[Including a reduction in the number of affordable units – Surprise, surprise – Owl]
Revised plans for the controversial redevelopment of the former East Devon District Council offices in Sidmouth have been unveiled. Plans have previously been given the go-ahead to turn the premises at the Knowle into a purpose-built care home, retirement living apartments and affordable housing.
It was all the way back in 2018 the scheme for an assisted living development was granted on appeal. Property developer LifeStory though ‘reviewed the consented development’ before selling the site to McCarthy Stone.
They have now come back with fresh plans for the site. McCarthy Stone and Porthaven are holding a virtual exhibition to display their revised proposals, which respond to the concerns raised by the community as part of the original planning consent, and that the proposals have incorporated feedback received from the first consultation held in Summer 2022.
The updated proposals for the site’s redevelopment look to provide a purpose-built care home, Extra Care and age-restricted Retirement Living accommodation as well as policy compliant affordable housing. The consultation will provide the community with the opportunity to view and comment on McCarthy Stone’s proposals for the site, ahead of a planning application being submitted in the coming months.
Shane Paull, Divisional Managing Director at McCarthy Stone Southern, said: “As part of our commitment to community engagement, we have now launched a second consultation, to ensure that the local community are afforded with another opportunity to view and comment upon the updated proposals for the site.
“The virtual exhibition provides us with another important opportunity to understand feedback on our proposals, and for us to demonstrate how the updated plans have responded to concerns raised by the community as part of the original planning consent, and from the Summer 2022 consultation.”
Latest artist impressions of plans to redevelop the Knowle in Sidmouth
Changes to the masterplan include:
· Additional parking has been included within the centre of the site, that will be naturally screened by new tree planting.
· The provision of four houses on the north-western part of the Plateau
· The number of affordable apartments has been reduced from 21 to 17. This has also enabled the affordable apartment block to be relocated from the northeast part of the Plateau to the north-west, that is stepped away from neighbouring properties
· The reduction in the level of Retirement Living PLUS apartments, from 59 to 53
· Additional tree planting to provide an extension to the Arboretum, that provides a green corridor stepping down to the south part of the Plateau site.
· The provision of two houses along the southern grass verge of the Plateau.
Latest artist impressions of plans to redevelop the Knowle in Sidmouth
The plans now include:
· In northern part of the site that currently comprises of a car park, to be developed by Porthaven, to provide a 68-bedroom care home
· A high-quality Retirement Living and Retirement Living PLUS (Extra Care) development to be developed by McCarthy Stone on The Plateau part of the site, featuring up to 27 one-and two-bedroom Retirement Living apartments as well as up to 53 one- and two- bedroom Retirement Living PLUS (Extra Care) apartments for private sale, part-rent part-buy and rental options
· The Plateau part of the site to also include up to 17 one-and two-bedroom affordable open market housing apartments, as well as four houses, in compliance with local authority guidance
· Tailored shared facilities within both the Retirement Living developments, including a communal lounge with a kitchenette and a hotel-style guest suite as well as an onsite bistro restaurant within the Retirement Living PLUS development.
· Principal vehicle access from Station Road, with secondary access from Knowle Drive for the use of emergency and refuse vehicles only.
· Sufficient levels of car parking onsite, including disabled and electric vehicle charging bays, in accordance with East Devon District Council’s standards, as well as an overflow parking area to the southwest of The Plateau part of the site, that will be accessed from Station Road.
The plans are available to view and comment on until December 14 at www.mccarthystoneconsultation.co.uk/sidmouth The principle of the site’s redevelopment has also been established within East Devon District Council’s Local Plan for the period up to 2031, adopted in January 2016.
It comes as a parliamentary committee warned historic breaches of the code may never be investigated or resolved, including the conduct of the home secretary or Islamophobia claims against a former chief whip.
Rishi Sunak has launched a hunt for a new adviser on ministerial interests but the Guardian reported last week several candidates have turned down the role. Sunak is not offering candidates any enhanced powers – which means advisers would not be able to launch their own investigations.
The ethics adviser, when appointed, would probably face calls to renew or open at least two complex investigations – including concluding one into alleged Islamophobic comments made by the then-chief whip Mark Spencer to MP Nusrat Ghani.
There will also probably be pressure to open an investigation into the home secretary, Suella Braverman, who was sacked for a potential security breach by Liz Truss though reinstated by Sunak.
The pressure group Transparency International has been among those calling for the role to have significantly enhanced powers since it was vacated by Christopher Geidt five months ago under Boris Johnson.
In analysis of media reports, the group found 40 potential breaches of the ministerial code have not been investigated over the past five years. Those included:
Multiple meetings held by Anne-Marie Trevelyan with a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company with no record of what was discussed.
All the ministers have claimed donations and meetings were recorded accurately, but Transparency International said each one represents a potential breach that should be investigated where a perceived conflict of interest may arise.
The group has also called for appointments to the role to be made with a competitive process and for the position to be defined in law – rather than both being at the whim of the PM.
Daniel Bruce, the chief executive of Transparency International UK, said: “This is further evidence the conventions-based system that is supposed to uphold standards in high-office is simply not fit for purpose. The extent of potential misconduct at the heart of government may be a shock to many, but equally concerning should be the lack of transparency over why these cases were never investigated independently.”
Sir Alex Allan, a former independent adviser, resigned after Boris Johnson refused to take action after an investigation into bullying by the then-home secretary Priti Patel.
Truss, during her short tenure as prime minister, expressed no interest in appointing a successor to Geidt. No transparency data on ministers’ interests has been published since May, despite multiple changes of government including three prime ministers.
While Sunak searches for Geidt’s successor, a separate independent investigation has been launched into the conduct of the deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, by the senior employment barrister Adam Tolley KC, who is examining three bullying complaints.
A government spokesperson said: “We have been clear that this government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level and have committed to appointing an independent adviser on ministerial interests. This process is ongoing.”
Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint Suella Braverman as UK home secretary sets a “dangerous precedent” for what should happen to ministers who are alleged to have broken the ministerial code, a Conservative-led committee of MPs has warned.
The public administration and constitutional affairs committee released its latest report into government ethics on Friday, issuing a damning judgment on the government’s recent record in office.
It took issue, in particular, with the reappointment of Braverman, who resigned in the last days of Liz Truss’s premiership after sending an official document from her personal email to another MP. However, Sunak made her home secretary again soon after taking office, despite promising to bring “integrity and accountability” back to government.
The committee, which is chaired by the Conservative MP William Wragg, said in its report: “The reappointment of the home secretary sets a dangerous precedent. The leaking of restricted material is worthy of significant sanction under the new graduated sanctions regime introduced in May, including resignation and a significant period out of office.
“A subsequent change in prime minister should not wipe the slate clean and allow for a rehabilitation and a return to ministerial office in a shorter timeframe.”
Sunak took office in October pledging a return to sombre and ethical government after the turbulence of the tenures of Truss and her predecessor, Boris Johnson.
But he immediately faced criticism for his decision to reappoint Braverman amid allegations she had broken the ministerial code. The rightwing Braverman’s decision to back him during the Tory leadership campaign was seen as pivotal in killing off Johnson’s attempt to return to office.
Sunak has also struggled to appoint an independent ethics adviser after the resignation of Christopher Geidt, who quit after months of revelations about lockdown-breaking parties in No 10.
The Guardian revealed this week that several candidates had turned down the role over the past five months owing to concerns about its remit. One source close to the process said Sunak was not planning to allow the new adviser to launch their own investigations, which would leave substantial investigative power in the hands of the prime minister.
The committee said in its report that the role should be enshrined in law, and the new adviser should be able to begin their own inquiries. The MPs said: “The statutory role should preserve the recent increase in powers for the independent adviser, notably the authority of the post holder to initiate their own investigations rather than waiting for instruction from the prime minister.”
They added that the adviser should also be allowed to conduct inquiries into historical behaviour, which would allow whoever takes the role to look into the allegations against Braverman.
Compliance failure follows university admission that there are nearly 39,000 students based at Exeter campuses in 2021-22, suggesting around three quarters of city’s private rented housing stock occupied by students.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to investigate the University of Exeter’s refusal to disclose student accommodation numbers under freedom of information legislation.
Its investigation follows the university’s failure to comply with a deadline it was given to review its handling of an Exeter Observer information request to provide the numbers of Exeter campus-based students housed in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) during the 2021-22 academic year.
(FTE student numbers combine full-time and part-time students into a single total used for planning educational provision, not accommodation, although the university does not explain this anywhere on its “facts and figures” page.)
The university can choose what to publish on its website, but its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are legally binding. It is a criminal offence to alter or conceal information held by public authorities (including the university) with the intention of preventing disclosure following a request for the information under the Act.
Exeter PBSA bedspace availability and occupancy rates make it likely that fewer than 10,000 of the the university’s Exeter-based students stayed in this form of accommodation during the 2021-22 academic year, meaning around another 29,000 students would have been living in the city’s residential housing stock in one form or another.
The government does not hold precise figures for tenure distribution at local authority level and there are likely to be small PBSA occupancy rate variations. Meanwhile the city council continues to use council tax records to estimate student residential housing stock occupation despite the Office for National Statistics (ONS) concluding last year that they cannot be relied on for this purpose.
So we asked the university to provide its own figures for the distribution of Exeter campus-based students across both university- and privately-provided PBSA in 2021-22 so we could, in turn, confirm exactly how many were living in the city’s private residential housing stock.
The university’s response was to claim it does not know and cannot find out because it “does not hold structured or consistent data to answer the question without manual process to review all student records”.
It nevertheless also said: “Records are kept as standard address: house number, street name, postcode” but claimed this information could not be used to identify which of its students lived in either its own or privately-provided PBSA despite it also knowing the location and ownership of all 66 such blocks in the city, information it publishes on its website.
When we pointed out that its standardised student address format would enable it to make simple database queries to match the postcodes of each PBSA address against the postcodes of each student address record, yielding the information we had requested, it claimed that it was not obliged to provide the information as it would have to perform this cross-referencing by hand.
University regulations and policies which relate to the electronic online Student Record System that it uses to manage address information for all its Exeter students say otherwise.
Its data protection notice says that it holds and processes permanent and term-time addresses of all its students and its general regulations say all Exeter-based students are required to maintain up to date home and term-time address records via its electronic online Student Record System as a condition of enrolment, a requirement repeated on its academic study administration portal.
When we asked the university to review of its handling of our information request, as per the rights conferred by the Freedom of Information Act, it initially resisted, repeating its previous claim about manual processing.
Then, when we pointed out that its response did not address any of the issues we raised regarding its failure to comply with the provisions of the Act, and asked it to confirm that it had provided its full and final response before we complained to the ICO, it suddenly changed its tune and said it would perform a proper review.
Such reviews should normally be completed within twenty working days. After 22 working days we followed up and were told that a review was underway and would be completed in no more than 40 working days, the maximum allowed by law.
When 43 working days passed without the university completing the review (62 since we submitted the initial request) we wrote to the ICO, which gave the university a ten day response deadline.
The university remained silent, the deadline passed and the ICO has now confirmed it will launch an investigation into the university’s refusal to provide the information.
Martin Redfern is editor of Exeter Observer and a director of its publisher Exeter Observer Limited.
Around the UK, 114 branches will shut down between April and August. The Honiton branch will close on June 13 2023.
HSBC said the closures are in response to a steep decline in footfall at its branches since the Covid pandemic, with some serving fewer than 250 people a week. Meanwhile usage of its mobile app has almost tripled since 2017 and the vast majority of transactions are completed digitally.
The bank’s head office has said it hopes to redeploy all its employees at affected branches to other roles within HSBC, either to other branches or to a different position.
HSBC’s managing director of UK distribution Jackie Uhi said: “People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of it returning.
