We’re waiting for a non-existing train to take us to our closed school (next to the hospital with no doctors)

Proposals to loosen planning rules to make it easier to build houses “drives a coach and horses” through conservation efforts, a Dartmoor boss says.

BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

The government is consulting on new legislation, external that could allow landowners to convert barns into houses without planning permission.

Kevin Bishop, chief executive of the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), said the move could significantly weaken the authority’s conservation powers.

The BBC contacted the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for comment.

The proposals, aimed at “removing the time and money needed to submit a planning application”, could also remove a requirement that shopfronts should be vacant for at least three continuous months before they are turned into homes.

The plan has been linked to government attempts to find ways to increase housebuilding in the face of a national housing shortage

But Mr Bishop said the proposals favoured development over environmental protection.

“Basically it drives a coach and horses through the powers that we have to protect Dartmoor for future generations,” he said.

“On one level it’s a charter for speculators and developers – it’s not a charter for conservation and our communities.”

High street businesses the BBC spoke to in Ashburton, on Dartmoor’s southern edge, also expressed concern.

Tess Coulson, of Tess Designs, said: “We enjoy our town as it is and we don’t want it spoiled by a lot of different developments.”

Reuben Lenkiewicz, from Reuben Lenkiewicz Fine Art and Jewellery Gallery, said it was a “complicated issue”.

He said: “Obviously people need housing, however if you lose the uniqueness of a town like Ashburton, then you lose the reason for people wanting to go there and visit.”

Karen Dinnie, of Quirky Bird, said she preferred the DNPA to make local decisions “rather than somebody in Westminster”.

The consultation is open until 25 September.

Comment posted by Tim:

If I understand Chris Bryant MP correctly, from his excellent book ‘ Code of Conduct’, levelling up funding must indeed have the support of the constituency MP.

Well, its difficult to imagine a local MP not accepting funds, funds that will by the way, be less than the amounts government have cut from council direct funding.

But to whom should credit go? Some research suggests these funds go to help MPs whose seats are becoming a tad dodgy to hold on to rather than to those in greatest need.

Bryant’s work is well referenced as you might expect and he reports, ‘ of the forty five successful Towns Fund bids in 2021, seventeen went to ‘priority towns’, twenty-eight to ‘medium priority’ towns with seventy nine per cent to towns in Conservative held constituencies’ ( p110). Bryant goes into considerable detail about how and what influences these successful bids and one is left in no doubt that any award has little or nothing to do with need, nor the work of the sitting MP, but many other factors that are politically based. It seems the Tory world revolves around what we might think of as bribery in one form or another.

Hence I suggest, the credit for any additional East Devon funding lies with Claire Wright who turned a very strong 50 year old Conservative safe seat into one of the most marginal seats in the country. It was Claire and her team that put the frighteners on CCO with a level of decency and honesty they just didn’t comprehend. Their answer? Throw money our way and claim it was ‘Simon wot dun it for us’ as MP 30 bob might say.

We must not be fooled by misleading Tory propaganda that is now so desperate it dare not speak its name, nor clearly express its origins ( now often Tufton Street -https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63039558) and is ditching their traditional blue to appear to be other parties material and using their colours – and neither must we be taken in by Tory faux Indies.

Thank you Claire.

Yes on his “YouTube” account. You couldn’t really make it up could you? – Owl

www.independent.co.uk

Owl has been sent this copy of the Summer 2023 edition of the Local Newspaper – EAST DEVON ECHO

Health officials have brought forward plans for autumn flu and Covid vaccinations after detecting a highly-mutated Covid variant that is spreading around the world.

Ian Sample www.theguardian.com 

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said vaccinations would be available from 11 September in England as a precautionary measure intended to protect the most vulnerable as the winter months approach. The vaccination programme had not been scheduled to launch until early October.

The move comes after scientists at the agency detected the first UK case of the new variant, named BA.2.86, on 18 August and as many schools in England prepare to go back after the summer break next week.

The variant has a large number of mutations and has been spotted in several countries in people without any recent travel history, suggesting that it is spreading in more than one region. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases have been recorded in Denmark, South Africa, the US and the UK.

BA.2.86 has yet to be classified a “variant of concern”, meaning it has the potential to drive a fresh wave of illness, but health officials decided to bring forward the flu and Covid vaccine programmes to help those at greatest risk of severe disease and reduce the potential impact on the NHS. The large number of mutations make it a contender for evading immune defences built up by previous vaccination and infection.

Under the revised plan, people in care homes for older people, the clinically vulnerable, those aged 65 and over, and health and social care staff can have a Covid vaccine in September. Where possible, the annual flu shot will be made available to the same groups at the same time, the UKHSA said.

