The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just released housing data from the 2021 census for England and Wales compared with 2011.

This seems to have provoked a frenzy of similar local media reports across the country, including our own. All seem to take the same quote from the Institute for Policy Research. This picks up on an increase of 8% in the number of unoccupied houses in England to argue that the Government should look again at policies to curb or control holiday homes, short-term lets, and empty homes; and to build millions more homes.

Although the ONS comparison shows an increase in unoccupied dwelling in the “South West”. There has been little change within Devon. 

In Devon the picture is one of greater variations between districts than over time. 

The highest unoccupied rates in Devon are in North Devon (12%) and South Hams (15%). These coincide with those districts reporting greatest  problems with housing affordability. Second homes are likely to be a factor but not the only one. The unoccupied rate for East Devon is 8%. Second Homes in East Devon amount to 4% so can only account for half of the unoccupied total.

Caveat: Census 2021 was carried out during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some people, for example overseas students or those privately renting, may have moved back in with family members leaving more unoccupied dwellings. [Seems to affected the Exeter numbers].

Nationally, the pattern of highest unoccupied rates fall perhaps where you might expect them to: in the tourist hotspots, and around the coast.

The lack of affordable homes is a major concern. It is a complex subject and Owl will address this in greater depth later, laying out the  historic failure of Tory administrations at local and national level to deliver the affordable housing we need.

This will be a challenge to the Tory election pledge 4 claim: “We will work to ensure that there are sufficient affordable homes that our community requires” given that unfettered development has been their driving philosophy for a couple of decades.

Meanwhile, Owl thinks it a bit of a stretch to argue from these figures that our problems will be solved by building millions more houses. 

NATURE IN CRISIS  – Letter in the Times – www.thetimes.co.uk

Sir, Wild Isles and the “David Attenborough” effect helped Britain to fall back in love with the nature on our doorstep. But nature is in crisis, and we need collective action to protect and restore it, including a “crisis response” for nature from the government — which is failing to act with the urgency and scale needed.

The government’s new water plan will allow intensive farms to continue to pollute our water and choke the life out of our beautiful English rivers. And its painfully low investment in farm payments in England will not help farmers to put in place what is needed. Meanwhile, our environmental protections are threatened by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

We know the public are worried about nature and that there is a demand for change: any party that wants to win the next general election must increase its ambition and action on nature at home and abroad, including investing in the power of nature to fight climate change and turning rhetoric to reality on Cop15 ambitions. Only then can we hope to heed Sir David’s wake-up call and save our wild isles.

Hilary McGrady, director-general, National Trust; Beccy Speight, CEO, RSPB; Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF (UK)

“This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.”

Opposition parties have called on Downing Street to provide answers over Rishi Sunak’s family financial interests as the Guardian discovered that previous ministerial registers made no mention of his wife’s stake in a childcare firm, even though it began in 2019.

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com 

The prime minister could be ordered to apologise to the House of Commons if an inquiry announced on Monday into his declarations about the investment finds he breached the code of conduct for MPs.

Companies House records show Akshata Murty first took a stake in Koru Kids, one of six childcare companies that stand to benefit from a policy announcement in last month’s budget, in March 2019, when she held 20,000 shares in the firm.

While the register of ministerial interests has not been updated for nearly a year following the resignation of Boris Johnson’s adviser on interests, the six registers published since March 2019, when Murty took the stake, have no mention of it.

The first of these does not refer to Murty at all, while the five subsequent versions, the last of which was published in May 2022, says only that Sunak’s wife “owns a venture capitalist investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd”.

The records for Koru Kids show Murty owns the shares in her name, not that of the investment company. The most recent records show she still has 20,000 shares.

Downing Street has said it cannot comment while the inquiry is under way, beyond reiterating that the shareholding had been “transparently declared as a ministerial interest”.

Unlike the parallel register of MPs’ interests, not every interest declared by ministers to the relevant civil service head of their department is publicly listed, as it is up to the adviser on ministers’ interests, who is now Laurie Magnus, to decide whether this is necessary.

It is therefore possible that Sunak declared the shareholding in Koru Kids but that Mangus’s predecessors, Christopher Geidt and Alex Allan, who between them held the role until June last year, thought it did not need to be published.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “Rishi Sunak should have declared his financial interests as a minister, chancellor and prime minister, as is required by his own ministerial code. But with no list of interests for nearly a year, his failure to come clean on what he declared gives the impression he’s got something to hide.

“He could clear it up by simply saying when and how he has declared these potential conflicts of interest and whether steps have been taken to manage them in line with the code.”

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, called for the rules to be changed and for Sunak to provide clarity.

“Rishi Sunak needs to come before parliament and explain why this wasn’t featured in the previous registers of ministerial interests,” she said. “It is absurd that the rules mean that government ministers can currently get away with publicly declaring less than a backbench MP.

“We need a total overhaul of the system, to ensure that the ministerial register of interests is regularly published and has more rigorous standards. The public has a right to know.”

One difficulty for Sunak is that as part of his inquiry, the standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, is expected to look into whether the prime minister should have declared the interest when questioned by a committee of MPs last month, where the rules are stricter than for registering interests.

Appearing before the liaison committee on 28 March, Sunak was asked by the Labour MP Catherine McKinnell about a proposed pilot scheme to incentivise people to become childminders, with Koru Kids among six private childcare providers involved.

When McKinnell asked Sunak whether he had anything to declare in relation to the scheme, he replied: “No, all my disclosures are declared in the normal way.”

The MPs’ code of conduct states that not only must members be “open and frank” in declaring interests, but mentioning a declaration without explaining what it is “will not suffice on its own”.

