Better late than never. Is it a coincidence that all three are women? 

With yesterday’s heavy rainfall do you need to check the Surfers against Sewage online pollution alert map or can you assume that there have been sewage discharges all over the place? – Owl

Three water company bosses have given up their bonuses in an acknowledgment of the public anger over companies’ dumping of sewage in Britain’s rivers.

Alex Lawson www.theguardian.com 

The chief executives of Yorkshire Water and Thames Water as well as the owner of South West Water have declined to accept bonuses this year.

Water companies have been criticised for raking in profits and their executives receiving large pay packets while sewage has regularly been released into Britain’s rivers and seas in large quantities.

Nicola Shaw, of Yorkshire Water, said she understood the “strength of feeling” on river pollution and had decided to refuse what would have been her first bonus since joining the company in May 2022.

Annual reports show she could have received between £600,000 and £800,000 if the company met its performance targets. Last year, the company paid out £878,000 in bonuses to directors.

She said: “I understand the strength of feeling about the issues linked to river health which is why I’ve decided that this year I won’t be accepting a bonus.

“This is the right thing to do and I’m committed to improving Yorkshire Water’s performance.”

Sarah Bentley, who runs Thames Water and last year received a £496,000 payout, forwent her payout alongside the company’s chief financial officer, Alastair Cochran, who will also skip his bonus for 2022-23. He received £298,000 last year.

Bentley said it “just did not feel like the right thing to take performance-related pay this year”.

South West Water’s Susan Davy, who received £522,000 last year, will also not receive a bonus. “This is the right thing to do. We’re listening to our customers, we get it,” said Davy, whose company spilled untreated sewage 37,649 times last year. She runs Pennon Group, the listed owner of South West Water, and has turned down a pay rise for the past two years.

The exact size of the bonuses that would have been due to the three executives has not been disclosed.

An analysis of water companies’ annual reports released last month found the bonus pool for executives stood at an average of more than £600,000 at each company. In total, the 22 water bosses paid themselves £24.8m, including £14.7m in bonuses, benefits and incentives, in 2021-22.

Emma Clancy, the chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, welcomed the decisions. She said: “Our recent research, Bridging the Gap, shows that bonuses add to people’s current frustration with the water industry and they would like much more openness and transparency on this issue. This announcement shows that people’s concerns are being listened to.”

Gary Carter, a national officer at the GMB union, said it was “grotesque for water companies to post such mammoth profits while so many are repeatedly caught dumping sewage in our nation’s glorious seas and waterways”.

He added: “GMB calls on all water bosses to waive their annual bonuses until Ofwat can confidently say the scourge of sewage dumping is under control.”

The Financial Times reported on Monday that Britain’s privatised water and sewage companies paid £1.4bn in dividends in 2022, an increase from £540m the previous year.

Last week, Macquarie, the Australian owner of Southern Water, the utility company criticised for discharging sewage into the sea, posted record profits after a boom in its commodities trading division.

The flash flooding in Newton Poppleford and Tipton St John was widely reported last night.

BBC spotlight reported that parents were told not to attempt to collect their children from the Tipton Primary. The children were rescued by a combination of the fire service and a local tractor and trailer.

The Environment Agency (EA) declared in 2015 that there is a ‘risk to life’ of the children attending the hub and that it must be rebuilt outside of the flood zone.

Don’t worry Simon Jupp is on the case! 

He takes aim at Devon County Council not EDDC for once.

More Tory rule breaking – Owl

A leading Conservative MP and former health minister did not properly declare his second job for a health recruitment firm when lobbying Matt Hancock and Michael Gove during the pandemic, the standards watchdog has found.

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Steve Brine, the chair of the Commons health committee, was found to have breached the rules twice by failing to declare in his approaches to cabinet ministers in early 2021 that he was a paid strategic adviser to Remedium Partners, a recruitment firm offering doctors for free to the NHS.

In a new judgment, the standards commissioner found Brine should have been clearer in emails to Hancock, then the health secretary, and Gove, then a Cabinet Office minister, that he was employed by Remedium.

However, Daniel Greenberg, the commissioner, cleared Brine of paid advocacy because his efforts were not seeking “financial or material benefit” for Remedium because the doctors’ services were offered pro bono.

Greenberg said the case would be dealt with under the “rectification” process, with Brine acknowledging he broke the rules, apologising and promising not to do so again in future.

In response to the report, Brine said: “This was always about responding in the national interest in an emergency so I am pleased, and not surprised, to be cleared of paid advocacy and I accept fully the commissioners advice on declarations that, even in an emergency, I should have been clearer and follow a compliant form of words to avoid any misunderstanding.”

The complaint about Brine was made after messages from Brine to Gove, forwarded to Hancock, were published as part of a leak to the Telegraph of correspondence from the former health secretary during the Covid era.

The message said: “I have been trying for months to help the NHS through a company I am connected with – called ‘Remedium’. They have 50 anaesthetists right now who can be in the country and on the ground in the NHS if someone only said let’s us help. They just want to assist and asked me how they might.

“Despite offering this to health and to [the then chief of NHS England] Simon Stevens I’ve had nothing despite SS telling the press conference last week this is an acute problem, despite the PM telling the liaison committee this is his biggest problem etc etc.”

In his findings, Greenberg said: “It is disappointing that you have not been able to provide me with a detailed breakdown of the earlier approaches that you made to ministers and NHS officials, which you reference in your message to Mr Gove.

