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Exmouth: Owl in the doghouse …
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Category Archives: Misc
Tory diversity in Exeter
Caption competition…
Boris Johnson in Italy with his mistress (he’s not yet divorced) in Italy earlier this month (correction: earlier this year – March 2019]:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9370973/boris-johnson-italian-holiday-girlfriend-carrie-symonds-row/
Next scheduled Scrutiny Committee cancelled
Move on, nothing to see here, move on:
It’s all OUR fault ….
The frighteningly prescient monologue by actress Anne Reid, who brilliantly plays the matriarch in the final episode of the BBC series ‘Years and Years’ – a must-see for anyone who fears for the future:
Why … because it’s Friday …
With students all over Devon, including Exeter, protesting about the need to take action on the climate crisis:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/another-student-climate-change-protest-3002524
when will our council declare a climate emergency? Let’s see what its GEP partners are doing:
West Devon did so on 22 May after its change of leadership:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/west-devon-borough-council-new-2896283
Mid Devon will make a decision next week:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/local-news/residents-urged-touch-help-combat-3002268
Exeter City Council us thinking about it but has yet to make a declaration:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/exeter-wants-declare-climate-emergency-2951665
Is it just a coincidence that the two councils which will build most houses under the Greater Exeter Strategy Plan are dragging their heels?
EDDC new HQ – did anyone do ANY research?
The so-called Council Chamber is a disaster:
Now “hot desking” – also a feature of the HQ – is rubbished:
Or mYbe both were hard-headed decisions to make councillors, public and staff more uncomfortable!
The very interesting back story to those painted Sidmouth cliffs …
Owl shares some of the elephant’s characteristics – never forgetting being one of them.
Recently a story appeared in the local press about Sidmouth cliffs being painted a strange colour after stabilising work. Oddly, although this was done by the previous Tory-controlled administration, this was not mentioned in the article – leading to the assumption that it had been made by the new no-overall-control council (or Independent Group and Tory coalition – take your pick). Owl found it odd that this old information had only now been reported to the press.
When Owl saw the name of the geologist who seemed to have broken the story, Dr Alistair Bruce, the name rang a bell. Trawling through its vast archive, it turned up the information that Dr Bruce is none other than the defeated Tory candidate for Yarty ward in the local election last month.
Dr Bruce was chosen instead of long-serving former Leader Paul Diviani – who vented his wrath in a letter to former constituents calling his removal “a [Tory Party] vendetta:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2019/05/07/diviani-blames-tory-vendetta-for-de-selection-in-yarty/
Diviani was then relegated to finding another vacancy and chose Broadclyst – which he lost. The successful candidate for Yarty was East Devon Alliance Councillor Paul Hayward.
Owl is happy to be putting the record somewhat straighter with this information that has always in the public domain, though the last word has to go to The Daily Telegraph, with its suggestion for a new posh paint manufacturer Farrow and Ball colour – Sidmouth Cliffs Red:
Is Swire getting too many column inches in our local press?
Midweek Herald today:
“UK near bottom of European bathing waters league table” and Ladram Bay gets a big thumbs down
Another Carter family business area … with their caravan park there getting bigger and bigger …
“Just 63% of Britain’s beaches meet most stringent water quality standard.
The UK has one of the lowest proportions of top quality bathing waters in Europe, according to research by the European Environment Agency.
Just 63.2% of Britain’s beaches met the most stringent water quality standards needed to be ranked as excellent.
The UK’s score is similar to that of Albania, where 62% of waters were rated as excellent. The only countries ranked lower were Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and bottom-placed Poland, where just 28% of the bathing water meets the most stringent quality standard.
The EEA’s annual report on water quality found countries including Greece, Austria, Malta and Cyprus had beaches with the cleanest waters in the continent, all with more than 95% reaching the excellent rating.
The three countries with the highest number of poor quality sites, where levels of bacteria from sewage and livestock runoff are at their highest, were Italy, France and Spain.
UK waters have barely improved since last year, when 61% of bathing water was rated excellent by the EEA.
In the UK, 3.3% of bathing water – 21 sites – was rated poor, while the water quality at 26.2% of sites was rated good.
