less than complete transparency,” he said.

The decision to bar survivors and the wider public from the meeting followed protests two days after the fire, in which at least 79 people died, when angry residents stormed the town hall.

The council said the decision to exclude the public was made in accordance with its own standing orders “which are confirmed in common law”.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/29/grenfell-survivors-barred-from-council-meeting-about-fire

Er, seems the council’s legal officer might not be quite up to scratch – Owl thinks that common law is that made by case law and the judge just made the appropriate case law!

Take note EDDC!

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Hugo Swire

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Swire offers his constituents up as health care guinea pigs – who voted for that?

Did you vote for this, Tory voter?

“Queens Speech Contribution (Hansard)

Thursday, 29 June, 2017
Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Sir Kevin Barron), who made some extraordinarily sensible points. May I take this opportunity to associate myself, on behalf of my constituents in East Devon, with the earlier tributes paid to the victims of Grenfell Tower and the terrorist attacks? I also pay tribute to the extraordinary work of the emergency services and to NHS staff for their incredible efforts.

In the 2017 Gracious Speech, the only mention of social care, to which I will dedicate my speech, was:

“My Ministers will work to improve social care and will bring forward proposals for consultation.”

That is in line with the revised section of the 2017 Conservative manifesto, but no more details have been announced about the Green Paper or when it will be published. When it is published and goes out to consultation, it is vital that elderly people, who do not always have access to the internet, are given fair chance to respond and to put their views forward.

I, too, believe that the recent election showed how worried people are about their future healthcare needs. While the system needs to be fixed, it is incumbent on the Government to have a frank and honest consultation on how we fund and provide social care for the most vulnerable in our society. The issue has been kicked into the long grass for too long, so I have two offers to make to the Government this afternoon.

Over 850,000 people in the United Kingdom are living with dementia—equivalent to the entire population of Devon—and that number is expected to double in the next 20 years. Over 12,000 people in Devon are living with dementia, 4,500 of whom are in East Devon. The number of over-65s in Devon will increase from 195,000 in 2015 to 264,400 in 2030—an increase of 35.5%. Seventeen per cent. of the UK population is over the age of 65, compared with 24% of the Devon population. Some 2.38% of the population is over the age of 85, compared with 6.25% of the population of Budleigh Salterton in my constituency. In other words, with those ageing demographics, the rest of England will look like Budleigh Salterton in 2050. East Devon has over 6,500 people over the age of 85 and about 40,000 over the age of 65, so my offer to the Government is this: if we want to get long-term social care right nationally, look at what the country will look like in 2050, which is what towns such as Budleigh Salterton look like now. If we get it right in Devon, “we will get it right across the country. As a Devon MP, I am offering— I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) will also agree—to act as the guinea pig for getting social care right in this country. That is offer No. 1.

[Offer No. 2 goes on to suggest a cross-party group to talk about the future of health care.]

Those are my two offers. As a humble Back Bencher, I will work with other Back Benchers to get social care right in this country, and I offer up Devon, particularly East Devon, as the guinea pig or template for trying to get a social care system that is properly integrated with the rest of the NHS. If we get it right there, we will get it right across the nation, and everyone, including our electorates, will be enormously grateful to us.”

https://hugoswire-admin.conservativewebsites.org.uk/news/queens-speech-contribution-hansard

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, DUP, NHS (local)

Now we must add the cost of women coming to England for abortions to the English NHS costs not Northern Irish

Surely these costs should be passed back to Northern Ireland? But better still, shouldn’t these wonen be spared the trauma of leaving their homes just to satisfy a few hypocrits? But there you go – the DUP is now in charge and we must expect this sort of stuff.

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Democracy, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish

Swire and Parish vote (of course) not to lift pay cap on fire and police

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/public-sector-pay-cap-all-mps-vote-against-list-austerity-freeze-labour-jeremy-corbyn-conservatives-a7813706.html

No surprises there then.

But this is going to be interesting – for every such vote in future every Tory and DUP MP is going to have to physically be at the Houses of Parliament.

No “fact-finding” missions to the Maldives, no jaunts to Dubai, no popping over to the French château … Owl sees trouble ahead.

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Inequality

The Grenfell judge, housing and human rights

“A recently retired court of appeal judge who specialised in commercial law has been appointed to head the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. Sir Martin Moore-Bick, 70, only left the bench last December.