“Members working on behalf of an external employer are well advised to keep detailed records on such matters, not least so that they can be in a position to robustly defend their actions if challenged.”

During the course of the investigation, Brine also disclosed a further email he sent to Hancock in January 2021, saying: “Earlier at the liaison committee the PM said ‘we need more doctors’. He is obviously right. See below from friends of mine who I KNOW can help. They clearly have doctors right here and now who can help but they need your help. Can you help? Let me know.”

Brine was employed by Remedium as an ad hoc consultant being paid £800 a day from September 2019 to February 2020. From July 2020 he was paid £1,600 for eight hours’ work a month, which continued until the end of December 2021.

Under parliament’s rules, MPs are not allowed to lobby for any firm that pays them if it would confer “financial or material reward” on that company. It was a breach of this ban on paid lobbying that led to the resignation of the former Tory minister Owen Paterson in 2021.

Britain’s privatised water and sewage companies paid £1.4bn in dividends in 2022, up from £540mn the previous year, despite rising household bills and a wave of public criticism over sewage outflows.

Gill Plimmer www.ft.com (Extract)

The figures, based on a Financial Times analysis of the 10 largest water and sewage companies’ accounts, are higher than headline dividends in the year to end March 2022. This is because several have layered corporate structures with numerous subsidiaries, only one of which — the operating company — is regulated by Ofwat.

Maintaining dividends means less money is available from customer bills for investment in critical infrastructure such as sewage treatment and water mains.

The complex arrangements enable providers to distinguish between internal dividends — payments between intermediate holding companies in the group — and external dividends to private equity, sovereign wealth and pension funds, which own the entire water and sewage business including the holding companies….

After being sold with no debt at privatisation three decades ago, the companies have racked up borrowings of £60.6bn, according to Ofwat.

At the same time total spending on waste water infrastructure by the 10 largest companies — excluding Thames Tideway — has failed to rise significantly. Average annual wastewater investment was £295mn in the 1990s, £297mn in the 2010s and £273mn in the 2020s so far.

Now costs — including interest payments — are soaring, adding to pressure on company finances just as they face demands to ramp up investment in infrastructure…..

After being sold with no debt at privatisation three decades ago, the companies have racked up borrowings of £60.6bn, according to Ofwat.

At the same time total spending on waste water infrastructure by the 10 largest companies — excluding Thames Tideway — has failed to rise significantly. Average annual wastewater investment was £295mn in the 1990s, £297mn in the 2010s and £273mn in the 2020s so far.Now costs — including interest payments — are soaring, adding to pressure on company finances just as they face demands to ramp up investment in infrastructure…….

More than 1,000 people gathered outside Caernarfon Castle in north Wales for a rally protesting against second homes, which they say are “destroying” Welsh language strongholds.

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

Members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith (the Welsh Language Society) are calling for a new Property Act to protect communities in language heartlands such as Gwynedd in the north and Pembrokeshire in the south-west.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith argues that because so many of the places where Welsh is strong happen to be in some of the country’s most beautiful coastal and rural areas, they are magnets for second-homeowners whose arrival can hollow out Welsh-speaking communities. They say the problem increased during the pandemic when many people left cities and towns and relocated on the coast or in the country.

Ffred Ffransis, a prominent Cymdeithas yr Iaith activist, said: “This current system drives especially young people out of their communities as houses are snapped up – often online within hours – by people moving in from higher-income areas outside Wales.

“This process is destroying Welsh-speaking communities, but is also a wider issue throughout Wales as local people are forced out by commercially driven developments for commuters, people retiring, and unaffordable rents.

“Cymdeithas is calling for a Property Act, which would regulate the open market and treat housing as social assets to provide homes for people in their communities rather than the open-market system which views houses as commercial assets for profit.”

The choice of Caernarfon as the venue for the Nid yw Cymru ar Werth (Wales is not for Sale) rally during the coronation weekend was not insignificant. King Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales took place at the castle in 1969 and the rally was designed to highlight the contrast between the huge wealth of a few and the desperate need of some within Welsh-speaking communities.

Mared Llywelyn Williams, 30, a Welsh writer, said when she talked to young people on the Llŷn Peninsula in north Wales as research for a play, she was surprised how many of them expressed concern about second homes.

“It was quite scary – these were 17-year-old girls who want to live in their own communities when they’re older but they can’t. That’s heartbreaking. They felt angry and deflated.”

Dylan Lewis-Rowlands, an Aberystwyth Labour councillor, said he was worried about how high rents were. “There are places in west and north Wales where landlords control almost the whole village,” he added.

He cited the case of a nurse who worked at a hospital in mid Wales but lived in Birmingham, more than an hour’s drive away. “It’s cheaper for her to rent in Birmingham and pay the petrol. I think frustration is turning to anger.”

New measures giving councils in Wales a raft of extra powers designed to tackle the second homes problem came into force last month.

But Cymdeithas yr Iaith argues the measures do not go far enough and says a new law should place a duty on local authorities to ensure suitable housing solutions for local people within a reasonable distance and time.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We are taking radical action using the planning, property and taxation systems to achieve this, as part of a joined-up package of solutions to a complex set of issues.

“We are also committed to publishing a white paper on the potential to establish a system of fair rents as well as new approaches to make homes affordable for those on local incomes.”

