Category Archives: Accountability
“‘A political choice’: UN envoy says UK can help all who hit hard times”
“What tells you most about a society is how it treats its poor and vulnerable, the UN special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, told a packed public meeting held in the UK’s poorest neighbourhood on Sunday.
He said a wealthy country could decide to help all those who hit hard times, ensure that they don’t slip through the net and are able to live a life of dignity: “It’s a political choice.”
Alston was in Jaywick, a tiny village by the sea in the south-east corner of Essex. It has found itself at the top of official indices of deprivation since 2010, and in countless articles and TV documentaries has come to symbolise the kind of bleak and gaudy poverty fuelled by chronic economic neglect and social breakdown. …”
“More than one public play park is closed every WEEK as green spaces are ‘left to rot, be overrun by thugs or turned into properties’ “
“Playgrounds are being closed at the alarming rate of nearly two a week as they fall victim to neglect, vandalism and property developers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
To the dismay of families, a staggering 347 council playgrounds have been axed since 2014 – the equivalent of seven a month – according to the new figures.
Local authorities have removed 70 playgrounds in the last year alone – and they plan to further slash spending on facilities by almost half in the next two years. …”
Persimmon in the soup – again – in Exeter
“New home owners having spoken of fearing for their lives after properties in their housing development were found to be missing vital fire barriers in its cavity walls.
The revelation was made following a ‘ferocious’ blaze which broke out at Greenacres, described as a ‘prestigious development’ in Exeter.
Paul Frost, who lives in Trafalgar Road near to where the fire broke out, says he was the first to make the discovery when he used his building knowledge to inspect his own property.
Last week Persimmon Homes denied there was a problem with some of its properties.
But the housebuilder had already penned a letter to residents asking them to inspect their homes due to roof space cavity problems in another property.
A report, by the National House Building Council (NHBC), and shared with Devon Live, states the missing barriers at Mr Frost’s property posed an ‘imminent risk to health and safety’, and there was a breach of building regulations.
The developer has not confirmed how many properties so far have been identified as failing to meet required safety standards, despite direct questioning.
However, an indication of the extent of the problem has been provided by Paul, who has asked all residents to let him know the outcome of their inspections.
His says his findings so far have shown out of 18 homes he knows to have been inspected, 70 per cent are missing fire resistant cavity barriers.
He said: “It is horrific to imagine the impact on a family, never mind potential loss of life.
“Not only is the builder responsible for this horrific situation of missing fire barriers in so many homes, but the site managers, construction heads and managing director of, in this case Persimmon Homes South West, are also culpable because they are clearly not checking their homes properly as they are being built, or before they are sold.
“However, and perhaps in some ways even more serious, is the fact these homes have been signed off by a qualified building inspector, in this case employed by the NHBC, to be fully compliable with existing building regulations at the time of signing off. This just shocks and offends me and I feel a moral obligation to ensure all new homes are built and signed off to better standards than they are currently.”
The problem has emerged following major fire in Trafalgar Road, off Admiral Way and Topsham Road, back in April, which spread into the roof spaces of two of the adjoining properties.
Firefighters had to dig through cavity walls between properties to ensure the fire was fully out.
Last Wednesday, October 31, Persimmon Homes denied there is a problem with the properties which were passed by the National House Building Council (NHBC).
A spokesperson for Persimmon Homes South West said at the time: “There was a fire in a property on Trafalgar Road several months ago, but official reports from the landlord of the property indicate that it was caused by a cigarette being discarded recklessly.
“Under these circumstances the structure of the house cannot be implicated and it would be wrong to do so.”
However, on the same day Persimmon gave the response it is believed it sent a letter to 88 residents informing them it was carrying out voluntary checks within the Greenacres development due to safety concerns.
The letter said: “We are conducting a check of roof spaces on your development to make sure the roof space cavity has been installed correctly following a recent inspection within the development.
“We are offering this precautionary measure to you. Should you wish to take up that offer please contact us and we shall arrange for an inspection to be made, and any necessary remedial works to be carried out.”
This week Persimmon has accepted there is an ‘error’ with some of its properties.
A spokesperson for Persimmon Homes South West said: “Following engagement with a customer who had raised a complaint, an issue with the cavity closure installation was discovered. We rectified this within 24 hours of being notified.
