Council owned land in Bideford, Great Torrington and Northam are being considered for affordable or mixed housing developments after a “landmark” council decision.

[Independents form the largest grouping in Torridge, a District Council with no overall political control – owl]

Alex Davis www.devonlive.com

Torridge District Councillors voted overwhelmingly to support at a Full Council Meeting on Monday (October 31) after an evaluation of all council owned property by architectural consultants in July. In total, councillors voted to progress 11 of the 12 sites evaluated, which included a mixture of council owned garage units, vacant land, car parks, and offices spread across multiple parishes.

The full council decision does not mean that housing will be developed for each of the sites, with the studies only highlighting council land suitable for development. Before any planning applications are submitted, more detailed proposals and a business case will be presented to the full council. Proposals will also be drafted in consultation with elected ward members to allow residents to have their say on any upcoming applications.

The list of sites approved for further progression included:

• Pynes Lane Garages, Bideford
• Springfield Car Park, Chanters Road, Bideford
• End of Ethelwynne Brown Close, Bideford
• Land at Cliveden Road, Bideford East
• Land at Cleave Wood, Bideford East

• Bone Hill Car Park, Northam
• Jackets Lane, Northam
• Windmill Lane Offices and Car Park, Northam
• Garages, Tuckers Park, Bradworthy
• Land at The Crescent, Langtree
• Part of South Street Car Park, Great Torrington

The development of affordable housing in Torridge aims to tackle the ongoing housing crisis in the region, with a lack in affordable housing “pricing out” residents from their communities. In November 2021, Devon County Council said the lack of affordable housing was leaving many key worker vacancies unfilled, with suitable candidates unable to find a home in a nearby area.

Councillor Ken James – Leader of Torridge District Council said: “This was an important exercise to look at sites owned by the council and to bring forward those that were suitable for housing, which Councillors have previously agreed is a key strategic priority. The reports were commissioned to include a strongly weighted balance in favour of affordable or social housing and this will be our goal in decisions regarding the final agreement of designs for each site.

“I appreciate that in some instances this has asked for a sacrifice of the current or partial use of some sites but this was carefully weighed in respect of the urgent need for housing in each area. I thank councillors for their support in bringing the chosen sites a step closer to delivery.”

Councillor Rachel Clarke – Lead Member for Housing Options and Homelessness said: “This is significant step towards delivering on our pledge to do everything we can as a council to alleviate the housing crisis affecting our residents in Torridge. The availability of affordable units seems to shrink with each passing quarter while prices have only increased. Anything we can do to reverse this trend is important and collectively we have taken a thoughtful approach to making a better use of some of our assets. I look forward to the final proposals being drawn up shortly and to see the plans implemented. In the meantime, we will also continue to look for other ways in which we can address this ongoing issue”

“Mr Bridgen has demonstrated a very cavalier attitude to the House’s rules on registration and declaration of interests, including repeatedly saying that he did not check his own entry in the register.”

www.politicshome.com

The Commons standards committee has recommended that Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen be suspended for five sitting days over his “careless and cavalier attitude” towards rules on lobbying.

The damning report found that Bridgen had failed to declare his relevant interests in the companies Mere Plantations “during eight emails to ministers and in five meetings with ministers or public officials”, despite having “received registrable financial benefits” from the company.

“Mr Bridgen has breached the rules of the House on registration, declaration and paid lobbying on multiple occasions and in multiple ways,” the report found.

“Each of these breaches could have led us to recommend a suspension from the service of the House.

“Mr Bridgen has demonstrated a very cavalier attitude to the House’s rules on registration and declaration of interests, including repeatedly saying that he did not check his own entry in the register.”

According to the report, Bridgen was approached by a constituent acting on behalf of Mere Plantations, which provides reforestation services.

The company paid for a trip for Bridgen to Ghana, and gave a £5,000 donation to his local Conservative Party association.

He also accepted an offer to act as an adviser for the company with a salary of £12,000 a year, but the role was later updated in the register as an unpaid position.

The committee found that Bridgen breached paragraph 14 of the Code of Conduct by failing to correctly register his interests in Mere Plantations, holding meetings with ministers on their behalf, and failing to declare his interests in emails to ministers and officials.

According to the report, Bridgen “accepts that his register entry was inaccurate” and insists it is “self-evident that he had not in fact accepted payment” from the company for the adviser role.

He argued that “his interests did not meet the test of relevance and did not therefore need to be declared”, and that his approaches by the company were not relevant as they constituted constituency work.

But the commissioner said his handling of the status of his adviser role with the company constituted “a mishandling of the conflict of interest of which he was aware”.

They also said his failure to declare his interests in multiple emails to ministers and officials was “a significant litany of errors”.

“The fact that Mr Bridgen had received a donation and a funded visit from Mere Plantations, and had a contract to be an adviser, was clearly relevant to his approaches on their behalf. He should have drawn those interests to Ministers’ and officials’ attention,” the report read.

Bridgen was also criticised for making “wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations” against the standards commissioner Kathryn Stone OBE by claiming she was set to be offered a peerage by Boris Johnson.

In an email to the committee on 8 September 2022, he said he was “distressed to hear on a number of occasions an unsubstantiated rumour” that Stone was in line for a peerage, and asked them to provide “reassurance” that the rumours were untrue.

The committee said the email “appears to be an attempt to place wholly inappropriate pressure on the Commissioner” and called it  “completely unacceptable behaviour”.

It has been recommended that he be suspended from the House for five days. MPs will be given a chance to vote on the findings before confirming his suspension. 

“England’s rivers and inland waters are as polluted as they were five years ago.” 

“Defra officials claimed they had made “a significant effort in preventing further deterioration”.”

“A sewage spill has occurred every two and a half minutes in England and Wales since 2016, according to Environment Agency figures obtained by Labour.”

Adam Vaughan, Environment Editor www.thetimes.co.uk 

England’s rivers and inland waters are as polluted as they were five years ago, according to a government report, with campaigners calling the lack of improvement a “shocking” indictment of environmental policy.

Officials have admitted that no progress has been made on a key water pollution pledge to ensure three quarters of rivers and other bodies of water are close to their natural state.