Some 89% of beaches were rated excellent or good. But the proportion rated excellent – at 63.2% – puts the UK among the worst-rated countries in Europe.
Some of the beaches rated as poor or only sufficient quality include beaches along the Solway Firth, Eyemouth near Edinburgh,
Ladram Bay near Sidmouth in Devon,
Worthing, Bexhill and Bognor Regis Aldwick beach.
Across the continent, more than 85% of bathing water monitored last year met the “excellent” standard for water cleanliness.
“Our report confirms that … efforts over the last 40 years, mainly in wastewater treatment, have paid off. Today, most Europeans enjoy excellent bathing water quality,” said Hans Bruyninckx, the EEA’s executive director.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/04/tackle-inequality-land-ownership-laws?
BoJo received nearly £700,000 for speeches and newspaper columns this last year
MORTEN CARTOON
“Boris Johnson has pocketed nearly £700,000 for speeches and newspaper columns since he quit government less than a year ago, while other prominent Brexiters have received tens of thousands of pounds while cheerleading Britain’s exit from the EU.
The former foreign secretary, who is the frontrunner to succeed Theresa May as prime minister next month, was paid £407,895 for just eight speaking engagements – a rate of £20,000 an hour.
His most recent paid speeches, disclosed in the register of MPs’ financial interests on Wednesday, included a £25,540 insurance brokers’ gig in Manchester where he confirmed his Tory leadership bid on 16 May. …”
On top of his £407,000 for speeches, the Tory MP resumed his £275,000 a year Telegraph contract and received a further £3,500 for four other newspaper articles, plus £27,000 in book royalties, taking his total income to £712,500 – almost 10 times his yearly MP’s salary of £79,000 for representing Uxbridge and South Ruislip in parliament.
Johnson’s best-paying gig was a speech about Brexit for India Today at the five-star Taj Palace hotel in New Delhi, India, for which he received £122,899.74 in March. He used that address to attack Brussels and critics of Britain’s departure from the EU, which he described as an “anti-democratic, over-legislating, job-destroying machine”.
Should Johnson become prime minister, he will have to forfeit his substantial second income and survive on the basic salary of £150,402 for the top job in government. The ministerial code prohibits those in government from being paid for speeches or media articles “of an official nature or which directly draw on their responsibilities or experience as ministers”.
However, upon leaving office they are free, within reason, to cash in on their role. Payments of over £100 must be registered every 28 days with the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who then publishes a fortnightly register of all MPs’ financial interests. …
One of the most prominent backbench Eurosceptics, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has received more than £28,000 for columns and media appearances since the referendum. The Tory MP, who chairs the influential European Research Group, was paid in champagne for one speech by Global Media, the owner of LBC radio where he hosts a fortnightly phone-in. The register of interests, first disclosed in April, states that he “received 12 bottles of champagne with a total value of £323.52”.
Dominic Raab, another former Brexit secretary, was paid nearly £11,000 for newspaper columns since the EU referendum, not including the five months he was in government. …”
Axminster eastern extension: objections by 28 June 2019
Greater Exeter: new Brutalism architecture the latest design fad?
New “mini-villages” are being planned throughout Greater Exeter, with East Devon’s being concentrated in the commuter belt just outside the Exeter City area.
Owl is struck by the similarity of the design of one mini-village in Exeter (close to the football stadium) to the design of squaddie accommodation at the Marine Conmmando base in Lympstone and student accommodation in Exeter.
Is this what we should expect “Greater Exeter” to look like in future?
New bed block for Lympstone Commando base:
New flats for “new mini-village in Exeter:
and student accommodation in Exeter:
EDDC: previous Tory chairman congratulates current Tory Chairman after Independents form majority of councillors
Greater Exeter Strategic Plan – further thoughts from a resident
I am the East Devon resident who now has answers to my question of May 24th on growth and the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan, thanks to Owl. Philip Skinner (conservative) and Susie Bond (independent) will represent EDDC.