“The decision to close a branch is never easy or taken lightly, especially if we are the last branch in an area, so we’ve invested heavily in our ‘post closure’ strategy, including providing free tablet devices to selected branch customers who do not already have a device to bank digitally, alongside one-to-one coaching to help them migrate to digital banking.”
John Harris dissects key aspects of the housing “crisis” in a typically thoughtful and powerful way (The Tories are tearing themselves apart over housing – but this is another crisis of their own making, 27 November). But on the way he displays a crucial misunderstanding. There is no presumption in favour of development in the planning system; it’s a presumption in favour of sustainable development – something with which surely no one could disagree? This is an egregious example of the Tory use of sophistry that has made a massive contribution to the issue that Harris so ably describes. Far from being an objective, science-based definition, it is in reality a circular argument that the government inserted in the national planning guidance.
In effect, “sustainable” is what the government, Humpty Dumpty-like, says it is. The assessment of major housing proposals, which so often go to appeal, is comically perfunctory, the overriding criterion being the supply of new housing, however and wherever built. Many people participate in this charade. We have been building in unsustainability – carbon emissions, destruction of habitat, poor health and unaffordability – throughout the last 12 years. The cost of retrofitting will be astronomical. We need the houses we need. Campaigners cannot morally deny that, but development must be based on sound sustainability principles and by applying rigorous tests that are available but are never used effectively.
The planning guidance or, more accurately, diktat is what needs to be radically overhauled to place sustainability at its heart. That will result in major shifts in the burden of costs and benefits, but equally, that must be faced.
Neil Blackshaw
Whittingham, Northumberland
John Harris rightly points to the complexity of the issue that goes beyond finger-pointing at nimbys. However, having worked for a local authority recently, I get the sense that many well-off and organised residents weaponise issues such as environmental concerns, lack of infrastructure and pressure on services to serve their own ends, and usually offer solutions such as building on brownfield sites. These involve other associated costs and complexities for local authorities and developers, and hold back economic growth and much-needed housing for people who commute to work in places where they can’t afford to live.
Local authorities are not allowed to build schools either, which compounds the issue. Newly built houses do bring in council tax revenue for local authorities, so surely they have to start somewhere to generate revenue to rebuild infrastructure and services?
Steve Flatley
York
It is worth recalling that the only time that we were able to complete 300,000 new homes a year was when half of them were local authority-built for subsidised social rent (under a Conservative housing minister – Harold Macmillan). We know we can’t rely on private housebuilders to provide the affordable housing that we so desperately need, and a thorough reform of the way that housing is delivered is required. What is also needed is a commitment to genuine levelling up, with new, well-paid jobs and the housing that goes with them available throughout the country, not just in the already overheated south.
A Tory-led council has admitted a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects caused it to run up an unprecedented deficit of nearly £500m and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.
“The Tory cabinet are absolutely complicit in this scandal and with every new revelation their position becomes even more indefensible.”
The staggering scale of the catastrophe at Thurrock council in Essex – one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government – is contained in an internal report made to the council’s cabinet, which reveals it has lost £275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further £130m this year to pay back investment debts.
Thurrock has appealed to the government for an emergency financial bailout and warned that it will have to push through a drastic programme of cuts to local services and staff redundancies, along with a probable fire sale of buildings, land and other assets as it attempts to stay afloat. Council tax rises are also likely.
There was astonishment in the wider local government world at the scale of the financial disaster. “What we are seeing in Thurrock is shocking and unprecedented. I have not seen anything like this in my 30-year career in local government,” said Rob Whiteman, the chief executive of Cipfa, the public sector accountants body.
Thurrock had become one of the most indebted of all English local authorities in recent years after borrowing £1.5bn – 10 times its annual spending on local services – to enable a string of investments in solar energy and other businesses.
Three years of investigations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) have helped force Thurrock to reveal the full scale of its investments, including hundreds of millions lent to companies owned by businessman Liam Kavanagh to invest in 53 solar farms.
According to the BIJ, Thurrock invested £655m in Kavanagh’s companies, and expects to lose £188m on the deal. It also expects to make a £65m loss on its investment in a company called the Just Loans Group, which went bust in June, and millions more on a series of other deals that turned sour.
In common with many other councils Thurrock attempted to offset the effects of years of austerity cuts to its funding by borrowing cheaply from the Treasury and investing in commercial business in the hope this would provide an alternative income stream. By 2019, English councils had borrowed over £6bn for this purpose.
Concerns over Thurrock’s exposure to risky commercial investments led a panicked government to send in a team of commissioners to run its finances in September. The cabinet report reveals Thurrock’s finances are now in a significantly far worse state than originally thought just a few weeks ago – and could get even worse.
The report predicts a further black hole in its budget of £185m in 2023-24, suggesting that it may have to declare effective bankruptcy. Three councils, Croydon, Slough and Northamptonshire, have gone insolvent in recent years, the former two after running up huge debts on borrowing.
“This is a grave position and at this point the council cannot find a way to finance their expenditure in-year and is unlikely to achieve a balanced budget for 2023-24 without external support,” the report says.
The council’s Conservative leader, Mark Coxshall, issued a statement saying that services would continue to operate as normal for now and staff would continue to be paid. But he also warned that there would be “extremely difficult decisions to come” in what he called “uncertain and unsettling times”.
He added: “These are shocking numbers but the first stage to creating a good plan for recovery is to understand the full extent of the problem. I know that Thurrock residents will be concerned, and rightly so, about what this means for local services. Please rest assured that this report is the first stage of planning for our recovery.”
John Kent, the leader of Thurrock council’s Labour opposition, said Thurrock residents will be paying the price for the Conservatives’ catastrophic handling of the council’s affairs for decades.
“This report lays bare the culmination of six years of Conservative leadership of Thurrock council,” he said. “Just what were those Conservative councillors who make up the council’s cabinet doing? Are we really expected to believe they didn’t notice what was going on under their very noses?