Ministers promised four years ago to raise the share meeting a “good” ecological status to 75 per cent by 2027.

Yet the annual report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which was published last week, found that the figure remained at 16 per cent in 2021, unchanged since 2017.

Ecological status is a metric assigned using various water flow, habitat and biological quality tests. Most water bodies in England, 63 per cent, are ranked “moderate”.

In defending the lack of progress, Defra officials claimed they had made “a significant effort in preventing further deterioration” and that the figures showed the “high degree of challenge in meeting water targets.”

Labour said the standstill showed the government “can’t be trusted to clean up our water system”. The Environment Agency said water companies were to blame for a “shocking” environmental performance in 2021. The Conservatives and Labour both used their party conferences to promise tougher action to clean up rivers.

A Defra spokeswoman said: “We are going further and faster than any other government to protect and enhance the health of our rivers and seas.”

The Wye’s tributary, the River Ithon in Powys

A sewage spill has occurred every two and a half minutes in England and Wales since 2016, according to Environment Agency figures obtained by Labour.

Overburdened sewage works and pollution from agriculture are the main reasons that meeting a crucial target for improving the health of rivers has proved intractable.

The government’s goal is for 75 per cent of water bodies in England to have achieved good ecological status by 2027. But with almost half the time to reach that target having passed, the figure was 16 per cent last year, the same as in 2017.

Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones singer and now a campaigner against the pollution of rivers, said the lack of progress was unacceptable. He said: “The utterly chaotic, collapsing government we have surrounding us continues damaging the environment.”

At the Labour Party conference, Sharkey criticised the failure to clean up rivers. He described the standstill on lifting the ecological status of rivers to “good” as a “shocking indictment” of government policies.

The campaigner noted that the 75 per cent by 2027 goal, part of the government’s 25-year environment plan, is weaker than the 100 per cent by 2027 target the UK had under the Water Framework Directive when a member of the EU. “It’s clear the government has no ambition,” said Sharkey.

The Conservatives and Labour used their party conferences to make bold promises to improve the state of rivers. Ranil Jayawardena, the former Tory environment secretary, said he would raise civil fines from a maximum of £250,000 to £250 million.

Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, has promised to impose mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets and give the Environment Agency greater power and resources for enforcement.

He told The Times: “A Labour government will use the levers of power to hold reckless water bosses to account and implement measures to clean up our water system.”

A decline in water pollution monitoring is partly to blame for the failure to improve the ecological status of waterways. The Rivers Trust said that the number of ammonia monitoring sites had halved from about 8,000 in 2013 to 4,000 last year.

“It’s no surprise we’re not seeing an improvement. We can’t expect the patient to recover if we’ve walked out and turned the lights out in the ward,” said Christine Colvin, director for advocacy and engagement at the charity. Weak enforcement is another reason for the lack of progress, Colvin added.

Sir James Bevan, head of the environment agency, told the House of Lords last month that government funding cuts over the past decade had affected the agency’s ability to regulate water pollution. He said a “lack of boots on the ground” had meant not enough officials had been able to check sewage spills in person. Research appears to support his concerns. The average number of prosecutions brought against water companies dropped by 15.4 per cent between 2000 and 2010, and 2011 and last year, according to analysis reported this week.

Lord Benyon, the environment minister, said yesterday that the government would “continue to work with regulators on environmental and their other commitments”, after Ofwat fined 11 water companies last month.

Rankings released this week reveal how the different water companies are faring on their environmental performance. When looking at areas of private land and gardens flooded with sewage, the Consumer Council for Water found that Anglian Water, Severn Water and Thames Water performed best, while Northumbrian Water and Southern Water were the worst.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Our Storm Overflows Reduction Plan has brought in the strictest targets on sewage pollution and requires water companies to deliver their largest ever infrastructure investment — £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.”

His comment reads:

I don’t normally watch I’m A Celebrity, but I am going to have to find a way to be notified when there is a vote for the Bushtucker trials just so that I can exercise my Great British democratic voting rights and demonstrate my complete confidence in … oops, sorry that was a typo … I meant contempt for the Tories and Matt Hancock in particular.

I urge everyone else to join me in this important and essential fight for democracy and justice. So let’s all get voting – indeed lets ensure that this vote gets a massive best-ever turnout by several 100% – and make this a decisive landslide victory for Matt Hancock, because every vote for him being punished in the Bushtucker Trials is a vote of no confidence in the Tories.

The Daily Star (in the wake of its lettuce success) launches a campaign on its front page to get the part-time MP selected to do every one of the vile trials in the game show. A tantalizing prospect indeed. 

A network of flower-filled grasslands sweeping from the fringes of sandy beaches to moorland edges is being created by the National Trust in the south-west of England.

The network will eventually stretch across 70 miles from close to the border with Cornwall in the west to the slopes of Exmoor in the east.

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

Designed to boost flora and fauna – and be a balm for human visitors – the new grassland is due to cover more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land in north Devon by 2030.

The first of the sites have been sown by the trust this autumn and flowers should begin popping up in the spring. These will later be used as “donor sites” with seeds taken from them to plant up more spots over the years, a cost-effective way of scaling up the scheme.

Kidney vetch is one of the species that will be sown this autumn. Photograph: Clive Whitbourn/National Trust Images

Ben McCarthy, the head of nature conservation and restoration ecology at the trust, said the loss of flower-rich grasslands had led to life and colour being drained from the UK’s countryside.

He said: “Flower-rich hay meadows and pastures are a hugely important habitat that remain under constant threat from pressures including agricultural intensification and inappropriate management. These colourful and species rich habitats are critical to conserving many of our threatened plants as well as the wildlife that rely on them.”

The new habitats should draw in a wide range of wildlife including voles, bats, birds of prey and butterflies and the trust says they are also a good way of helping combat the climate emergency.

Meadow brown butterflies on oxeye daisy at Snowshill Manor, Gloucestershire. Photograph: Kate Groome/National Trust Images

McCarthy said: “Making changes to the land we manage ourselves and working with our tenant farmers to restore these wildlife rich grasslands secures better soil health, helps lock in soil carbon and improves water quality in our rivers as well as supporting wildlife such as pollinators.”

