The leadership of Plymouth City Council is coming under increasing pressure after instructing contractors to fell more than a hundred trees in Armada Way.

Environmentalist Chris Packham branded it “despicable vandalism.”

Paul Nero www.radioexe.co.uk

Council leader Richard Bingley issued an ‘executive order’ with little publicity on Tuesday, not long after a public consultation over the controversial plans ended.

The council wants to regenerate the city centre and plans to replace the felled trees with new semi-mature ones. Pit is spending £12.7 million to revamp Armada Way, with some of the money coming from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund for walking and cycling.

Last month, a protest group called Save the Trees of Armada Way, or Straw, got a stay of execution, but soon after that ended, the felling began. Security guards blocked off the highway once darkness fell, and the chainsaws went into action.

The council says it was best to chop the trees down at night for health and safety reasons. 

Save the Trees got a High Court injunction, which was served on contractors at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but only 15 trees were saved.

At 1am the local campaign to save the trees, Straw, obtained an injunction that halted the felling and saved 15 trees. They vow to continue their fight.

Alison White, of Straw said the council has “needlessly chopped down healthy mature trees. The people of Plymouth could not have made their views clearer that they were against this. It is a disgrace.”

Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: “It’s a scene of environmental devastation and utter council vandalism.

“I’m appalled at the actions of the Tory council. Sad day for our city.”

The Woodland Trust said it was “appalled” at the use of “secretive night-time operations”. “We hoped after direct conversations with Plymouth City Council that a far higher proportion of trees could have been retained,” they said.

Two local authorities have been put into special measures after struggling to recover from the bad investments and governance failings that pushed them into effective bankruptcy.

Patrick Butler www.theguardian.com

The London borough of Croydon and Thurrock borough council in Essex have been told that government-appointed managers will take over the day-to-day running of operations, including overseeing all major financial and senior staffing decisions.

The local government minister, Lee Rowley, also raised concerns about the post-bankruptcy progress of a third council, Slough, which he said showed “an unacceptable lack of urgency and focus … to resolve the situation it has placed itself in”.

The stepping up of government intervention at Thurrock and Croydon takes place against a backdrop of wider financial fragility in local authorities in England, which are desperately cutting services while putting up council tax and parking fees in an effort to remain financially solvent. About 12 councils are thought to be on the edge of effective bankruptcy.

Although Croydon and Thurrock were already being partially overseen by independent commissioners, ministers have been frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of recovery. The councils must make huge cuts to services and sell off assets to help bridge financial deficits running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Croydon and Thurrock have set record council tax bills from April, putting them up by 15% and 10% respectively at a time when the typical council tax uprating in England for a council of their size is 5%.

The Tory-run Thurrock council declared effective bankruptcy just before Christmas after running up an unprecedented deficit when a series of risky investments in solar farms and other businesses turned sour. The resulting £500m hole in its finances is one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government.

An interim report from inspectors identified a range of serious shortcomings in the management and governance of Thurrock. It criticised the council’s leadership for “unconscious incompetence” – a state brought on by endemic complacency, secrecy and a failure to properly scrutinise decisions.

Thurrock has a financial deficit this year of £470m, a long-term structural shortfall of £184m and debts of £1.3bn. As a consequence, the inspectors said the council was “equipped to do little more than a minimum level of [service] provision for the foreseeable future, if indeed they can continue [to provide services] at all”.

A final inspectors’ report on Thurrock was delayed after commissioners said they needed more time to unravel the scale of the corporate and financial failure. It is expected to be published imminently.

Devon County Council may cut £1.5 million

Rob Kershaw, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Councillors in North Devon have criticised plans to withdraw the homelessness prevention fund. Devon County Council recently confirmed that it is considering stopping its £1.5 million a year grant to district councils in the county as it can no longer afford it.

The council is currently consulting the public about the proposed service cut, which coincides with a recent increase in council tax.
The money goes towards housing rough sleepers at managed living hostels. Around 250 people currently benefit from it at any given time.

Over 100 more people receive support from Sanctuary Supported Living’s countywide ‘floating’ service. Just under three quarters of a million pounds from that scheme helps households avoid homelessness.

Devon County Council gives £112,000 of the grant to North Devon District Council to house people at The Maples hostel in Barnstaple, which has nine beds. North Devon Councils’ response to the consultation will ask the county authority to continue paying the grant.

Liberal Democrat council leader, Cllr David Worden, representing South Molton, is concerned. “This is something that will come back on us if it is actually closed,” he said at a full council meeting.