“Thanks to the success of our vaccine programme, we have built strong, broad immune defences against new variants throughout the population,” said Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UKHSA. “However, some people remain more vulnerable to severe illness from Covid-19. This precautionary measure to bring forward the autumn programme will ensure these people have protection against any potential wave this winter.”

Scientists have little information on BA.2.86 so its potential impact is hard to estimate. Dame Harries said the agency would continue to monitor the variant and advise the government and the public as it learned more.

It is unclear whether BA.2.86 will cause more severe illness than previous variants. So far, areas that have the variant have not recorded increases in transmission or hospital admissions compared with neighbouring areas where the variant has yet to be detected, the CDC said, though it cautioned that it was too soon to evaluate the variant’s eventual impact.

Genetic analysis shows that BA.2.86 has more than 30 additional mutations compared with BA.2, the Omicron lineage that dominated last year, and more than 35 extra mutations than the XBB.1.5 variant which has so far dominated 2023. The number of extra mutations is similar to when the first Omicron variant, BA.1, emerged and spread rapidly around the globe.

The UK vaccination campaign was originally scheduled for October because the jabs tend to provide the best protection when there is a short gap between receiving the shot and being exposed to the circulating viruses.

Following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the Covid vaccine will be offered to all adults over 65, residents of care homes for older adults, those at clinical risk, frontline health and social care workers, and people aged 12 to 64 who are household contacts of people who are immunosuppressed and so less able to fight off infections.

More than 120,000 people in England died last year while on the NHS waiting list for hospital treatment, figures obtained by Labour appear to show.

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

That would be a record high number of such deaths, and is double the 60,000 patients who died in 2017/18.

For example, the Royal Free hospital in London said it had had 3,615 such deaths, while there were 2,888 at the Morecambe Bay trust in Cumbria and 2,039 at Leeds teaching hospitals trust.

Hospital bosses said the deaths highlighted the dangers of patients having to endure long waits for care and reflected a “decade of underinvestment” that had left the NHS with too few staff and beds.

Healthwatch England, a patient advocacy group that scrutinises NHS performance, said the number of people dying while waiting for care was “a national tragedy”.

Louise Ansari, the chief executive, said: “We know that delays to care have significant impacts on people’s lives, putting many in danger.”

Dr Emma Runswick, the British Medical Association’s deputy chair of council, said the fatalities were a “terrible indictment of this government’s mismanagement of our health services”.

Labour asked 138 health trusts how many patients had died during 2022 while they were on the NHS waiting list. Of those, 35 (25%) responded, showing that 30,611 such deaths had occurred.

Labour then extrapolated that figure to estimate that across England as a whole, 120,695 people had died while awaiting hospital care, such as a hip or knee replacement.

“Record numbers of people are spending their final months in pain and agony, waiting for treatment that never arrives,” said Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary. “The basic promise of the NHS – that it will be there for us when we need it – has been broken.”

But NHS England criticised the way Labour reached their conclusions and insisted that they were unreliable and misleading.

“This analysis, based on figures from just a quarter of hospital trusts, does not demonstrate a link between waits for elective treatment and deaths, and it would be misleading to suggest it does, given the data does not include the cause of death or any further details on the person’s age and medical conditions,” an NHS spokesperson said.

However, groups representing doctors did not raise any concerns about the accuracy of the figures. They said the deaths were closely linked to the intense pressure hospitals were under and the widespread lack of staff that was hampering the NHS’s efforts to provide timely care and cut the waiting list, which has now risen to 7.6 million people – by far the largest number on record.

“These figures are extremely worrying as waiting lists are highly likely to continue to rise, potentially reaching the 9 million predicted by [ex-health secretary] Sajid Javid. Every one of those has symptoms that may become increasingly unbearable”, said Dr Tim Cooksley, the president of the Society for Acute Medicine.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, said that Covid-19 would have been a factor in some of the estimated 120,695 deaths, but the key cause was the fact that the NHS has been left with far too few resources to deal with the demand it is facing.

“These figures are a stark reminder about the potential repercussions of long waits for care,” Taylor said. “They are heartbreaking for the families who will have lost loved ones and are deeply dismaying for NHS leaders who continue to do all they can in extremely difficult circumstances.”

A Royal Free London spokesperson said: “There is nothing to indicate that waiting for an elective procedure contributed to or caused the death of the patients captured in this data. A routine review of patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for treatment at the Royal Free London confirmed that none came to severe harm or died as a result of their wait.

“We have recently made significant progress in reducing waiting times and many of our services continue to run additional clinics and surgical lists during evenings and weekends so patients are seen as soon as possible. We always prioritise patients according to clinical need.”

Meanwhile, separate NHS figures showed that some hospitals have fewer beds per 1,000 people in their area than countries such as Mexico and Colombia.

Research by the House of Commons library for the Liberal Democrats showed that England has 2,233 (6%) fewer beds than it had in 2015, despite a sharp increase in patients’ need for care.