“As a responsible construction firm we are taking immediate action to ensure this error has not been replicated and have therefore been contacting our customers directly. We are checking all properties within the phase of the development as a precaution.
“We have in place a checking process where both the contractor and site manager sign off the cavity closer check. Periodic checks are made by the contracts manager.
“These checks are in addition to the NHBC building inspector sign off of the superstructure.”
Persimmon did not answer a number of key questions posed by Devon Live including:
When was the initial compliant lodged?
How many homes are being inspected in the Greenacres development?
How many have been inspected so far, and of those, how many have failed for missing fire barriers?
Who assessed and passed the properties as compliant which have now since failed?
Will all Persimmon homes now be inspected?
Trafalgar Road resident Mr Frost, who has more than 30 years experience in the building industry, knew his home had failed, and the NHBC support the result.
He said: “I live at the opposite end of the road where the fire was which may have also had missing cavity inserts which by law it should have.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s missing inches or metres; your home, contents and, worst of all, lives, are more risk than they should ever be. This is probably one of the biggest building regulations you can have.
“I went to a semi-detached house at the far end of the development by Ikea. The house passed but the house attached to it failed!
“Their homes were built seven years ago where as mine is four years old showing it’s possibly an endemic problem in the building industry.
“If only one fails that is horrific. To imagine the impact on a family, never mind potential loss of life for anyone, but to find a current statistic like we have here is abhorrent.”
The alarming problem has prompted Mr Frost to launch a national campaign calling for Parliament to consider a new direction to encourage developers to build better quality homes.
He said: “I want to try to make this a national campaign of some of sorts, to at least help to reduce the possibility of loss of life.
“The way forward is to encourage better quality construction and certainly the installation of heat sensors in roof voids, as a minimum outcome of this horrific situation of risking peoples lives for what can only be seen as better profits.”
Like many other Persimmon Homes owners, it is not the first problem Mr Frost has experienced with his property.
He says he has had about 130 ‘snagging issues’ including faulty brickwork which will mean him having to move out while it is repaired.
Mr Frost, who set up a company called Snagaroo snagging inspections, due to all the problems he and his neighbours have had, said: “The number of issues we have had with our home has reached a point where Persimmon have agreed to rebuild our external facades, as well as conduct over £20,000 of work internally.
“That was before we reveal any issues with the timber frame or floor levels.
“And it’s not all over yet; We are forever seeing something else. The problem is quality control. Once they get that right there won’t be a problem.
“In fairness to Persimmon, as soon as my house was found to be missing fire resistant cavity barriers it was sorted out straight away, but it should have been built properly in the first place.”
Fellow Trafalgar Road resident Lydia Burge has also encountered many problems with her new build.
It was five years ago this month she moved in to the road and after having had 120 issues with the property she says she is still experiencing problems.
Her home is one of those which has found to have had the correct the fire barriers so passed the inspection.
She said: “I am afraid that myself and probably all my neighbours have never been happy with the standard of build and the response to problems were always a problem when we were within the guarantee period. I have yet to come across anyone who has purchased a Persimmon house that has been happy.”
An NHBC spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear that these homeowners are experiencing problems with their new homes, which are covered by NHBC’s 10-year Buildmark warranty and insurance policy.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/alarming-imminent-risk-health-safety-2194451
Windfalls for greedy property developers
An article which needs to be read in full.
“… Osborne played his get-out-of-jail card: he chucked money at the British housing market. He launched the help-to-buy scheme, billed as aid to first-time buyers, giving them government equity loans of up to 20% of the purchase price of any new-build. The likely consequences were obvious from the outset. Osborne’s plan would chuck a canister of petrol on to house prices. The chancellor who slashed billions from social security for the working poor had no problem whatsoever with handing billions to property developers.
It was cynical, it was costly; it was Osborne all over. And for the property sector – the mortgage lenders, the estate agents and most of all the housebuilders – it was what industry expert Henry Pryor calls “crack cocaine”. It kept the market bubbling over, underpinned prices and brought in massive profits. And like the addicts of cliche, the property industry kept demanding more. Housebuilders have repeatedly lobbied for the scheme to be extended and expanded. Again and again, Osborne and Hammond have obliged. What began as a three-year programme worth £3.5bn will now run until 2023 and suck in more than £29bn of taxpayer money.