We need to actually get them [Devon County Council] to understand that this is a service that really needs to continue. Vulnerable people will be suffering as a result of this, and this council will have to try and pick up the pieces.”

Cllr Worden’s Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Helen Walker (Bickington) said the subsequent loss of drugs and alcohol specialists would be “disastrous,” while Green Party Cllr Netti Pearson (Ilfracombe) urged her colleagues to respond to the consultation to try to protect the service.

Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Exmouth is a large sandy resort beach at the mouth of the River Exe backed by a promenade and the town. A memento of its Victorian heyday fine gardens and parks also back the beach. There is a sewer overflow discharging through an outfall to the south east which may affect bathing water quality especially after heavy rainfall. Exmouth

Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Remember Jupp just over two weeks ago: 

….In recent years, a spotlight has been shone on storm overflows and CSOs. Water tourism is booming across our region, including windsurfing in places such as Exmouth and Sidmouth in my constituency. However, there is another reason why people have finally started talking about the issue: the Conservative Government have put in place a plan to improve our water, giving us all an opportunity to hold water companies to account.

!……Of course, in a perfect world, we would stop sewage spills completely and immediately. Sadly, that is virtually impossible in the short term; because of the pressure on our water infrastructure, we would risk the collapse of the entire water network, and the eye-watering costs involved mean we would need not just a magic money tree, but a whole forest.

Will it ever start again?

Cornwall Council has invested more than £10million into Spaceport Cornwall. 

Richard Whitehouse, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council have said that they want to “grow the space cluster” in Cornwall despite its main operator Virgin Orbit announcing it was pausing all activity. The US firm announced this morning that it was stopping all activity and that almost all staff would be on furlough as it tries to secure new investment.

The announcement comes just weeks after Virgin Orbit undertook its first launch from Spaceport Cornwall which ended in failure following an anomaly with the rocket which was set to launch small satellites into space. Virgin Orbit is a key partner with Spaceport Cornwall and currently the only company which has launch capability.

In its statement today Virgin Orbit said: “Virgin Orbit is initiating a company-wide operational pause, effective March 16, 2023, and anticipates providing an update on go-forward operations in the coming weeks.”

There were concerns about what January’s failed mission could mean for Spaceport Cornwall and Virgin Orbit has been reported as saying that it was unlikely to attempt another launch this year. It had originally been expected that the company would carry out several launches a year from Cornwall.

Spaceport Cornwall is a horizontal launch site which is suited to Virgin Orbit’s system which uses a modified jumbo jet with a rocket launcher system attached under a wing which is capable of launching satellites into orbit. The plane can take off from Cornwall and then deploy the rocket whilst in flight.

The site at Newquay is the only spaceport in the UK which has a licence, although a vertical launch spaceport is currently being developed at a site in Scotland. It is expected to have its first launch by the end of 2023.

Cornwall Council has invested more than £10million into Spaceport Cornwall and claimed that the venture will result in hundreds of new jobs and attract businesses in the space industry to Cornwall. There are already many companies in the Duchy which have links to the space industry including Goonhilly Earth Station.

Both Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council issued identical statements in response to today’s announcements from Virgin Orbit. Cornwall councillor Louis Gardner, Cabinet member for the economy, said: “It is clearly a difficult time for the Virgin Orbit team as they navigate the next stage of their company, and we will await further information from them as events unfold. 

“Our focus at Spaceport Cornwall is to continue to grow the space cluster in Cornwall, alongside progressing relationships with spaceflight operators. We remain the only licensed spaceport in the UK and our plan is to build on that position.”

Letter to the Independent 16 March

The Independent’s editorial on Jeremy Hunt and the £1bn apprenticeship rip-off was a fascinating read. Hunt must have noticed it, and if he does not it will reflect badly on him and his government. The question as to why we are funding “apprentice” courses for top executives on £100k a year is not difficult to answer.

It is the product of the Tory view that the public purse is their pork barrel. The notion that funding the MBA of an active employee on a six-figure salary, plus benefits no doubt, is equivalent to a young person learning a skill for life from an employer at what is frequently a low wage is an absurdity. And they are funded in mutual competition from the same pot!?

Like the needs of the Tory party and the needs of society, they are poles apart. It is ironic that Tory governments, while dipping their oversize and grasping mitts into public funds, simultaneously maintain the tax havens and trust arrangements that ensure supporters and funders do not contribute their fair share of tax to the public resources they consistently plunder.

We are still involved in the painfully slow process of assessing the PPE contract fiasco, another product of their greedy “fill your boots” philosophy. Hunt must act now; if he does not he underscores yet another Tory failure. We can safely assume that he will not deal with tax havens.