The Homerton hospital in east London has just 0.9 beds for every 1,000 local people. That is even fewer than in Mexico, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says has the lowest number of beds per capita in the world. The Homerton has 41.4% fewer beds than eight years ago, the library found.

“This is no way to run a whelk stall, let alone a government. Instead of spreading the reassuring balm of competence, this shuffle reminds people of the chaos of last year when the Conservative Party provided a game show rather than a government, with three prime ministers and a succession of stopgap cabinet ministers – some of them, such as Shapps, holding office for only a few days in the turmoil.”

John Rentoul www.independent.co.uk

Rishi Sunak wanted a minimal reshuffle to replace Ben Wallace without fuss, so that he could project an image of competence into the new political season. Instead, by appointing Grant Shapps to his fifth cabinet role in a year, he gives the impression of the government as a TV reality show called Cabinet Musical Chairs.

Shapps was transport secretary until September last year when Liz Truss sacked him for being a Sunak supporter. Forty-three days later, she fell out with Suella Braverman and needed a home secretary to plug the gap, so she brought Shapps back into government. Shapps enjoyed the great office of state for six days before Sunak became prime minister and restored Braverman to the Home Office in a cynical operation to buy off the anti-immigration Conservative right.

Shapps was business secretary until February this year when Sunak broke up his department and gave him one of the smaller bits, the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Now he is defence secretary. It looks like a consolation prize for previous slights. What is worse, it looks like yet another attempt by Sunak to manage his chronically divided party. Boris Johnson tweeted his support for Shapps’s appointment suspiciously quickly, making it look as if the promotion of a Ukraine-war enthusiast was designed to keep Boris on board the pre-election Tory bus.

This is no way to run a whelk stall, let alone a government. Instead of spreading the reassuring balm of competence, this shuffle reminds people of the chaos of last year when the Conservative Party provided a game show rather than a government, with three prime ministers and a succession of stopgap cabinet ministers – some of them, such as Shapps, holding office for only a few days in the turmoil.

There was nothing Sunak could do about Wallace’s departure. The defence secretary obviously wanted to get out, having pre-announced his desire to leave after saying he wouldn’t be standing again as an MP. Something about wanting to “invest in the parts of life that I have neglected”, he said in his resignation letter. But he had been defence secretary for four years, which is a long stint in a revolving-door government, and he looked the part of an old soldier, which is what he is – captain of the Scots Guards, mentioned in despatches (Belfast).

And you can see the case for Shapps as his replacement. One of the government’s best communicators, he was highly effective during the pandemic in explaining some of the trade-offs in lockdown decisions in plain language. Wallace has done the hard negotiating over the defence budget, with Sunak when Sunak was chancellor, and it is not unreasonable for the prime minister to appoint someone totally committed to support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Just because Boris Johnson is pleased doesn’t mean it is a bad idea to underline Britain’s resolute position, at a time when people might suspect Sunak’s rationalist Treasury brain to be wondering how much it is all going to cost.

But the trouble is that Shapps looks like a winner of a tombola of trivialisation.

It turned out that it was indeed a minimalist shuffle: Shapps to defence, Claire Coutinho to energy, and David Johnston, an unknown backbencher of the 2019 intake, to her post as a junior minister in the education department.

Coutinho’s promotion is a striking one – the shock of it concealed somewhat by the Shapps merry-go-round. She, too, only came into parliament in 2019, making hers an even faster promotion to cabinet than Sunak’s own. Resentment will be generated. Even more than the usual problem with which Abraham Lincoln was familiar: “To remove a man is very easy, but when I go to fill his place, there are 20 applicants, and of these I must make 19 enemies.”

Perhaps Sunak decided that if he were going to make enemies, he might as well go all out. Coutinho has been plucked, as he was, from the lowest level of ministerial life, parliamentary under secretary of state, and put straight into the cabinet, leapfrogging middle-ranking ministers. She is also close to Sunak politically, having been his special adviser when he was chief secretary to the Treasury, and then she was, as an MP, his unpaid ministerial aide when he was chancellor.

Sunak must have a high opinion of her ability because the energy brief is a difficult one in normal times – and a make-or-break one over the next year. Sunak is trying to scare the voters by presenting Labour’s climate-change policies as “eco-zealotry”, contrasting them with his own “proportionate and pragmatic” approach to net zero.

Yet Sunak and Coutinho will struggle to get that message across against the impression, accentuated by this reshuffle, of a dying government in which cabinet jobs related to national security – defence, the Home Office – are traded for reasons of party management and election propaganda.

Problem known for years,

National Audit Office report warned over two months ago that the risk of injury or death from a school building collapse as “very likely and critical”.