An “Open Letter from the Heart”, written in Feb 2022 but only now revealed.

Independent former councillor and Environmentalist Denise Bickley, who lost her seat by just 26 votes in the Sidmouth Town ward, put these thoughts on paper in February 2022 but didn’t post it at the time.

The letter reveals what it’s really like to be a deeply caring councillor and a member of the 2020/23 Democratic Alliance. 

Denise has now posted it on her blog, though you need to go to the blog to read her personal introduction, under the heading:

A new focus

February 2022
An open letter to anybody interested [unsent unfortunately]

denisebickley.info 

In May 2019 I stood as a councillor, full of enthusiasm and naivety, wanting to make a difference for the environment in East Devon. This was on the back of gaining a voice through setting up Sidmouth Plastic Warriors. I found it odd that to get anything done I had to go to the council and get approval for things so I thought I’d try and cut out the middle man and get stuff done myself. 

I knew that the role involved other areas that were outside of my interest, but felt that as long as I came at it from speaking for the environment, everything else would work out. I aligned myself with other people who have become firm friends and I am full of admiration for the work and commitment they put in. They also ran as councillors not for any personal gain, but usually for a background story of some way that the previous administration or decisions had affected their own lives and got them interested in local politics. All are diligent in ensuring everything they do is above board, transparent and follow the 7 Nolan Principles of public life. All of us in the administration are ‘left of centre’, put people before profit, put the environment before developers and we have been busy working on a very green council plan, as befits a council in these times of climate emergency. 

Unfortunately, before coming a councillor I would probably have been much like the other residents of East Devon. Speak out on Facebook or Twitter, lump all the councils together as ‘The Council’, write off decisions taken that I didn’t like and question their motivation. Now, however, I will not do that as I know differently. I know how hard my colleagues in the Democratic Alliance, the current administration, work. I know the toll it has taken on many of them – their mental health, their home situations, their work. I know how hard so many of the employees of the council work – some seem tireless and I am so full of admiration.  

I know that, like my colleagues, I am never switched off. If I don’t keep up with my emails, I am inundated, so I feel the need to check them very regularly. Even then, I know some emails slip through the cracks unanswered, and the guilt weighs heavy. Couple this with working, running a community environment group and the small matter of having a family, and the workload is overwhelming some days. My problem I know – it was my decision – but being a councillor should be open to everybody, whatever their situation otherwise we end up with a very narrow demographic which is not great for democracy. 

I know how different councils are responsible for different things. As much as I’d like us to get rid of potholes, or replace the bus stops, or make our town pedestrian friendly for instance, I know that that is Devon County Council’s role. I know that there is not one ‘The Council’ to blame for everything, and I also know that a lot is beyond any of the local councils remit and is central government.  

I also know how short of money local councils are. District councils have statutory duties (organizing elections, planning and development management, building control, housing, homelessness prevention, environmental health, waste collection and recycling, street cleansing, food safety and water sampling, health safety and licensing, and council tax and rates collection). They also carry out discretionary services such as managing car parks, promoting economic development, culture and events, some recreation and leisure facilities, providing some grants, maintaining some parks and gardens, and public toilets. Discretionary of course means NOT statutory, but provided where possible. 

Over the last decade, the council has lost 60% of the funding it used to receive from central government. Remember that all council tax gets handed over, and we get a bit back. For every £1 of council tax you pay, EDDC get 7 pence, (7%), so from the Average Band D house of £151.78 per month, EDDC get £10.62, with just £2.76 going to waste and recycling for example. This is not a local decision – this is decided by central Government. 

So from this EDDC are meant to cover all the statutory duties, plus as many of the discretionary ones as possible. All this with going into the covid pandemic with a shortfall in the budget. 

The last thing we wanted to do was to go bankrupt, as some councils have done (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57720900). Top it off with the fact that EDDC’s council tax had been kept very low for years by the previous administration, without investment (the toilets have not been improved for years, and car parking charges have not gone up for 8 years). It would be the easiest choice to drop the discretionary services of toilets and non-profitable car parks completely. 

However, our administration dug in, worked out ways of saving the toilets plus investing in them (but making sure they were in the right place and up to the right standard). We have spent months trying to work out a system where car parks income is maximised so that we are ‘sweating our assets’ but not penalising local residents, by ensuring that a monthly payment permit will prove much more reasonable to all (and only available to EDDC council tax payers). We are confident that our beautiful towns can sustain tourist visitors at a higher rate – as we see from the privately owned car parks who already charge the higher rate at Sidmouth and have a queue. We have also kept the £2 per day charge for 5 months of the year to encourage people to our towns when footfall is lower. We have worked with officers and have had cross-party support for this.  

The weird thing is though, that I am discovering now that I am so exhausted and negative about all of it that I may just quit, is that nobody wants to know why these decisions are taken. They don’t want to know about the lack of money, or the pandemic meaning that the council has lost millions of pounds through car parking, or that toilets are not up to standard and are in the wrong places. Everybody is an expert. Everybody has an opinion. But very few people care enough to actually do something about it.
My future as a councillor is in the balance. I’m honestly not looking for reassurances from friends or anybody else (or negative comments either thanks) – this is a personal decision. I think being a councillor is like being a bar tender – it is a job that everybody should do for a while to walk in the footsteps, and get a real feel for how it works. Only then can you really know what it is like to receive hideous personal comments, rudeness, apathy, frustration that what you want to achieve is unaffordable/impossible/someone else doesn’t want it to happen so obstructs it. 

