Category Archives: Accountability

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20 Jun 2017

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Accountability, East Devon Electoral/Returning Officer, EDDC, General Election, Mark Williams CEO EDDC, Voting

Plymouth sets up independently inquiry into voting problems

Owl says: chances of EDDC investigating its postal voting screw-up? Zero!

“Plymouth City Council has set up an independent investigation over administrative issues in the lead-up to the general election earlier this month.

The investigation, which has been jointly commissioned with the Electoral Commission, was launched after problems emerged with the sending out of postal vote packs to people who had applied for them.

The Guardian reported that the loss of 1,500 postal voting packs was being blamed on a computer problem.

The council had already apologised after the final number of votes declared for the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency was incorrect. In that instance some 6,587 votes for Efford and Lipson were not included in the final declaration for the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

The investigation will be led by Dr Dave Smith, former chief executive of Sunderland City Council. Dr Smith sits on the Elections and Referendum Steering Group. He is also a non-executive board member for the Cabinet Office Electoral Registration Transformation Board and leads on elections and democracy for Solace.

His investigation will cover all issues relating to the election including:
The processes and controls around election planning.
The factors that led to postal voting packs not being received.
The sequence of events and consequences at each stage.
An assessment of the overall numbers of voters affected.
The approach, effectiveness and timeliness of remedial action taken to rectify the issue, once the council became aware of the scale of the problem.
The advice and guidance provided by the Electoral Commission regarding the council’s responsibilities, and their adopted method of resolving the issue.
The staffing and operation of the election call centre leading up to the day of the election, and on polling day itself.
The effectiveness of communications, and the way in which customer enquiries were dealt with.
Evidence of customer interactions including the outcomes and levels of satisfaction.
The general effectiveness of the elections and electoral registration function, including the capacity and capability of the team.
The robustness of systems and processes, with a particular focus on applications for, and distribution of postal votes.
Any other matters that might have influenced the elections process or response to the issues encountered.

Dr Smith will present the findings and recommendations from his investigation to a meeting of the full council “within the next few months”, Plymouth said.

The council has called on anyone who has further information or comments to provide this to the investigation through a portal that has been set up on its website. All information and comments submitted through the portal will go direct to Mr Smith.

See also: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/electionreview

Council Leader Ian Bowyer said: “I am deeply concerned by the problems that have occurred with the administration of the General Election and want to be assured that we urgently get to the bottom of what happened and why. The Chief Executive and Acting Returning Officer announced at an early stage that a full and independent external investigation will be held, which is essential as we must ensure that these problems can never recur.

“I have asked that the investigation makes every effort to hear evidence from as many people in Plymouth as possible who have been affected by the problems. This way the investigators will be able to better understand the problems, how and why they happened and how many people were affected.”
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough earlier this month called in the Association of Electoral Administrators to conduct an independent review of the Parliamentary election.

The council said this followed “adverse coverage in the media and also social media about the process of the election”.

Criticisms focused on: the issue of postal votes; individuals whose application to join the Electoral Register was awaiting determination; and voters who had been added to the Electoral Register after the issue of poll cards being able to vote in polling stations.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31578%3Acity-council-sets-up-independent-inquiry-over-election-and-postal-vote-problems&catid=59&Itemid=27

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20 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

DCC Scrutiny Committee “frustrating” for Seaton and Honiton community hospitals says Seaton DCC councillor

Posted by Martin Shaw, DCC Independent East Devon Alliance councillor for Seaton:

“The Health Scrutiny Committee meeting at County Hall yesterday was incredibly frustrating for the 60 or so supporters of Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton hospitals who attended. It resolved nothing and there will be another meeting before the end of July to consider the matter again (I will tell you when the date is fixed).

You can watch the meeting at https://devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/288543.

The speakers in the public participation at the beginning were good, much better than most of the committee discussion. My speech is at 0.34.50. You may have seen that we also made a good splash on regional TV.

There WAS progress, I think, in pinning down the irrationality of the decision to close Seaton’s beds. Speeches supporting Seaton were made by Martin Pigott, Vice-Chair of Seaton Town Council, Mike McAlpine, Chair of the committee for the Axe Valley Health Hub, Cllr Ian Hall of Axminster, as well as myself.

The issue was picked up on the committee, especially by Cllr Hilary Ackland, who twice challenged Dr Sonja Manton of the CCG on the issue. Manton declined to answer Ackland’s specific question.