David Nelmes

Newport

Budget plans to encourage people back to work will have limited impact and cost £70,000 a job, a think tank says.

Value for money? – Owl

By Daniel Thomas, Kevin Peachey & Lucy Hooker www.bbc.co.uk

The changes are expected to bring 110,000 back to work, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies said was “just a fraction” of the those who’d left work over the past two years.

The government will spend billions to boost labour supply via tax breaks on pensions and expanded free childcare.

It said the plans would help to grow the economy and raise living standards.

Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said the government’s forecaster had calculated the overall plan to boost workforce numbers will cost around £7bn a year and increase employment by around 110,000.

“That’s a cost of nearly £70,000 per job,” he says.

While the chancellor “might have some success” it was likely to be modest given the large number of people “lost from the workforce in the last couple of years”, he added.

UK economic growth has flatlined in recent months and the economy is expected to shrink his year. About a quarter of people of working-age – around 10 million people – do not have jobs.

Persuading workers to work for longer is part of UK plans to boost growth, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Wednesday announcement on tax and spending being dubbed the “Back to work Budget”.

Mr Johnson said the impact of annual net immigration numbers – assumed at 245,000 – would be far more significant for boosting employment.

The government said its independent finances watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had revised its outlook for economic growth upwards “by the largest amount ever in their forecasts” as a result of the Budget’s measures.

A spokesman added: “[The OBR] also says extending 30 hours of free childcare to parents of nine months to two year olds… will lead to many more increasing their hours – helping to grow the economy and raise living standards for everyone.”

The Budget also included measures to support disabled people who want to work, programmes to encourage retirees to take on jobs or apprenticeships, and changes to the rules around health-related benefits and universal credit.

On Wednesday, the OBR, noted that the impact of the back to work policies was uncertain, saying the final figure for the number of extra people in work could be half (or double) the main estimate of 110,000 workers.

That could, in turn, double or halve the cost-per-worker of the policy.

The OBR further estimate that extra workers will boost the size of the economy by 0.2% – equivalent to about £4.5bn, some of which the government will get back in extra taxes and a smaller benefits bill.

The UK government ignored scientific warnings from Natural England that its nature restoration target was inadequate and would not meet its commitments, new documents show, undermining efforts to protect threatened species.

Patrick Greenfield www.theguardian.com 

In December the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, unveiled targets at the biodiversity Cop15 in Canada to reverse the decline of nature in England. They included plans to improve the quality of marine protected areas, reduce pollution and nitrogen runoff in the river system, and restore more than half a million hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside protected areas by 2042.

But documents obtained by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, show that the government’s own adviser Natural England said ministers needed to agree a target of restoring 1.5m hectares of habitat outside existing protected sites, three times greater than the final target, if they wanted to meet a commitment to protect 30% of land and sea. They went on to suggest a minimum target of 750,000 hectares.

UK negotiators played a leading role in pushing for a global target to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, known as 30×30, but conservationists say that documents, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, show the government ignored scientific advice on how to achieve it domestically while advocating for it elsewhere.

At Cop15, the UK was accused of hypocrisy for not making the 30% target legally binding while pushing for it in the final text, which conservationists said was a missed opportunity to protect and restore Britain’s rainforests, cold water coral reefs, chalk streams and peat bogs.

“We all found absolutely extraordinary last year when the government didn’t put forward a target for protected areas. It was completely bizarre that the UK government went to Montreal enthusiastic about 30×30 but not having a target at home. Now it’s absolutely clear from this document that in doing so, they were also ignoring or dismissing their own scientific advisers,” said Craig Bennett, the CEO of the Wildlife Trusts.

“The government’s out of touch with the public. Britain is a country of nature lovers. We get inspired on a Sunday night by watching that latest David Attenborough series. And yet, we see the government not doing anything like enough [on nature],” he said.

The shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said the Environment Act targets were insufficient and said if elected, his party would have an ambitious plan to restore nature in the UK.

“The fact that the government ignored its own statutory adviser when producing its insufficient and delayed Environment Act targets tells you all you need to know about the Tories’ attitude to our environment. The environment secretary’s targets inflict more toxic air and sewage dumping for longer on the country. It’s clear that the Tory party has given up on governing.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “We have full confidence in our Environment Act targets, which were established through intensive consultation with businesses, land managers, environmental organisations, including Natural England.

“The final suite of targets – including our commitment to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats by 2042 – are stretching and will require a shared endeavour to be delivered. Through the Environment Act we have ensured a robust legal framework to hold current and future governments to account on these targets, protecting nature for generations to come.”