In Austerity Britain, this may be the single biggest giveaway to one small group of businesspeople – and it gets barely any attention. The scheme may have helped some first-time buyers on to the ladder, but by inflating prices, it has kept many others off. Add to it quantitative easing and the erosion of stamp duty, and the British state has looked after housebuilders like no other. …”
INDEPENDENT COUNCILLORS SLAM TORY SUPPORT FOR HIGH RISK EXMOUTH STRATEGY
Press release:
“A series of East Devon District Council Independent councillors strongly criticised Tory proposals to commence work on a replacement car park, as part of the Queens Drive Regeneration Project, at the EDDC Cabinet meeting on 31 October.
Leading the criticism was Exmouth Councillor Megan Armstrong (Exmouth Halsdon – Independent) who referred to the planned new road as “a road to nowhere”.
Other Independent Councillors expressing concern about the Tory course of action were Independents Roger Giles, Ben Ingham, and Rob Longhurst and EDA Members Cathy Gardner and Geoff Jung.
The first criticism related to timing. Although it was a major and contentious issue, the report for the meeting was issued just 24 hours before the meeting.
Megan Armstrong urged that the report be deferred to allow councillors time to properly consider the proposals, and the implications. She said that sending out the report so late was “manipulative management.”
Cathy Gardner said it was “extremely regrettable that such short notice was given for such an important issue”.
It had originally been agreed that the go ahead for construction of the car park would only be given when agreement had been reached between EDDC and Grenadier about construction of the Watersports Centre by Grenadier.
However the EDDC Cabinet was informed on 31 October that no such agreement had been reached. Merely that verbal assurances had been made.
Roger Giles warned the Cabinet that going ahead without the required agreement carried substantial risks. He cited paragraph 2.7 of the report which said : `Cabinet should be aware that this represents a risk that the council is incurring costs without Grenadier being legally committed to delivering the Watersports Centre thereafter.`
Roger Giles asked whether independent audit advice had been sought about the inherent risk. He was told it had not.
Ben Ingham was strongly critical of undertaking such a high risk strategy.
Rob Longhurst criticised the lack of a business plan, and the absence of costings, and said there was a lack of justification for the departure from the previous strategy.
Geoff Jung questioned the income assumptions; he asked how a smaller car park than the original would generate increased income. He also expressed concern about EDDC`s responsibilities anf financial burden, should Grenadier not develop the site.
Megan Armstrong pointed out that the Cabinet agenda papers (item 10 pages 31 to 35) contained the minutes of the meeting of the Exmouth Regeneration Board on 20 September. The minutes contained no reference to the proposed early construction of the car park!
Megan Armstrong asked a series of critical questions, including about the three outstanding `condition precedents`, and seeking explanation of the beach access agreement.
She complained that questions asked by herself, and by other independent councillors, had not received proper answers. Council Leader Ian Thomas told her he would ensure that she received answers after the meeting; Megan Armstrong was very critical of councillors being asked to make a decision – and then to receive the pertinent information AFTER the decision was made: she said “That is a very poor form of decision making.”
In spite of the failure to achieve the necessary agreements the (Conservative) Cabinet agreed to proceed with early construction of the car park after only 3 Cabinet Members spoke very briefly.
After the meeting Megan Armstrong was highly critical of the Cabinet decision.
“Tonight Tory councillors made an important decision relating to Exmouth, and they denied the people of Exmouth the opportunity to comment on it. The Tory councillors agreed a very high risk strategy without justification for it, and without proper safeguard for public funds for which they are responsible. It is irresponsible political management; Exmouth deserves better.”
“UK nuclear power station plans scrapped as Toshiba pulls out”
Makes you wonder what’s going to happen at our LEP’s favourite (highly vested interest for many board members) project – Hinkley C.
“Plans for a new nuclear power station in Cumbria have been scrapped after the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba announced it was winding up the UK unit behind the project.
Toshiba said it would take a 18.8bn Japanese yen (£125m) hit from closing its NuGeneration subsidiary, which had already been cut to a skeleton staff, after it failed to find a buyer for the scheme. …
The only new nuclear power station to get the go-ahead so far is EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which started construction in 2016 and is expected to be operational between 2025 and 2027. As well as EDF, Chinese and Japanese firms hope to build further nuclear plants in the UK. …”
“‘I’m scared to eat sometimes’: UN envoy meets UK food bank users”
“At Britain’s busiest food bank in Newcastle’s west end people loaded carrier bags with desperately needed groceries as unemployed Michael Hunter, 20, took his chance to spell out to one of the world’s leading experts in extreme poverty and human rights just how tight money can get in the UK today.