I feel we can build on this at the re-run meeting. We also have an opportunity to challenge the CCG (who are answering questions from councillors) at EDDC’s Scrutiny Committee on Thursday at 6pm. EDDC doesn’t have any power but I think we should keep up the pressure on the CCG. I have put down to speak. If anyone else can do it – email Debbie Meakin dmeakin@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Would anyone who can come to this meeting – whether to speak or not – let me know (cllrmartinshaw@gmail.com)?

Thanks to all who came and who sent emails (they really had an effect).

A frustrating day, but further chances on Thursday and in July to challenge the CCG

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20 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Hinkley C, Local Enterprise Partnership

“Sizewell B and 27 other EDF nuclear plants ‘at risk of catastrophic failure”

“A new report finds that 28 nuclear reactors, 18 of them EDF plants in France and one at Sizewell in the UK, are at risk of failure ‘including core meltdown’ due to flaws in safety-critical components in reactor vessels and steam generators, writes Oliver Tickell. The news comes as EDF credit is downgraded due to a growing cash flow crisis and its decision to press on with Hinkley C.

A new review of the safety of France’s nuclear power stations has found that at least 18 of EDF’s units are are “operating at risk of major accident due to carbon anomalies.”

The review was carried out at the request of Greenpeace France following the discovery of serious metallurgical flaws by French regulators in a reactor vessel at Flamanville, where an EPR plant is under construction.

The problem is that parts of the vessel and its cap contain high levels of carbon, making the metal brittle and potentially subject to catastrophic failure. These key components were provided by French nuclear engineering firm Areva, and forged at its Le Creusot.

“The nature of the flaw in the steel, an excess of carbon, reduces steel toughness and renders the components vulnerable to fast fracture and catastrophic failure putting the NPP at risk of a major radioactive release to the environment”, says nuclear safety expert John Large, whose consultancy Large Associates (LA) carried out the Review.

His report examines how the defects in the Flamanville EPR reactor pressure vessel came about during the manufacturing process, and escaped detection for years after forging. It then goes on to investigate what other safety-critical nuclear components might be suffering from the same defects.

Steam generators at 28 EDF nuclear sites at risk

After several months of investigation LA found that critical components of a further 28 nuclear plants were forged by Le Creusot using the same process. These are found in the steam generators – large, pod-like boilers – that have been installed at operational EDF nuclear power stations across France.

The conclusion is based on documents provided by IRSN (the independent French Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire) that reject assurances given by both EDF and Areva that there is no safety risk from steam generators containing the excess carbon flaw.

In August 2016, IRSN warned the French nuclear safety regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) that:

EdF’s submission was incomplete;

there is a risk of abrupt rupture which could lead to a reactor core fuel melt; and

immediate “compensatory” measures need to be put in place to safeguard the operational NPPs involved.

… EDF stated yesterday that it will carry out further tests on 12 nuclear reactors during their planned outages in the coming months – and that extended periods of outage are to be expected. “There are outages that could take longer than planned”, an EDF spokesman told Reuters.

“In 2015, we discovered the phenomenon of carbon segregation in the Flammanville EPR reactor. We decided to verify other equipments in the French nuclear park to make sure that other components are not impacted by the phenomenon.”

In anticipation of the nuclear closures, year-ahead electricity prices rose in the French wholesale power market, forcing power rises across Europe up to a one-year high.

Meanwhile Moody’s has downgraded EDF credit ratings across a spectrum of credit instruments. EDF’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings fell from A2 to A3 while perpetual junior subordinated debt ratings fell to Baa3 from Baa2. Moody’s also downgraded the group’s short-term ratings to Prime-2 from Prime-1.

The Review also shows that the reactor pressure vessel of the Flamanville EPR, which is already installed, does not have a Certificate of Conformity issued by ASN. This means that it does not comply with the European Directive on Pressure Equipment, nor does it meet the mandatory requirement of the ASN, which since 2008, stipulates that any new nuclear reactor coolant circuit component has to have a Certificate of Conformity before its production commences.

“Without a Certificate of Conformity the reactor pressure vessel and steam generators currently installed in Flamanville 3 will almost certainly have to be scrapped”, said Roger Spautz, responsible for nuclear campaign at Greenpeace France.

The review, he added, “reveals evidence that at the Creusot Forge plant, Areva did not have the technical qualifications required to meet exacting nuclear safety standards. The plant was not under effective control and therefore had not mastered the necessary procedures for maintaining the exacting standards for quality control in the manufacture of safety-critical nuclear components.”