One of the first sites is at Arlington Court, near Barnstaple, where wildflower seeds such as birds-foot trefoil and knapweed have been sown in areas of the sprawling parkland.

On the coast at Woolacombe, species such as kidney vetch, viper’s-bugloss and salad burnet have been sown because they will do well in dunes and on clifftops.

The network will eventually stretch across 70 miles from close to the border with Cornwall in the west to the slopes of Exmoor in the east.

Joshua Day, project co-ordinator at the trust in north Devon, said it would not be a continuous strip but rather a series of pockets of grassland. “It might be a patch of grassland on the edge of a village or, on a grander scale, fields full of flowers.”

Cowslip flowers, once common in the UK, are vital for pollinators like bumblebees. Photograph: Justin Minns/National Trust Images

The first 200 acres have been sown with 31 types of seed – 1.3 tonnes-worth – ranging from yellow rattle, which is known as a meadow maker as it creates good conditions for other wildflowers to grow, to oxeye daisy, good for invertebrates and human mental wellbeing as they make such an attractive sight.

These spots will become donor sites for the remainder of the project over the next eight years. Donor sites take up to three years after sowing to reach maturity before they can be harvested.

Day said: “We’ll leave the grasslands to really establish themselves for a couple of years and harvest the first seed in 2025. Every hectare we harvest from a donor site will provide us with seed to sow two more hectares.”

It is estimated that using donor sites and phasing the project could save the conservation charity more than £3m.

The charity Plantlife says that 97% of species-rich grassland has been lost in the last century.

Day said: “Once-common species such as eyebrights and cowslips have become ever rarer and this has had a disastrous impact on the species that are reliant on these flower-rich habitats like bumblebees and other pollinators.”

Mandate for what?

Crashing the economy? 

Introducing Austerity 2.0?

This Conservative government has been so blown off-course by poor post-covid economic recovery, and the self-inflicted “Truss/Kwarteng Experiment”, that we have no idea what “mandated” policies will survive or are even deliverable. (Except lifting the cap on Bankers’ bonuses).

The prime minister’s press secretary has recently said ministers “need to look again” at a slew of promises made over the summer during Sunak’s losing battle with Liz Truss for the Tory leadership, but there was no end date to the review.

In September we were promised tax cuts and 2.5% economic growth! You, Simon, embraced this phantasy. We are now in a recession with record inflation and have been told to expect tax rises and spending cuts on November 17. Today, interest rates will increase again.

Mandate, what humbug!

(And please stop playing the blame game) – Owl

Simon Jupp www.devonlive.com 

I supported Rishi Sunak in the recent leadership contest, as I did in the seemingly never-ending leadership election over the summer. I am delighted he is now our Prime Minister as I firmly believe he is the best person to lead our great country. He has experience of high office and of dealing with major crises. I joined Liz Truss’ government because I wanted it to work, sadly it didn’t.

We have a mandate from a landslide election win for the Conservative Party in 2019. My party must quickly unite under Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, get a grip, and govern.

The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over. That is why the new Prime Minister set out his vision to place economic stability at the heart of his government and to deliver on the mandate we secured to deliver a stronger NHS, better schools, safer streets, and control of our borders.

Looking forward, the Chancellor will deliver an Autumn Statement on 17th November 2022 with an OBR forecast. It will contain the UK’s medium term fiscal plan to put public spending on a sustainable footing, get debt falling, and restore stability.

The government’s promise to support people and businesses with their energy bills remains in place. The Energy Price Guarantee is a huge intervention alongside bespoke support for pensioners, people with disabilities, and those who rely on heating oil.

Unfortunately, industrial action is planned on our railways this month. Once again, unions will stage yet more strikes which cut off the South West from the railways, disrupting lives and livelihoods. Strikes will take place on Saturday 5th November, Monday 7th November and Wednesday 9th November. Around one in five trains are likely to run with major disruption between Exmouth and Exeter on the Avocet Line and services between Exeter and London.

It’s time to put passengers first. That’s why the government’s forthcoming Minimum Service Levels Bill will require employers and striking unions to maintain services during strikes. The Bill will therefore ensure people can carry on their daily lives and make vital medical appointments.

I will continue to do everything I can to support the people I serve, including holding more surgeries across the constituency. Regular readers will know that, despite my constituency name, I am MP for parts of the district of Exeter. I proudly represent St Loyes and Topsham.

In recent weeks in and around our city, I took part in a litter-pick in Topsham, visited Jacobs at Pynes Hill Court, hosted a dinner at the Exeter Golf & Country Club, met with councillors at County Hall, and attend the memorial service to the Queen at Exeter Cathedral. I’ve got lots more planned too.

I’m also putting pressure on South West Water to invest in water treatment plants which serve Topsham and St Loyes, I’m also working with Exeter City Council on a variety of investments across the city using £1.4m allocated to Exeter by the government, and supported a successful bid for £3.7m funding to reduce rough sleeping in the city. As ever, if you have a problem or a local issue you think I can help you with, then please get in touch.

Finally, during this year’s Poppy Appeal, please give generously to honour our veterans – past and present – and those who continue to protect us today.

It will be “extremely difficult” for the Conservatives to win the next general election after presiding over a fiscal crisis, although a change of prime minister makes predictions more complex, the leading pollster Sir John Curtice has said.

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com 

It is possible the party could succumb to a 1997-style landslide defeat, or even worse, Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde University and viewed as the UK’s foremost polling expert, said at a briefing.

While the replacement of Liz Truss with Rishi Sunak has slightly curbed Labour’s lead, Curtice said, a defining factor is likely to be the U-turns Truss was forced to make from her September mini-budget after a turbulent market reaction.

Asked if it was possible for the Conservatives to win the next election, Curtice said: “History suggests that it’s going to be extremely difficult, just simply because no government that has presided over a fiscal financial crisis has eventually survived – 1948, 1967, 1976, 1992. It’s not a happy litany of precedence.

“Voters don’t forget governments being forced to make U-turns by financial markets. So it’s going to be very, very difficult.”