Previous destinations for Philip Alston, the United Nations rapporteur on the issue, have included Ghana, Saudi Arabia, China and Mauritania. But now his lens is trained on Britain, the fifth richest country in the world, and he listened as Hunter explained an absurdity of the government’s much-criticised universal credit welfare programme.
Users have to go online to keep their financial lifeline open, but computers need electricity – and with universal credit leaving a £465 monthly budget to stretch the three people in Michael’s family (about £5 each a day), they can barely afford it with the meter ticking.
I have to be quick doing my universal credit because I am that scared of losing the electric,” he said. Alston mentally logged the situation, ahead of a report ruling on whether Britain is meeting its international obligations not to increase inequality. But it was not just the computer that was too expensive to power.
“Universal credit has punched us in the face,” said his mother, Denise, 57. “Before much longer people will turn to crime. People will smash the windows to get what they want. This is going to cause riots.”
The Hunters’ story was just one of a long list of stark insights into life in poverty delivered by the people of Newcastle to Alston during his trip to uncover what austerity is doing to the people of the UK and “to investigate government efforts to eradicate poverty”.
Last year his no-holds-barred UN report into the impact of Trump-era policies on the US brought a stinging reaction from the White House. The odds are that Alston will say the UK is far from doing enough to meet its obligations. In 1976 the UK ratified the UN covenant on economic, social and cultural rights agreeing that policy changes in times of economic crisis must not be discriminatory, must mitigate, not increase, inequalities and that disadvantaged people must not be disproportionately affected.
But first he must gather evidence, and Newcastle is a good place to start. It was the first city to introduce the new all-in-one universal credit (UC ) welfare payment. The council says central government cuts and rising demand for services mean 60% is being wiped from its spending power between 2010 and 2020. …
Some people have to work five zero-hours jobs to make ends meet, said Phil McGrath, chief executive of the Cedarwood Trust community centre. The trust is encouraging residents to engage in local and national politics to have their voice heard. It is paying off with some people who have never voted turning out at the last general election, he said.
Mike Burgess, who runs the Phoenix Detached Youth Project, told Alston how 18 publicly funded youth workers in the area in 2011 had dwindled to zero today. He described how a young man he worked with was in hospital for months after having a kidney removed. The jobcentre said he had to get back to work or face being sanctioned (losing benefits). He went to work in pain, but his employer realised and said he was not fit.
“There’s no safety net for my lad or people with mental health problems,” he said.
And that is the hidden cost facing many at the sharpest end of austerity in Newcastle.
“In the last two or three weeks we have seen a massive increase in numbers of people with mental health issues and people with breakdown,” said McGrath, blaming benefit sanctions and a lack of social and mental health workers to catch people. “People are just being ground down.”
“[Privatised] Academies record £6.1bn deficit”
“Academy schools in England recorded a £6.1bn deficit at the end of last August, leading to one major teaching union calling them “unsustainable”.
The 7,003 academies received total income of £22.5bn in 2016-17, compared to £20.5bn in the academic financial year before, and spent £24.8bn, compared to £20bn in 2015-16, according to the academy schools annual report and accounts released on Tuesday.
The £6.1bn deficit recorded includes an £8.4bn asset derecognition charge. The government took land and buildings assets off academies’ balance sheets where they did not feel trusts were controlling them, even though, academies continued to occupy them.
The number of academy trusts, charities which academies must be part of, in cumulative deficit at the end of August 2017 went up to 185 from 167 in August 2016, the report showed.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said academies’ financial situation was “unsurprising” given the overall pressures on school budgets. “But it is particularly serious for academies which cannot call on help or support from the local authorities,” he added.
“These accounts also show us why the academy system is unsustainable and undemocratic.”
Academies are independent state schools funded directly by the Department for Education via the Education and Skills Funding Agency – rather than through local authorities.
Courtney said it was “high time” the government recognised the academy system was a “failed policy” that needed to be consigned to the “dustbin of history”.
“We need to return to the principle of local schools, accountable to local communities,” he added.
The accounts also showed that 8% more trusts (from 873 to 941) were paying some staff £100,000 or more in 2016-17 compared to the year before.