Among his more controversial cases was a decision allowing Westminster council to rehouse a tenant 50 miles away in Milton Keynes. It was later overturned by the supreme court.

The former senior judge has in the past been praised by the justice minister, Dominic Raab, for applying “long-awaited common sense” to limit human rights law in a case where he deported a foreign-born criminal whose young children lived in Britain. But Moore-Bick, who is widely respected within the legal profession, will have to gain the confidence of the North Kensington community where the tragedy occurred.

… In one 2014 case, Moore-Bick said Westminster council could rehouse Titina Nzolameso, a single mother with five children, more than 50 miles away in Milton Keynes. He ruled that it was not necessary for Westminster to explain in detail what other accommodation was available and that it could take “a broad range of factors” into account, including the pressures on the council, in deciding what housing was available.

In April 2015, the supreme court reversed his ruling, pointing out that the council had not asked “any questions aimed at assessing how practicable it would be for the family to move out of the area”. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/28/grenfell-tower-inquiry-judge-retired-martin-moore-bick

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Inequality

“Who really goes to a food bank?”

“… A major study from researchers at Oxford University and King’s College London has tried to get beyond the stereotypes, looking at those using the Trussell Trust’s network of food banks.

In the most basic terms, these are people with many overlapping forms of “destitution”.

They have been missing meals, often for days at a time, going without heating and electricity. One in five had slept rough in recent months.
They are at the lowest end of the low-income spectrum, with an average income below £320 per month, described as living in “extreme financial vulnerability”.

These are usually people of working age, middle-aged rather than young or old, mostly living in rented accommodation.

About five out of six are without a job and depending on benefits.

But among those in employment, this is usually unpredictable, insecure work, with an unreliable income.

The long stagnation in wages seems to have made it harder to be self-reliant through work – and the research warns of the rising number of jobs that are low-paid and insecure.

The best inoculation against needing a food bank seems to be a full-time permanent job.

Although there have been reports of people in decent jobs turning to food banks, the research suggests this remains very unusual.

But there are some distinct characteristics of food bank users that are different from the general face of poverty.

The most typical users are single men, lone mothers with children and single women – between them accounting for about two-thirds of all food bank users.
Social isolation, the lack of a friend in need, plays a part, as well as threadbare finances.

Ill health is a very common feature. Almost two-thirds of users had a health condition, half of households using food banks included someone with a disability and a third had mental health problems.

Debts and a long tail of repayments are often dragging them down.
They can be months behind with bills and having to pay back bank loans, credit cards, loan sharks, pawn shops and payday lenders.

Food bank users are overwhelmingly UK born and even though 4% have a university degree, they have much lower education levels than the average working-age population.

Put together, it shows people living closest to the edge being the first to be pushed over. Lone adults, saddled with debts, with ill health, high levels of depression and anxiety and few qualifications to get a more secure job.

These are people on the margins in many ways.

But the researchers show that living on “chronic low incomes” and facing “severe food insecurity” are not necessarily the tipping points.

There is often something else – an income or expenditure “shock” – that puts them on the road to the food bank. This can be an rise in rent, energy bills or the cost of food; or it could a delay in benefits or fewer working hours.
On wafer-thin margins, it can be enough to literally turn out the lights and leave nothing for food.

The research is also a reminder that the prevalence of food banks is a recent phenomenon, a tale of our times. In 2010-11, the Trussell Trust gave out 61,500 food parcels, but by 2016-17 this had risen to almost 1.2 million.

Rachel Loopstra, leader author of the report and lecturer in nutrition at King’s College London, said people had been “surprised and shocked” at the growth in food banks.

But there had not been enough understanding of the circumstances that meant people ended up having to ask for food.

Dr Loopstra said the study showed how apparently small changes in income or outgoings could leave people with absolutely nothing, even for the most basic of needs.

Over two-thirds of food bank users had often been going without food.
“The severity of food insecurity and other forms of destitution we observed amongst people using food banks are serious public health concerns,” she said.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40431701

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29 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, EDDC, Environment (local)

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New refuse collection schedules: has EDDC got its priorities wrong?

From a correspondent:

“A couple of very nice Suez employees turned up this morning to pick up our recycling – because we complained (again) on the day at 6pm that it had not been collected, though it was in fact collected on the correct day if rather late in the day i.e. c. 6:30pm.

The employees very kindly explained that the system is not working because they do not have enough lorries. My initial thought was that Suez should buy some more, however it turns out that, so they said, it is not Suez’s fault at all, but (surprise, surprise [sic.]) EDDC’s.