Areva has now acknowledged that ineffective quality controls at le Creusot Forge were mainly responsible not only for the flaws in the Flamanvile 3 EPR, but across other operational nuclear power plans – and that the technical failures date back to 1965.

Moreover, ASN has indicated that in the nuclear components supply chain three examples of Counterfeit, Fraudulent and Substandard Items (CFSI) have occurred in the year ending 2015.

The recent ASN publication (24th September 2016) of a list of the NPPs affected by the AREVA anomalies and irregularities demonstrates that the phenomenon not only has reached alarming proportions but is continuing to grow under scrutiny.

The number of components affected by irregularities and installed in NPPs in operation increased by 50 in April 2016 from 33 to 83 by 24th September this year. Irregularities affecting the Flamanville EPR increased from two to 20 over the same period.

… As for For Hinkley Point C, it now appears inevitable that the Flamanville reactor will not be completeted by its target date of the end of 2020, indeed it may very well never be completed at all. Under the terms of agreement for the plant’s construction accepted by the European Commission, this would render the UK government unable to extend promised credit guarantees to HPC’s financial backers.

“Now that ASN has deprioritized efforts on the under-construction Flamanville 3 NPP because of its pressing urgency to evaluate the risk situation for the operating NPPs”, says Large, “there is a greater likelihood that Flamanville 3 will not reach the deadline for operation and validation of its technology by the UK Credit Guarantee cut-off date of December 2020.”

Also at risk are the two EPRs that Areva and EDF are currently constructing at Taishan in China. These are now at the most advanced stage of any EPR projects in the world, however there are increasing fears that they contain faulty components.

The vessels and domes at Taishan were also supplied by Areva, and manufactured by the same process as that utilised by Le Creusot. It is suspected that Chinese nuclear regulators may have decided to overlook this problem and hope for the best. However if they discover that the steam generators, which along with the reactor vessels have already been installed, are also at risk of catastrophic failure, that might prove a risk too far – even for China.

The danger for EDF and Areva is that the massive commercial liabilities they may be accruing for faulty reactors supplied to third parties, together with the tens of billions of euros of capital write-downs for projects they have to abandon, and the loss of generation revenues due to plant outages, could easily exceed their entire market capitalisation.

In other words: for EDF, Areva, their shareholders and the entire French nuclear industry, the end really could be nigh.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2988175/sizewell_b_and_27_other_edf_nuclear_plants_at_risk_of_catastrophic_failure.html

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20 Jun 2017

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Accountability, DCC, EDDC, Mark Williams CEO EDDC, Paul Diviani

Can officers and councillors work together? Owl, donkey, fox or sheep?

“… Because the goals of officers and members are often incompatible, organisational conflict is inevitable and inherent, but it’s also important to remember it’s not, of itself neither “good” nor “bad”.

Political competence on the part of both political and managerial leaders is essential to the successful achievement of workable compromises. Politically competent managers expect resistance to their attempts to achieve the best outcomes, but nevertheless keep on using their small “p” political skills and attributes, including influencing and resilience, until they get the right results.

It’s important to remember that those tensions and conflicts — and the inevitable frustrations — do serve an important purpose. Political and managerial leadership should be collaborative but not collusive. Members and officers all need someone who can tell them when they are wrong to maintain a healthy balance between collaboration and mutual challenge.

Successful political leaders and senior officers are distinguished by their ability to construct trust, through collaborative approaches to leadership, to enable them to manage the tension and potential conflict between the different political and managerial logics.

Baddeley and James (1987) describe four types of political behaviour, which are distinguished by varying degrees of integrity and politically awareness. They use animal characteristics to describe the behaviours which help or hinder the effective management of the political and managerial interface.

A lot depends on the extent to which people are both politically aware and acting with integrity. We may hope that all senior political leaders and managers are “owls” — both politically aware and acting with integrity, but those operating at the political and managerial interface have to be prepared to recognise “foxes” and to limit the damage caused by compliant and naïve “sheep” or self-serving and politically incompetent “donkeys”.

You have an important role and invaluable expertise but that isn’t enough to ensure members will listen to your advice, no matter how right you are. Don’t forget that political and managerial logics are very different. We might like to think that everyone we work with is an ‘owl’ but we’ll all meet plenty of ‘foxes’ – as you’d expect in a political environment – and more than enough ‘donkeys’ and ‘sheep’.