But it’s probably easier for members of the public to just carry on being negative, assume they know best, and blame councillors. 

Will Phil Skinner be made an Alderman?

Eligibility requirements for nomination are that the councillor should have served for at least eight years (two terms), not necessarily consecutively.

Nominees then need the approval of a two thirds vote from the full council.

The draft Verita report describes the nomination process within EDDC as relatively informal:

The CEO described the steps that were normally involved. He wrote: 

“The Council’s convention has been that Group leaders and/or other interested Members have put forward suggestions to the Democratic Services Manager (on behalf of the CEO) as to who could be nominated for conferment of the title of Honorary Alderman.”

“Once a Group Leader or councillor nominating an individual for the title has provided information to support their nomination, a report of all the nominations received with the evidence as to why the title should be conferred is collated and sent to all Group leaders for consideration. They will discuss all of the nominations and then convey their respective views about whether the title should be conferred or not at this point in order to reach collective agreement and the nominees are then contacted.” 

Where does that leave independents, especially those who dare to hold the council to account?

Phil Skinner is just one of more than a dozen long standing councillors who have stood down or failed to get re-elected. 

In December 2019 Conservative ex-councillor John Humphreys, was one of 11 ex-councillors to be awarded the honorary title of “Alderman”.

Following John Humphreys’ conviction for historic rape this honour was withdrawn from him in September 2021.

Owl thinks that it is  high time for this council to rethink the whole process, now that it has become debased to the detriment of genuinely deserving individuals. Shouldn’t it  be reserved for exceptional service to the community; rather than just long service by itself or some sort of consolation prize for political appointees who have no longer been selected as a candidate by their party?

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak announced “a new plan to stop scams at the source and help make it easier for people to protect themselves from fraudsters”.

Owl recalls that when Conservative Cllr Graham Brown was exposed in a Telegraph sting offering to get planning permission for cash, the case was referred to the Police by the EDDC monitoring Officer who then referred it to “Action Fraud”. 

Action Fraud eventually declared that it wasn’t a matter they dealt with. 

By the time the local Police put a “Senior Fraud Officer” on the case the trail had gone cold.

Though the story has refused to die.

This new strategy concentrates on online fraud rather than political fraud.

All a bit rich coming from the Conservatives, don’t you think? – Owl

Fraud Strategy

www.gov.uk (Extract)

This strategy sets out a plan to stop fraud at source and pursue those responsible wherever they are in the world, reducing fraud by 10% on 2019 levels by 2025.

Predatory criminals take money out of the pockets of hard working people, businesses, and organisations, callously targeting the most vulnerable, online and in their own homes. The volume and severity of fraud also undermines public confidence in the rule of law and threatens our national and economic security.

To deliver a 10% cut in fraud on 2019 levels by December 2024, the government will:

• establish a new national fraud squad with over 400 new posts and make fraud a priority for the police
• deploy the UK intelligence community and lead a new global partnership to relentlessly pursue fraudsters wherever they are in the world
• put more fraudsters behind bars through better investigation and prosecution processes for fraud and digital offences
• ban SIM farms which are used by criminals to send thousands of scam texts at once
• stop fraudsters from being able to send mass text messages by requiring mass texting services to be registered, subject to a rapid review
• Replace Action Fraud with a state-of-the-art system for victims to report fraud and cyber crimes to the police
• ban cold calls on financial products so fraudsters cannot dupe people into buying fake investments
• stop people from hiding behind fake companies and create new powers to take down fraudulent websites
• work with industry to make sure that intelligence is shared quickly with each other and law enforcement
• change the law so that more victims of fraud will get their money back
• overhaul and streamline fraud communications so that people know how to protect themselves from fraud and how to report it
• make the tech sector put in place extra protections for their customers and introduce tough penalties for those who do not
• shine a light on which platforms are the safest, making sure that companies are properly incentivised to combat fraud

The Annual Meeting is the one at which the full council elects the Chair, Vice-Chair and Leader for the coming year who will then announce Cabinet appointments.

The proposed venue is the Ocean in Exmouth which has been used for recent “in person” council meetings.

Why not use another enduring legacy, the Tory Flagship Council Office in Honiton with its narrow dysfunctional council chamber? 

Does this extract from Tim Todd’s FOI, June 2019, give us a clue?

Along with a fair number of members of the public, I attended the first council meeting under the new intake of councillors in May. Even arriving early I found that there was no room to accommodate me and a number of other members of the public, we had to use a less than satisfactory gallery with a restricted view of the participants. We also had to put up with broadcast information and missed out on all that was said when speakers forgot to use the microphones. Being quite separate from councillors and others, we were not readily able to have conversations with others on matters that may have been relevant and could have been raised by our representatives.

I gather from some in the small chamber downstairs, and from social media, that many were less than impressed and some felt the design and construction did not give due weight to public engagement in council matters in their public meetings, that the council has failed in its duty to provide adequate facilities or encourage participation.