More crisis management from the Government. – Owl

www.building.co.uk 

Report in June found lightweight reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete could be present in more than 500 schools

The government has told schools to immediately shut buildings constructed with a form of outdated lightweight concrete unless safety measures are in place.

More than 100 schools built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) have been contacted so far, the BBC has reported.

The decision, announced just days before the start of the new school year, followed “new evidence about RAAC”, education secretary Gillian Keegan told the broadcaster.

RAAC was used in system build projects across a range of sectors, including hospitals, between the 1950s and the 1990s but has a design life of around 30 years.

Guidance issued by the Department for Education (DfE) today advised schools to vacate and restrict all spaces confirmed to contain the material

The department said that the spaces should “remain out of use until appropriate mitigations are in place, even where they would have been deemed ‘non-critical’ previously”.

It comes more than two months after a National Audit Office report warned that the risk of injury or death from a school building collapse as “very likely and critical”.

The report said the DfE had identified 572 schools where RAAC might be present and that it had been confirmed in 65 buildings, 24 of which required immediate action.

Although the NAO said the DfE had made progress in the last year, it warned the department still “lacks comprehensive information” on the extent and the severity of safety issues which would allow it to develop a longer term mitigation plan.

Keegan said: “We must take a cautious approach because that is the right thing to do for both pupils and staff,” she said.

“The plan we have set out will minimise the impact on pupil learning and provide schools with the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC.”

RAAC is causing increasing concern across the public sector. In June, the government ordered all departments to investigate their estates to identify where it might be present.

In May, the Ministry of Defence revealed it was investigating hundreds of buildings feared to be on the verge of collapse because they were built with the concrete.

Health minister Maria Caulfield also admitted last year that 34 hospital buildings in England were at risk, a situation which was described by the boss of one affected hospital boss as a “ticking time bomb”.

Cllr Jess Bailey: “Judging both from the fictitious title and the lack of Conservative branding, it is designed to give residents the false impression that this is a genuine and independent local newspaper when it most definitely is not. I’m not at all impressed by this type of antics, especially when confidence in politicians is already at rock-bottom.”

Has the label “Conservative” become so toxic that Simon Jupp fears campaigning under the banner? – Owl

Simon Jupp defends ‘fake newspaper’ campaign leaflet

The MP for East Devon, Simon Jupp, has been criticised over a Conservative campaign leaflet designed to look like a local newspaper.

Philippa Davies www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

The ‘East Devon Echo’ is being posted to addresses in the new Sidmouth and Honiton constituency, where Mr Jupp will stand for the Tories in the next General Election.

It contains a selection of articles highlighting Mr Jupp’s activities and campaigns in East Devon, along with items on the Conservative party’s policies.

In what appears to be a national Tory campaign strategy, similar publications imitating the appearance and names of local newspapers are being circulated around the country.

Concerns were raised about the ‘East Devon Echo’ by a Herald reader, who received a copy in the post.

He said: “It’s fake news and needs to be called out as such. The advertisement on the back serves to make the rest feel like genuine news.

“It doesn’t at any point say it’s published by the Conservative party!

“These publications seem to be a deliberately misleading attempt to fool voters by presenting partisan political propaganda as independent news. It’s knowingly cynical.”

Jess Bailey, the Independent county councillor for the Otter Valley, agrees that the East Devon Echo is misleading.

She said: “Judging both from the fictitious title and the lack of Conservative branding, it is designed to give residents the false impression that this is a genuine and independent local newspaper when it most definitely is not. I’m not at all impressed by this type of antics, especially when confidence in politicians is already at rock-bottom.”

Simon Jupp, a former journalist himself, has in the past spoken out about the importance of local news and ‘proper journalism’, while criticising ‘pseudo websites masquerading as legitimate sources of news’.

The Herald asked him whether he is comfortable with his party distributing this kind of campaign material.

He said: “Such publications are used by most major political parties, including the Liberal Democrats and Labour. In response, I have had many positive conversations on the doorstep and emails offering support for my campaign in the new Honiton & Sidmouth constituency.”

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election all three main parties were criticised by the Electoral Commission for distributing campaign material imitating local newspapers.

But the Commission said it does not have the power to regulate this material, which is legal if it carries an ‘imprint’ identifying who is responsible for producing and promoting it.

The East Devon Echo does have this in very small print at the bottom of the front page, indicating that it is being promoted by the East Devon Conservative Association.

Government is ignoring the watchdog created to replace the EU in enforcing environmental law.

Surely this is a resigning issue for anyone with a shred of self respect – Owl

Plans to rip up pollution rules for housebuilders are a “regression” that will degrade England’s rivers, the government’s environment watchdog has said.

Helena Horton www.theguardian.com 

An amendment tabled by the government to the levelling up bill orders local authorities to ignore nutrient pollution from new developments in ecologically sensitive areas in England, including the Norfolk Broads and the Lake District. These nutrients, when untreated, cause algal blooms that choke the life from rivers.