The secrets of success for managing relationships with members: develop relationships of trust but don’t collude. And tell them the truth but not in a way that causes them to reject both you and the message. You are a professional but you should not try to assert your professional status by talking down to members or making them feel foolish — no good will come of it. You may need to spend more time on complex issues than you’d expect. Use questions to start difficult conversations: “How do you think we should tackle this?” rather than starting with a statement, “this is what we should do”. Enjoy!…”

http://www.room151.co.uk/resources/officer-member-relationships-trust-is-the-key/

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Inequality

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Guardian letters today on Grenfell Tower

“Polly Toynbee is right to point to the failures of regulation as a factor behind the Grenfell Tower disaster (A leader too afraid to meet her people is finished, 17 June). Unlike the healthcare, social care and education sectors, social housing in England no longer has an inspection regime that assesses the performance of landlords delivering services to the 4 million households living in housing association or local authority housing. Between 2000 and 2010 the Audit Commission carried out 1,400 housing inspections of housing associations and local authorities, but when the commission was abolished by the coalition government these inspections stopped.

The current social housing regulator – the Homes and Communities Agency – focuses its resources on the “financial viability” and “governance” of housing associations; its interest in service delivery is almost non-existent. Some of the commission’s inspections focused on safety issues in social housing (particularly gas safety).

The HCA still has the powers to inspect social housing providers under the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. These powers should be invoked to assess whether the systems are in place to protect tenants in future from the sort of catastrophe that befell Grenfell Tower.
Roger Jarman
Former head of housing, Audit Commission

• Inequality and indifference to the rights of poor people may well be the underlying ethos that threatens British society, but the translation of that indifference into legislative collective punishment is the cause. The core injustice can be traced to the Localism Act 2011, introduced by Eric Pickles, which swept away independent oversight of local government, to be replaced by “armchair auditors”.

Couple that with the media-led frenzy for deregulation, the wholesale commercialisation of public services, and the diminution of any sense of public service in government, and the end result is self-evident. Not just Grenfell Tower and the associated paralysis of any official response, but in the state of our schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure, and staffing levels of our emergency services. Pursuit of profit without a moral compass has failed; the country needs a change in direction.
Eric Goodyer
Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland

• The government website makes the following boast: “Over 2,400 regulations scrapped through the Red Tape Challenge; Saving home builders and councils around £100m by reducing 100s of locally applied housing standards to 5 national standards; £90m annual savings to business from Defra reducing environmental guidance by over 80%; Businesses with good records have had fire safety inspections reduced from 6 hours to 45 minutes, allowing managers to quickly get back to their day job”.

The problem with regulations is that their utility and importance only become apparent when what they are intended to control goes wrong as it did so tragically at Grenfell Tower. How many of the 2,400 regulations removed were standing in the way of other tragedies occurring? We will not know until the next tragic event. Reducing the time for fire safety inspections does not look as smart now as it did when the government started boasting about it.
Dr John Cookson
Bournemouth

• Will families left homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire be exempted from the ever lower means tests for benefits? Anything more than the initial guaranteed £5,500 minimum payment to each household (Report, 19 June) will fall foul of the limits for working tax credits and income-rated benefits, which have been frozen at £8,000 and lowered to £6,000 for universal credit when payments are tapered away and stopped for those with more than £18,000 in savings.

Rather than announcing ad hoc exceptions, like those following the Manchester bombings, is it not time to exempt all compensation awards and reconsider what these petty-minded benefit rules do for anybody saving for a deposit who loses their job or becomes ill? They actively discourage saving and self-reliance.
David Nowell
New Barnet, Hertfordshire

• It was heartening to read that the government is give £5,500 to each household affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It would be even more heartening if this were accompanied by a rethink of the policy that in 2013 devolved responsibility for providing assistance in such circumstances to local authorities, which has resulted in a patchwork of provision. In Kensington and Chelsea, individuals and families left homeless by fire or other emergency would normally only have recourse to a local support payments scheme. These are only available to people on qualifying benefits, means-tested, and are in the form of secondhand furniture and white goods, or sometimes store vouchers – never cash.
Ian Barrett
Woking

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/19/grenfell-tower-shows-that-poor-tenants-cannot-rely-on-armchair-auditors-to-protect-them

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Accountability, Claire Wright, DCC, Health and Social Care (local), Martin Shaw, NHS (local)

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DCC community hospitals stitch up – part 2

“Councillors have delayed a decision to refer “Orwellian” plans to close hospital beds across Devon to the Health Secretary after a bad-tempered meeting at County Hall.