He said one glimmer of hope for the Tories was that polling showed notably more support for Sunak personally than for his party, seemingly a sign that the legacy of his role as chancellor during the Covid pandemic was “still with him”.

The key to Sunak turning around his party’s fortunes would be the fate of the economy in the next two years, Curtice said.

“One of the problems the government faces is compared with 1992 and 2008 [after previous economic crises], there isn’t much fat in public services,” he said. “It’s pretty clear that at the moment, two years out [from an election], the Labour party are favourites to win the next election, and for the first time in this parliament it looks like they’ve got a half-decent chance of getting an overall majority, and that is a fundamental change in the political outlook.”

Some of the Truss-era polling, if extrapolated to constituency-level votes, showed the Conservatives slumping to as few as 60 seats. Asked if the party faced a wipeout on the scale of 1997 or worse, Curtice said: “It probably won’t be that bad. But there is a risk that the Conservative party will suffer severely.”

Focusing on particular sectors of voters, such as those in the “red wall”, or who voted leave, would not be a solution, he argued.

“The Conservative party has lost ground across the whole of the electorate. They have lost this not because they are in favour of a small state or they’re in favour of Brexit, or the many ideological issues we can think of,” he said.

“They have lost ground because the public in general have decided they cannot be trusted to run the country, and when a party loses ground on competence, it loses grounds among everybody. Forget targeting – that only matters when it’s close. We’re nothing like close.”

While Sunak appears to have escaped being overly tarnished with the fallout from No 10 parties under Boris Johnson, despite his own fine, voters are still damning about the Conservatives on the issue, Curtice said.

“If I were providing advice to the prime minister, I would say the one thing you have to do is to play by the rules, not just the legal rules, but the rules of convention,” he argued. “That’s why reappointing the home secretary within days of her having resigned for having broken ministerial code was, shall we say, a brave decision.”

Title of Marina Hyde’s latest column

Says it all!

Get me out of here!- Owl

A landowner who cut down more than 200 mature trees in Kilmington has been ordered by the Forestry Commission to plant new ones. 

Philippa Davies www.midweekherald.co.uk

The trees, mainly oaks and beeches, were felled in February 2021. They were not subject to a protection order, but it is an offence to fell a large volume of timber without a licence from the Forestry Commission. 

The Forestry Commission visited the site after the trees had been cut down, and, following an investigation, issued the landowner with a ‘restocking notice’ last month. The notice requires the felled trees to be replaced with 945 new ones by the end of June 2024. The Commission will accept natural regrowth, but if this does not provide enough trees the landowner will have to plant them. He has been told that the newly planted trees must be a mix of field maple, willow, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, sycamore and elm. 

The Commission also stipulates that, for 10 years after planting or regeneration, the new trees must be properly protected against damage and the site must be adequately weeded and maintained in accordance with good forestry practice. 

The notice has been welcomed by one local resident who described the felling of the trees as ‘sheer environmental vandalism’. He said he had been shocked when he first saw the hundreds of sawn stumps on the land, and that the felling had caused ‘widespread public concern among residents of the village’. Not only had it destroyed some trees that could have been hundreds of years old; there was also the loss of a valuable habitat for wildlife, possibly including some protected species. 

He added that, while he was pleased that the Forestry Commission had taken action, he was surprised that the landowner had been given such a long time to replant the site, and also that the new trees would not be oaks and beeches to replace those that had been cut down, but different, faster growing species that would not achieve the same height. 

The Forestry Commission has been approached for comment on these issues, but at the time of writing has not given a response. 

“A screeching U-turn” after “an embarrassing mis-step on the world stage”.

“Let this be a lesson to him – climate leadership matters,” – Caroline Lucas 

“Caving in to criticism is not leadership. Real leadership is seizing your seat at the table. For UK jobs. For clean energy. For our environment,” – Sir Keir Starmer

“This whole debacle has shown the environment is simply not a priority for Rishi Sunak. He’s only going after being embarrassed by Boris Johnson’s attendance.” Wera Hobhouse – Lib Dem climate change spokesperson

www.bbc.co.uk

The prime minister has reversed an earlier decision not to go to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

No 10 had said Rishi Sunak was too busy preparing for the 17 November budget to attend the event which opens on Sunday.

But this had been widely criticised by climate campaigners, opposition parties and climate adviser Alok Sharma.

Mr Sunak said there was “no long-term prosperity without action on climate change” or energy security without investment in renewables.

“That’s why I will attend COP27 next week – to deliver on Glasgow’s legacy of building a secure, clean and sustainable future,” he told MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions.

On Tuesday, former prime minister Boris Johnson said he would attend COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh.

The UK hosted last year’s COP (Conference Of The Parties) in Glasgow and it was chaired by Mr Sharma.

Green MP Caroline Lucas welcomed what she called a “screeching U-turn” after “an embarrassing mis-step on the world stage”.

“Let this be a lesson to him – climate leadership matters,” she said.

“We’ve lost a huge amount of credibility by the prime minister dragging his feet on this,” she added.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of acting “in the name of political management” rather than the national interest.

“Caving in to criticism is not leadership. Real leadership is seizing your seat at the table. For UK jobs. For clean energy. For our environment,” he tweeted.

Liberal Democrat climate change spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: “This whole debacle has shown the environment is simply not a priority for Rishi Sunak. He’s only going after being embarrassed by Boris Johnson’s attendance.”

Downing Street rejected that, saying the prime minister had “always recognised the importance of this summit and indeed tackling climate change more generally”.

He “wanted to make sure we were making good progress on the government’s domestic agenda and the autumn statement in particular,” it said.

After discussions with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week, Mr Sunak felt there was “sufficient space to make this trip”, it added.

His official spokesman said the prime minister was hoping to make progress on the commitment to halt deforestation by 2030, and to agree new partnerships on clean and renewable energy.

Mr Sharma, who had said he was “disappointed” Mr Sunak would not be attending, tweeted that he was “delighted” the prime minister would now be going.

Many world leaders including US President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron are due to attend the UN event.

Mr Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss had been set to go and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will also be there.

A number of countries had also criticised Mr Sunak’s earlier decision not to go and questioned the UK’s commitment to tackle the climate crisis.