The Environment Agency will push for a higher pay rise for staff this year, the agency’s chief has said, as he told MPs it was “wrong” that some are using food banks or having to leave the organisation because their pay is too low.

By Tevye Markson www.civilserviceworld.com 

Outgoing Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan told MPs yesterday the department is looking into whether it can make a pay business case to the Treasury, whereby it would offer “transformations” in exchange for higher-than-average pay awards.

“We have not been able to pay our staff, for a decade or so, pay that reflects the increase in the cost of living,” Bevan told the Treasury Committee this morning.

“The net effect of that has been that people are significantly poorer than they were and… some people can no longer afford to work for us.

“So people have left us over the last year to two, almost always saying ‘I really don’t want to leave but I can’t afford to work for you’. And I think that’s wrong.”

He added: “People work for us because they want to create a better place. That’s fantastic, but sometimes they want to buy a house or they want to put food on the table, and they’re being forced to choose to go elsewhere.”

Bevan warned last year that the government’s 2022-23 pay offer of 2% – plus a £345 performance-related bonus – was “unjust, unwise, and unfair” amid the cost-of-living-crisis. He said his staff were “experiencing real hardship” as inflation soared, and some were using foodbanks, in a letter to the then-environment secretary George Eustice.

Overall, Environment Agency wages there have fallen by more than 20% in real-terms since 2010, according to the Prospect and Unite unions. Members have walked out in the last few months over the pay concerns. 

Bevan told the Treasury Committee that pay erosion is not only bad for staff, but also “bad for the country” because of the benefits and outcomes these staff are delivering.

The departing chief, who confirmed some staff are still using food banks, said “extensive” discussions with the government and unions about the issue had led to the decison to seek an abover-average pay award this year.

‘We’re doing well despite the challenges’

Despite the pay issues, Bevan, who is leaving the Environment Agency at the end of the month, said the organisation has begun to overcome some of its recruitment challenges.

Prospect warned last year that the organisation was struggling with “severe recruitment difficulties” for some roles because of poor pay and record turnover levels.

“We have been running very high vacancy levels,” Bevan admitted.

“A year or so ago, we were running a 10% average vacancy level across the organisation, and in some of our most skilled and technical qualified jobs like electrical engineering it was a 50% vacancy rate and that was starting to have an effect on our ability to operate the things we do.”

The Environment Agency’s workforce has increased from roughly 10,500 to around 12,250, the organisation’s chairman Alan Lovell confirmed to the committee.

However, the new recruits’ backgrounds mean difficulties remain in delivering the organisation’s objectives.

“These tend to be younger people or people coming in from different industries and they need training and capacity building and that takes time,” he said. 

“So even though we are more or less back to the headcount we wish to be, we are not able to deliver all the outcomes to the extent that we would want.”

Bevan said the Environment Agency is also doing well at motivating staff “despite the challenges”.

“I know that because I’ve just seen the results of our latest staff survey and that is showing an increase in motivation, [which was] already high but it’s higher,” the chief exec said. 

Bevan said the Environment Agency is able to keep attracting people due to the “astonishing work” on offer – “the chance to make the world a better place, people really will get out of bed for that” – as well as the opportunity to work with “astonishing colleagues”.

“It is a fantastic place to work,” Bevan said. 

He said two kinds of people have joined in the last year: twenty-somethings in their first “real” job who are “delighted to be in an organisation that is full of such great people who are committed to creating a better place”; and people with an existing career – such as police chiefs and senior NHS staff – who want their employer to reflect their values and treat them well.

Another key attraction is flexible working, which has “improved productivity not harmed it”, Bevan said, echoing comments by Disclosure and Barring Service chief executive Eric Robinson that hybrid working had had a “significant positive effect”.

“There will be never be a situation when the EA – or, frankly, most other public sector organisations – will be able to pay top dollar compared with the private sector so we do have to find alternative solutions,” Bevan said.

“Though that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t get a decent wage in the public sector,” he adds. 

The UK remains on track for a “disastrous decade” of stagnant incomes and high taxes, despite cuts to public services, the Resolution Foundation has said in its analysis of the budget on Wednesday.

Phillip Inman www.theguardian.com 

The thinktank, whose stated aim is to improve the standard of living for low- and middle-income families, said typical household disposable incomes were on course to be lower by the end of the forecast period in 2027-28 than they were before the pandemic, when inflation was taken into account.

While the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, had announced an “impressively broad suite of policies” to encourage more people into work, he was unable to change the course of declining living standards, the foundation said.