Apparently they say that Suez’s contract with EDDC is to run the collection using vehicles provided by EDDC, and EDDC are simply not providing sufficient vehicles for the number of homes in East Devon, and in particular are not providing enough lorries to cope with the growth in housing numbers. So they say the staff are working many more overtime hours than they would like and are still struggling to make all the collections needed.

Once again it seems that EDDC have got their priorities wrong. They can waste several million pounds on a vanity project for new offices – the financial business case for which would be very suspect if EDDC had actually produced a financial business case – but they cannot afford to provide sufficient vehicles for collecting waste.”

Owl welcomes comment from EDDC for balance.

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28 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, General Election

“CHAIRMAN OF GOVERNMENT’S NEW GRENFELL PANEL PUSHED MINISTERS TO CUT FIRE SERVICE FUNDING BY £200M”

If Owl asks nicely do you think we can get the Nasty Party out? No? OK Plan B it has to be – not nicely!

“The man advising the Government on its response to the Grenfell Tower disaster argued in favour of cuts to fire service funding and against fitting sprinklers to tower blocks.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid announced last night that Sir Ken Knight will chair an “independent expert advisory panel” to advise on new fire safety measures.

It has been pointed out that Knight advised the Government against retrofitting sprinklers to high rise residential buildings in his report on the Lakanal House fire in Camberwell, in which six people died.

He wrote: “It is not considered as practical or economically viable to make a requirement for the retrospective fitting of fire suppression systems to all current high-rise residential buildings.”

Scrapbook has also found that Knight was the author of a 2013 report which advocated £200 million worth of cuts to the fire service.

The report’s recommendations included cutting the number of firefighters. In a BBC interview at the time, Knight said:

“The protection of services is not just about jobs, it’s about redefining what we want firefighters to do, what we want the fire service to do.

“So it is right, there will be an adjustment to numbers, of jobs, of people, of people doing different jobs, but that’s right in any business, in any industry, in any area of the public sector. …”

https://politicalscrapbook.net/2017/06/chairman-of-governments-new-grenfell-panel-pushed-ministers-to-cut-fire-service-funding-by-200m/

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28 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, General Election, Housing (local), Inequality

No magic money tree for high rise blocks with failed cladding

Grenfell Tower cladding scandal could cost councils millions after Government says no guarantee of extra funding.

‘There is no way we can afford to reclad our tower blocks. If we have to find that money, it will come from other projects’

But despite emergency fire safety checks being carried out nationwide under central government direction, councils will not be reimbursed for refurbishment work carried out.

A DCLG spokesperson said there was “no guarantee” of central government funding and that it would be “up to local authorities and housing associations to pay” for the work needed to ensure residents’ safety.

The spokesperson said financial support would be considered on a “case by case” basis for those that could not afford to carry out the necessary work, but did not clarify what the criteria for that consideration would be.

The announcement was met with severe criticism from some of the councils affected, with local authorities already having their budgets severely squeezed after years of austerity measures.

Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, which is among the authorities to have discovered unsafe cladding, said “starved” councils would be forced to make cuts to other areas, including schooling, if central government did not help with costs.

“Local authorities have been starved of money over the past seven years. Our spending power has decreased,” she said. “There is no way we can afford to reclad our tower blocks. If we have to find that money, it will come from other projects, from investing in the fabric of our schools, capital investment in our infrastructure, the money has to come out of that. And it can’t really be done.

“I say absolutely, categorically that the Government should pay. If they can find £1bn to send to Northern Ireland, that gets more spending per capita than anywhere else, to buy 10 votes, then these people, living in high-rise towers, deserve better.” …

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-cladding-scandal-council-funding-government-no-guarantee-local-government-budgets-a7809216.html

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28 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Audit (EDDC), EDDC, KPMG, Scrutiny, Transparency

EDDC Audit and Governance: new auditors find much to comment on

A little late, as the meeting is tomorrow, but anyone with a spare couple of hours (!) might want to spend it poring over the agenda of the Audit and Governance Committee.

A rather thorough going over after their appointment as auditors has seen KPMG out EDDC under the microscope.

Too many to list here, it has identified numerous financial and procedural weaknesses.