The Egyptian government, which is hosting COP27, voiced its “disappointment”. Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN, told The Guardian it looked as if the UK was “washing their hands of leadership”.

Mohammed Nasheed, speaker of the Maldives parliament and a former president, said nothing was more serious than climate change.

King Charles – a long-time champion of environmental causes – will still not be going, despite speaking at COP26 in Glasgow.

No 10 said there was a “unanimous agreement” with Buckingham Palace that the King would not attend.

The annual climate summits are designed to help governments agree measures to limit rises in global temperatures.

This year’s conference takes place from 6 to 18 November, finishing the day after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to set out the government’s tax and spending plans.

From a correspondent:

Dear Owl – My Tory County Council, after enduring four decades of privatisation and austerity cuts without resistance, has finally decided that there is no longer enough money to run a local authority legally. Bit late wouldn’t you say?

Our financial situation has never been so bleak as it is now

Devon County Council bulletin Tuesday 1 November 2022 content.govdelivery.com

You may have heard or read in the news about the difficulty that Councils are facing financially; the increasing demand on services, especially within adults and children’s social care, and a dramatic rise in costs to deliver those services, and inflation. 

We have prided ourselves with our prudent management of public finances, and until last year, went decades ending each financial year in the black. 

But the financial conditions have changed, and we are now joining many councils and organisations that represent local authorities, to call on the government to intervene, to help support local public services.

The Leader of Devon County Council, Councillor John Hart, said today that deep cuts to vital local services in Devon are inevitable unless the government provides more support.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, was expected to announce his tax and spending plan this week, but last week postponed his announcement for a fortnight.

Our Leader, Cllr John Hart, is urging the Chancellor and Prime Minister, to use the extra time they now have to produce an economic recovery plan that’s balanced, fair and equitable. And crucially, an economic plan that doesn’t single out local government for cuts.

He said:

“I have been a county councillor for more than 30 years and leader of Devon County Council for nearly 14 years during which time we have been through the austerity years and the pandemic, but our financial situation has never been so bleak as it is now.”

How extensive is the problem in Devon?

Before the summer, we revealed a black hole in our finances for this year, due to surging demand for help and support for vulnerable children and adults, the continuing costs of the pandemic, and the dramatic rise in costs and inflation.

We have to, by law, balance our books each year, which means when costs rise, we must find equivalent savings in our budget elsewhere.

We have to save about £73 million this financial year. We’re already making £36 million savings, but we still have to find a further £37 million savings before the end of March 2023.

And then our projections show that we will have to make another £75 million savings next financial year. Unless the Government intervenes.

What’s the impact on local services?

We’re not alone. We and many councils are lobbying the Government hard to protect local services. With the support of our Devon MPs, we want the Government to help by not cutting funding for public services.

There are other things that we’re asking the Government to do that will help our financial situation, such as to delay the introduction of new adult social care reforms, planned for next year.

But unless there is Government support or intervention, cuts to services are inevitable.

Some services we provide are statutory, we have to provide them, and some are discretionary. Clearly, services that support our most vulnerable children and adults are a priority, and those must be protected.

We know though that all of our services are important to those who receive them or benefit from them.

“We are here to do the very best for local people and to protect and support the most vulnerable and those in real need,” said Cllr Hart today. “We will do everything in our power to continue to do this and find new ways to do things better and more sustainably.”

What are we doing about it?

We are doing several things simultaneously. We’re lobbying the Government directly, and we’re adding our voice to national campaigns from the Local Government Association and the County Councils Network, calling for financial support.

Our Leader, Cllr Hart, has also written to the new Prime Minister setting out our position and requesting his support and the support of his Government.

But we can’t wait, so we’ve already put a freeze on staff recruitment in non-frontline areas, delayed planned investment in IT and infrastructure projects, and cut our heating and lighting bills.

We’re also squeezing all of our external contracts, we’ve stopped some routine road maintenance, and are reviewing our school transport contracts and public transport subsidies.

When will we know more?

We’ve already made a lot of savings this year, but we must find more before the end of March 2023.

We are continuing to review all of our services in light of our budget.

We may have to wait to hear what’s in the Chancellor’s statement in a fortnight but we aren’t waiting to take action.

Plans to scrap a scheme to build 12 ‘genuinely affordable’ homes for local people in Brentor are on hold following concerns residents haven’t been  consulted properly. 

“This report, to put it mildly, is cobblers.” Indy Cllr Terry Pearce

Philip Churm, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

West Devon Borough Council (WDBC) said the proposal for three open-market, four shared ownership and five affordable homes reflected a major development in the Dartmoor National Park which could not be justified by affordable housing demand.

The plan dates back five years when, in March 2017, the council was awarded £247,620 from the government’s community housing fund. WDBC used a portion of this for the feasibility and scheme design at Brentor.

Demand for the development was assessed by surveys including one in April this year which revealed only six households were deemed to be in need. 

This equated to five one-bed properties and one two-bed home. A report to the council’s hub committee on Tuesday 1 November said no one under 55 had completed the survey and therefore there was no evidence of future housing need for family-sized accommodation.

But independent councillor for Mary Tavy, Terry Pearce, disagreed.  He read extracts from an email he had received which said: “This report, to put it mildly, is cobblers. 

“I filled one in, my son filled one in. None of us is over 55. What, with this and the questions that they asked, I can only conclude that the whole exercise was designed from the beginning to stitch us up and justify West Devon Borough Council walking away.”

Cllr Pearce suggested people were increasingly disappointed by the local authority on this issue. 

“There’s a lot of lack of trust now and confidence in the authority after what’s happened over a period of 15, 16 years.

“You know, the question now being asked is why was the original housing development not to take place when all the plans were drawn up? The architect’s plans and everything detailed and we’re just sitting there. 

“I’ve asked that question, the parish council have asked that question and we’ve not been given a proper answer at all.”

But director of place and enterprise for WDBC, Chris Brook, denied any deliberate attempt to scrap the project. 

“I too would be really emotional about it and cross and frustrated,” said Mr Brook. “And I think that’s totally justifiable and understandable. 

“But there is a big difference between being unhappy with the outcome, which is entirely as it says in the report, and considering that the outcome is in some way contrived to achieve an alternative motive or outcome, which isn’t the case.