“Britain’s economy remains stuck in a deep funk – with people supported into work but getting poorer, and paying more tax but seeing public services cut,” the report said.

The UK is forecast to have gone through “the biggest energy and inflation shock since the 1970s, while avoiding a recession, with unemployment peaking at just 4.4%”, it added.

The thinktank said taxes as a share of gross national product were on track to hit 37.7% by the end of the forecast, a 70-year high and a 4.7 percentage point increase since 2019-20, the equivalent to nearly an extra £4,200 for every UK household.

Workers also face paying more to the Treasury because personal tax thresholds have been frozen instead of rising with inflation, meaning wage growth pushes more people into higher rate bands – a phenomenon known as “fiscal drag”.

The Treasury’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said wages growth over the next five years would force 3.2 million people to pay tax for the first time, put 2.1 million into the higher-rate tax band, and add 350,000 additional-rate taxpayers.

The extra amount paid will rise steadily until 2027-28, by which point the government will be earning £29.3bn a year more in extra income tax.

The rise in taxes will still leave the chancellor with little room for manoeuvre at the end of the OBR’s five-year forecast period, mainly because a short-term lift in GDP growth will fade, leaving the overall tax rate lower.

“If even the slow growth of the past decade had continued, incomes would still be £1,800 higher than currently projected for 2027-28,” the Resolution Foundation said.

It described Hunt’s move to abolish the lifetime limit on tax-free pension savings as a very large boost to the wealthy – saving someone with a £2m pension pot almost £250,000 in tax.

The government argues the move, along with the increase in the tax-free annual savings limit from £40,000 to £60,000, are needed to prevent older NHS doctors from quitting work or cutting back their hours. The change is expected to discourage 15,000 higher earners from retiring early. But the foundation said it could have the opposite effect and allow the better-off to build pension pots so large they would still make an early exit.

Intense cost pressure on public services from stagnant budget allocations and rising inflation were “largely ignored” in the budget, the thinktank said, adding that Whitehall departments outside the protected areas of health, schools and defence faced 10% cuts in real terms to day-to-day spending per head by 2027-28.

This loss of spending power across most government departments will rise to 14% “if the newly announced aspiration for defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP is met over the next parliament”.

An increase in investment allowances to encourage businesses to buy IT and new equipment worth up to £28bn over three years represents the fifth major corporate tax change in just two years, “illustrating the lack of certainty that has frustrated businesses”, the report said.

The foundation calculated the policy would deliver a temporary 3% boost to investment, “when what Britain actually needs is a permanent 30% boost to catch up with our competitors in France, Germany and the US”.

Elements of a plutocratic budget:

“Gone are the days where your Pension savings automatically die with you or your spouse/civil partner.”..

“Savings within most modern defined contribution Pension products fall outside of your “taxable estate” and are therefore not subject to Inheritance Tax on death.

This makes them an extremely attractive vehicle for passing on wealth to future generations under current legislation.”

Especially if you are stinking rich – Owl

Richard Partington www.theguardian.com 

Jeremy Hunt’s huge pensions giveaway for the wealthiest 1% may have no impact on increasing the number of people in work, while opening a loophole for avoidance of inheritance tax, a leading economic thinktank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the surprise measure in the chancellor’s budget “probably won’t play a big part, if any” in increasing the number of people in work.

Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, said: “It was disappointing that other over-generous aspects of pension taxation – not least complete freedom from inheritance tax – were not reined in.

“The lack of any coherent strategy here remains deeply disappointing. Don’t forget these changes are largely a rowing back on changes made just a few years ago by this government.”

In an attempt to encourage older skilled workers not to retire early, Hunt announced plans to scrap the £1m cap on tax-free pension savings. With the employers’ struggle to recruit staff holding back the economy, he argued the change would discourage NHS doctors in particular from quitting.

Labour warned the tax giveaway would benefit only the wealthiest top 1% of earners, while promising that it would reverse the chancellor’s decision to scrap the pensions lifetime allowance.

In its verdict on the budget, the IFS said it was “implausible” for the government to argue that it could not increase public sector pay on affordability grounds.

“You can’t keep cutting the pay of teachers, nurses and civil servants, both in real terms and relative to the private sector, without consequences for recruitment, retention and service delivery,” Johnson said. “Money will have to be found from somewhere.”

The IFS said there were “some elements of a sensible strategy to support growth” in the budget, including the chancellor’s focus on getting more people back to work. However, it suggested the government’s expansion of childcare support would have a “highly uncertain” impact on labour supply.

Owl gives reference to the Verita report and draws attention to key conclusions in a separate post.