If Greenberg finds Sunak should have been more open with the liaison committee, there is the option of “rectification”, where he admits fault and amends the record.

However, if the prime minister refuses this, or if Greenberg decides he has not been properly transparent, Sunak’s case could be referred to the standards committee, made up of MPs and lay members, for punishment.

A suspension from the Commons seems very unlikely – of 66 MPs suspended since 1949, only one had this happen because of a non-declaration of interests, the Conservative MP John Browne in 1990. But it is possible Sunak could be ordered to apologise.

actions.goodlawproject.org

Over a year of hard work has paid off today. The High Court has ruled that the Government’s operation of a fast-track VIP lane for awarding lucrative PPE contracts to those with political connections was unlawful. 

In a challenge brought by Good Law Project and EveryDoctor to the behind closed door VIP lane worth billions of pounds, the Court found:

“the Claimants have established that operation of the High Priority Lane was in breach of the obligation of equal treatment… the illegality is marked by this judgment.” (§512)

The Judge agreed the VIP lane conferred preferential treatment on bids: it sped up the process, which meant offers were considered sooner in a process where timing was critical, and VIPs’ hands were held through the process. She said: 

“offers that were introduced through the Senior Referrers received earlier consideration at the outset of the process. The High Priority Lane Team was better resourced and able to respond to such offers on the same day that they arrived”. (§395)

The Court found the Government allocated offers to the VIP lane on a “flawed basis” (§396) and did not properly prioritise bids: 

“there is evidence that opportunities were treated as high priority even where there were no objectively justifiable grounds for expediting the offer.” (§383).

The Court noted that the overwhelming majority by value of the product supplied by Pestfix and Ayanda could not be used in the NHS. 

An independent investigation by the BBC has also revealed issues with the product supplied by Clandeboye which were not disclosed to the High Court. Good Law Project believes that the Government misled the Court and is in correspondence with lawyers for the Secretary of State.

The Judge found that, even though Pestfix and Ayanda received unlawful preferential treatment via the VIP lane, they would likely have been awarded contracts anyway. The Judge also refused to allow publication of how much money was wasted by the Government’s failure to carry out technical assurance on the PPE supplied by Pestfix and Ayanda. Good Law Project is considering the wider implications of these aspects of the ruling and next steps.

We first revealed the red carpet-to-riches VIP lane for those with political connections in October 2020. Since then, we have fought to reveal details of those who benefited, and at whose request – while the Government fought to conceal them.

Never again should any Government treat a public health crisis as an opportunity to enrich its associates and donors at public expense.

Thank you for your trust in us, and your continued support of this case over 18 long months. Without you, this simply wouldn’t have been possible.

We also want to express our deep gratitude to our expert legal team on this case: Rook Irwin Sweeney and Jason Coppel QC, Patrick Halliday and Zac Sammour of 11KBW. They have worked tirelessly on this case and we hugely appreciate their efforts.

You can read the full judgment from the High Court here.

New hosepipe ban as map shows areas affected

[Not us yet]

Large areas of Devon will be hit by a hosepipe ban from next week despite weeks of heavy rain across the county. Last summer’s drought is being blamed for the continuing low water levels in some reservoirs across Devon and Cornwall.

Guy Henderson www.devonlive.com

Water levels at the huge Roadford reservoir are currently at just 66 per cent full, and all parts of the county served by Roadford will see the hosepipe ban come into force at a minute past midnight on Tuesday April 25. South West Water took out a full-page advertisement in our sister paper the Western Morning News today to announce the news.

The ban is on hosepipes, sprinklers and automatic irrigation systems, and covers watering gardens, washing cars and filling ponds, paddling pools and fountains. Householders will not be able to use hosepipes to clean walls, windows, paths or patios, but they can use buckets and watering cans instead, as long as they don’t use hosepipes to fill them.

There are exceptions for health and safety reasons, for commercial gardens and for filling and maintaining certain pools, including those used for medical treatment.

A spokesman for South West Water said: “Our region remains officially in drought and a hosepipe ban has been in place for Cornwall and a small part of North Devon since August 2022. To further ensure our reservoir levels’ recovery, and in accordance with our drought plan, we will be introducing a Temporary Use Ban throughout other parts of Devon on April 25.

The area in pink – served by Roadford – is subject to the hosepipe ban

“The South West Water region is still seeing the impact of last year’s exceptionally dry weather and reservoir levels are lower than normal for this time of year. South West Water is acting now to protect water resources and the environment, to help rivers and reservoirs to recharge ahead of the summer months.”

SWW says reservoir levels are recovering across the two counties, but remain lower than this time last year. At Roadford – between Okehampton and Launceston – the water level is at 66 per cent, whereas at this time last year it was 96 per cent. Colliford, on Bodmin Moor, is at 60 per cent, as opposed to 79 percent in April 2022. Wimbleball on Exmoor, however, is 100 per cent full, as are the Kennick, Tottiford and Trenchford reservoirs on Dartmoor.

The spokesman continued: “Our customers’ actions to save water really are making an extraordinary difference to the rate of this recovery. We continue to work closely with the National Drought Group and all relevant agencies to ensure comprehensive plans are in place to manage water resources throughout 2023.

“You really are making an extraordinary difference. We are grateful to all our customers and communities for their efforts in reducing daily water usage over the drought period.

“We must ask you to keep saving water where you can, so that our water resources can recover sufficiently for the spring and summer ahead.”