As the council believed a case for affordable housing could not be justified on the site, it was recommended it did not progress the Brentor scheme further.

However, following questions and debate it was agreed a decision on whether to scrap the scheme or continue to pursue it would be made at another meeting.

Any comments from Alison Hernandez? – Owl

Hundreds – if not thousands – of police officers who should have failed vetting checks may be serving in England and Wales, a watchdog has warned.

Becky Cotterill news.sky.com

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services looked at 11,277 police officers and staff across eight forces, examined 725 vetting files, considered 264 complaint and misconduct investigations, and interviewed 42 people.

They found cases where criminal behaviour was dismissed as a “one off”; applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families were hired as police officers; warnings a prospective officer could present a risk to the public were ignored; officers transferring between forces despite a history of complaints or allegations of misconduct; and basic blunders that led to the wrong vetting decisions.

The report found that some staff had criminal records, some were alleged to have committed serious crime, some had substantial undischarged debt, and some had relatives linked to organised crime.

Some 131 cases were identified where inspectors said vetting decisions were “questionable at best” – and in 68 of those, the inspectors disagreed with the decision to grant vetting clearance.

Matt Parr, Inspector of Constabulary, said: “It is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police.

“If the police are to rebuild public trust and protect their own female officers and staff, vetting must be much more rigorous and sexual misconduct taken more seriously.

“It seems reasonable for me to say that over the last three or four years, the number of people recruited over whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds, if not low thousands… it’s not in the tens, it’s at least in the hundreds.”

Mr Parr said that the pressure to meet the government’s target to hire 20,000 new officers by March next year “cannot be allowed to act as an excuse” for poor vetting.

“The marked decline in public trust for policing is undoubtedly linked to the prevalence of some of these dreadful incidents we’ve seen in recent years, and you should have a higher standard of who gets in and who stays in if you’re going to look to reduce those kinds of incidents,” he added.

The report was commissioned by Priti Patel when she was home secretary, following the murder of Sarah Everard.

Ms Everard was killed by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who used his police warrant card under the guise of an arrest to kidnap her in March 2021.

Female officers subject to ‘appalling behaviour by male colleagues’

The review did not look into the specifics of Couzens’ recruitment but its findings raise questions about whether improved security checks would have prevented him from getting a job with the Metropolitan Police.

The investigators also found an “alarming number” of female officers said they had been subject to “appalling behaviour by male colleagues”.

Among its 43 recommendations, HMICFRS said improvements were needed in the standards used for assessing and investigating misconduct allegations, as well as in the quality and consistency of vetting.

It also said that better guidance was needed on conduct in the workplace and definitions of misogynistic and predatory behaviour.

Home secretary ‘disappointed’

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said it was “disappointing that HMICFRS have found that, even in a small number of cases, forces are taking unnecessary risks with vetting”.

“I have been clear that culture and standards in the police need to change and the public’s trust in policing restored.

“Chief constables must learn these lessons and act on the findings of this report as a matter of urgency.”

National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman Martin Hewitt said: “Chief constables, supported by national bodies, will act on these recommendations and put the problems right because we cannot risk predatory or discriminatory individuals slipping through the net because of flawed processes and decision-making.

“The confidence of the public and our staff is dependent on us fixing these problems with urgency, fully and for the long term. Police chiefs are determined to do that.”

Does this signal more cuts? – Owl

Under-fire bus firm Stagecoach has appointed a new managing director in the south west.

Midweek Herald Staff www.midweekherald.co.uk 

Peter Knight, who currently heads up the firm’s operation in north-east Scotland, will be in the driving seat from December – replacing Mike Watson after he resigned from the role.

He will be responsible for around 1,000 employees and over 300 bus services during a challenging time for the company, which has faced significant criticism for delayed and cancelled buses throughout Devon.

Earlier this year Exeter councillors called the city’s bus service ‘not fit for purpose,’ while Stagecoach was summoned to a public inquiry last week which will decide whether action should be taken against the company following a number of complaints from users.

The result of the traffic commissioner’s hearing will be known in the next few weeks. Sanctions could involve compensation for passengers in the form of free bus travel at weekends for a certain period of time, though the inquiry also heard that fares are likely to increase soon.

Stagecoach has blamed staff shortages for the problems, including a struggle to fill driver vacancies, and a drop in passenger numbers compared to before the pandemic leading to swathes of timetable alterations.

However, Mr Watson said in his final appearance at Exeter’s highways and traffic orders committee earlier in the month that the amount of ‘lost mileage’ on the Exeter bus network has “much improved” – falling to three per cent after previously being nine per cent a year ago.

Mr Watson added that further service changes which came into force yesterday [Sunday, 30 October] will mean “we eliminate our lost mileage.”

But the changes have been criticised by many, with some routes and services being cut, although the frequency of selected routes will go up. Stagecoach has said the changes are necessary to focus resources on the highest demand.

An ‘enhanced partnership’ is also being set up in the coming weeks so that Devon County Council and local bus operators can improve services.

On his appointment, Mr Knight said: “I’m looking forward to getting out and about and meeting our drivers and customers, as well as key stakeholders such as Devon County Council, and continuing our important work to re-build from some of the challenges we have faced coming out of the pandemic.

“I believe there are some great opportunities ahead as we look to move more people out of their cars and onto public transport, and I am determined to deliver a good and reliable bus service for our communities in the south west.”

Will he be available to give evidence to the Covid Inquiry?

Anyone heard about Neil Parish’s comeback plans recently? – Owl

‘Absolute prat’ Matt Hancock will end his political career by entering jungle, furious Tory MPs predict

Kate Devlin www.independent.co.uk

Matt Hancock will end his political career by appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, furious Conservative MPs predicted, as the former health secretary faced accusations he was trying to cash in on Covid misery.

The MP was suspended by the Conservative Party after it emerged he will spend what could be weeks in the Australian jungle instead of in parliament.

Families of those who died during the pandemic have launched a petition demanding ITV remove him from the reality TV show.