Annual Council meeting 24 May 6.00 pm

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Ocean Suite, Ocean, Queen’s Drive, Exmouth, EX8 2AY

The First Cabinet meeting 7 June

The agenda will be displayed in the week before the meeting

Proposed venue: Council Chamber, Blackdown House, Honiton

A partially-built development of up to 40 flats in Cornwall will be demolished before it’s even completed. Work ceased at what was previously known as Trennick Villas in Truro over a year ago when contractor Midas went bust.

Lee Trewhela www.cornwalllive.com

After demolition started in 2021, the retirement living scheme, known as Lowarth Morbies, on Malpas Road was due to offer 40 “independent living one and two bedroom apartments within a community setting for people over the age of 55, available for rent and shared ownership”. Housing 21, the company behind the scheme, which overlooks the river at Malpas, says damp has got into the partially built homes meaning they will now have to come down.

Work stopped a year ago when building giant Midas went into administration. Thousands of people and businesses all over Cornwall may end up out of pocket after it was revealed that construction firm Midas left a whopping £22m debt behind after going bust.

A spokesperson for Housing 21 said: “Our development, Lowarth Morbies in Truro, has been severely delayed because the contractor we were working with went into administration. Works ceased and it has taken several months to work through the contractual position. Consequently, when work stopped, the site was open to elements which may have resulted in water ingress.”

The spokesperson added: “To ensure we have a quality building that provides much-needed and affordable accommodation for older people in this fantastic location, we have made the decision with our newly appointed contractor to take down previous works and build from foundations up.”

Due to the delays, the apartments are now expected to be completed in Spring 2025. The work was originally expected to be finished this year. Housing 21 says anyone who has expressed an interest in living at Lowarth Morbies is being kept informed of progress

The development will now have to start from scratch after water got into the partially built flats (Image: CornwallLive)

Residents of neighbouring Carew Pole Close have received letters from the demolition company, Demolition South West Ltd (DSW), informing them that the work will take place between May 9 and June 9, by order of Classic Builders. Nick Southall, contracts manager, says in the letter: “We will do our best to limit the amount of noise or disruption to you throughout our works.” Residents are asked to contact DSW’s office if they have any concerns during the demolition period.”

A neighbour of the development told CornwallLive: “At least something is actually happening. I’m sick of seeing it.” Another said online: “I live at the top of the hill past this site, it’s been derelict for a very long time. I will be really pleased if they do complete the development as it’s such a superb site for housing.”

The original Trennick Villas retirement home had been vacant for several years and was boarded up to stop people breaking in and causing damage. In August 2020, a large part of the building was extensively damaged in an all-night blaze which saw eight fire engines from Truro and surrounding towns called to the scene.

In 2018, Housing 21 announced plans to refurbish the site and, after several attempts, was granted planning permission for the apartment development. However, work came to a halt in March 2022 after Midas went bust the month before.

Is that £84,000 salary not enough? Details made public this week have revealed just how much money Jacob Rees-Mogg has made from presenting shows on GB News – and the bank-busting figure is causing outrage online.

Tom Head www.thelondoneconomic.com

How much money does Jacob Rees-Mogg make from GB News?

According to the financial documents, the MP for North Somerset is currently raking in £32,083 PER MONTH from the fledgling broadcaster. That makes his hourly rate a rather healthy £802, and puts him on course for extra annual earnings of roughly £385,000.

Rees-Mogg is a senior stalwart of the Conservative Party, and he’s become a divisive figure in British politics. Critics have accused him of ‘being out of touch with the public’, over comments he has made about dealing with the cost of living crisis.

Who’s paying Jacob Rees-Mogg £800 an hour?

Given that most of us can’t just stroll onto the set of GB News and spout whatever we like, his methods of building-up the bank balance certainly differ from ours. The channel itself is largely funded by a Dubai-based investment firm.

Local Elections 2023: Critics revel in Tory turmoil

With Mr. Rees-Mogg currently projected to lose his seat as an MP at next year’s General Election, perhaps it is rather astute of him to already have a Plan B in place. In fact, if his local council results are anything to go by this week, a career change could occur sooner rather than later.

The constituents of North Somerset and Bath shunned the Tories, who failed to make any significant gains in a stronghold territory. They retained 13 councillors out of a possible 50, with Labour and the Greens substantially increasing their number of local representatives.

Carol Vorderman has essentially done a ‘Reverse Rees-Mogg’ over the past few years, and the TV presenter-turned-political-activist was overjoyed with these results. She says that the Conservatives have been the architects of their own downfall.

“Looks like Jacob Rees Mogg won’t be around after the next General Election. The Nasty Conservative Party vote has TANKED. This is because they try to put us down by bullying, mocking, and stealing. Think again.” | Carol Vorderman

The local election bell has sounded

Cabinet ministers will be “looking nervously over their shoulders” after Labour and the Liberal Democrats made huge gains in the local elections, according to a Lib Dem source.

Archie Mitchell www.independent.co.uk

The Lib Dems scored a significant win in levelling-up secretary Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency, taking control of the council from the Conservatives.

The party declared it a “Michael Portillo” moment, in reference to the former cabinet minister who lost his Enfield Southgate seat during the 1997 general election. Mr Portillo’s defeat was seen as a pivotal result and an indication that New Labour would win the election by a landslide.

And deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden’s Hertsmere constituency, where he has a 21,313 majority, also fell victim to Labour and the Lib Dems. The Conservatives lost control of the council for the first time since 1999, with Labour and the Lib Dems picking up 13 seats between them.