Placard-waving protesters gathered outside Devon County Council’s Exeter headquarters today to demand that controversial NHS plans be sent to Jeremy Hunt.

Critics of the NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) scheme to close community hospital beds in Exeter, Seaton, Honiton and Okehampton, packed into a meeting of the health scrutiny committee on Monday.

A string of opponents were invited to speak and criticised the CCG for failing to demonstrate how adequate care would be provided in the community.

Independent East Devon Alliance County Councillor for Seaton and Colyton Martin Shaw said the CCG has never made the case for the “unmanageable” and “Orwellian” plan.

Fellow independent councillor for Ottery St Mary Claire Wright told the committee that a raft of assurances had failed to materialise from the CCG despite repeated requests.

Devon County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee had previously objected to the decision by NEW Devon CCG to reduce the number of community hospital beds in Eastern Devon from 143 to 72 and regardless of cost no bed closures be made until it is clear there was sufficient community care provision.”

They said: “If adequate assurances are not given to the above and the issues set out below, the CCG’s decision be referred to the Secretary of State for Health on the grounds that it was not in the in the interests of the health service in the area and the consultation was flawed and there is no clear explanation of what care at home will look like or work and this model has frequently been mixed up with Hospital at Home which is entirely different.

Representatives from the CCG, who were questioned by the committee, asked councillors to work with them locally in a “constructive way” rather than involving Mr Hunt.

A spokeswoman said 200 staff were under consultation as the new plan to provide home care took shape.

However, they failed to satisfy members of the newly-formed committee on 14 separate grounds drawn up by the previous committee prior to the May election.

Ms Wright proposed a motion to refer the matter to the Secretary of State for Health, which was seconded by Liberal Democrat former county council leader Brian Greenslade.

Conservatives on the committee questioned the usefulness of such a referral, a complicated procedure which requires that a fully-financed alternative plan be submitted.

A suggestion by committee chairman Sarah Randall Johnson that a decision on the referral be postponed until September was met with jeering from the public gallery.

Protesters shouted down the move, claiming time is pressing as bed closures have already begun, prompting the chairman to threaten to clear the meeting.

After two hours of debate, an amendment which postponed the decision unto an emergency meeting no later than the end of July was unanimously agreed.

Speaking after the meeting, campaigner Gillian Pritchett, who chairs the group Save Our Hospital Services in Honiton, said she was “totally unhappy” with the decision.

“Beds are being closed, the system is already in place,” she told Devon Live.

“The whole thing is a waste of time as (the CCG) will continue to close beds.”

Ms Wright said the meeting had been “incredibly frustrating”

“There was incontrovertible evidence to refer this to the Secretary of State,” she added.

“Those 14 grounds the committee came up with still stood.”

http://www.devonlive.com/committee-delays-plan-to-refer-devon-hospital-bed-closures-to-secretary-of-state/story-30398766-detail/story.html

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Political choices

“… I’m aware that I am making assumptions about the causes of the fire’s rapid spread and we must all wait for the investigators to reach their conclusions, but the lessons of Lakanal House and other fires are well established. Stopping future fires is all about political choices. Brandon Lewis’s rejection of a proposal to make sprinklers compulsory for high rises in 2014 when he was housing minister was a choice. Cutting back on the number of fire crews, or the budgets for planning officers due to austerity, is a choice. An ideological aversion to red tape and the deriding of our health and safety culture are political choices and ones we should now think carefully about.

Housing minister Brandon Lewis’s rejection of a proposal to make sprinklers compulsory in high rises was a choice. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/commentisfree/2017/jun/19/grenfell-tower-lakanal-house-inquest-fire-safety

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Claire Wright, East Devon Alliance, Health and Social Care (local), Martin Shaw, NHS (local)

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Sarah Randall-Johnson postpones decision on community hospital bed closures

Apparently, she and other Tory councillors decided her committee didn’t have time to study the CCG’s response to their earlier meeting and the CCG needs more time too.

Stitch-up?

What do you think?

Awaiting more news from independent EDDC councillors Claire Wright (on the committee) and Martin Shaw (newly elected East Devon Alliance DCC councillor).

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Chief of “Success Regime” ‘retires’ after a year in the post

Apparently, she said she had always planned to retire at 60.