The number of staff paying salaries of £150,000 or more went up 3% from 121 to 125 over the same period. …”
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2018/11/academies-record-ps61bn-deficit
“The poor pay for the mistakes of the rich”
In an article on the rise of homelessness in London:
“Austerity has been about the poor paying for the mistakes of the wealthy for years and those who are homeless have paid the most”
Rabbil Sikdar
Lefty Muslim writer
… When a majority of impoverished families are working households or when a million families depend on food banks, then it becomes less difficult to see just why homelessness has become a big a problem as it has. Austerity has been about the poor paying for the mistakes of the wealthy for years and those who are homeless have paid the most. In London, the chances of going overboard and losing everything is always high. The opportunities here are limitless but so are the risks. Take Tower Hamlets as the chief encapsulation of the city’s wonderful prosperity but failure to share it fairly. Here, the financial district exists but so does extreme poverty. High inequality is the unspoken story of London and many of those who cannot cope with the city’s suffocating pressures end up on the streets.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies found that 40% of Londoners’ incomes were being consumed by rent. There is little security in the private rent sector, less so if your job pays poorly or goes. The winners in this crisis are landlords who, according to a Savills report published earlier in October, were benefiting from the steep rise in people renting, due to the housing crisis, and being able to charge high rents. The latter often leads to landlords being subsidised by the welfare state due to the housing benefits which many renters need to get by.
There is a tendency to sometimes disconnect issues from the wider political narratives pumped out by those in power, to treat it as isolated incidents, but the awful plight of the homeless in London is a sign of how the Tories have looked at the poor.”
Universal Credit – the tide turns
Claimants could be up to £7,500 a year worse off:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7689479/you-could-lose-up-to-7500-a-year-on-universal-credit-new-study-reveals/
For two days a week, I can’t afford to eat:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/two-days-month-cant-afford-13441040
Benefits freeze could cost Tories next election:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-benefits-freeze-david-davis-justine-greening-conservatives-universal-credit-a8623356.html
DCC considering recruitment freeze due to massive cost of children’s services
“Devon County Council’s considering a recruitment freeze to deal with its £10m overspend on children’s services.
There’s been an increasing number of children who need to be housed in residential and secure units.
For example there are five children who cost more than £400,000 each a year to look after but they need round the clock one-to-one care.
The council’s also responsible for 45 children who cost around £4,000 a week to care for and house.
On top of that, the council’s also funding a rising number of children with disabilities who attend independent special schools and further education colleges.
The council is considering delaying filling vacancies for two months after the post-holder leaves, banning all non-essential overtime and ending attendance at conferences and some allowances.
Plymouth and Torbay are also having to take special measures to deal with the higher than forecast costs of looking after vulnerable children.”
Universal Credit: leading article in “The Times”
“Moral Debit
The botched and underfunded rollout of universal credit is starting to cause real hardship for many of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
The shocking deprivation revealed by our investigation today has many causes, but the proximate explanation for the misery being endured by the poorest members of society is the mismanaged and underfunded introduction of universal credit. Despite the extra resources announced in last week’s budget, and the welcome signs that the Department for Work and Pensions is listening to concerns about the impact of the scheme, additional finance and further reform is required.
For many years, universal credit was the holy grail of welfare reform. Rolling the six major benefits into one monthly payment would simplify an over-complex system and ease the transition of claimants into work. The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith was passionate about universal credit. Her Majesty’s Treasury under George Osborne was less so. As soon as he was able to deliver a budget, in 2015, not dependent on Liberal Democrat votes, Mr Osborne cut £3.2 billion from the new super-benefit’s funds. Soon afterwards Mr Duncan Smith resigned. His big idea, however, limped on, dogged by IT disasters and an exchequer more interested in cuts than reform.
There was and is much to recommend a simplified system. Multiple benefits are so complex that not even some officials, let alone claimants, understand them. The benefit system has, by common consent, trapped generations of Britons in poverty and dependence. Tax credits failed sufficiently to incentivise work, and work is rightly seen as the best long-term solution to rebuilding self-esteem and helping deprived communities.