For quick reference the agenda is here:

Click to access 290617agcombined-agenda.pdf

and Owl found the following pages most interesting:

Pages 84-88 detailing financial weaknesses

Page 103 on weaknesses in contract Standing Orders and procurement procedures

Appendix A Risk Review – page 86

Click to access 290617bpauditgovernanceoperationalrisk.pdf

which contains this intriguing comment:

“Risk: [Identified as medium BOLD type is Owl’s]

Incapacitation of all staff for protracted period re Elections

In the event that all election staff were absent for a prolonged period the Council would fail to complete the canvass, fail to publish a revised register and fail to produce accurate data and registers for elections. In the event that the Electoral Services Officer/Manager was absent for a prolonged period it is unlikely that existing staff resources would accept managerial responsibilities.”

and finally – another coruscating reminder of the Section 106 scandal

Click to access item-12-management-of-s106-contributions-report.pdf

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27 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Council tax, EDDC, Environment (local), Ottery St Mary

Ottery St Mary complains about rubbish rubbish collections

Comments from Ottery Matters blog”

“… My parents has been missed ever since the new service started. Tbink they eventually got it collected last Friday after making several calls to EDDC.”

… There is an eddc app that you can use to report missed collections too.

… I spoke with the Waste Collection team earlier this afternoon – there as a long wait on hold, and when I eventually got through I was told that there have been hundreds of complaints about non-collection. Apparently many homes have been missed off the new routes.

First week of new scheme (in the heat wave) we had no collection and ended up with hundreds of maggots crawling out and over our food waste bin. Disgusting!!

So it seems like the new scheme is having major teething issues – and EDDC is failing to get the contractor to get on top of the issues.

… Neither has ours in Knightstones.

… We’ve been waiting 3 weeks in rockbeare! Well just our lane actually! Think we’ve been erased from the map!

… General enquiry. Has anyone else’s recycling not been collected for the last 2 weeks or is it just sunnyhill?”

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27 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DUP, East Devon Tories, General Election

What does £1 billion buy?

Owl says: just remember, if you voted Conservative in June, these are the kind of things things you stopped us having.

“During her disastrous election campaign Theresa May kindly reminded us that there is “no magic money tree” to fix the country’s cash problems.

But this week the struggling prime minister has managed to find a spare £1billion to make a deal with the DUP to prop up her minority government.

That’s enough to fund 26,000 nurses.

Or free school meals for all primary school children for a year.

Or sprinklers on 600 tower blocks.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/everyone-asking-theresa-ridiculous-presents-10695091

OR

A billion pounds will buy 147,000 state pensions or 300,000 jobseeker’s allowances for a year.

Alternatively it could fund 2.3 million people’s disability living allowance per annum – three quarters of the total.

It would cover all diagnostic imaging – MRI scans, x-rays – for a year with a bit left over for other jobs.

Or another way would be to fund 26,000 nurses or 12,000 hospital doctors for a year.

It could pay for 167,000 hip replacements or 1.4 million hospital day cases.

A billion pounds could also pay for two flagship hospitals, such as Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital which opened in 2010.

A billion pounds would provide an 8hr course of talking therapy for 2.5m people. Or 750,000 eight-session courses of mindfulness therapy.

Or the army could pay for 40 Challenger 2 tanks. The basic production cost in 2002 of each tank was £6m.

£1bn could fund 8,500 troops.

With £1bn the government could, for a year, fund 27,000 primary or 22,000 secondary school teachers.

Or give free school meals to 2.5m children.

The average cost of a free school is £6.6 million – so that would mean about new 150 free schools.

With £1bn the government could build 16,600 new social homes or 50,000 shared ownership homes, according to Shelter.

£1bn could make universal the offer of 15 hours a week of childcare for 37 weeks of the year.”

Facts courtesy of this tweet https://twitter.com/CerianJenkins/status/879332594839687170

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27 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Hinkley C, Local Enterprise Partnership

Nuclear inaction – it’s hotting up

Owl says: no worries, our Local Enterprise Partnership has it all under control. What? It doesn’t? It’s getting very warm in here …

Business Commentary – Alistair Osborne (The Times – paywall)

“Lucky the National Audit Office got its Hinkley Point C report out last week. Then, it merely concluded that the government had “locked consumers into a risky and expensive project with uncertain strategic and economic benefits”. Oh, and that the reactor was of “unproven” design and other projects incorporating it were “experiencing difficulties”.

Well, guess what?