The deputy chair of his local association also angrily attacked the MP’s decision, saying, in reference to the programme’s notorious “bushtucker trials”: “I’m looking forward to him eating a kangaroo’s penis. Quote me. You can quote me that.”

Mr Hancock has spent months trying to rehabilitate his reputation after he was forced to resign when it emerged he had broken his own social distancing rules to carry on an extramarital affair with his aide.

But he is now facing an extraordinary backlash over his decision to jet halfway around the world.

One former minister told The Independent that, in the wake of the controversy, he assumed Mr Hancock would not seek re-election.

Another accused him of “burning bridges behind him… I very much doubt he intends to stand [again].”

Tory MP and former children’s minister Tim Loughton went further and suggested his local party should deselect the “absolute prat”.

He said he was “disgusted” that Mr Hancock had “put himself and a so-called celebrity career” ahead of serving his constituents.

“The least he deserves is having the whip withdrawn from him, and if his local constituency have got any sense they might deselect him as well,” he added.

It was particularly wrong for Mr Hancock to be abroad at a time when MPs were working hard to help constituents through the cost of living crisis, he told Times Radio.

In a statement Mr Hancock’s local Tory association agreed, accusing him of a “serious error of judgement”.

Lobby Akinnola, from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Campaign, said: “Matt Hancock isn’t a ’celebrity’, he’s the former health secretary who oversaw the UK having one of the highest death tolls in the world from Covid-19 whilst breaking his own lockdown rules.

“The fact that he is trying to cash in on his terrible legacy, rather than showing some humility or seeking to reflect on the appalling consequences of his time in government, says it all about the sort of person he is.”

A spokesperson for Rishi Sunak, who declined to give Mr Hancock a ministerial role last week, said the prime minister “believes that at a challenging time for the country, MPs should be working hard for their constituents in the House or in their constituencies.”

Mr Sunak is unlikely to watch the programme, they added.

Allies of Mr Hancock said he would use his appearance to promote his work on dyslexia.

One said there were many ways to do the job of an MP and appearing on the most-watched programme on TV would “show the human side of those who make [political] decisions”.

He added that the show’s producers had agreed that Mr Hancock can communicate with his staff if there is an urgent matter in his constituency.

SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “It speaks volumes that Matt Hancock would rather be stranded in a remote jungle eating kangaroo testicles than spend a moment longer on the Tory benches at Westminster, as Rishi Sunak’s government lurches from one crisis to another.”

Shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “To be fair to Matt Hancock, I’d sooner eat wallaby anus than be a Tory MP too.”

I’m A Celebrity... is not the only television show Mr Hancock is due to appear on in the next few months. He has also been signed up for Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins, which is due to air on Channel 4 next year.

Tory MP David Simmonds: “I wish him luck, I hope it’s OK. But I don’t think it’s the best use of his time when his constituents in the UK have need of an MP to represent them.”

Mr Hancock has been approached for comment.

Verita Consulting Ltd have been appointed by East Devon District Council (EDDC) to carry out an independent investigation into the actions of the council following the allegations, criminal charges and subsequent conviction of John Humphreys.

eastdevon.gov.uk

This investigation has been commissioned following a decision by Council on 28 September 2022 to appoint an independent body to look at this. The aim of the investigation is to understand the actions of staff and Councillors in the handling of matters relating to former councillor John Humphreys, and to recommend any improvements required for the Council going forward.

The council have agreed a terms of reference for its investigation which can be viewed on this page.

Mr Humphreys was a former mayor of Exmouth and was an East Devon District Councillor from 2007 to 2019. He was imprisoned for 21 years after being convicted in August 2021 of sexually assaulting two teenage boys in the early 1990s and early 2000s. Mr Humphreys was made an Honorary Alderman by EDDC in December 2019. The Council voted to remove his honorary title following his conviction.

If anyone wishes to submit evidence, written statements or to request a meeting with the investigation team in the context of the terms of the reference of this investigation, please write to Verita through their confidential email channel at: SpeakToUs@verita.net (Owl emphasis)

If the contribution is outside of the scope of the investigation agreed by councillors at EDDC, please get in contact with Devon and Cornwall Police.

It is anticipated that a report on the investigation will be delivered to the council in early 2023.

Scope and terms of reference (extract from terms of reference)

10. This investigation will primarily focus on the actions of EDDC management and its officers and Councillors. 

11. Relevant external stakeholders may contribute to the investigation on a voluntary basis strictly in relation to the issues set out below. 

12. The aims of the investigation are to:

1. establish what information was known by EDDC Councillors and officers about Mr Humphreys and any investigations into the allegations against him 
2. understand the EDDC decision-making processes in considering Mr Humphreys’ continued position as a Councillor after his arrest 
3. determine the extent to which the EDDC considered whether Mr Humphreys presented any safeguarding risks to children in the context of his party political and Councillor roles 
4. examine what, if any, safeguarding measures were put into place following the 2016 arrest and assess the effectiveness of their implementation and monitoring 
5. describe the process by which the EDDC bestowed the honour of Honorary Alderman on Mr Humphreys 
6. determine whether the EDDC complied with its own policies and procedures in making this decision 
7. review the decision-making processes deployed by EDDC following Mr Humphrey’s conviction to remove his honorary title and to review its actions in the handling of this matter 
8. determine whether any improvements could be made to EDCC’s safeguarding and governance arrangements in light of the findings of the investigation
9. report on any other significant issues that arise in the course of the investigation that bear on its terms of reference

Former PM Boris Johnson has confirmed he will attend the COP27 climate conference in Egypt next week after being invited by the organisers.

His successor at No 10 Rishi Sunak has been under pressure to attend, after initially saying he was too busy preparing for the budget.

But it now looks increasingly likely that Mr Sunak will go after all.

His official spokesman said “significant progress” was being made on the financial statement.

No 10 said it would provide an update if Mr Sunak’s travel plans change.

The 27th meeting of the Conference Of the Parties (COP) due start in Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday.

BBC

Direct quote from Sunak’s first speech as Prime Minister 25 October.

Pledge didn’t last a week! – Owl

“Leaky Sue” Suella Braverman email: four questions left unanswered

Rajeev Syal www.theguardian.com 

When Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary just under two weeks ago for breaching the ministerial code, she made a series of claims to Liz Truss, the then prime minister, about her conduct.