Yet whatever its faults, the complex system being phased out generally had the merit of keeping a roof over its beneficiaries’ heads and food on their tables. The introduction of universal credit has seen a distressing rise in debt and evictions, hunger and queues at food banks and diseases more normally associated with the 19th century than the 21st, such as rickets and scurvy. The former prime minister Sir John Major has warned of poll-tax style disorder if hardship is not alleviated. By 2023 seven million people will be receiving universal credit. Figures suggest that without reform, 3.2 million households will lose out while only 1.2 million will benefit. The hardest hit will be the self-employed, the disabled and those with more than two children.
The single most urgent reform required is that existing benefits should continue to be paid up until a claimant’s migration to the new system is complete. At present there is a five-week hiatus between the last old payment and the first new one. The government has agreed to shorten this period by 2020, but that is too far away. Poor people live a hand-to-mouth existence. They tend not to have savings or freezers full of food or relatives who can tide them over. They go broke instantly. Hence the phenomenon of teachers buying shoes for pupils and children wolfing down five bowls of cereal at school breakfast clubs.
It would be naive to imagine that all hardship is caused by lack of money. Poor parenting, substance abuse, and other addictions such as gambling play their part. However, a monthly payment can be challenging to people not in the habit of budgeting that far ahead. Domestic violence campaigners have criticised the fact that under universal credit, the household payment is made to the main earner rather than the main carer — a problem for women in abusive relationships or in families dealing with substance abuse.
With public sector pay unshackled and wages starting to rise, not only is welfare still frozen but now it emerges that the transition to a new system has plunged many of the country’s poorest inhabitants into destitution. As Sir John commented: “That is not something that a majority of the British people would think of as fair.” He’s right. It isn’t.”
Universal Credit – even “The Times” can’t stomach it now
Today’s “Times” has several stories about the iniquity of Universal Credit. The “benefit” that you can’t get until you have had at least 5 weeks with no benefits at all.
This follows on from the story Owl printed yesterday about the 9 year old girl from Devon trying to find a job to help her widowed father and two siblings:
The Times has a story about 150 children in a school who desperately need its breakfast club – some eating 5 bowls of cereal because they are so hungry.
A family with 2 children where the father works 12 hour days who can’t afford to pay for a new fridge freezer or even think about Christmas.
The Times notes:
“a Times investigation into poverty in Britain, which discovered that:
• More families stand to lose than gain under the new universal credit benefit, according to a new analysis.
• In-work poverty is higher than at any time in two decades and rising faster than the rate of employment.
• Malnutrition has tripled over the past decade.
• Mr Duncan Smith threatened to make a Treasury official “eat his balls for breakfast” during a row over universal credit.”
As an EDW reader notes:
“Where is the Tories’ moral compass? The article in yesterday’s EDW reduced me to tears… Fat cat bankers – not one went to jail …”
Majority of Ottery Town Council remarkably unconcerned about the future of their hospital
From the blog of Claire Wright. It seems remarkable that the abstaining councillors were so similar and united in their views.
“For the first time in many years, I left an Ottery Town Council meeting in pure frustration last night, at councillors arguing against the creation of a working group to help secure the future of Ottery St Mary Hospital.
A straightforward and uncontroversial proposal… or at least, so I thought!
A few weeks ago, I met with Cllr Geoff Pratt (EDDC ward member for Ottery Rural and Ottery Town Councillor), Margaret Hall (retired GP and chair of West Hill Parish Council), Elli Pang (Ottery Town Councillor and chair of the local Health and Care Team Forum) and her colleague, Leigh Edwards.
We discussed the risks facing Ottery St Mary Hospital and the risk of it being sold off for development by NHS Property Services – and how we might move things forward in a productive way.
Currently the hospital is less than 40 per cent occupied and a whopping £200,000 a year rent must be paid to the company, which is wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health. The rent is mostly covered by NHS England at the moment, with some paid by the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, which runs the services there.
Cllr Pang said at this meeting and at the town council meeting last night that it was difficult to make progress on this for a number of reasons, namely trying unsuccessfully to engage key stakeholders and also having the clout to deal with NHS Property Services, which is well known for the aggressive way it deals with its tenants rents, often increasing the rent suddenly and significantly, without apparently caring whether or not the tenant can actually pay.
At the end of our meeting we agreed to ask Ottery Town Council to agree to setting up a working group specifically to move things forward, which would have the advantage of being part of a legally constituted body and one where other people from other areas could be invited onto it.
I am not a member of Ottery Town Council, I attend as the Devon County Council and to give my report. I asked to contribute to the debate, however, as the subject of the hospital is close to my heart and I have spent many years working to try and protect it and prevent the loss of beds.