Under the current system, which is derived from EU law, developers are not allowed to add more pollution to already-polluted protected areas, unless they buy “credits” that are used to improve nearby wetlands.

In a letter to the secretaries of state Thérèse Coffey and Michael Gove, the chair of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), Dame Glenys Stacey, said their proposed amendment, which they claim will unlock 100,000 new homes, would degrade the environment.

She wrote: “The proposed changes would demonstrably reduce the level of environmental protection provided for in existing environmental law. They are a regression. Yet the government has not adequately explained how, alongside such weakening of environmental law, new policy measures will ensure it still meets its objectives for water quality and protected site condition.”

Campaigners have previously called the OEP, which replaces the EU in enforcing environmental law, “toothless”. It has written to the environment secretary and her predecessors on numerous occasions to express concern that her department’s plans will contravene environmental law.

However, Coffey has been able to ignore it and proceed with her plans regardless.

Stacey has demanded the ministers face parliament to explain themselves and tell colleagues how they plan to prevent rivers being choked by pollution.

The solicitor and civil servant said the ministers were contravening their promises to parliament, referring to “Gove’s statement to parliament, under section 20 of the Environment Act 2021, that ‘the bill will not have the effect of reducing the level of environmental protection provided for by any existing environmental law’”. She said the “amendments now run counter to these commitments”.

She said: “It is essential to clarify the section 20 statement made to parliament in light of the government’s intention to weaken the habitats regulations. If necessary, ministers should make a statement equivalent to that required by section 20(4) and confirm that they are no longer able to say that the bill would not reduce the level of environmental protection provided for by any existing environmental law, but that the government nevertheless wishes parliament to proceed.”

She said England’s important wildlife areas were already at risk, writing: “Many of England’s most important protected wildlife sites are in a parlous state, with their condition well below where it needs to be. This is often due to nutrient pollution, and development can be a significant contributor to this.”

Officials at a briefing for journalists on Tuesday confirmed that if the amendment passed, there would be no legal obligation for developers in sensitive habitats to avoid nutrient pollution, and that the EU-derived legislation would be replaced by some extra funding for Natural England, the nature watchdog. They still said there would be no regression in environmental standards, despite the ditching of the legislation, because Natural England would be able to offset any pollution with the new funding.

The government has faced a backlash from nature groups since the announcement, with the RSPB calling Gove and Coffey “liars”. The charity accused them of breaking their promises that Brexit would improve the UK’s environment and that they would not weaken EU-derived environmental laws.

A government spokesperson said: “We’ve always been clear we will never compromise our high standards and we are fully committed to our ambitious and legally binding commitments on the environment. The reforms we’ve set out will see us tackle pollution at source in a way that these legacy laws never addressed through a significant package to restore waterways and leave our environment in a better state than we found it.”

An annual swimming race in Devon has been cancelled after sewage was discharged into a harbour for five hours. The Lynmouth Richie Berry Cup was due to be held on Sunday, September 3.

Fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain between now and the rescheduled event on September 15 or it may have to be cancelled again! – Owl

Jamie Hawkins www.devonlive.com

However, organisers say the race has been cancelled after sewage was discharged from South West Water on Saturday, August 26.

It’s now hoped the race will take place on Friday, September 15. Race organiser John Arbon said the swim was cancelled over health risks.

He told the BBC: “We were extremely disappointed. We stood there and thought: ‘What if someone gets sick?’ We couldn’t take that risk.”

“They (South West Water) need a massive investment now instead of saying they will do it at some time in the future.”

In a post on their Facebook page, the Lynseals swimming club said: “Our safety team met at the harbour today (Saturday) and due to the sewage discharge by South West Water into Lynmouth Harbour we are not prepared to risk the health of swimmers.

“We also have not received confirmation from SWW if there will be further discharges or up to the minute data on the quality of the water. The winds are also WNW blowing the sea directly onto the harbour which will not aid clearing the discharge.

“We apologise for the cancellation but hope you will understand our concerns.”

Data from South West Water’s website showed a pumping station overflow that started in Lynmouth at 5.14am and stopped at 10.48am.

In a statement, South West Water said: “We can confirm there was storm overflow activity in Lynmouth over the weekend following heavy, localised rainfall.

“Storm overflows are pressure relief valves built into our network that are an essential way to stop homes and businesses from flooding during periods of heavy rainfall.

“However, reducing the use of storm overflows is a priority for us and we are investing record levels to do so.

“In Lynmouth specifically, we are investing over £4.25m to March 2025 to reduce the risk of environmental impact from our sewerage network and maintain excellent bathing water quality.”

Ministers (including the Prime Minister) on top of their game would have realised that such an inquiry was the only option from the start.