Did the (Un)Success(ful) Regime know that when they appointed her?

https://www.newdevonccg.nhs.uk/2016-news-archive/lead-chief-executive-appointed-for-success-regime-101928

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, General Election, Post-Brexit Adjustments

DUP links to extremism

” … No one questions the strong relationship historically between Sinn Fein and the IRA. Theresa May seems to be overlooking the similar strong relationship between the DUP and Loyalist paramilitarism. The DUP’s founder Paisley was careful to incite and condone Loyalist violence. However, at certain key moments the DUP collaborated openly and directly with Loyalist paramilitaries, for example, during the Ulster Workers’ Strike in 1974, in mass protests in 1977, and again in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.

In 1986 the DUP formed its own terrorist organisation, Ulster Resistance, which became part of the combined loyalist paramilitary command, and co-organised illegal arms shipments. Current MP Sammy Wilson chaired the opening meeting of Ulster Resistance, and current MP Emma Little-Pengelly’s father was convicted of arms smuggling for Ulster Resistance.

May has been a leading advocate of strengthening the UK Prevent Strategy against violent and non-violent extremism that conflicts with “British values”. In making a deal with the DUP she not only endangers UK national interests, but is also further damaging the credibility of government policy on violent and non-violent extremism.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of Democratic Audit.

http://www.democraticaudit.com/2017/06/19/the-dups-extremist-links-make-it-unfit-to-join-a-conservative-alliance/

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Claire Wright, DCC, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Crucial health meeting at DCC this afternoon

“Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee will today examine the case for closing 72 community beds across Eastern Devon to see whether it can be justified.Back at the March health scrutiny meeting it appeared that a decision had been made in a huge hurry with a large range of important issues left unresolved. See my report of that meeting here –

http://www.claire.wright.org/index.php/post/hospital_bed_cuts_to_be_referred_to_secretary_of_state_for_health_unless_ra

The Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group has now responded to the proposal I made at the last health scrutiny committee, requiring justification on 14 grounds.

It was agreed at the March committee that if those grounds were not deemed to be satisfactory, then the committee would have the option of referring the decision to the Secretary of State for Health. I have read the paperwork and corresponding related papers and I don’t believe there the slightest justification for the decision to halve the remaining community hospital beds in Eastern Devon.

The meeting is held at County Hall and starts at 2.15pm and will be live webcast here –

https://devoncc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home Here are the agenda papers -http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=429&MId=2581&Ver=4

Source: claire-wright.org

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, EDDC, Exmouth, Grenadier, Regeneration

“Hundreds form ‘conga cordon’ as they bid to Save Exmouth Seafront”

Owl says: with current re-thinking on austerity (aka massive Tory u-turn) and new dialogue about social responsibility and inequality (Labour) might it be time to go back to local authorities working for residents instead of being just big businesses sucking up our money for vanity projects for greedy developers?

“Hundreds of protesters formed a conga cordon around Exmouth seafront on Saturday to around businesses that will have to close at the end of the summer as a result of multi-million pound redevelopment plans.

… Nick Hookway, Save Exmouth Seafront spokesman, said that the group are invigorated after Saturday following the support that they received from the public.

“The event was so successful that we are thinking about having stands on the seafront every weekend throughout the summer so people can find out about the proposals.”

He added that the feeling he got from speaking to people at the event was that no-one was in favour of the proposals as they currently are.

He said: “Why are the council carrying on with the proposals when there is no developer interested, apart from the watersports centre which is just a small part of the plan.

“When the fun park closes, the rest of the seafront will just be derelict and it is horrifying the thought of the seafront being all boarded up.

“We are concerned that the area will be left empty and there will be an air of dereliction about the whole site. Why should Exmouth residents have to put up with a derelict seafront as a result of this? There is already an air of dereliction on the site as metal hoardings appear. This is a situation that will get worse when these last two businesses close.

“It is very encouraging the level of support that we received and we will continue to put our point across and hope we will be able to influence the developers when they do put in their watersports centre plans.

“Most people recognise and do want to see the area given a makeover. But we want something that is built in line with the environment and with the full support of and after consultation with the people of Exmouth. You could come up with something imaginative that would be supported.

“We are invigorated after the event that was such a success and will continue to get our voice heard.”

http://www.devonlive.com/hundreds-form-conga-cordon-as-they-bid-to-save-exmouth-seafront/story-30397770-detail/story.html

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Demonstration against community hospital cuts today 1 pm County Hall

BBC Radio Devon
Posted at
8:42

“Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt may be asked to review the decision to close community hospital beds in east and mid Devon.