“The Tory cabinet are absolutely complicit in this scandal and with every new revelation their position becomes even more indefensible.”
Our journalists hold authority to account on your behalf, covering the courts and council meetings so you know what’s going on in your local area.
And we champion your interests through campaigning and appeals which deliver real results for local communities.
An important but less talked about part of our offering is public notices.
These are advertisements, placed in the main by local authorities, which tell you about things such as planning applications or changes to traffic regulations in your area.
If a local bar wants to extend its opening hours, you’ll find out about it through a public notice in the pages of your local newspaper.
Sometimes, public notices can generate controversy and get everyone in the community talking about an issue which will affect their lives, such as plans for a large new development.
That’s just as it should be in a healthy democracy.
Two years ago, the local news media sector came together through industry trade body the News Media Association to discuss how to give public notices a boost.
Local journalism is reaching more people than ever before, currently 42 million people a month, but much of that audience is now online.
The challenge for the industry was to bring public notices into the 21st century by harnessing local media’s large and increasing digital audiences while ensuring everyone can still access them in their printed local newspaper.
Today, we are delighted to introduce the result of that work – the Public Notice Portal (PNP), which will transform the way readers interact with public notices.
The new portal has been built following extensive consumer research, discussions with local authorities and central government.
The project has also benefitted from technical expertise and £1 million funding from Google.
Fully searchable by postcode and type of notice, the portal uses maps to show you exactly where notices that affect you are located with pinpoint accuracy.
Users can sign up to receive notifications about particular types of notices, or notices relating to a specific geography, providing a highly personalised service.
The portal is completely free to use and is part of your local news media website in addition to operating as a standalone resource.
Although all the main publishers in NMA membership are signed up to the scheme, the portal is still in beta phase and has not yet been rolled out across the whole industry.
Instead, it is being tested in key areas such as Exmouth before the full launch.
We expect the portal will in time provide comprehensive coverage of all the public notices being published in the UK, right across the industry’s 800 local news websites.
That will create an enormously powerful new resource for us all to tap into.
During the beta phase of the project, you have the opportunity to have your say about this transformative technology.
The local news media sector is committed to strengthening and enhancing local democracy in whatever way it can.
We believe that the Public Notice Portal is a critically important part of that mission and will deliver a powerful boost for local communities right across the UK.
Tiverton & Honiton’s MP Richard Foord has slammed the Government’s ‘botched’ Australia and New Zealand trade deals, warning they risk driving already struggling farmers across the West Country out of business. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Foord drew attention to the huge impact being caused by these trade deals – caused by opening UK markets to produce made to lower standards abroad.
He also raised the ongoing issues with rollout of the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs) which is seeing the Basic Payment, the current farming subsidy, reduced before ELMs payments fully kick in.
Warning of the huge threat these deals post to 64,000 people across the South West who work in Agriculture, Mr Foord called for MPs to have a stronger say in the terms of new trade deals and for protecting UK industries to be central to future negotiating priorities.
His comments come in the wake of former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice similarly criticising the deals, saying they were: “not actually a very good deal for the UK – the UK gave away far too much for far too little in return”.
The debate granted today by the Government was a ‘General Debate’, meaning the motion MPs were discussing was neutrally worded and unamendable. This meant that any vote on it would have no binding impact on the Government’s approach, contrary to a more substantive debate as was requested by the Parliamentary International Trade Committee.
Speaking after the debate, Richard Foord MP said: “It’s clear that this Conservative government either don’t get it, or they simply do not care.
“Their botched trade deals are putting the future of local farmers here in Devon at risk, by allowing lower quality produce to flood our markets. It’s ludicrous that the Government expects them to compete when these deals tie not one, but both hands behind their backs.
“And the trade-off for all the pain and misery set to be inflicted on rural communities by both of these deals? A whopping 0.11% increase to our GDP. This is drop in the ocean compared to the huge turmoil and hurt it will cause for local farmers.
“Even the former Secretary of State has come out and admitted the deals are bad, giving away far too much. No wonder the Government would only give us a hollow debate, which lacked any chance for us to actually change their approach.
“The whole situation is a scandal. We must ensure MPs have the final say on not only the terms of trade deals, but also the negotiating priorities and red lines. This is the only way we can ensure our world leading farming and fishing industries are properly protected.”
(Or how the Tories crashed the economy and we came within a whisker of losing our pensions)
The governor of the Bank of England has indicated it was left blindsided by Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget, describing an “extraordinary process” in which there was “no formal communication” before the chancellor unveiled his measures.
In candid evidence to the Lords economic affairs committee, Andrew Bailey said Kwarteng had broken with tradition by failing to brief the central bank, suggesting that even Treasury officials were not fully aware of his plans a day before the event.
“I’m afraid there was parts of it we had no idea what was in it,” Bailey said. Asked by the Lords whether this suggested a slapdash approach from the government when making major changes to tax and spending policy, he said: “There was no formal communication of the sort we normally have. It was a quite extraordinary process in that sense.
“I didn’t say to the chancellor ‘you have to tell me what’s in this fiscal statement’, because, frankly, I would never say that to a chancellor. But then I don’t need to say that in normal circumstances. We have channels of communication.”
He said it had been an “extraordinary time”, as the mini-budget came in the same week as the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Financial markets were plunged into turmoil after the former chancellor unveiled more than £45bn of unfunded tax cuts largely directed at higher earners, sending the pound plummeting to its lowest level in history, and government borrowing costs surging to the highest rate since the 2008 financial crisis.
Responding to questions from Mervyn King, who was the Bank’s governor during the 2008 financial crisis, Bailey suggested even Treasury officials were not fully informed of Kwarteng’s plans a day before the mini-budget.
“I don’t think Treasury officials were clear what was going to be in it,” he said.
Bailey said the Bank was not informed of Kwarteng’s plan to scrap the 45p additional rate of income tax, which he said was one of two reasons City bankers had given him when explaining the subsequent financial market meltdown. The other was Kwarteng’s decision to sideline the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“What people said to me was they were surprised, substantially surprised, that it was done at that point in time in that context in that situation.