Other senior Tories who came under pressure included former prime minister Theresa May, whose constituency of Maidenhead in Berkshire is covered by Windsor and Maidenhead council, where the Conservatives suffered heavy losses.

The Liberal Democrats took control of the council for the first time in 16 years, gaining 13 seats while the Tories lost 16.

In chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s South West Surrey constituency, the Lib Dems gained five seats, Labour picked up two, and the Conservatives lost eight.

And in a further sign of trouble brewing in the so-called blue wall of solidly Tory-backing areas, the Conservatives lost eight seats in Bath and North East Somerset, where former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg is the local MP.

The Lib Dems claimed to be ahead on vote share in North East Somerset, with 39.5 per cent, compared with the Tories on 26.3 per cent.

Other top Tories who saw their party lose control of councils in their constituencies include former party chair Nadhim Zahawi and justice secretary Robert Buckland.

And the Lib Dems gained six seats while the Tories lost four in Elmbridge, which is in former deputy PM Dominic Raab’s constituency.

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Conservative MPs across the blue wall will be petrified at these results,” while a party source added: “Senior Conservative ministers are now looking nervously over their shoulders at the Lib Dems.”

Rishi Sunak came under pressure from senior Conservatives to deliver on his flagship pledges after his own party chair described the disastrous local election results as a “wake-up call”.

The prime minister was dealt a major blow in his first election test as the Tories lost dozens of councils to Labour and the Lib Dems, leading to comparisons with the dire days of the mid-1990s.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the results mean Labour is on course for a majority government at the next general election.

The Conservatives lost more than 1,000 seats in total, exceeding even the most pessimistic forecasts for the party. And Labour is now the biggest party in local government, having gained more than 500 seats.

Cathy Gardner vindicated once again – Owl

Distress and heartbreak for millions could have been avoided if the government had not missed opportunities to prepare social care for a pandemic, according to a big investigation into how the first wave of Covid hit care homes.

Robert Booth www.theguardian.com 

A review of events in spring 2020, when almost 20,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales, found it was the result of “letting one of our most important public services languish in constant crisis for years”.

A two-year study by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank and the London School of Economics found successive governments failed to respond to risks already exposed by cross-government pandemic planning exercises, didn’t have enough civil servants working on social care, and failed to appreciate the sector’s fragility when sending patients into ill-prepared care homes.

The study is the latest independent assessment to undermine the claim by the former health secretary, Matt Hancock, to have thrown “a protective ring around social care”. It comes before the Covid-19 public inquiry’s investigation into the care sector, the timing of which has yet to be announced.

One social care representative told the study about a meeting hosted by the then prime minister Boris Johnson and Hancock in February 2020 at which “[we] … could not get air time for social care’s issues” unless it was about the NHS’s requirements.

Natasha Curry, deputy director of policy at the Nuffield Trust, said: “Those early months exposed … weaknesses within social care that impacted the shape, speed and effectiveness of the response. Many of these difficult challenges could have been eased had warnings been heeded. Governments of all hues have failed to make social care and those who need it a priority.”

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the report showed “our loved ones might still be with us if care homes had been properly prepared for and protected during the pandemic”.

The study found:

• The government excluded social care from pandemic-planning exercises such as Exercise Alice and after problems were identified by Exercise Cygnus, which did include the sector, action was not taken.
• Social care leaders felt invisible at the start of the pandemic because there had been no dedicated director general for social care in government since 2016.
• No adult social care representatives sat on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and people leading the UK pandemic response lacked “deep understanding” of social care.

“Had the sector had the tools it needed then some of the confusion and delays that led to so much distress and heartbreak that millions of people faced could have been avoided,” said Curry. “Despite the pain endured during the pandemic, we now have the ominous sight of reforms being yet again delayed.”

The analysis was part-funded by the UK government, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research. No officials at the Department of Health and Social Care agreed to be interviewed.

“The social care sector was underresourced for years and … my mum, who had worked her whole life, needed help but was left with a system woefully unprepared to protect her,” said Deborah Doyle, a spokesperson for the Covid bereaved families group whose mother, Sylvia Griffiths, died in a care home in April 2020. “We cannot allow horrific scenes like this to happen again, and we don’t have time to wait.”

Adelina Comas-Herrera, an academic at the LSE and a report co-author, said: “The evidence suggests that some countries were able to cope better than others. We are seeing how countries such as Ireland, Finland and Spain are using lessons from the pandemic to reform their care systems. Our research shows that social care in England needs a system-wide reform.”

The care minister, Helen Whately said: “During the pandemic we supported social care with £2.9bn in specific Covid funding, sent out more than 230m Covid tests to care homes and prioritised social care for Covid vaccinations. We are committed to learning lessons from the pandemic and are investing up to £7.5bn over the next two years to put social care on a stronger financial footing, help reduce waiting lists and alleviate workforce pressures.”

Here is a summary of the local election results in the rest of Devon (Plymouth and Exeter already reported)

• Mid Devon District Council (whole council)

The Liberal Democrats have won control of Mid Devon, in a big boost to local Lib Dem MP and by-election winner Richard Foord.

From Devon to Dacorum and Stratford to Surrey, Lib Dems say they are winning big right across the country.

• North Devon Council (whole council)

The Liberal Democrats have expanded their control of North Devon Council, now holding 23 of the 42 seats, having won one extra member.