The county’s new health and adult care scrutiny committee is discussing the plans to close beds in Honiton, Okehampton, Whipton and Seaton at its meeting today.

Local councillors said they needed assurances over staffing and the future of buildings.”

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19 Jun 2017

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The problem with “arms length” relationships with councils

“Grenfell Tower residents complained two years ago about the refurbishment of the building being done “using cheap materials” and workmanship that “cut corners”, The Independent can reveal.

They later claimed that Conservative-led Kensington and Chelsea Council, owner of the building consumed by fire on Wednesday, had done nothing to address their concerns.

Surfacing days after the catastrophic blaze that killed at least 30 people, the allegations are likely to fuel claims that cost-cutting might have been put before safety.

They come amid reports that cladding used in the refurbishment contained a flammable plastic core, of a kind allegedly banned in the US for buildings taller than 40ft, despite a fire resistant alternative costing only about £5,000 extra. …

Minutes from an emergency residents’ meeting held on 17 March 2015 show that more than 100 people living in the block produced a long list of issues about the refurbishment.

The minutes detail anxieties about the way the firm Rydon was doing the work and the role of the tower’s administrators Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) and mention the “concern that TMO/Rydon are using cheap materials” and “cutting corners” on workmanship.

Other problems included “grave concerns at standard of works inside a number of residents’ properties”.

Kensington and Chelsea Council, which owns Grenfell Tower, told residents a working group would be commissioned “at some point in the future” to investigate their worries. But in June 2016, six months after receiving this promise, the Grenfell Action Group claimed nothing had been done.

… It has also emerged that in order to save money, Kensington and Chelsea council ditched Leadbitter, the original proposed contractor, and instead went with Rydon’s cheaper bid for the refurbishment work.

In July 2013 the council’s Housing and Property Scrutiny Committee proposed to “market test the works through an open tender” after noting: “Leadbitter currently estimate the cost of the works to be £1.6m above the current, proposed budget.”

Rydon eventually completed the refurbishment in May 2016, for £2.5m less than the £11.278m quoted by Leadbitter.

… Olesea Matcovschi, chairwoman of the residents association for the Lancaster West Estate, which contains Grenfell Tower, said tenants who raised concerns about the building were considered “troublemakers” by the council.

… Responding to the anger of local people, Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Nick Paget-Brown insisted: “It’s not a question of wealth, it’s not question of economy. This was a major refurbishment of a tower.”

He told Sky News: “Clearly something has gone tragically wrong, but the intention was to improve the quality of the housing, and to ensure heating systems, boilers, central heating, insulation was improved. That was the whole purpose of doing this renovation.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-fire-residents-fears-warnings-ignored-kensington-chelsea-borough-council-tmo-a7794086.html

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), Inequality

“Government ministers have been heavily criticised after quietly abandoning the requirement for fire sprinklers to be fitted in new schools, in what has been called a “retrograde step” by fire chiefs.

An update to the Department of Education’s (DfE) Design in Fire Safety in Schools stated that “Building Regulations do not require the installation of fire sprinkler suppression systems in school buildings for life safety”.

“Therefore,” it added, “[guidelines] no longer include an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them.”

The move has been lambasted by fire officers and follows two recent major school fires.

More than 75 firefighters were called out to tackle a blaze at Selsey Academy in Sussex on 21 August leaving the structure “effectively a skeleton”, while on 24 August, 12 fire engines tackled a blaze at Cecil Jones Academy in Southend-on-Sea.

Julian Parsons, of the Chief Fire Officers Association, told The Argus: “This is a retrograde step that doesn’t make any sense. Sprinklers don’t just save lives, they prevent fires from spreading and causing significant damage and disruption to our children’s education.”

Brian Robinson, Chairman of the Fire Sector Federations, said the Government “appears to have relegated the principles of property protection to an afterthought”.

He added: “Many of our members see no reason to change the current policy of a risk-based approach for the requirement to install sprinklers in schools and urge the Department to reconsider.”

Responding to the move, Angela Rayner, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Women and Equalities, said in a Twitter post: “A disgrace, Tory Ministers are to remove requirement to have water sprinklers fitted to new schools, sneaking announcement out on DfE website.”

Installing sprinklers into new schools was a policy introduced in 2007 by Labour Schools Minister Jim Knight.