The most regrettable – indeed dangerous – consequence of the government’s “living with Covid” approach is that it leaves the country so poorly prepared for the next pandemic, or indeed a recrudescence of Covid, such as via the Arcturus coronavirus subvariant that is now emerging.

Editorial www.independent.co.uk 

As our package of reports highlights, there is worrying evidence that the authorities are taking unacceptable risks with public health. Sad to say, it is as if Britain has learned nothing from the initial response to the coronavirus crisis in the spring of 2020. Have we really learned so little, and forgotten so much?

While the return to normality – thanks to the combined efforts of the NHS, the public compliance with the emergency lockdowns and the vaccines – is obviously welcome, Covid has not gone away. Far from it.

People are still being hospitalised, even as milder variants have come into circulation, and new strains, variants and subvariants will continue to evolve. Some may be less damaging to human health than previous ones but some may be more so, either because they are more infectious or more inherently lethal, more vaccine evasive, or any combination of those factors.

In the case of the Arcturus subvariant of Omicron, also known as subvariant XBB.1.16, it seems the issue is one of infectivity and of pathogenicity – that is to say, its capacity to harm a larger number of individuals, and each one more severely.

Virologists have told The Independent that the Arcturus variant is responsible for a surge of 10,000 new Covid cases a day in India: it could easily become the dominant strain in the UK. Even if the effects on mortality were relatively small, the arrival of Arcturus could well mean an increase in hundreds of cases per day, with corresponding incremental pressure on the NHS.

What of future variants? The next virus, zoonotic or otherwise? Perhaps that will be even more infectious and more lethal than its predecessors. The recent concerns about avian flu should remind all concerned that the intrusion of humans and their livestock into the habitats of wild animals, most notably in “wet” markets, is a constant threat to human life as well as to agriculture.

Are the Department of Health and Social Care, the devolved administrations and the UK Health Security Agency doing all that is required to monitor the situation and prepare for the worst? On that, there is some cause for concern. The fact is that a pandemic on the scale of the recent Covid outbreaks may not necessarily be a once-in-a-generation or once-a-century event. In fact, the next one could come much sooner, and be even more devastating. We are underprepared.

According to some of the most respected experts in the field, the UK has moved too rapidly to dismantle the infrastructure that was eventually built up, at enormous cost, during the pandemic.

Some would say the world has been through many such scares in recent decades, and nothing came of them – but that is partly because vigilance and rapid actions prevented a more widespread outbreak. The coronavirus also demonstrates that the experts aren’t always “crying wolf”.

Yet, despite recent traumas, the government has decided to disband tracking systems, including the Covid survey, and mothball testing labs. It also intends to sell off the UK Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre – before it had even opened. It seems a long time now since Boris Johnson was championing the UK’s world-leading work on Covid vaccines as a symbol of Global Britain’s scientific prowess.

Overlaying all of this is the inescapable fact that the NHS is in an even more vulnerable position than it was three years ago. Today there is also a disturbing wave of wild misinformation on social media about the lockdowns being unnecessary, the Covid vaccines being unsafe, and even that the entire pandemic was merely some exercise in mass control, even though the mass control has been all but abandoned. Such absurd conspiracy theories are being put around with scant effort to contest them. Again, this is a further risk to public health.

To all of this, ministers may simply shrug and plead lack of funds. The public services, including the NHS, have to contend with a formidable range of more immediate challenges than the inchoate possibilities of a new pandemic. This is patently true, but we have only to reflect on the vast cost – at least £400bn – of the last pandemic to Britain to understand the force of the old medical adage about prevention being better than cure.

The Liberal Democrats have called for an investigation after accusing the Prime Minister of flouting purdah rules by making a policy announcement in the run-up to local elections.

Nina Lloyd www.independent.co.uk 

Christine Jardine MP said she is “deeply concerned” that the move breaches the Government’s own guidance on the pre-election period of sensitivity.

Purdah rules restrict what communications activity can take place in the weeks before polling day.

Government resources cannot be used for party political campaigning and particular care is meant to be taken in the run-up to an election to ensure the impartiality of the civil service.

In a letter addressed to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case on Monday, Ms Jardine called for an investigation to be opened “immediately” into the Government’s “maths to 18” announcement.

The plans, outlined in a speech by Rishi Sunak at a north London college, would see all pupils studying the subject in some form up to the age of 18.

“I am highly concerned that this announcement is breaching purdah rules. As you will be aware, we are now in the pre-election ‘purdah’ period, which began on Thursday 13 April in relation to local elections in England,” the Lib Dem’s Cabinet Office spokesperson wrote.

“Today’s announcement on mathematics has been fully supported by Government resources, including a Downing Street press release. Education is also clearly an area of relevant importance to local authorities and, accordingly, a local election campaign.

“I am therefore very concerned that the purdah rules have been breached by the Government in regards to this announcement.

“I therefore urge you to open an investigation as to whether this announcement breached purdah rules. If concerns were expressed by officials, were they ignored by Conservative ministers?”

Labour MP Angela Eagle also hit out in a tweet: “This (Government) completely ignores all the purdah rules”.

Purdah rules apply to new policy announcements but the Lib Dems had issued a statement hours earlier describing Monday’s pledge as a “rehashed” plan.

Other critics including Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, accused Mr Sunak of “reannouncing” a “vague and poorly thought-out policy” first set out in January.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters the Government ensured that announcements were within the rules.

“We are aware of the rules that guide local election purdah and abide by them,” the spokesman said.

Probe comes after questions over Sunak’s wife’s stake in a childcare business set to benefit from Budget announcements.