A statement released on Monday to the home affairs select committee (HASC) appears to contradict some of those claims, leaving outstanding unanswered questions which could yet have a bearing on her political survival.

Did she mislead the public by claiming to have reported her mistake ‘rapidly’?

Last week, Braverman said that as soon as she realised the mistake she had made in sending a government document to a colleague, she reported it.

“As soon as l realised my mistake, I rapidly reported this on official channels, and informed the cabinet secretary,” she wrote.

Her new account casts doubt on the claim that she reported the mistake “rapidly”. Braverman said that she sent the email at 7.25am and realised at 10am that it had gone to the wrong person in error after reading their reply.

She says her first response was to reply to that person at 10.02am asking them to ignore the message and delete it – she did not inform anyone about the leak at that point.

She says she then attended a Home Office meeting for about an hour, and then went to the Commons to meet two constituents. At 11.50am in the Commons she met the then chief whip, Wendy Morton, who already knew about the mistake, and the Tory MP Andrew Percy, who said a member of his staff had received the email in error.

Percy told Morton about the Braverman email because he thought that potentially this was a serious breach of security. Braverman says at this point she decided not to attend PMQs as planned and to instead return to her office to report the error.

Did she mislead the public by claiming she resigned because she had sent the leaked document to an MP?

The original letter implies that she resigned because she passed a draft text of a written ministerial statement to Sir John Hayes, a Tory MP who is a close political ally of Braverman.

“Earlier today, l sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement, and with the aim of garnering support for government policy on migration.”

As Braverman admitted on Monday, she was only found out because of a second mistake; she copied in the wrong person, with the result the email went to another MP, not Hayes’s secretary.

Was the information within the briefing market-sensitive?

Braverman says in her letter the document that she passed on to Hayes “did not contain any market-sensitive data as all the data contained in the document was already in the public domain”.

At a lobby briefing on Monday the prime minister’s spokesperson backed the Braverman version. He said his understanding was that the document “wasn’t in any way market-sensitive”.

But on the day she was sacked as home secretary, lobby journalists were briefed by No 10 that she had leaked market-sensitive information.

Sources who have seen the document insist it did contain market-sensitive information because it related to visa quotas in particular industries which could affect share prices of specific companies in specific markets.

Has she discussed with Rishi Sunak all six occasions when she forwarded information from her official email address to her personal email address?

Monday’s letter says that on six occasions between 15 September and 16 October she sent documents from her government email account to her personal email account, each of which is alleged to be a breach of the ministerial code. The seventh occasion, on 19 October, was the incident that led to her resignation.

An appendix to her HASC letter says when she breached the rules on these six occasions but gives varying detail about the actual material within the emails.

One was a briefing on “recent protest activity and public disorder”; another says it was for a “virtual meeting that was subsequently cancelled”.

The Labour party has said it remains unclear whether she discussed any or all of the six breaches with Sunak and if not, why not?

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton & Honiton Richard Foord has called on the Government to bring forward an urgent plan to improve cancer care in the light of new revelations.

Lewis Clarke www.devonlive.com

1,281 local people had to wait more than two weeks to see a cancer specialist after a GP referral, new analysis of NHS data by the Liberal Democrats has found. While the NHS target is for 93 per cent of patients to see a cancer specialist after a referral, patients at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust this was the case for just 59.84 per cent of patients.

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton & Honiton Richard Foord has called on the Government to bring forward an urgent plan to improve cancer care in the light of these revelations. Nationwide, 108 NHS trusts missed the two-week cancer referral target. 62,360 people had to wait more than two weeks to see a cancer specialist after a GP referral in August alone.

Commenting Richard Foord MP said: “It is deeply upsetting that so many people across our part of Devon are being let down. Early cancer diagnosis is crucial, and yet too few are able to see a specialist in good time. The government has failed to come up with a proper plan to help people as targets for waiting times are missed month after month. This is not the fault of our hardworking NHS staff, but instead of central Government.

“From ballooning ambulance waits to understaffed hospitals, this Conservative government been running the NHS into the ground. It’s just not good enough and people here deserve better. We need an urgent plan to improve cancer care and save our local health services. More inaction is not an option.”

More than a third of UK hospitality businesses, including pubs, restaurants and hotels, could go bust by early next year as energy bills surge and bookings fall, according to a new survey.

Sadly an acute example of the economic mismanagement by the government. – Owl

Sarah Butler www.theguardian.com 

With nearly all businesses saying they face higher energy costs and food price inflation, 35% of respondents to a quarterly hospitality industry survey said they expected to be operating at a loss or to be unable to continue trading by the end of the year.

More than three-quarters of operators, 77%, reported a decrease in diners and drinkers, and 85% expected the situation to worsen, according to a joint report by UK Hospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and Hospitality Ulster.

The trade bodies said the survey revealed the “stark situation facing hospitality businesses, with many on the brink due to the cost of doing business crisis.

“The vulnerability of the sector due to soaring energy costs, crippling rises in the cost of goods and dampening consumer confidence is on full display in this survey and, if urgent action isn’t taken, it is looking incredibly likely that we will lose a significant chunk of Britain’s iconic hospitality sector in the coming weeks and months.”

Hospitality businesses, many of which were hit by months of enforced closure under government pandemic lockdowns, experienced a bounceback in trading this summer as people enjoyed the ability to socialise more freely.

However, the recovery has been limited by the surging cost of food and shortages of labour, particularly for skilled roles such as chefs, which have led to hefty pay inflation.

Some pubs and hotels have already closed or said they are shutting down for the winter because they cannot deal with the high costs.

The hospitality sector is still recovering from Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and is being hit by rising inflation directly – through increased staff, energy, food and drink costs – and indirectly, as consumers have less money to spend on going out.

More than half of Britons have said they plan to cut down on non-essential spending, according to the latest survey by the credit and debit card operator Barclaycard, as the key Christmas trading period when most businesses make their profits nears.

Three fifths of those cutting back say they will reduce meals out. Almost a third of Britons are taking packed lunches into work instead of buying food on the go.