But they failed to read the mood of the country or understand the gravity of the case and opted, initially, for the politically comfortable fudge of a “toothless” non-statutory inquiry .

We really are at the fag end of a dying administration. – Owl

Ministers agree to give inquiry full statutory powers after families criticised current investigation

www.theguardian.com 

The inquiry into how Lucy Letby was able to murder seven babies will now be able to force witnesses to give evidence.

Ministers agreed to give the inquiry full statutory powers after families said the current investigation would not go far enough in uncovering the truth.

Letby was found guilty earlier this month and an independent inquiry was immediately launched, but it was not given full powers.

How many times have Alison Hernandez and Simon Jupp announced their personal involvement in securing a “new” police station for Exmouth?

Perhaps they could enlighten us on why the much hyped plans for one have been withdrawn (see below)?

Could it be that the plans have turned out to be unaffordable?

It’s now pretty clear that Exmouth will not have a new police station before the election.

As a perceptive correspondent to the Exmouth Journal wrote a couple of weeks ago:

“The last two years seem to prove her [Alison Hernandez] vision has been a fantasy at considerable cost to Council Tax payers.”

[In February, Simon Jupp quoted himself as saying: “After the success of securing a new police station for Exmouth which will be open to the public, I want to make sure the east of the district also has access to a police station front desk. I would warmly welcome a front desk opening in either Sidmouth, Ottery St. Mary or Honiton. These rural communities have very different characteristics than Exmouth or Exeter. Extra front desks, focusing on the needs of rural communities and market towns, would give people increased awareness and confidence in their local police force, especially during the tourist season. I know our Police & Crime Commissioner listens to communities and I hope she will consider re-opening another front desk in East Devon.”]

Promises, promises. – Owl

Plans to demolish Exmouth Police Station have been withdrawn

Previously submitted plans to demolish Exmouth Police Station have been withdrawn by developers this week, (August 24).

Adam Manning www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

No reason has been stated on the withdrawal form. The £5 million pound project included knocking down the ‘ageing station complex’ in Exmouth’s North Street includes a disused magistrates court and a mothballed civil defence shelter.

The site is currently occupied by officers but currently members of the public cannot enter without an appointment and Crime Commisioner Alison Hernandez says that “maintenance costs over the next 25 years have been estimated at more than £3m.”

The plans would see the 0.4 hectares of the site sold for redevelopment and a two-storey building built on 0.2 hectares of the site. 

The station will be the operational base for about 60 officers and staff including response officers, neighbourhood officers, Police Community Support Officers, and Special Constables and will include a new public enquiry front desk.

The Commissioner’s estates team is preparing to seek expressions of interest from contractors who may be interested in submitting a full tender for the project.

Commissioner Hernandez, at the time the new station was announced said: “This project makes sense from every angle. Exmouth is Devon’s largest town and sees a huge increase in its population in the summer months. The teams based there, and the community they serve, deserve a station which is fit for the 21st Century, less harmful to the environment and cheaper to run.

She said improving public access to the force was a ‘non negotiable’ part of the project, adding: “When I carried out a public survey to determine which of the 58 possible locations the public would most like to see, a police enquiry office opened once again in Exmouth came eighth. People love the idea that they can walk into a station and talk to a real human being to report crime, receive advice on crime prevention and seek help for victims, so there is no way I am going to miss the opportunity to give this town back its front desk.”

Assistant Chief Constable Glen Mayhew, Force Lead for Local Policing said: “Our officers and staff are part of the local community, and this investment supports them to achieve this. They need a modern base to ensure that we deliver a local service that is effective and accessible to our communities. We are all looking forward to this development taking shape.”

Build back beautiful – Owl

The number of UK homes sold this year is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the soaring cost of mortgages puts off homebuyers.

Mark Sweney www.theguardian.com 

House sales reaching completion are expected to fall 21% year-on-year to about 1m in 2023, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report from the property website Zoopla.

Annual house prices fell at the fastest rate in 14 years in July, by 3.8% according to Nationwide, as higher interest rates weighed on people’s ability to buy a property with a mortgage.

The number of house sales completed securing a mortgage is forecast to fall by 28% this year, while cash sales will remain relatively resilient, falling just 1% in 2023, according to the report.

A typical two-year fixed mortgage was 6.73% on Tuesday, and the average five-year fix was 6.21%, according to Moneyfacts. Some lenders have cut rates in recent weeks, however, as competition returns.

Zoopla said: “Mortgage rates have started to fall slowly but rates need to fall below 5% before we see an increased appetite to move home in the second half of 2023.”

It also said that over the last four weeks, demand for homes had been 34% lower than the average for the same period over the last five years.

The report estimates that the cost of renting is on average 10% cheaper than making mortgage payments, despite high growth in rental rates in recent years.