“And people in the markets said those two things had quite a big impact on them in terms of their reaction to it. And their judgment of the direction of UK economic policy and fiscal policy making at that time, which was obviously very negative.”
King said it was normal for a Treasury official to attend meetings of the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee, and they would typically provide guidance to the central bank before major announcements on tax and spending.
King said the MPC had met a day before the mini-budget, and asked whether a Treasury official was present and had provided a broad update on Kwarteng’s tax and spending plans and their economic consequences. Bailey said the official had “told us what they understood to be the situation,” but suggested they did not have a full picture.
Bailey rejected suggestions that the Bank’s time-limited intervention in the bond market after the mini-budget “brought down” the Truss government. “We did not bring the government down. We did a limited operation for financial stability purposes and we did exactly the right thing and ended it promptly.”
UK residents hit by the ongoing energy and cost of living crises may face three-hour winter blackouts over the festive season.
[Owl has been taking part in the Demand Flexibility Service trials over the past couple of weeks which seems to have been effective in reducing peak demand at specified times by significant amounts, equivalent, in Owl’s suppliers case, of taking a gas fired generating station off grid for an hour each time.]
Although National Grid ESO insisted the blackouts would only be ‘worst case’ measures initiated if gas supplies fall ‘extremely low’, uncertainty around what to expect remains a fear. In a report published in October, operators said the UK losing power was ‘unlikely’, but on Tuesday, an ESO blackout alert caused widespread panic before the energy firm promptly cancelled it, the Mirror reports.
In the alert, ESO said homes would lose power at 7pm due to ‘tight capacity’, but the firm took to Twitter, saying it had withdrawn the ‘Capacity Market Notice’. The removal failed to reassure UK residents, so many have wondered how to proceed if a blackout occurs.
With energy supplies already threatened due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, costs will likely skyrocket as more people turn on their heating to counteract the cold winter months. In 2017, The UK closed its ‘rough storage’, meaning other states could stockpile supplies more efficiently, but 70 per cent of the British Isles’ gas arrived from the ‘continental shelf’ and Norway in the winter of 2021.
ESO said residents would receive 24 hours’ notice before a blackout occurs, but the extent of the power cuts would depend on the demands of operating firms. However, as they are likely to be ‘rolling’ blackouts, the effects would be divided up, with certain areas cut off at certain times.
John Pettigrew, the CEO of ESO, said power cuts would likely be in the evening, as this is when demands surge. The firm said 4pm to 7pm would be probable – when ‘it’s really cold in January and February’, with vulnerable customers, including care residents, under the responsibility of network operators, the details of which are yet to be confirmed.
With supply failures, customers would usually receive compensation, but this is unlikely to be the case for blackouts of this scale, as the energy firms have planned the cuts and already informed residents. But ESO is thought to have plans to back up the nation’s energy supplies with coal generators, thanks to three firms.
ESO has also launched a ‘Demand Flexibility Service’, offering cash to residents with smart meters if they switch to off-peak energy. Residents who have registered with the service are to receive messages asking them to reduce their outputs or change usage times on specific periods of the day, meaning households may have to switch energy-guzzling appliances off when requested.
In his latest weekly column (see tomorrow’s Journal) Simon Jupp repeats his criticism (made last March and repeated in September) of EDDC putting up car parking charges.
No mention of the fact that Devon County Council has also put up its car parking charges, nor of the whopping increases in taxation his Government has just imposed.
Aren’t there are more significant “price hikes” that “must be reversed”?
Or is this all you can think of?
Simon, you must be running out of ideas – Owl
Weekly column: EDDC’s damaging parking price hikes must be reversed
The definition of ‘insanity’ is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet despite a damning East Devon District Council report into their daft decision to double the price of parking, ruling councillors plan to rubber stamp prices staying at £2 an hour next peak season.
EDDC is led by the East Devon Alliance Party alongside the Liberal Democrats, Greens and one Independent. Ruling councillors from this dysfunctional coalition insisted the parking price hikes were necessary to bring in extra revenue to council coffers.
Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce warned about the impact of the parking price hikes after nearly 2,000 people signed petitions against the plans. Arrogantly, the petitions were ignored by the council. The Chamber also ran a business survey which paints a bleak picture. 80% of businesses surveyed said that the car parking charges had affected their business or may have. 70% said their trade was lower than anticipated. One visitor commented, “Wouldn’t visit East Devon again. We are shocked at the increase in parking charges.”
I have spoken to businesses in Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth. They are annoyed the parking price hikes were pushed through without consultation, ignoring government advice.
EDDC have the evidence that doubling the price of parking in 2022 has been nothing short of disastrous. During peak season, more drivers used the car parks in 2021 than 2022. That’s despite national Covid restrictions continuing into July 2021.
Their justification for these high charges continuing from April 2023 is “income supports the delivery of other services… and will also help the council achieve its ambition of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.”
The council did introduce a residents parking pass, presumably because they realised they’ve priced local people on low incomes out of our town centres. I won’t applaud them for trying to mitigate their own policy whilst also forgetting that our local economy relies on tourism.
Ruling councillors need to read their damning report, wake up to their spectacular own goal and reverse their decision. Let’s finally see some common sense from councillors running the council.
This column first appeared in the Exmouth Journal on Wednesday 30th November 2022 and in the Sidmouth Herald later in the week.
Have you ever wanted to use meaningless, empty phrases that make it look like you know what you are talking about?
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Increased waiting times for 999 and 101 across Devon and Cornwall have been slammed after it emerged callers were holding for an average of 25 seconds to have an emergency call answered.
The figures were discussed at the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, where it was revealed there had been a sharp increase in people using the force’s contact centre, with over 900,000 trying to get in touch, by phone or online in the 12 months to September 2022. In the year to July 2022 there were 82,322 more 999 calls alone received than in the 12 months to June 2019 – an increase of over 35 per cent.
Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez insisted she had urged temporary chief constable, Jim Colwell, to cut 999 waiting times to under 10 seconds by December. But the meeting heard that there had been some ‘serious issues’ which had affected performance in the control room.
Panel member and Conservative councillor for Woolwell, Nicky Hopwood, was first to quiz the commissioner on the call times. “When you’re dialling 999, to wait eight seconds, which was what the previous score was in 2021 – it’s now gone up [by] 18 seconds – it’s really not good enough for the public and I don’t think is acceptable,” said Cllr Hopwood.
“And I think you’ve agreed in the past that it’s not acceptable. When do you get to the point where you think, actually, you know what, we cannot sort this out – we need outside help because it’s absolutely unacceptable to be up 18 seconds?”
Ms Hernandez admitted there were problems. “There are some really serious issues that are affecting performance in that control room,” she said.
“Over the years, they have brought in multiple people from outside to help, which I have supported them in. And they do not seem to have been able to stabilise, let alone reduce the performance in that control room.”
Cllr Hopwood insisted her comments were not to find fault with call centre staff. “This is not a criticism of those who answer the phone,” she said. “And I think that’s really important to recognise that those answering the phone probably go above and beyond in their jobs.”
But there was further criticism of the 101 service. Figures showed so-called ‘priority 2’ calls, which include things like anti-social behaviour or callers requesting updates about ongoing investigations, had average wait times in the 12 months to September 2022 of 38 minutes, six seconds.
Independent councillor for Fremington in North Devon, Frank Biederman, was critical of the police for not being able to show how many people may have given up on a 101 call to then phone 999.
“I find it unbelievable we don’t know how many people are abandoning a 101 call to then ring a 999 call, because I suspect an awful lot of those 999 calls are people who have got really frustrated,” he said, also questioning the call centre’s criteria for an emergency call.
“Somebody tried to get my daughter into their car. She escaped – ran off,” he explained. “We rang 999. We were told, ‘Well, she’s not in danger. Not a 999 call.’ Well, no. But somebody else’s daughter is in danger.
“And then last week a resident’s telling me they rang 999 because they intercepted an intruder in the house. Again [they were] told it’s not a 999 call – there’s no immediate danger.”
The commissioner replied to Cllr Biederman, insisting she was taking the matter seriously and was pressing hard for improvements. She said: “All the tweaking, all the investing, all the messing – that fundamentally is a leadership and management challenge within the force.
“I have every confidence, Cllr Biederman, in both the temporary chief constable who has gripped this, who I have asked formally to answer 999 calls within 10 seconds, by December this year.
“They’ve told me informally and formally many times that the reason the performance in 101 dips is because they’re answering the 999 calls. And that doesn’t seem to be the case with the performance that it’s showing me today, because 101 would be way worse. And 999 would still be being answered.”
Ms Hernandez said she was also asking for a triage system to be used to assess the urgency of each call. Later in the meeting the commissioner also announced she was launching a survey to find out which police stations in Devon and Cornwall people want to be re-opened.
Six enquiry desks are already opening this financial year and Ms Hernandez hopes to open more. The public are being asked to choose three preferred locations from a list of 44 police stations in the Devon and Cornwall Police area.
GP ‘league tables’ that give patients access to data on UK surgeries that offer the fewest appointments will boost ‘transparency’, say officials.
The data, published on the NHS Digital website on Thursday, could ‘name and shame’ practices, with the UK Government saying it would provide patients with ‘more informed choice’. The tables will set out the number of appointments each England practice offers and the timeframes waited by patients.
But GPs hit out, with concerns the scheme will compare sites without ‘accounting for different patient characteristics’. For example, a seaside town possessing an elderly population may have surgeries with fewer appointments than those in the city centres treating younger people.
Steve Barclay, the health and social care secretary, said: “We promised to prioritise patients and improve access, and that is exactly what we have done – and this is just the start. I am determined to make it easier for people to get an appointment with their GP practice when they need one, and this will allow patients to make a more informed choice about the care they receive.”
Thursday marked the first day patients could determine the effectiveness of surgeries using the data, although the idea was announced last year. Leading medics have also raised concerns that more GPs had left the profession than entering it following the publication of Health Education England (HEE) figures detailing the number of doctors starting specialist training to become GPs.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, the chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said: “We have serious concerns about how the publication of practice-level data will be used to compare practices against each other, as with general, you’re rarely comparing like with like. What works in one may not in another – so they will tailor their services to their patient population.
“We worry this data will be used to create arbitrary ‘league tables’ that don’t account for different patient demographics and ways of working. Those that appear at the bottom will face undue criticism at a time when the profession is already demoralised and working under intense pressures.”
Hawthorne said the published data is ‘experimental’, so it is unclear ‘how comprehensive or useful’ it is. The HEE said 4,032 trainee GPs had joined placements, meeting government targets for GP speciality trainee recruitment.
But the RCGP said up to 19,000 GPs could leave the profession in the next five years due to the ‘intensity of workload pressures’. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s appointment letter to Barclay dropped the Conservative manifesto target of recruiting 6,000 GPs in England by 2024.
Earlier this year, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, said they would be ‘unlikely to meet the commitment’ due to early retirements among GPs. But the DHSC said it was ‘set to reach its target of 26,000 additional members of primary care staff’.
The cabinet minister Oliver Dowden received more than £8,000 in fees for “policy advice” to the company of a hedge fund manager who hosted a champagne reception for the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on the day of the disastrous mini-budget.
Dowden, a close ally of Rishi Sunak, was briefly employed by Caxton Associates, the hedge fund of Andrew Law, after resigning as Conservative party chairman earlier this year.
Law, a substantial party donor, hosted the reception for Conservative backers and business leaders at his home on the evening of Kwarteng’s mini-budget, which triggered market turmoil.
It was later reported by the Times that Law’s hedge fund had been shorting the pound and would probably have profited from the fall in its value triggered by the mini-budget. Law is also a substantial party donor, having given more than £3m to the Conservatives over almost two decades.