East Devon District Council could not have taken any action against former Exmouth councillor John Humphreys while he was under investigation for sex offences, an independent report has concluded.

Philippa Davies www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

In August 2021 Humphreys was jailed for sexually assaulting boys. He had been arrested in 2016 and continued as a district councillor until 2019 – later that year being given the title of Honorary Alderman, which was removed after his conviction.

Following speculation about who within the council had known about the allegations against him while he was a serving member, EDDC commissioned an independent report, which has now been completed.

Confidentiality issues

It concludes that, while there were rumours about the investigation, the only person who had been officially told about it was EDDC’s Monitoring Officer. He was made aware before Humphreys was arrested, but he was told by police not to share the information because this could prejudice their inquiries.

The report says this put the Monitoring Officer in an ‘unenviable position’, and adds that it is not clear why such strict confidentiality was still needed after Humphreys’ arrest.

But between his arrest and his conviction, it was up to Humphreys to disclose this information to EDDC. The report states: “There is no evidence that Humphreys directly told anyone about his arrest, pending investigation or trial. The behavioural standards set for councillors primarily rely on individuals doing the right thing in an honest and open manner. Humphreys did not do this.”

Child safeguarding

The report also looked at child safeguarding issues. It found that Humphreys did come into contact with children and young people at council premises while he was under investigation. There is no evidence that any harm occurred to any child or young person present during this time, but the report did raise concerns: “Irrespective of where the responsibility lies, one of the effects of the way this case was handled was that someone who had allegedly committed serious sexual offences held positions of responsibility until he was tried and convicted.

“None of his formal positions at EDDC, or his work in the community at large was ever subject to a risk assessment that may have identified whether any children or young people were at risk from him.”

The report’s recommendations

The report, by independent consultants Verita, puts forward several recommendations, and these will be discussed at a special meeting of the full East Devon District Council on Thursday, March 23.

They include new guidelines on the council’s safeguarding policy, and refresher training for employees and councillors alike. The report also recommends that EDDC should reform the process of appointing Honorary Aldermen.

Tory Plymouth Council do a Sheffield on their trees – Owl

Plymouth people say they are in “traumatised” and in mourning after the Armada Way tree felling – as it emerges a consultation showed the public was not in favour of the scheme. Plymouth City Council’s own “meaningful engagement” process resulted in an “overwhelming objection” to the proposal.

William Telford www.plymouthherald.co.uk

A council document said that 68% – that’s 1,537 people – of all respondents did not support the £12.7m Armada Way upgrade plan, with 16% (365) in support and 15% (330) answering “yes” but with changes being made. And submissions from within the city boundaries again showed an overwhelming majority of respondents opposed to the scheme.

But the council said that if it took out the responses from people opposed who did not give a reason why “then the scheme has significant support.” It blames action group Straw (Save the Trees of Armada Way) for having a “significant impact” on the responses.

Straw founder Alison White told PlymouthLive: “The people of Plymouth could not have made it clearer, this is not what we wanted. The results of the survey indicate that clearly.”

Contractors moved in to cut down trees in Armada Way at about 8pm on Tuesday, March 14 – just hours after the council had signed an executive order saying the upgrade of the thoroughfare could proceed. Fencing was put up and police with dogs, and security staff, patrolled the site while contractors used chainsaws and heavy machinery to chop trees from the top and bottom.

The tree-felling was stopped at about 1am when Straw served a court injunction on the council. About 110 of 129 threatened trees had been removed by this time.

A legal battle is now ensuing with Straw starting a judicial review process. A fundraiser to pay for legal costs has already passed £5,500 in donations.

Meanwhile, when PlymouthLive visited the site we were besieged by members of the public angry at the tree felling. From small children to elderly shoppers, they stopped to say they were saddened and disappointed both by the tree removal and the way the council had handled the process. One woman simply said: “It’s heartbreaking.”

Lynne Sears and her mother Una Sears had campaigned to save the water feature before adding their voices to the tree protest. Lynne said: “I’m traumatised. The sight of this is gut-wrenching. Kids are crying, they can’t believe adults could do this.”

Una added: “It’s so sad. Just look at it. I was shocked, the council kept this (tree removal) so quiet.”

Gin Farrow-Jones, an artist from Stonehouse, even made a wood and card coffin to symbolise the death of the trees. She said: “I’m devastated, enraged and traumatised. This coffin symbolises the death of the trees,the death of democracy and the death of the voice of the people of Plymouth.”

Cllr Nick Kelly, a former Conservative now leader of the Independent Alliance Group, said he had rejected early plans for the redevelopment when he was leader of the council. He said: “What’s the point of having a £12.7m scheme so many people are against?”