The list of ministerial interests is long overdue for publication, having not been updated for almost 12 months. In February, Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden promised the Commons it would come before next month. I.e. Before the Local elections – better hurry up – Owl

“This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” Rishi Sunak

John Johnston www.politico.eu

LONDON — Rishi Sunak is being investigated for a potential breach of the MP code of conduct amid scrutiny of his wife’s stake in a childcare firm that received a boost in last month’s Budget.

The parliamentary standards commissioner — tasked with policing MP behavior — announced Monday that it had opened an investigation under paragraph six of the code, which says MPs “must always be open and frank in declaring any relevant interest” they hold.

Although the watchdog does not detail the specific interest under investigation, the prime minister has recently faced questions over his wife Akshata Murty’s stake in childcare business Koru Kids following a £4bn boost for the sector in last month’s Budget.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Monday: “We are happy to assist the commissioner to clarify how this has been transparently declared as a ministerial interest.”

 Sunak wrote to the House of Commons liaison committee earlier this month saying his interest in the firm had been declared in the yet-to-be-published list of ministerial interests. It is not currently listed in the separate register of interests filled out by each MP.

The list of ministerial interests is long overdue for publication, having not been updated for almost 12 months. In February, Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden promised the Commons it would come before next month.

 In the committee letter, written on 4 April, Sunak noted “media interest” in his wife’s “minority stake” in the firm, adding: “I would like to clarify for the parliamentary record that this interest has rightly been declared to the Cabinet Office.”

 He added: “The latest list of ministerial interests will be published shortly by the independent adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.”

Koru Kids is expected to benefit from new incentive payments of £600 for childminders joining the profession, a sum which doubles if they have signed up through an agency.

 The firm, which is one of six agencies listed on the government’s website, praised the “great” new incentive on their own site, adding childminders would receive double if they “come through an agency like Koru Kids who offer community, training and ongoing support.”

News of the probe was seized on by Labour, with Deputy Leader Angela Rayner saying of the register of ministers’ interests: “If Rishi Sunak has got nothing to hide, he should commit to publishing the register before May’s elections so the public can see for themselves.”

Labour’s Keir Starmer has faced his own recent brush with the MP code of conduct.

Last summer the standards commissioner found that the opposition leader failed to declare eight interests on time. The watchdog concluded that the breaches were “minor and/or inadvertent, and that there was no deliberate attempt to mislead.”

Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.

• Erection of a detached garage and conversion of existing garage to ancillary accommodation including an extension to front. Wickets Upton Pyne Devon EX5 5JARef. No: 23/0758/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed replacement access steps and removal of flower bed Ashton Court Hotel 5-6 Louisa Terrace Exmouth Devon EX8 2AQRef. No: 23/0753/LBC | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed replacement access steps and removal of flower bed Ashton Court Hotel 5-6 Louisa Terrace Exmouth Devon EX8 2AQRef. No: 23/0752/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• County matter application for the creation of a new 1.5km stretch of shared use trail from Shercroft Close, running parallel with the railway and business centres, to Mosshayne Lane, linking Cranbrook to Exeter. The scheme involves a 3.5m wide pathway with a section of boardwalk and a bridge over the River Clyst at Land between Mosshayne Lane, Exeter and Shercroft Close, BroadclystLand Between Mosshayne Lane And Station Road / Shercroft Close BroadclystRef. No: 23/0737/CM | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a boundary screen. Magnolia Cottage Coburg Road Sidmouth Devon EX10 8NFRef. No: 23/0743/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• To alter the existing dwelling to form a larger modern dwelling and outbuildings.Summer Haye St Johns Road Exmouth EX8 5EFRef. No: 23/0731/FUL | Validated: Tue 04 Apr 2023 | Status: Withdrawn
• The construction of a Youth Football Facility, including clubhouse, parking, storage and football pitches to suit all age groups. Land North Of Honiton Golf Course Northleigh Hill Road HonitonRef. No: 23/0735/FUL | Validated: Tue 04 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement windows to front elevation 34 High Street Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 6LQRef. No: 23/0732/FUL | Validated: Tue 04 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed New Field Access Underhill Barn Southleigh Colyton EX24 6SARef. No: 23/0729/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing orangery and replacement of associated veranda including provision of balustrade, alterations to ground floor fenestration, replacement of existing attached rear garage to form utility room and link porch (Variation of works covered by extant full planning permission reference 22/0446/FUL) 11B Marine Parade Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 6NSRef. No: 23/0723/FUL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawfulness for the conversion of the existing garage to provide a bedroom and ensuite, utility and garden store.2 Webbers Close Whimple EX5 2SQRef. No: 23/0715/CPL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Approved
• Variation of condition no. 2 (approved planning permission 22/1526/FUL (single storey rear extension and conversion of roof space to habitable use to include two front dormers and one rear dormer) to allow amendments to approved drawings 4 Westview Close Whimple Devon EX5 2TWRef. No: 23/0722/VAR | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey garage to front. Land At Crammer Broadhembury EX14 3LNRef. No: 23/0714/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• The provision of single unit mobile home (not operational development) within the garden of the lawful dwelling house for use as additional accommodation by family members as part of one household (not a material change of use).Abbots Cottage Combe Raleigh EX14 4TQRef. No: 23/0726/CPL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a single storey extension to the front, single storey extension to the side to form porch and a two-storey extension to the rear 3B Salterton Road Exmouth EX8 2BWRef. No: 23/0721/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• The erection of a single storey rear extension and installation of new front porch with balcony created above. 27 Foxholes Hill Exmouth Devon EX8 2DGRef. No: 23/0707/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Creation of new access track to existing dwelling. The Grange Higher Metcombe Devon EX11 1SHRef. No: 23/0709/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey extension on east elevation. 23 Dukes Way Axminster Devon EX13 5QPRef. No: 23/0701/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of the first floor of 114-116 Honiton High Street to two residential flats First Floor 114 – 116 High Street Honiton EX14 1JPRef. No: 23/0705/PDMA | Validated: Tue 04 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed infill development of three static caravans with their associated services and parking spaces within the Haven Devon Cliffs Holiday Park Devon Cliffs Holiday Centre Sandy Bay Exmouth Devon EX8 5BTRef. No: 23/0692/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed infill development of six static caravans with their associated services and parking spaces within the Haven Devon Cliffs Holiday Park. Devon Cliffs Holiday Centre Sandy Bay Exmouth Devon EX8 5BTRef. No: 23/0693/FUL | Validated: Thu 06 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a summer house to side. Erection of 6ft fence to north and east of pedestrian access gate on east side. Construction of wooden access steps from footpath to adjacent garden. Land Adjacent 4 Cheese Lane Sidmouth Devon EX10 8QYRef. No: 23/0684/FUL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Sycamore: crown reduction of less than 2m, and crown raise by 1.5m above the garden of 23, Major Terrace 5 Major Terrace Seaton EX12 2RFRef. No: 23/0682/TRE | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install an external staircase to give an access to the flat above Flat 28 The Strand Exmouth Devon EX8 1AQRef. No: 23/0686/FUL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of roof space to habitable use to include front flat roof dormer and single storey rear extension with roof terrace. 42 Springfield Road Exmouth Devon EX8 3JYRef. No: 23/0665/FUL | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey rear extension. 1 Laurel Rise Exmouth EX8 4RTRef. No: 23/0629/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of 2 No existing Septic Tanks with 2 No. Treatment Plants Sector Hall Sector Lane Axminster Devon EX13 5RZRef. No: 23/0591/FUL | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install 6no. solar PV panels on rear northwest elevation of the annex and 4no. on rear southeast elevation of main dwelling Ferndale The Strand Lympstone EX8 5JSRef. No: 23/0563/LBC | Validated: Wed 05 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• The Environment Agency is proposing the installation of a new radar river level monitoring box on the eastern elevation of Weycroft Bridge to replace the current river level monitoring station on north bank of the River Axe to the east of Weycroft Bridge, providing a more reliable alert to flooding risk. The radar arm will be a stand alone box, mounted on the bridge and can be painted any colour to better blend in Weycroft Bridge Weycroft AxminsterRef. No: 23/0403/LBC | Validated: Mon 03 Apr 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision

Tories could lose over 1,000 seats in local elections, party chair warns

Greg Hands was seen with notes made in blue ink on his hand in Sunday’s broadcast interviews as he defended the record of Rishi Sunak’s government ahead of the 4 May polls.

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk

The Conservatives are on course to lose more than 1,000 seats in May’s local elections, the party’s under-pressure chairman has said.

Greg Hands referred several times to a forecast by elections experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Tory seat losses of around 1,000 – with Labour set to make around 700 gains.

The cabinet chairman told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “The independent expectations are that the Conservatives will lose more than 1,000 seats and that Labour need to make big gains.”

Accused by stand-in host Sir Trevor Phillips of trying to “massage expectations”, Mr Hands said: “That is what the expectation is out there, but I’ve been up and down the country and the Conservatives are fighting really hard.”

Asked by Sir Trevor whether he could lose his job if the results are dire, Mr Hands said: “Well let’s see Trevor, but what I would say is that those are the independent predictions from the most credible academic sources.”

Mr Hands was seen with notes made in blue ink on his hand in Sunday’s broadcast interviews as he defended the record of Rishi Sunak’s government ahead of the 4 May polls.

Labour mocked the Tory cabinet minister after he was spotted with notes penned on his palm, tweeting: “Hands hands hands notes to Labour research team.”

The prospect of prolonged NHS strikes could derail Mr Sunak’s hopes of limiting local election damage, warned the Liberal Democrats – who said it would be “the most salient issue on the doorstep for 2019 Tory voters”.

A Lib Dem source said Mr Hands’ admission of defeat at the 4 May elections shows that the Tories “have already thrown in the towel before a single vote has been cast”.

They added: “Rishi Sunak is facing a blue wall bloodbath as people who voted Conservative all their life say never again, and turn to the Liberal Democrats instead.”

Anti-Tory tactical voting could see heavy local election losses for Mr Sunak’s party, top polling gurus have said. Election experts told The Independent the electorate had become increasingly “sophisticated” in switching between Labour or the Lib Dems.

Mr Hands insisted the government is “still working very hard in delivering” the PM’s priorities – halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, stopping boats carrying migrants across the Channel, and reducing hospital waits.

But the Tory chair admitted that a wave of strikes “haven’t helped” with the vow to bring down NHS waiting lists, which stand at a record high of 7.2 million people.

Mr Sunak is “personally involved” in trying to tackle NHS backlogs, Mr Hands said when pressed on how he will achieve that in the face of strikes.

He insisted the government is “definitely not giving up” on the PM’s pledge – arguing it has “budged” in the pay dispute with nursing unions.

Suella Braverman is doing a “brilliant job,” Mr Hands insisted as he was confronted on the record on tackling illegal immigration – pointing to figures suggesting 83 per cent of the public believe the government is handling immigration badly.

“I’ve already outlined how we’re getting to grips with the job, and how we are passing the legislation, how we are coming to these agreements with key allies, but sometimes these things will take time,” Mr Hands told Sky News.