There is no suggestion that Kwarteng provided any hedge funds or Tory donors with any insider information, or that any of the hedge funds were trading on the basis of information that was not public.
A spokesman for the Conservative party said at the time it was “not unusual for politicians to attend political fundraisers” and that “absolutely no information was given to anyone in attendance that was not already in the public domain”.
Dowden provided “policy advice” to Caxton Associates in October while he was still a Conservative MP, despite having been in the cabinet until June.
He gained permission for the job from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, making £8,398 for 12 hours of work between 24 September and 24 October when he resigned to join Sunak’s government as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, working from the Cabinet Office.
In its advice letter approving the job, Acoba said: “You sought the committee’s advice on taking up a paid, part-time appointment with Caxton. You stated Caxton is a global macro hedge fund founded in 1983.
“The website states its aim is to deliver ‘ … consistent absolute returns for its investors irrespective of the market environment’. It states it uses: ‘Rigorous analysis, disciplined risk management, and a relentless pursuit of excellence underpin Caxton’s reputation as a market leader.’
“You informed the committee you will be a policy adviser to provide advice and analysis on international and UK policy developments. You said this role does not involve contact with government and that your proposed contract will include a specific clause making clear that ‘ … for the avoidance of doubt, Caxton is not retaining you as an adviser for the purpose or intent of influencing or affecting, in any manner, any current or proposed legislation or any government official or action’.”
Dowden also took on a £5,000-a-month job for a firm called Pierce Protocols trading as Heni, an “international art services business”.
Dowden’s work for the hedge fund and art business come after MPs’ second jobs have come under scrutiny in the last year.
Under Boris Johnson, the government suggested it might set a limit on hours and/or pay from second jobs held by MPs. The former prime minister had pledged to clamp down on MPs’ second jobs after the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal and a furore over Geoffrey Cox being paid nearly £6m as a lawyer since joining parliament, voting by proxy on days he was undertaking paid work.
However, it later dropped the proposals claiming a ceiling on earnings would be impractical.
Other former ministers to have taken second jobs in the last year include Gavin Williamson, a former education secretary who took on a £50,000-a-year job for RTC Education, a higher education firm offering higher national diplomas, which is linked to two Tory donors Selva Pankaj and Maurizio Bragagni.
Williamson quit the RTC Education job on joining Sunak’s government as minister of state without portfolio. Two weeks later he resigned from the government in relation to bullying allegations, which he denies.
The Cabinet Office and Law have been approached for comment.
In England more than 600,000 properties face flooding in the future without investment in drainage, a report from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has found.
At the moment, 325,000 English properties have a 60% risk of flooding in the next decade, according to calculations by the NIC, due to a lack of investment in infrastructure.
The report calls for stricter controls on building in flood-prone areas, as well as a £2bn investment in drainage over 30 years to bring our systems up to standard and stop lives being ruined by flooding.
A combination of more extreme weather due to climate breakdown and increasing pressure on drains due to new developments is likely to push 230,000 more homes into the high risk category for flooding by 2055. If more impermeable surfaces are built across England, such as when people pave over their gardens, this could move another 65,000 properties into a high risk area.
The report advises that the government should legislate to stop new developments connecting to existing drains, to encourage uptake of sustainable systems.
Prof Jim Hall, the national infrastructure commissioner, said: “It’s clear that faced with more intense rainfall and increased urbanisation, we need to start taking this type of flooding far more seriously.
“The solution is clear: reducing the amount of water flowing into drains, whilst also improving the capacity of those drains. That means stopping urban creep from increasing the amount of storm water that drainage systems have to cope with and giving nature more opportunities to hold on to excess water, as well as targeted investment to ensure sewers can cope with growing pressures.
“While sustained investment is needed, the estimated additional costs are relatively modest. At least as important is a more joined-up approach to owning and acting on the problem.”
The report also calls for an expanded role for the environment watchdogs Ofwat and the Environment Agency to oversee joint local plans for high risk areas. It adds that Ofwat, the water regulator, should ensure that water and sewerage companies play their part by enabling efficient investment in both above and below ground drainage infrastructure
It adds that nature-based solutions will be critical to tackling flooding in the future including the use of roof gardens, rain gardens, green gulleys and flood storage ponds.
Its modelling suggests that its recommended levels of investment in new infrastructure could move 250,000 properties out of the high risk category and boost protection levels for thousands more properties. Action on new developments could prevent a further 95,000 properties from facing a high risk of surface water flooding in their area.
The NIC has said there should be better public knowledge around flood risk areas, so members of the public know whether they are at risk.
Last week Theresa Villiers tabled an amendment to the flagship “Levelling Up Bill” that would ban councils from taking housebuilding targets into account when deciding on planning applications, including the infamous “five year land supply” rule.
She got so much support that the imminent vote was postponed, leaving the government in disarray.
Over the weekend there has been a backlash from the “build, build, build” wing of the Tory party.
Summarised by the Sunday Times as: a “wicked” quest to “enshrine nimbyism as the governing principle of British society” and by the Daily Mail as follows:
Tory housing rebel claims leafy constituencies are ‘under siege’ from developments that ruin the ‘quality of life’ for affluent locals – after ministers pull vote on changes to planning laws that would make it easier to build homes amid backbench anger www.dailymail.co.uk
Theresa Villiers told Sky News: ‘Our constituencies are under siege’
Wants to ban councils from using housebuilding targets in planning decisions
Would make it easier for councils to ban building on greenfield land
Ex-Chancellor Sajid Javid said politicians ‘owe it’ to young people to fix housing
Warned that lack of housing is UK’s ‘most significant barrier to social progress’
Below is the text of her amendment with a list of Tory MPs supporting her including Selaine Saxby (North Devon) and Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot).