Work on the regeneration for Armada Way was put on hold in November 2022 due to the row over the tree removal. Plymouth City Council carried out a“meaningful community engagement” on the plan in February and only on Friday said it was finalising reports which will be made public.

But the decision was then made on Tuesday to press ahead with the scheme, funded with £2.7m from the Transforming Cities Fund for walking and cycling – which is time restricted meaning work had to begin by a certain date – and £10m of council capital funding.

The council said that following the engagement programme the final design was changed so 169 semi-mature trees would be planted, there would be a revised tree planting schedule and a commitment to investigate wider tree planting in the city centre. It meant an additional 19 semi-mature trees would be included, with more evergreens and wider canopy trees, and an extra existing tree would be retained. .

The council explained it was planned to remove 129 trees, keep 24 existing trees and leave a further three trees which had been earmarked for removal but had been identified as having birds nesting in them. The council said that for reasons of public safety and impact on the city centre, and given the size of the tree machinery due to come onto Armada Way, it scheduled the works to be carried out at night with as few people around as possible.

“We aimed to minimise the disruption caused to the public and businesses by cordoning off parts of Armada Way,” a spokesperson said. “All but 16 of the trees due to be felled are now down. In total 110 trees were felled but an injunction served at 1am meant we had to halt the works entirely.

“The plan had been to remove all the felled trees and shave off and make safe any stumps along the main pedestrian routes once all the trees had come down before the start of the working day. Unfortunately the injunction meant we had to stop work.

“The contractors cleaned up the site and installed more fencing to ensure the felled wood is out of bounds. Other trees that remain are three which have bird nests and 24 which were due to remain under the revised plans.”

In January Owl produced a summary and critique of the DCC investigation into the John Humphreys case.

This case has to be seen as a monumental failure in safeguarding. Slowly we are beginning to see how comprehensively the system failed. 

Questions remain over why the police imposed such stringent confidentiality restrictions, apparently even after Humphreys was charged and what his bail conditions were.

Following a quick read of the EDDC Verita report, which can be found from page 6 onwards here owl extracts some key paragraphs from Verita’s Summary and conclusions. Enough to be going on with.

What caught Owl’s eye was Verita’s exploration with participants of what could have been done in different circumstances (see paragraphs 1.32 onwards).

SELECTED PARAGRAPHS FROM VERITA’S REPORT

……

1.7 On 9 March 2016 EDDC’s Monitoring Officer (MO), attended a Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) meeting at Devon County Council (DCC). He became aware that Humphreys was under investigation by the police for alleged sex crimes against young people. The MO attended follow-up meetings at DCC in April 2016 and November 2016. The MO told us that he was not asked to do anything as a result of these meetings.

….

1.14 The MO reported that the police instructed attendees to maintain strict confidentiality at this stage, primarily to avoid prejudicing their investigation into the allegations.

1.15 The police direction about confidentiality in this case appears to have been more stringent than advice usually given by DCC and the police at LADO MAS meetings. This typically allows for information to be shared with those who “need to know in order to protect children, facilitate enquiries, manage related disciplinary or suitability processes”. As such, it is usual for organisations such as EDDC to be able to follow their own processes to mitigate safeguarding risks as they see fit.

1.16 We consider that typical DCC and police advice may, in different circumstances, have allowed the MO to share information he received at the LADO meetings with other senior officers or group leaders at EDDC. However, it is clear that the police’s need to maintain strict confidentiality overrode the DCC’s normal advice and prevented him from doing so. 

…….

1.19 Humphreys was arrested and questioned under caution on 11 May 2016. From this point he was aware of the ongoing investigation. It is not clear why the police would seek to maintain this strict requirement of confidentiality following the LADO meeting in November 2016. 

…….

1.30 The convention is that members will individually chose to resign for serious failings in their conduct. This requirement cannot be imposed on them and it was, in Humphreys case, clearly his choice to remain a councillor despite the fact he was under police investigation.

1.31 In our view the code of conduct and allied standards process are not effective tools to promote desired behaviours, nor to effectively address poor behaviours amongst elected members. Criminals and those flouting the rules are routinely unlikely to do the honourable thing and self-report their actions to appropriate authorities. In the existing legal and procedural framework, this is a likely outcome and an ever-present risk. Unfortunately, EDDC is not in a position to make wide-ranging changes to this regime without legislative change at a national level.

1.32 Given the restrictions on EDDC for removing, suspending or restricting the role of a councillor, we explored with participants whether any action short of such measures could have been considered in this case. We acknowledge that these were hypothetical questions.