The Greens also made a gain, moving from two to three seats, with the Conservatives losing one seat and dropping down to seven, while there are now nine Independents, down from 10.

• South Hams District Council (whole council)

The Liberal Democrats have gained enough seats to take overall control of South Hams District Council.

• Teignbridge (whole council)

The Liberal Democrats gained in Teignbridge and so now have overall control of the council. Before the election, no party had overall control.

• Torbay (whole council)

The Conservative Party have won enough seats to gain a majority in Torbay.

• Torridge (whole council)

Independent candidates won the most seats in Torridge, taking 16 of 36 available. The Liberal Democrats took eight seats, followed by the Conservatives with six, but no party has overall control.

• West Devon (whole council)

The election results in West Devon mean no one party has overall control of the council. The Conservative Party previously had the majority.

But which is which?

The Lib Dems have now just pipped the Conservatives to the post to become the largest party, ousting, along the way, Tory group leader Phil Skinner.

Despite the spin, see below, from Simon Jupp and yesterday’s man Phil Skinner, this is the third electoral cycle in a row in which the local Tories have lost ground. In 2011 the Tory councillors numbered 43 (in a council of 59). In 2015 this had fallen to 36. In 2019 (when the council was enlarged to 60) it had fallen further to 19, though they picked up three wards in by-elections. Now in 2023 they have fallen back to 17.

The council is now split three ways: Independents, Lib Dems and Tory.

[Independents 19, Lib Dem 18 there is now also 1 Liberal, Conservatives 17, Labour 3, Greens 2]  Full results here

Worth mentioning that the three Independents running on a combined ticket in Axminster: Paul Hayward, Deputy former Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder Economy and Assets; and Sarah Jackson, former  Portfolio Holder Democracy, Transparency and Communications plus their like minded running mate Simon Smith; swept the board ousting two Tories. Sarah was a lone Independent in the Ward

Many of the Independents (see above) and the greens were part of the outgoing inclusive coalition. Owl hopes that this “rainbow” coalition will continue, no doubt intensive negotiations are taking place.

Questions: will the Tories now take stock of their failed vested interest policies? 

Who will now become Blue Leader given that nine of the old stagers “retired”? Those left include: Helen Parr  and Ben Ingham ? – Owl.

Local elections 2023: Lib Dems make gains as East Devon stays hung

www.bbc.co.uk

East Devon District Council remains under no overall control, with the Lib Dems making the biggest election gains.

The party gained 11 seats, with 18 overall, including former council leader Paul Arnott’s re-election to Colley Valley. [Fact check – Owl thinks the Lib Dem total is 19 – there are 60 councillors in total]

The Independents lost eight, making their total 19, while the Conservatives won 17, conceding five, Labour won three and the Greens two.

It is likely the Democratic Alliance, a cross-party group, will retain control.

Mr Arnott, leader of the last administration, has been re-elected as a Liberal Democrat, having been elected as an Independent in 2019.

He said the result was “indicative that the Lib Dems are really bedding in now in East Devon and it promises a lot more to come”.

Violet Bonetta, one of Labour’s three winning candidates, became the youngest-ever councillor in East Devon at the age of 18, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Ms Bonetta said she wanted to encourage more young people into politics.

“This is the first election I’ve been involved in, let alone run for an election, so I would encourage anyone thinking about running as a councillor to go for it,” she said.

Philip Skinner, the former Conservative group leader on the council, was ousted from his seat by Liberal Democrat Richard Jefferies by a couple of hundred votes.

Mr Skinner told the BBC he was “really surprised” by the outcome and hoped it was a “bump in the road” for the Tories.

Simon Jupp, Conservative MP for East Devon, said he was “disappointed” in the net loss of five councillors but that gains in Sidmouth and Exmouth were “positive”.

East Devon District Council results May 2023 – Declaration of results for East Devon District Council Tale Vale ward 4 May 2023 – East Devon

eastdevon.gov.uk 

25. Declaration of results for East Devon District Council Tale Vale ward 4 May 2023

Tale Vale

Electorate: 2174
Ballot Papers Issued: 1050
Rejected Ballot Papers: 2
Turnout: 48.3%

Jake Bonetta (Labour) who switched from defending his seat on East Devon, fails to oust Tories in St Loye’s

Labour is still the dominant force on Exeter City Council but experienced a mixed night in the local elections.

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

For the second year running, it gained a second seat in the former Tory stronghold of Topsham, but lost a seat in St Thomas to former Lib Dem council leader Adrian Fullam.

Meanwhile, in the only other seat to change hands, the Greens won in Newtown and St Leonard’s, which had previously been occupied by an Independent who didn’t seek re-election.

Only a third of the 39-seat council was up for election – in line with the usual cycle.

Labour still holds 25 seats, the same as before the election, although its tally is one down on the 2022 election result due to one of its councillors then becoming an independent.

The Greens are up one to six councillors – now the largest outright opposition party on the council – but they are expected to continue working with the Liberal Democrats as part of the ‘Progressive Group’.

Meanwhile, it was another poor night in Exeter for the Conservatives, who now have just four councillors after losing another in Topsham. However, the party successfully fought off a strong Labour challenge to retain St Loye’s.

And after gaining a seat in St Thomas and defending their existing one in Duryard & St James, the Liberal Democrats now have three councillors.