Lack of affordability is affecting the housing market the most in southern England, where average house prices are highest, meaning buyers need larger mortgages, bigger deposits and higher incomes to buy.

Levels of market activity are holding up better in more affordable parts of the UK, including parts of Scotland.

“These trends will continue over the rest of 2023 and into 2024,” said Zoopla.

The report found, however, that affordability was improving relative to earnings, with wages up 7% over the last year. The report forecasts that the UK house price-to-earnings ratio will fall back into line with the 20-year average by the end of this year, at 6.3.

“Surprisingly, affordability has improved most in London where the price to earnings ratio will move to single digits for the first time in 11 years as house price growth continues to lag earnings growth,” the report said.

The average price of a property in London is £542,400, compared with £267,000 in Edinburgh, £253,900 in Cardiff and £167,900 in Belfast.

• Visitor numbers are believed to be down by up to 20%
• Industry representatives say they believe the weather has played a part
• Visitors are also believed to be spending less

Visitor numbers in Devon and Cornwall are down by up to a fifth for the summer, figures suggest. www.bbc.co.uk

The South West Business Council said feedback from businesses along with traffic analysis suggested visitor numbers were down between 17 and 20% over summer 2023 to date.

Visit Devon also estimated visitor numbers were down 16 to 20% while Visit Cornwall estimated numbers were down by about 10%.

Some businesses have suggested tourists are also spending less.

Sally Everton, head of Visit Devon, said: “If we’d had a really cracking start weather-wise to the summer holiday we’d have done very well… but that didn’t really materialise for us.

“That said, we did have some good pick-up in the first two weeks of August… so that did give us a hand but it isn’t where we wanted to be in all honesty”.

Keith Richardson, a Torquay hotelier, said: “We’ve already got 20% less people but our food sales are less by 40%, so there’s a significant change there.

“This year has been pretty awful across the board.”

The handling of a major Tory housing policy announcement to rip up environment laws around river pollution in order to build more homes has been branded “cack-handed” and a “farce” by developers.

Ben Gartside, Daniel Capurro inews.co.uk

Industry sources fear changes to housebuilding laws in England to stop environmental legislation blocking developments could fail because a poorly handled announcement has already triggered a major backlash from green groups.

Housing industry insiders told i that the Government’s apparent failure to warn environmental groups about the new policy had only served to hand more momentum to them.

“It’s cack-handed how [the policy] has been handled,” one industry executive said. “The narrative has got out badly, and now environmental campaigners are treating it poorly. We’re expecting backlash, as we’re now being targeted for the failure of water companies.”

He also hinted that the policy had come too late. “This is not an overnight solution… Inflation, lack of demand and the cost of living crisis has meant we won’t see the same level of building we could have,” the source said.

Government plans to tear up EU-derived requirements on pollution from housebuilding have been years in the making, with fears over an environmental backlash stymieing previous proposals.

Builders have been complaining publicly about the policy since 2021, which require new housing developments not to increase the amount of nutrient pollution in protected rivers.

Developers are required to offset any new pollution, for example by contributing to the development of new wetlands which naturally filter surface run-off. Offsets can cost up to £15,000 per home.

The law, which was retained during the Brexit period, halted development in a number of counties following interventions from Natural England. The policy has been a popular target for reform, with former prime minister Liz Truss pledging to scrap the policy last year, and Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove, touting reform in July.

The current rules have proved controversial with claims developments have been blocked where the rules have been applied too stringently and that builders have bought up trout farms to shut them down in order to meet nutrient neutrality rules.

Despite the long-touted reforms, the housing industry and environmentalists appeared to have been blindsided by the announcement on Tuesday morning, with the executive labelling it a “farce”.

An announcement was rushed out following briefings to a number of papers, while some environmental groups and housebuilders were unaware any reforms were due.

Environmental activists accused the Government of lying over pledges not to weaken EU environmental legislation.

Housing industry sources are also concerned the issue could become a lightning rod for river campaigners, who are dissatisfied with the Government’s attempt to tackle it.

Housebuilders argue that they contribute a very small amount to river pollution, compared to water companies and farmers.

Sources have pointed the finger at Tony Juniper, the chairman of Natural England, as the driving force behind the current strict interpretation of the law.

Mr Juniper has denied claims that Natural England or nutrient neutrality was causing a blockage in housebuilding, defending the policy regularly.

In an interview with i last month, Mr Juniper called on housebuilders to stop complaining and to “see the bigger picture” of the legislation.

Housebuilders have privately questioned whether his role is still tenable, given his spirited defence of the rules. It is understood Mr Juniper has tried to blocked any attempts to loosen nutrient neutrality rules in order to aid development when asked by central Government.

Industry pressure on Mr Juniper also extends to the Housing Secretary. While Mr Gove has been recently supportive to builders over the changes, he had previously been criticised for a lack of action.