[PPSs wouldn’t dare get involved is such controversial stuff – Owl]
Nimbyism in perspective
“If you live and work in a city, imagining the opponents of new development to be a bigoted shower and endlessly shouting “nimby” at them is easy. But take a closer look at what is actually happening across the country, and you might come to a more nuanced opinion.”
Guardian Columnist, John Harris, lives in Frome.
In May 2022 ”Independents for Frome (IFF)”, sometimes described as an example of “flatpack democracy”, won all 17 seats on the Town Council in preparation for Unitary Somerset.
Yesterday he articulated the problem top down development targets pose to rural communities rather well.
The Tories are tearing themselves apart over housing – but this is another crisis of their own making
In the corner of Somerset where I have lived for nearly 15 years, life in late-Tory England grinds on. Our MP is David Warburton, the formerly Conservative backbencher who was recently found to have broken the parliamentary code of conduct amid allegations of sexual harassment and drug use, which he denies. He has not been seen for eight months. Our new unitary county council faces a financial black hole of £38m before it has even come into being, so cuts are being readied. The town’s GP service is completely overstretched, bus services are a constant worry, trains to Bristol and Bath run at inexplicable times of the day, and the roads are regularly jammed with traffic. Use of the local food bank is at an all-time high. Meanwhile, a lot of local angst is now focused on an ever-increasing number of new housing developments: a huge local story that reflects one of the ever-growing number of internal Tory conflicts eating away at Rishi Sunak’s government.
The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promised that the government would trigger the building of 300,000 new homes a year, which inevitably entailed a sizeable loosening of the planning system. But proposals for drastically changing the rules and introducing new liberalised “development zones” were dropped after revolts led by Tory MPs, largely from the south of England.
Now, scenting even more weakness at the top, Conservative rebels led by the former minister Theresa Villiers want to amend the new levelling up and regeneration bill to – among other changes – make Whitehall housing targets advisory rather than mandatory, get rid of the planning system’s inbuilt presumption in favour of development, and allow councils to ban building on the green belt. The result has been an almighty row, and panic at the top.
Conservatives being Conservatives, none of the controversy gets near the most urgent housing issue of all: the dire lack of homes for social rent, and the pitiful numbers built every year. But that hardly diminishes the passions of the combatants.Today the minister-turned-senior backbencher Sajid Javid warned in the Sunday Times that Villiers and her comrades wanted to “tear down the existing planning system”, and lead their party into “a colossal failure of political leadership”.
A Tory-aligned columnist in the same newspaper recently described the rebels’ moves as a “wicked” quest to “enshrine nimbyism as the governing principle of British society”. Given that their ranks include such panto villains as Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith and John Redwood, most bystanders on the political left would presumably be inclined to agree.
But this issue is complex and confounding, and two somewhat contradictory things could both be true. Yes, the anti-development Tories’ motives might be cynical and self-serving. But at the same time, some of the widespread unease that they are seizing on is real and understandable. If you live and work in a city, imagining the opponents of new development to be a bigoted shower and endlessly shouting “nimby” at them is easy. But take a closer look at what is actually happening across the country, and you might come to a more nuanced opinion.
For a start, objecting to concreting over huge chunks of countryside and obliterating natural habitats is surely not an inherently evil cause. The fact that most new housing tends to lock in dependency on the car only compounds many people’s unease about what new developments mean for their environment.
The complex and opaque machinations of landowners and private developers only increase a sense of them being distant interests with very little sense of what people in places hold dear. Because profit is usually the deciding consideration, far too many new-build projects are cheaply constructed, lack community amenities and are out of step with an ageing population and increasing numbers of people who live alone. And one massive tension now sits at the heart of local arguments about housing: the plain fact that, after 12 years of cuts, new development threatens to deepen the problems of places whose services and infrastructure are now in a state of decay.
Damian Green, the former minister and MP for Ashford in Kent, is one of the Tory rebels. “Much of the opposition to particular developments,” he recently wrote, “is based on the proposition that there are not enough school places, or medical services, or even water, to cope with a rising population in a locality.” This is undoubtedly true. And in that sense, whether they realise it or not, Green and his allies are really decrying their own party’s time in power, and failures that made any sensible conversation about new housing all but impossible, for one obvious reason: if a country doesn’t maintain the stuff that keeps it running, then any viable future becomes impossible.
Back, then, to where I live. Frome – population 28,000 – has a dysfunctional housing market characterised by often impossible prices and rising rents. Most of the new developments now scattered over the local area have done very little to ease these problems (the price of new-build four-bed houses regularly scrapes £500,000), and have worsened the tension between an expanding town ever more dominated by cars and an increasingly threadbare social fabric.
Last Thursday I went to a packed-out meeting organised by our town council to discuss plans for a huge “garden community” of 1,700 homes – housing about 7,000 people – to be built on fields beyond the edge of town that many people see as the area’s green lung. On the face of it, these plans are better than the norm, promising a new primary school, a “community hub”, properties for social rent, playing fields and more.
But, as people repeatedly pointed out in their speeches and questions, these visions are the work of a so-called promoter – a company that works with landowners to get initial planning permission for their land, and thereby hugely increase its value, in return for a share of the profits once it’s sold to the highest-bidding developer. In other words, the people we heard laying out their seemingly benign plans are not the people who will actually do the building, and square lofty promises with real-world economics (in a town eight miles away, “viability” has meant the probable affordable share of a big housing project going from 30% to around 10%).
As well as fears of yet more traffic and air pollution, one objection came up time and again: how “a whole new town” would cause the wider public realm to buckle under the strain. To quote one eloquent statement of opposition, “Services and infrastructure are already overstretched. Who will fund what is needed? Not the promoter or landowners, and not the local authority, given the present economic outlook.” Here, once again, is a very familiar picture of Britain as a Babel-like mess, in which far too little is ever integrated or joined up. Councils are so starved of money that they can’t function. The fact that housing is inseparable from transport, health, care and all the rest is repeatedly forgotten. And amid the chaos, Conservative politicians turn on each other, as their endless failures become clearer and clearer.
East Devon Watch 