As one councillor after another spoke it was clear, apart from Cllrs Geoff Pratt and Roger Giles, that the others were opposed to the working group being created.
Various spurious reasons were cited for being against the working group, including:
-There was already a working group set up (there was not)
-It would be better for such a group to be independent from the town council (it would have more clout and relevance to be part of the town council)
-It was duplication (no, it was building on the work of the Health and Care Team Forum)
-It might close down the Health and Care Team Forum (it would not)
-Our proposal was unclear (it was perfectly clear)
-We were insulting the Health and Care Team Forum (no one did this)
After trying to reason with the town council, and then hear several of them speak afterwards as though I had said nothing, I felt my frustrations boil over.
I couldn’t bear to hear any more utter nonsense on the subject, so I prepared to leave before the vote took place, as I could see which way it was going.
Before I left I told them that there was absolutely no reason whatsoever that the town council should not support the proposal and if Ottery Hospital was sold off to developers in a few years time, that each and every town councillor who voted against the proposal would need to examine their consciences.
After I left Cllr Giles asked for a recorded vote so that the minutes listed the way each councillor voted. This proposal was voted down.
I was informed later that after about an HOUR of debate, the vote took place. The councillors who objected to the working group all abstained, apparently on the assumption that their abstentions would result in the failure of the proposal. Instead the vote was carried with eight abstentions and three votes in favour. This was met with much debate and disbelief.
Several then councillors asked that it be recorded in the minutes that they abstained because the proposal was unclear.
On the way out I slammed the glass door, which I am told this morning, resulted in the glass fracturing. This is regrettable.
I have agreed to reimburse the council for the replacement glass, which will need to be in instalments.
A councillor (I am not clear who as the message was relayed by the clerk) has demanded I apologise for “storming out of the meeting.”
My reply was: “I will apologise when those town councillors who sought to obstruct the safeguarding of Ottery Hospital by arguing against setting up the working group and abstaining in the vote, apologise to the residents of Ottery.”
I now look forward to the first meeting and getting on with trying to safeguard our hospital.
Voting in favour of the working group were: Roger Giles, Geoff Pratt and Peter Faithfull.
Those abstaining were: Anne Edwards, Elli Pang, Paul Bartlett, Ian Holmes, Josefina Gori, Lyn Harding, Paul Carter and Glyn Dobson.”
Security at EDDC buildings at Knowle, Exmouth Honiton and Cranbrook costs us £25,000 per year
“East Devon District Council is spending nearly £25,000 a year on private security firms to patrol or protect council owned property.
The figures were revealed at last week’s full council meeting following a question from Cllr Cathy Gardner.
She asked the leader of the council to confirm whether the council uses private security firms to patrol or protect council owned property, and if so where and at what cost.
In response, Cllr Ian Thomas, leader of the council, said: “We use two different security firms which are employed across the corporate stock.”
He said that the council spends £6,363.35 on security at The Knowle HQ in Sidmouth, £5,450.90 at Exmouth Town Hall, £7,200 at the Younghayes Centre in Cranbrook and £4,200 at the East Devon Business Centre in Honiton.”
“Universal Credit forces Devon girl, 9, to beg for work after mum died and dad lost job”
“A nine-year-old girl begged for work to feed her family after delayed Universal Credit payments left her dad skint.
The girl made a heartbreaking plea on the phone to a charity, telling how her mum died and that her dad had recently lost his job as a lorry driver in Torbay.
And a five-week delay in her father’s first Universal Credit payment meant the family was left with barely and food.
She said: “I’ll do anything. I don’t mind cleaning floors, making beds,” The Mirror reports.
Ellie Waugh, who took the heartbreaking call yesterday, said the youngster was “really worried because her family didn’t have any money”.
She offered to do “any” job to help buy food and get her two younger siblings Christmas presents.
The little girl added: “I don’t want to let them down.”
Ellie said: “I can’t tell you how horrendous it was hearing a child beg for work in this day and age.
“She told me, ‘I don’t mind cleaning floors, making beds. My daddy has always worked and he says you have to work to get things. I’ll do anything I can so I can buy my brother and sister a Christmas present. I can cook and I don’t mind working on a Saturday and Sunday or after school.’ After the call I just cried. Hearing that is like we’ve gone back to Victorian times.”