He added: “And that is why, for example, we are starting returns to Albania, we are getting to grips with this and Suella is right on top of it.”

Pressed on Mr Sunak’s pledge on halving inflation, which has gone up since he made it, Mr Hands replied that “nobody has said that it’s going to be easy to tame inflation” as he blamed higher energy prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pressed on the UK’s economy showing no growth in February, the Tory chairman said: “Well, in February it was not one of the better results but January grew by 0.3 per cent … Overall, under this Conservative government we’ve got a record to be proud of on growth.”

Asked whether zero growth was something to be proud of, Mr Hands conceded that “we would like to see much stronger growth”.

So this comment from Tim posted yesterday provides a quick briefing for non-Tory candidates:

It is worth remembering the fiasco around the closure of local hospitals caused by Tory County Councillor Randall Johnson, then local MP Swire, and then Health Sec Matt Hancock.

It was acknowledged by Swire’s wife Sasha that Swire himself was only moved to get involved with Ottery hospital “to piss off Claire Wright” according to his wife’s published diary.

Too little has changed, Randall Johnson is still chair of Devon CC’s Health and Scrutiny Committee and contributing to the Tory lie that the NHS is safe in Tory hands.

May I suggest readers do a search on her name in this website, here’s is one of many results for starters. https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/10/04/__trashed-7/

Setting aside Ms Hernandez’s typo gaffes and being serious for a moment.

Alison Hernandez signed this oath of impartiality on taking office after being re-elected, pledging to serve ALL the people of Devon and Cornwall:

This is what the government said when they set up the new role of commissioner:

“The swearing of an oath will be an important symbol of this impartiality, emphasising both the significance of this new role in local communities and that commissioners are there to serve the people, not a political party or any one section of their electorate.” See here

The commissioner must not only be impartial but be seen to be impartial.

Despite this, Alison Hernandez appears to see no conflict in adding her clearly partisan statement to the leaflet East Devon Conservatives recently distributed to residents in which they publicise their six election pledges, directly below the pledge from Conservative Group Leader Phil Skinner.

In this she omits to mention Richard Foord (LibDem) MP, the other East Devon MP, only that she will work closely with Simon Jupp MP and Conservatives in East Devon.

Does this exclude working closely with any non-Tory East Devon District Council?

Her statement, apparently made as Police and Crime Commissioner, comes at a sensitive time when we are still trying to find out why the police took so long to investigate John Humphreys and why his eventual arrest and formal charging was kept a closely guarded secret so that he continued as a councillor, with all the access to children that gave him.

In August 2021 Humphreys was jailed for sexually assaulting boys. He had been arrested in 2016 and continued as a district councillor until 2019.

Maybe Owl needs to take an eye test (can you still get them these days?).

An eagle-eyed correspondent has just spotted a third mistake in the Tory Pledges:

Our “Commissionaire” whose mission is to “improve asses” is now called “HerMandez”.

With so many mistakes in such a small section of the leaflet, Owl’s advice is to take no notice of any of it.

Maybe it was intended as an April Fool.

Remember it was the Tories who got rid of most of the local cottage hospitals – Owl 

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com

A prolonged NHS crisis stoked by further strikes risks derailing Rishi Sunak’s local election plans amid Tory concern that the prime minister is already facing pressure over flagship pledges on health and the economy.

The prime minister will head to the south-east this week as he attempts to shore up Tory heartland seats where traditional supporters had been put off by the chaos of the Johnson and Truss regimes. However, opposition parties have reported findings that the NHS remains the most salient issue among soft Tory voters.

The decision by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to reject the government’s pay offer and announce further strike action, together with the threat of coordinated strikes by junior doctors, has heaped new pressure on Sunak’s pledge to reduce waiting lists by the end of the year.

It has also handed Labour and the Lib Dems a boost ahead of a huge set of local elections in England that represents Sunak’s first electoral test since entering Downing Street. “The RCN rejecting the nursing pay deal and the likelihood of further junior doctor strikes is bad news for the government, which had been making good progress in restoring a semblance of order after the chaos of the Johnson and Truss regimes,” said a former Tory minister. “There is a political imperative to put the strikes in the rearview mirror.”

According to an Opinium poll earlier this year, the most important of Sunak’s “five priorities” to the public is cutting NHS waiting lists. Cutting national debt is more of a “nice-to-have”, while 25% said new laws on small boats crossing the Channel were not a priority.

Campaigners in the so-called blue wall seats – where affluent, liberal Tory voters have been drifting away from the party – have already reported their surprise at finding that the NHS has emerged as the main concern on the doorstep rather than more familiar issues in the seats, such as tax cuts.

“The NHS is the most salient issue on the doorstep for 2019 Tory voters, and now their failure to manage it will be on the front of newspapers day in, day out,” said a senior Lib Dem source. “My personal view is that the reason they keep going for immigration/asylum seekers is that they basically think anything is better than the story being the NHS.”

It comes at a time when most Tory MPs have been pleasantly surprised by the progress Sunak has made since becoming prime minister, which has seen him adopt cutting NHS waiting times as one of his five “priorities for 2023”. Yet the vague NHS pledge is suddenly looking harder to achieve than was initially believed.

Sunak’s team is acutely aware of the importance of improving the NHS over this year. James Forsyth, his political secretary, has long believed that a prolonged NHS crisis is likely to be a greater problem for the hopes of the party than high energy bills and the cost of living.