The £18 billion bill is shooting up and Hinkley Point could be another two years late, at least if you believe Le Monde. A report over the weekend added a potential £2.7 billion to the cost of the project and put back the start date to 2027 — conjecture hardly denied by the main contractor, France’s EDF, which must pay for any cost hikes. It said only that it was doing a “full review of the costs and schedule”.

Still, all that’s just for starters. More alarmingly, France’s nuclear watchdog has just produced a howitzer of a ruling over one of the two prototypes for Hinkley: a similar European Pressurised Reactor at Flamanville in France.

Having ordered a review of the nuke after finding carbon spots in the reactor vessel, the regulator has now told EDF it will have to replace the vessel cover within a few years of operation unless it can pass further tests — a bit tricky as the cover is no longer accessible.

The upshot? It’ll be replacing the cover on a live nuke, much to the delight of the locals. Anyway, this is the kit on its way to Somerset. Gives you such a warm glow.”

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27 Jun 2017

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Accountability, EDDC, Environment (local)

EDDC’s new rubbish rubbish collection

From a correspondent:

“We are now in week 3 of the new collection scheme.

Week 1 (heatwave): Collection day Tuesday. Reported missed collection Wednesday morning. Told Thursday afternoon it had been collected but it hadn’t. Chased and chased.

Week 2 (still heatwave): Complained again because we had thousands of maggots crawling all over our kitchen waste bin (having been stood in the sun for more than a week). Eventually collection made – but this was not the missed one – it was the next one.

Week 3 (today): Bins not collected again. Call centre clogged with calls from irate residents. EDDC apologetic – and say that there are hundreds of people calling to complain – but simply wringing their hands, not actually doing anything to fix it.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how EDDC PR dept can churn out PR after PR hyping what the council claims it is doing well – but not a peep out of them we residents deserve an apology and an explanation and details of an action plan to fix it.”

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27 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, East Devon Tories, General Election

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Just how much can you rip voters off before they reject you?

“Ask any returning or new MP what the big issues were during the election campaign and I bet most would have school cuts and police cuts top of the list. Indeed, at the beginning of the campaign, before the manifestos which changed the course of the election, I felt our school gates campaign was our strongest card and it would only be a matter of time before the Tories closed it down, as they did in 2015 on the NHS, with a promise to meet the shortfall.

Yet, with the arrogance and complacency that became the hallmark of their campaign, the Tories continued with their defensive line that school budgets were protected in cash terms (not real terms).

The Tories then adopted a similar (and wrong) strategy when police numbers took centre stage in the wake of the Manchester and London terror attacks, with Theresa May completely unable to say she’d “give the police the resources they need.”

In today’s Daily Mail, Tory MPs complain that headteachers lost them the election. Wrong. It was their own policies (and inability to change) which lost them the election. Polls after the election estimated that over three quarters of a million people changed the way they voted because of school funding cuts.

It wasn’t the fault of headteachers, nor the Chief Constables of the Met Police and Greater Manchester Police who also cited resource pressures, it was the Tory government’s own record on these issues.

The public can cope with a certain amount of “efficiencies” and necessary cost-cutting, but when their kids are in oversized classes without text books, and their hot lunches are being scrapped for a cold breakfast, or when our streets and communities become unsafe because of unsustainable cuts to the police, that’s when people get rightly very concerned.

The Tories failure to get this, is the biggest failure of their campaign and their government. It made Theresa May look remote and shifty on the campaign trail, unable to answer a straight question with a straight answer.

The Queen’s Speech shows that they’ve completely failed to learn the lessons of their election losses with no new money for schools or the police.

What an irony then that their own “magic money tree” has produced £1billion for their grubby deal with the DUP. This same billion pounds used at the start of the campaign to meet the shortfall in schools’ budgets and to give the police the resources they need with extra police officers, could have won them a majority, probably quite comfortably. Instead they are now going to have to find at least another £1billion to deal with the ever growing, and legitimate, calls of senior police officers and head teachers for adequate resources. The NUT has estimated that if English schools were given the same proportion of funding under this bung to the DUP as Northern Irish schools head teachers would receive over half a billion pounds.

The Tories key lines against Labour so effectively used in 2015 now all look in tatters, for the long term. It’s a common view that this election was a disaster for them, their dodgy deal with the DUP will only lead to more pain unless they learn the lessons of the election campaign.

Lucy Powell is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Manchester Central”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lucy-powell/general-election-2017-public-services_b_17304168.html