So, East Devon’s future housing growth will still remain in the hands of Philip Skinner, he of the “22 ft extending mahogany board room table” fame. He who “put forward the idea of developing a regionally or nationally significant sports arena and concert venue within the GESP area.” (where?? more grade 1 agricultural land?) He who has spent £285,305, and counting, of council tax money , as Chairman of Exmouth Regeneration Board , for the fun park in Queen’s Drive, Exmouth.
He, who is on the board of directors of the Exeter Science Park- a network of professionals experienced in a range of sectors, from finance to property, technology to business. His c.v. for that board boasts
“Councillor responsibilities include being portfolio holder to both the economy and development management and he also represents EDDC on the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP) steering group. He is Chairman of the Exmouth Regeneration Board and is very much at the forefront of place shaping for not only EDDC but for the region.”
Additionally, Mr Skinner’s other district duties stretch him in to other areas such as; A member of the Heart of the South West LEP Joint Committee, The Exeter and Heart Of Devon Growth Board, Joint Advisory Reference Group, and the Greater Exeter Strategic Sports Board” (unless he has been removed from any of these posts – they still remain on his Register of Interests).
Ms. Bond , EDDC councillor for Feniton, has fought tooth and nail for Feniton, its flooding issues and over- development problems over the years.
So whose view will be heard on the GESP?
I didn’t vote independent at the district election for the same old faces and with that the same old growth policies. And I am sure I am not the only one.
What’s Swire up to these days? Reminiscing in Parliament about his childhood “thespian credentials”
Speaking with his Vice President (unpaid), Public Monuments and Sculptures Association hat on:
“Seeing as we are all in the business of burnishing our thespian credentials this morning, may I refer back to the time at my little-known secondary school when I was a very convincing Badger in “Toad of Toad Hall”? It was somewhat safer to be badger in those days.
Will the Minister ensure that in the event of a foreign purchaser refusing a matching offer, an absolute ban on future export can be enforced by compelling him or her to keep the item on display in a recognised public institution and pay any insurance, rather than expecting Government indemnity?”
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2019-05-23a.799.3
Independent East Devon Alliance Leader responds to criticism
Comment by Paul Arnott:
“Dear Owl
Just two points of information re the above (this was a comment on the post regarding the chairing of the Development Management Committee:
a) Mike Howe is already a much-admired chair of Development Management, and as someone who believes in the best person for the job whatever political background I have no personal problem with his continuing
b) Independent East Devon Alliance councillors were ready, willing and eager to become as many Cabinet members or committee heads as we were asked to be, but the Leader of the Independent Group, now of the Council, Ben Ingham, refused to consider us.
all best
Paul Arnott”
So you think climate crisis is new?
Few people will recall Tom Lehrer – mathematician, singer-songwriter and satirist, best known for the pithy, humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. This is what he had to say about pollution all those years ago:
He is still alive (now 93) and has no worries about people reproducing any of his songs and has no interest in copyright.
These are the lyrics of the above song:
Time was when an American about to go abroad would be warned
by his friends or the guidebooks not to drink the water.
But times have changed, and now a foreigner coming to
this country might be offered the following advice:
by his friends or the guidebooks not to drink the water.
But times have changed, and now a foreigner coming to
this country might be offered the following advice:
If you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air!
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air!
Pollution, pollution!
They got smog and sewage and mud.
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud!
They got smog and sewage and mud.
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud!
See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergeons.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don’t last long if they try.
Being wiped out by detergeons.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don’t last long if they try.
Pollution, pollution!
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste.
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste.
Just go out for a breath of air
And you’ll…
And you’ll…
Our new independent-led council meets for the first time …
Dear Independents,
We have put our trust in you to be radically different to how local politics has been done for the last 45 years.
You have promised – and we expect: honesty, transparency and accountability.
We expect new, better ways of doing things. We expect residents to be put first – since you have no party politics to drag you, and us, down.
We expect to see a council that is in firm but fair control of its officers as they show them these new ways and insist on them being tried out.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life
No doubt sonetimes you will fail. If so, be honest, own up to it and fix it.
You can make the transformation we crave.
Make it work – for us as East Devonians and for you as individuals.
Stick with the Nolan principles of public life:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life
Nothing less.
We know you can do it, now show us we are right to put our trust in you.
Owl