According to research by the Chief Fire Officers Association there have been 5,132 fires in educational buildings between 2003/04 and 2013/14, resulting in 148 casualties.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Children’s safety is paramount, and we are clear that sprinklers should always be fitted in new school buildings where required by fire safety legislation, and where a fire risk assessment shows that a school is high risk. This policy is absolutely in line with the latest fire safety advice.

“In revising the Fire Safety Design for Schools guidance, consultant fire safety specialists were used and the draft was reviewed and quality assured by the Building Research Establishment. Our consultation on the draft received a good response, including from the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and a number of fire and rescue services, whose comments we will take into account before publication.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-criticised-over-quietly-abandoning-requirement-for-new-schools-to-install-fire-sprinklers-a7219276.html

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18 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Economy

What really happens in a “free market”

Five years ago, the state of Kansas (USA) was taken by its Republican Governor, Sam Brownback, into the most aggressive free market economy imaginable – the sort that has been favoured by our own Conservative government. It involved tax cuts (or even no tax at all) for the rich and big companies. Last week the policy was cancelled as a hopeless failure.

“Last week, the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature took the remarkable step of overriding the governor’s veto, finally repealing his signature tax cuts. Those tax cuts, which reduced personal income tax rates and imposed no tax at all on many kinds of business income, went into effect in 2013, and were touted by Brownback and other leading supply-side figures as the best way to boost growth, bring back jobs, and make Kansas richer.”

… On the day that the tax cuts were enacted, the Kansas City Star ran a story in which the governor’s revenue secretary, Nick Jordan, promised that the tax cuts would yield big benefits for Kansas. It’s worth quoting a paragraph from that report in full since it sets out Brownback’s own terms for his tax “experiment.”

“Nick Jordan, the state’s revenue secretary, said the administration ultimately imagines the creation of 22,000 more jobs over ‘normal growth’ and 35,000 more people moving into the state over the next five years. And he expects the tax changes to expand disposable income by $2 billion over the same period.”

In fact, over the period Kansas lost 49,000 jobs, ended up with a population 85,000 less than anticipated and disposable income was $20 billion short – and it had a lower growth rate than surrounding states. It got so bad that parents, angered by cuts to school funding, took the state legislature to court and got previous levels of funding reinstated.

“The idea that cutting taxes especially for the rich will boost growth and make everyone better off remains a central, if misguided, element of many economic proposals. President Trump’s tax plan, for instance, includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that would flow overwhelmingly to millionaires and wealthy corporations.

It even includes a very similar proposal to Brownback’s policy of giving a special low tax rate for so-called “pass-through” income.

With the remarkable failure of the Brownback tax cuts in Kansas, we can hope that at least some leaders and economic policymakers will begin to adjust their theories to meet the facts, just as the Republican-controlled Kansas state legislature has done.”

http://uk.businessinsider.com/kansas-experiment-with-tax-cutting-failed-on-its-own-terms-2017-6?r=US&IR=T

Read more here:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15753510/kansas-brownback-tax-reform

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18 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Inequality

Telegraph: planning permissions being granted in wrong places

“Planning permissions granted for new homes are being concentrated in the wrong areas, where there is less need for housing, according to new research by Savills.

It found that there is a lack of 90,000 planning consents for homes in the least affordable and most in-demand areas of the country.

Only 20pc of planning consents in 2016 were in the most unaffordable places, where the lowest priced homes are at least 11.4 times income. However, 40pc of the country’s total need for new homes is in these markets, while there is a surplus of consents in the most affordable locations.

Research found that in areas where the house price to earnings ratio is over 11.4, which includes London and much of the South East, there is a shortfall of 73,000 planning consents for homes.

Since the National Planning Policy Framework was launched four years ago, with the aim of simplifying the system, there has been a 56pc increase in the number of consents granted.

But analysis shows that there has not been any increase in the areas where affordability is most stretched and where housing need is the greatest.

The Savills report said: “This means we are not building enough homes in areas where they are most needed to improve affordability and support economic productivity.”

Only 41pc of local authorities have a housing plan which sets out housing need and a five-year plan of how to cater for it.

Savills also modelled the potential impact of the Housing Delivery Test, which was announced in the Housing White Paper last February and would assess need based on market strength in an attempt to build “homes in the right places”. It found that it would double London’s housing need to more than 100,000 homes.

Chris Buckle, Savills research director, said: “There continues to be a massive shortfall in London and its surrounds and it is this misalignment of housing need versus delivery which could ultimately hinder economic growth.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/planning-permissions-new-homes-granted-wrong-areas-says-new/