The dad was raising the three children alone in Torbay after his wife died four years ago. The girl contacted Humanity Torbay, which provides food banks and support for the vulnerable.
CEO Ellie reassured the brave child she would not have to work. She called her dad, who wants to remain nameless, and promised food and support.
Ellie said: “He cried because he was embarrassed but because he is proud of her. Proud that she loved her brother and sister so much she wanted to help them. He said they were literally down to their last few bits in the freezer.”
Ellie and her volunteers visited the family with food parcels last night.
Offers of support also flooded in, with strangers donating Christmas turkeys and presents.
The dad said: “I’m very proud of my daughter and horrified I’ve been reduced to this. It’s humbling that people want to help us.”
Ellie has invited Theresa May and work and pensions secretary Esther McVey to visit her charity, but is yet to receive a response.
She said: “I want them to see the reality of what Universal Credit is doing, to see the look of ‘no hope’ in people’s eyes when they come asking for food.”
Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine said: “It is heartbreaking that a young girl was so worried about her family she begged a charity for work. Tory ministers cannot put their hands over their ears and pretend they can’t hear her.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/universal-credit-forces-devon-girl-2190936
Housing minister threatens councils on housing numbers – NOT developers!
The Express headline is:
‘Make their EYES water!’ Housing minister WARNING to councils who FAIL to meet targets
and the article goes on to blame councils for low housing numbers rather than developers who are hoarding hundreds of thousands of planning permissions, trickling out completions to keep house prices artificially high.
Message to Minister: stop shooting own foot, stop shooting councils, start squeezing developers till THEIR pips squeak!
Oh, and that bit about “developers starting on site” within two years. Legally, all they have to do is put in minimal foundations then they can leave the site unbuilt for as long as they want.
“Kit Malthouse MP was speaking to Nick Ferrari on national radio this morning to explain how the Tories are intending to “up the ante” for both developers and council planning teams so as to roll out new housing.
Mr Malthouse cited the introduction of a new scheme, the ‘Housing Delivery Test’, as one way in which the government’s building objectives might be more effectively met.
He said councils “have to hit a certain percentage of the forecast housing in their plan, and if they don’t we essentially take it out of their hands.
“If they drop below 85 percent of delivery they have to use an action plan, but if they drop below 25 percent delivery the government takes it out of their hands and they lose the ability to control a certain amount of housing in their area.”
“We want them to issue two year planning permissions, not three or five years, and if the developer doesn’t start on site within the two years that they’re able to say ‘your site’s out now’.
“You only have to do it once or twice for the development community to realise that we’re serious about this.”
The Minister explained that the Tories would give developers “big tools” to compel them to develop.
He concluded: “We’re putting big pressure on local authorities, big pressure on developers to come together.
“I do feel sometimes a bit like a marriage guidance councillor between the two because they do all shout at each other and point across the table at events that I’m at.”
Ministers say they will build 300,000 new homes a year, considerably up on the current build rate and more than in any year since the 1960s.
But a survey for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found that only 12 percent of members expressed any confidence in that number of new homes being delivered.”
Brexit timetable “leak”
The case of the missing (academy schools) students just prior to exams … aka – cheating!
“Some of England’s most influential academy chains are facing fresh questions over the number of children disappearing from their classrooms in the run-up to GCSEs, following a new statistical analysis of official figures.
The same four academy chains have the highest numbers of 15- 16-year-olds leaving their schools in both of the last two academic years. In some cases, two pupils are disappearing from the rolls for every class of 30. Some local authorities are also approaching these figures for dropouts.
Fears have been increasing that some schools are “offrolling” – getting rid of students who could do badly in their exams – in an effort to boost their league table position.
The head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, is among those voicing concern. The inspectorate has yet to find a way to differentiate offrolling from cases where schools have acted in the best interests of children, but it has started to gather its own data.
Education Guardian looked at England’s 50 largest academy trusts and 50 largest local education authorities, and compared the number of pupils in year 11 in 2017-18 – the students counted when GCSE results are published – to the number in year 10, a year earlier.
The findings reveal a consistent pattern in some chains of year groups shrinking substantially. The same four trusts fill the top four places in our table (below) on 2017-18 data and on data for 2016-17. The trend of disappearing pupils appears to be happening at a higher rate in the academies sector. …”
East Devon Watch 