Some senior Tories are hoping that public support for nurses will turn as the strikes continue. “I am not sure that public sympathy will continue as a reasonable package for nurses was rejected,” said one former cabinet minister. “People are starting to realise that strikes inhibit economic growth, too. I think that the PM’s pledges look much more ambitious than perhaps was realised earlier this year, but that is a good thing.”

While the target of cutting waiting times is vague, the events of the last week have made the task far harder, according to senior NHS figures. “We cannot overlook the consequences of this week’s strike action,” said Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, pointing to the number of outpatient appointments and operations rescheduled, estimated at between 250,000 and 330,000.

“A huge amount of effort has gone into cancelling and then finding new dates for these appointments. With a waiting list already over the 7m mark and an understaffed workforce, these extra cancellations will only further delay progress in getting the waiting list down. Longer term, many are mindful about how they will recover lost ground when it comes to the backlog, and they are always concerned for the health of patients who have had operations and appointments pushed back.”

It is not the only one of Sunak’s five pledges to be under pressure this spring, despite the fact that the list was seen as easy for the government to achieve. Recent economic data has also put pressure on the promise to get “national debt falling”. Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, was only just meeting his very loose fiscal targets.

“What’s notable about the current target, to have debt falling in five years’ time, is just how loose it is compared with previous targets,” he said, “and that, despite this, the government is still only meeting it by a hair’s breadth.”

Local Tories are pledging to cut car parking charges rather than fix the potholes. It’s all a matter of priorities.

Devon roads are in a state of “managed decline”.

Something Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council, said in the context of flooding seems to apply more generally: “Self-help is going to be the order of the day.”

 Another Tory readers might remember, Norman Tebbit, once exhorted people to “get on your bike”. In Devon that needs revising to “get on your horse”.

www.change.org

I believe that local, county and national government have A DUTY OF CARE  to all road users in England.
Motorists, motorcyclists and cyclists are being put in harm’s way every day by the extraordinary amount of potholes in our roads. Some of them are not only wide but very deep and I consider them to be dangerous.

The run down state of the roads is causing damage to vehicles every day. Your vehicles. Who pays for the new tyres and tracking to be realigned? Will government/council be the ones responsible for any accident that might have been caused by a driver swerving to avoid a pothole? After all, it is their fault that it is still there. Their responsibility. Is the government responsible for our physical well being if there is an accident directly relating to the state of the roads that are owned/maintained by them? What if you all sent your garage bills to your county council? 

The extra money allocated by government will not begin to solve this problem nationally. 

I believe that all levels of council and government are responsible in some way for funding or fixing. They need to step up to the duty of care they have to us as residents of England. 

Please sign the petition. Share it to everyone. Don’t be the one that always moans and does nothing to help change things. Please, make them start to take notice and listen to our road using residents and the passengers they carry. Our roads are a disgrace. 

Thank you!
—————————————–

The British people, in their infinite wisdom, voted against changing the electoral system in a referendum 12 years ago. The introduction of an “alternative vote” system would have allowed them to number candidates in order of preference, and so do without the need for tactical voting, which involves guessing how other people are going to vote and making one’s own decision accordingly.

Editorial www.independent.co.uk

However, we report that the view of a number of election analysts, led by Professor Sir John Curtice, is that British voters are likely to engage in tactical voting in the local elections on 4 May on a grand scale. Thus they may achieve roughly what they would have achieved by way of the alternative vote – in this case, administering a ringing condemnation of the governing party and its record.

“Tactical voting happens when people dislike the government so much they will take whatever stick is available to beat it with,” Prof Curtice explains. An increasingly sophisticated electorate is capable of switching between Labour and the Liberal Democrats – and indeed other minor parties – depending on which candidate has the best chance of defeating the Conservative candidate in a given constituency or local government ward.

Prof Curtice predicts that this kind of anti-Tory switching could happen on the same scale as in 1992 and 1997 when Tory local election losses were exaggerated as voters sent a powerful message to an unpopular government.

Regardless of whether the government deserves to be punished, this is a welcome and democratic trend. Given that we do not have an electoral system that allows voters to express more than one preference, or that is designed to secure representation in proportion to the number of votes cast, voters must use the system we have in the most sophisticated way possible.

If the Conservatives’ real motive in introducing voter ID was to try to secure party advantage – which would seem odd, given that older voters are both less likely to have a photographic identity document and more likely to vote Tory – then they should be disproportionately punished for such an anti-democratic instinct.

If the government abolished preferential voting in the case of directly elected mayors in the belief that it would give Tory candidates an advantage, then the voters should use whatever means are available to them to deliver the bloodiest of noses.

But above all, if the voters feel strongly that the government is on the wrong track, then they are entitled to use whatever legitimate and democratic means they wish in order to convey that message. We would urge all citizens not just to use their vote, but to do so in whatever way they feel best makes their voice heard. This may involve voting for a second- or third-best candidate in the hope of blocking the worst. It may involve casting a vote on national issues rather than on the responsibilities of the local council.

In practice, it is likely that many Conservative councillors will lose their seats, not because of their own record locally, but because of the way people feel about the record of Rishi Sunak and his ministers. This is rough justice, but it is also a vibrant democracy in the hands of an increasingly informed electorate, determined to use the voting system to try to get what it wants.

“Tactical voting” is another way of saying “power to the people”.

As some of you may have read yesterday Alison Hernandez has been billed as the “Police and Crime Commissionaire for Devon” on the East Devon Conservative “Working for you” broadsheet publicising their election pledges. Is this one of them?

A salary of  £88,600 per annum (May 2022) seems a lot for a uniformed door attendant, does this include a uniform allowance?

Has she published a selfie yet in her new role?