Mr Juniper’s appointment to Natural England was made by Mr Gove during his period as environment secretary in 2019.

An industry source told i that some housebuilders had refused to provide supportive quotes for the Government’s announcement, on account of a hostile relationship with Mr Gove. They remain frustrated with him over a policy requiring developers to pay for dangerous cladding.

One developer said that the relationship between the industry and minister were “non-existent” following prolonged antagonism between the parties during cladding negotiations, with Mr Gove labelling the housebuilders a “cartel”.

Mr Gove said in a statement: “We are committed to building the homes this country needs and to enhancing our environment. The way EU rules have been applied has held us back. These changes will provide a multi-billion pound boost for the UK economy and see us build more than 100,000 new homes.

“Protecting the environment is paramount which is why the measures we’re announcing today will allow us to go further to protect and restore our precious waterways whilst still building the much-needed homes this country needs.

Don’t all flush at once!

1. Repeal of the pollution law by amending the “Levelling Up and Regeneration” bill may not pass in time for the King’s speech, and therefore may not be enacted before the election. – see below

2. Even if it does, developers say repeal of pollution rules won’t solve England’ housing crisis. – see below

3. Even if it did, no material increase in house building is likely before the election kicks off!

4. Sound and fury from environmental groups will be huge.

So is this the real reason?

Money talking just before the conference season? – Owl

Repeal of water pollution rules won’t solve England’s housing crisis, say developers

Michael Gove’s plan to repeal water pollution rules in an attempt to kickstart housebuilding will not solve England’s housing crisis, developers have warned, thanks to delays in implementation and other planning burdens.

Kiran Stacey www.theguardian.com 

The housing secretary announced on Tuesday he intends to remove the regulations regarding nutrient levels in rivers, prompting outrage from green groups but relief from housebuilders, whose shares promptly rose.

But while developers have campaigned for years for an end to the rules, they warned that amending the levelling up bill to do so risked months of delays given opposition to numerous parts of the expansive legislation.

A spokesperson for the Home Builders Federation said: “After four years the proposals are a welcome step towards a solution, but clearly the bill still has some way to go and we are potentially many months from unlocking sites and starting construction work.”

They added: “Whilst this ultimately may remove one major barrier to housing supply, it is no silver bullet and the government’s approach on planning remains an even greater constraint alongside mortgage availability in the current economic environment.”

Gove said on Tuesday he would use the levelling up bill, which is being debated in the House of Lords, to remove rules blocking new development if it is forecast to add to levels of nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates in rivers.

Those nutrients, which are contained in waste products, can cause algae and other plants to grow so quickly that they choke off aquatic life.

However, housebuilders say the rules have been enforced so strictly by Natural England that it has become impossible to build on large parts of the country. The regulations have meant no houses being built in the past four years in large parts of the Solent and the Lake District for example.

Under the new regime, developers will no longer have to offset the nutrient pollution caused by sewage from new homes. Instead, the government is spending an extra £140m to offset extra pollution, shifting the burden from the polluter to the taxpayer.

Gove told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “After all the measures we’ve announced today have been enacted there will be fewer nutrients going into British rivers.”

Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “Scrapping the rules may reduce the costs for big businesses, but those costs don’t disappear. Instead, the public will pick up the bill for pollution reduction, and the environment will bear an unbearable cost of yet more pollution in our most sensitive rivers and streams.”

Some Conservatives also expressed concern. Sam Hall, the director of the Conservative Environment Network, said: “It is disappointing that the government has chosen to exempt housebuilding’s nutrient pollution from the habitats regulations, rather than seek a holistic reform with developers paying proportionally for their pollution.”

Conservative MPs, however, were broadly supportive, including those who have opposed Gove over housebuilding in the past.

Theresa Villiers, who has previously led rebellions against plans to liberalise the planning system, said on Tuesday: “For a long time the nutrient neutrality rules have been operating in a very inflexible way, and have all but stopped development in a number of places.”

Shares in big developers rose on Tuesday, with Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Berkeley Group all performing well.

However, industry executives warned that Gove’s attempts to repeal the pollution regulations could still fail given the tortuous process behind passing the levelling up bill.

Lords have debated dozens of amendments already, covering everything from education policy to electric vehicle charge points. The government also wants to use the bill to push forward new measures to allow councils to opt out of low emission zones such as London’s Ulez.

“This bill has become a Christmas tree with various members using it to advance their chosen policies,” said one supporter of the move to repeal the nutrient neutrality rules. “The worry is now that it simply doesn’t pass in time.”

If the bill is not passed in time for the king’s speech in November, it will have to be reintroduced for the next session, where it will fight for legislative time with the rest of the government’s priorities for what is likely to be the final session before an election.

And even if the bill does pass, officials admit it will be months before the pollution regulations are formally removed.