FULL RESULTS

ALPHINGTON

Yvonne Atkinson (Labour): 1,187 – HOLD

John Bowman (Green): 306
Jamie Horner (Liberal Democrat): 150
Katherine New (Conservatives): 653

DURYARD AND ST JAMES

David Blagden (Labour): 791

Simon Egan (Green): 278
Harry Johnson-Hill (Conservatives): 213
Michael Mitchell (Liberal Democrat): 938 – HOLD

EXWICK

Joanne Giencke (Liberal Democrats): 117
Kayleigh Luscombe (Conservatives): 333
Susannah Patrick (Labour): 1,145 – HOLD
Frankie Rufolo (Independent): 263
Mark Shorto (Green): 268

HEAVITREE

Carol Bennett (Green): 1,308 – HOLD
Alfie Carlisle (Conservatives): 278
Lucy Haigh (Independent): 301
Gemma Rolstone (Labour): 1,020
Rod Ruffle (Liberal Democrat): 100

MINCINGLAKE AND WHIPTON

David Luscombe (Conservatives): 352
Mike Payne (Liberal Democrat): 184
Alex Stephan (Green): 198
Ruth Williams (Labour): 1,191 – HOLD

NEWTOWN AND ST LEONARD’S

Julian Gallie (Conservaties): 213
Andy Ketchin (Green): 1,373 – GAIN FROM IND
Vanessa Newcombe (Liberal Democrat): 104
Carol Whitton (Labour): 1,035

PENNSYLVANIA

Will Aczel (Liberal Democrats): 199
Robert Sheridan (Conservatives): 423
Martyn Snow (Labour): 1,194 – HOLD
Lizzie Woodman (Green): 882

PINHOE

Rory Jack Clark (Liberal Democrat): 183
Ann Barbara Keen (Green): 227
Cynthia Thompson (Conservatives): 778
Mollie Miller (Labour): 1,251 – HOLD

PRIORY

Jane Begley (Labour): 1,062 – HOLD
Ben Hawkes (Conservatives): 469
Joel Stobart (Green): 278
Philip Thomas (Liberal Democrat): 237

ST DAVID’S

George Baker (Conservatives): 230
Diana Moore (Green): 1,322 – HOLD
Andrew Soper (Liberal Democrats): 85
Ellen Miriam Stuart (Labour): 752

ST LOYE’S

Jake Bonetta (Labour): 980
Phil Brock (Liberal Democrat): 164
Alison Sheridan (Conservatives): 1,127 – HOLD
Jack Vickers (Green): 189

ST THOMAS

Ashley Carr (Conservatives): 167
Deborah Darling (Labour): 1,109
Adrian Fullam (Liberal Democrats): 1,217 – GAIN FROM LAB
Natasha Jane Hannaford (Reform UK): 57
Johanna Korndorfer (Green): 210

TOPSHAM

Christine Campion (Liberal Democrat): 230
Jonathan Mills (Green): 259
Rob Newby (Conservatives): 1,098
Matthew Williams (Labour): 1,394 – GAIN FROM CON
 

Labour have taken control of Plymouth council – weeks after a “massacre” where 110 mature trees were felled under the cover of darkness as part of a regeneration project.

Are we surprised? – Owl

Chay Quinn www.lbc.co.uk 

Labour won 15 of the 19 seats being contested – to take full majority control of the local authority which was under No Overall Control.

A fortnight ago, Plymouth City Council contractors felled more than 100 trees in the city centre before a court injunction won by protesters forced them to stop.

Former council head Richard Bingley sparked outrage when he ordered the felling of 110 healthy trees in Plymouth city centre last week.

He ordered over 100 trees to be chopped down in the middle of the night to make way for a £12.7 million redevelopment project.

He was set to face a vote of no-confidence by the opposition Green party over the incident after swathes of criticism, but announced his resignation before the vote was brought.

In his resignation speech, he said: “I’ve always said I’m not a full-time politician, I don’t seek to be, I’m just an individual who is passionate and ambitious for Plymouth.

“If others feel they can run our glorious Ocean City better, then that’s great with me. ‘Over to you’, I say.”

Nick Ferrari called out the council at the time for lying, stating there is “no defence” for the decision.

Nick said: “You’ve got men and women climbing ladders, using chainsaws and those giant chipping machines, and you do it in darkness, at night because of ‘safety concerns’.

“What a load of cobblers! What a blatant lie by Plymouth City Council. How many times have you walked down the street… where a certain area is taped off because they’re bringing trees down? It happens all the time.

“This was so there was no way that the people could stop it because this council knew that it was wrong. I hope every councillor who voted in favour of this is kicked out on their well-remunerated backside. There is no defence!”

Nick continued his rant: “Trees that have been there since the 1960s felled at night because of the fury of local residents… and mostly for cyclists. What is it with cyclists? Dear God, they’ve taken most of our roads now, they’ve got some of our pavements, now we’ve got to chop down trees to support these people.”

The trees are being cut down in Plymouth city centre as part of a regeneration scheme that would see the planting of 169 new semi-mature trees, the local authority has said.

Later, Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, a caller, Mick in Titchfield said that the report made his “stomach churn”, arguing that the council’s decision was “absolutely disgusting”.

Another caller, Richard in Marlborough, branded the move a “typical bureaucratic nightmare run by a bunch of little Hitlers”.

He went on to say, “It’s appalling what they’ve done in Plymouth”.