Also, should “improve assess” in her statement read: “improve asses”, just wondering? – Owl

Oooops – Owl

www.mirror.co.uk (Extract)

Conservative candidates standing in next month’s local elections have been delivering leaflets boasting that they have taken their areas ‘from debt free to debt ridden’

PS A number of typos in latest East DevonConservatives Working for you.

Alison Hernandez becomes a Crime Commissionaire. Opening doors to whom? – Owl

Air source heat pumps may not be the solution to reducing East Devon leisure centre heating bills, a new report has found.

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk 

Consultations are to continue about how to reduce energy bills in East Devon’s leisure centres, writes local democracy reporter Rob Kershaw.

Exmouth swimming pool recently made national news for its use of a ‘digital boiler’ powered by cloud data servers.

Some estimates suggest this method of heating could more than halve the pool’s energy bill, although East Devon District Council (EDDC) officers believe the figure is closer to 30 per cent.

The council is the landlord of three public pools in Sidmouth, Honiton and Exmouth, and it is keen to reduce energy bills, with the heating of swimming pools being one of the costliest expenditures.

At an LED (Leisure East Devon) monitoring forum meeting on Tuesday (April 11) the company’s chief executive Peter Gilpin revealed that engineering giants Bosch had completed a free audit of heating systems in the district leisure centres.

It found that heating through air source heat pumps are not the “panacea” that some may think.

The audit suggests that new boilers, like ones recently installed in Sidmouth, often work better than new air source heaters, which are too big for places like Axminster’s Flamingo Pool.

The chancellor’s budget last month confirmed that over £60 million is to be spent on leisure centres with swimming pools, and East Devon’s facilities may be able to grab a share of that cash to improve facilities.

Government funding of £40 million is also available for decarbonisation, with a further £23 million prioritised for socially deprived areas.

But there is some debate about which energy source is the most efficient. Independent Cllr Nick Hookway suggested that the council engage “consultants as quickly as possible to provide us with further information to make a long-term decision.”

Most councillors at the meeting agreed to seek expert guidance on heating solutions, while officers will prepare a bid for government funding.

In 2011 the Tories had 43 councillors.

Two electoral cycles later, after the 2019 election, they had only 19.

Time for a re-think?

No, our Tories aren’t for turning.

Seeing the writing on the wall in February, otherwise loyal Conservative “I support Simon Jupp” Mike Howe, was forced to quit saying he: “Can’t defend the indefensible”.

Mike Howe is now contesting his Clyst Valley ward as an Independent against an Official Conservative and a LibDem. A Conservative “lose” here looks to be on the cards.

So the Tories face the May elections signalling business as usual with their choice of Leader Phil Skinner and his Deputy Ben Ingham, who started as a Tory, played with being an Independent but has now been “reborn” a Tory.

If you vote Tory on May 4 under Phil Skinner this is what to expect

Phil Skinner was first elected in 1999.

He was elected Chair Exmouth regeneration board 2016 and Deputy Leader EDDC May 2018. 

As Deputy Leader he would have been one of two EDDC representatives on the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP).

GESP was a strategic plan to spread Exeter’s housing needs more widely with its neighbours: Teignbridge; East Devon and Mid Devon.

Under the ill fated Ingham “Independent” regime in 2019 in addition to Deputy leader Susie Bond, Phil Skinner was also elected to represent EDDC on the GESP, providing continuity. He was the Conservative Group leader on Strategic Planning at the time.

Devised in great secrecy, behind closed doors, a draft GESP Housing Allocation plan was published in 2019 (since withdrawn from the public domain). An East Devon paper of 2020, however, reveals the scale of what was being proposed. East Devon was to bear a hugely disproportionate number of houses accounting for one third of the total. This amounted to 6,000 houses in addition to the 4,000 in the local plan over an equivalent period. (The GESP was working to a 2040 planning horizon). This DevonLive article also records details.

In other words Phil Skinner and Ben Ingham were going along with a plan for a 150% uplift to the EDDC Local Plan which was already based on a “jobs led” high growth scenario.

It illustrates graphically where Phil Skinner is coming from.

Along the line his Councillor responsibilities have included: being portfolio holder to both the economy and development management (planning in plain speak); rural champion; a member of the Heart of the South West LEP Joint Committee; and a member of The Exeter and Heart Of Devon Growth Board, Joint Advisory Reference Group.

In short Phil Skinner has been at the forefront of place shaping for not only EDDC but for the region. His time in power coincides with the period when the Conservative electoral fortunes started to go downhill.

He is a “Build, build, build” developer’s friend through and through.

The legacy we still experience, with an eye watering Local Plan housing target 2013 to 2031 and problems concerning Exmouth Regeneration and forfeiture of East Devon land to fulfil Exeter’s housing plan shortfall, can all be traced to him and his contemporaries, of which he is very much the “continuity candidate”.

As he said, whilst supporting the Exeter and East Devon bid for “Garden Community” status in 2019:

“We are going to have the housing numbers whether we like it or not, and we cannot put off and delay this as there is a much bigger vision than just focusing on that. This is a really exciting project and I hope people grasp it with the enthusiasm that I have so we get the good things for the area that we live in.

[The villages of Poltimore, Huxham, Clyst St Mary, Clyst St George, Ebford, West Hill, Woodbury​, Woodbury Salterton, Exton and Farringdon would be most likely to be included in this plan as ones that could be expanded further, based on them being in the quadrant and close to existing infrastructure.]

As for the chameleon Ben Ingham, who has already failed as a Leader of the Council.

All you need do is ask yourself this: “Would you buy a second hand car from him?”

Leopards never change their spots.