1.33 The MO could have spoken informally to Humphreys after his arrest. This could have put the onus on Humphreys to consider his position as a councillor and may have led him to resign. The MO could have asked Humphreys not to attend EDDC events at which children and vulnerable adults would be present. This would have been a voluntary agreement, and an offer that he was highly likely to have declined – especially in light of his persistent claims of innocence. Even if Humphreys had acceded to such a request, it may have been difficult to monitor his compliance with it. However, there was a significant risk that giving such notice to Humphreys would have prejudiced the police investigation.

1.34 It was possible that the MO could have informally spoken to the Chair of Council or to group leaders, with the aim of alerting them to the fact that Humphreys was under police investigation. The MO has explained to us his overriding concern, on advice from the police, not to prejudice their investigation into Humphreys. We believe that he acted correctly and consistently in this respect.

1.35 There are limited avenues open to councillors for raising concerns about a colleague. In cases where safeguarding risks may be a concern, we would expect a councillor to know how to raise this with the Council’s safeguarding lead. In cases where inappropriate behaviour occurs, it would seem appropriate to raise this under the EDDC’s code of conduct. The Council’s MO would be the natural source of advice in such a case.

1.36 Comments from the East Devon Conservative Association suggest that they may have had more remit to impose sanctions on Humphreys than were available to EDDC. 

…….

1.43 Because of the conclusion reached at the LADO MAS meetings that Humphreys did not, in his formal EDDC roles, work with children no immediate safeguarding mitigation plans were developed. We believe that this is a flawed conclusion for the LADO meetings to have reached. There is no evidence that anyone commissioned or conducted any form of risk assessment in respect of Humphreys’ roles as an EDDC councillor. 

1.44 The MO advised us that attendees at the LADO MAS meetings concluded that “bail conditions” would be sufficient to address any present risk posed by Humphreys.

Beware what you wish for – Owl

Devon County Council’s plans to stop funding a homelessness prevention service in Exmouth have been condemned by a local councillor.

Philippa Davies www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

The county council is currently consulting on proposals to end its contract with Alexandra House in Exmouth, which gives supported accommodation to people at risk of homelessness.

It’s part of a cost-cutting exercise that would remove around £1.5 million in funding to various hostels and other services across Devon for vulnerable adults. Alexandra House currently receives nearly £108,000 per year.

Devon County Council said it can no longer afford to pay for the services and will instead increase spending in other areas that support vulnerable children, young people and adults. The homelessness prevention services fall outside the council’s statutory (compulsory) adult social care responsibilities.

But many councilllors are against the cuts. Independent Exmouth town and district councillor Joe Whibley said: ”Alexandra House provides an incredibly important service to the community, helping people to help themselves. We’re starting to see the effects of Devon County’s funding problems hit real people in real, desperate situations, in a county where other social care services are also struggling to cope. and it’s not good enough.

“If this funding withdrawal reduces service, it will ultimately put more pressure on East Devon District Council’s already overwhelmed homelessness team. Central government needs to recognise that district and county councils need a fairer funding arrangement to deliver effective local services.”

Cllr Jess Bailey, (Independent, Otter Valley) told Radio Exe’s Devoncast podcast: “I think it’s the worst possible time and, as a member of the [county council’s] health and adult care scrutiny committee, I will be looking very closely at these proposals. I’m strongly opposed to them and I think it’s removing funding from our most vulnerable residents.

“I’m very disappointed that the county council cannot apparently find the money for our most vulnerable residents and I think, in terms of health inequality, we need to find a way of supporting these people and continuing with that funding.”

The consultation runs until Wednesday, April 19, and can be found on the county council’s website

Boris Johnson will give his first televised evidence next Wednesday on whether he misled parliament over Partygate, the privileges committee has announced.

Compelling watching or a complete turn-off? – Owl

Jessica Elgot www.theguardian.com

The committee, which is chaired by the Labour MP Harriet Harman, has said the former prime minister has accepted an invitation to give evidence at 2pm on 22 March.

His appearance will come after an interim report by the cross-party committee found there was significant evidence he misled MPs over lockdown parties, and that he and aides almost certainly knew at the time that they were breaking rules.

The damning report includes one witness saying the then prime minister told a packed No 10 gathering in November 2020, when strict Covid restrictions were in force, that “this is probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.

Other new evidence includes a message from a No 10 official in April 2021, six months before the first reports of parties emerged, saying a colleague was “worried about leaks of PM having a piss-up – and to be fair I don’t think it’s unwarranted”.

The session will be held in public and includes questioning from all of the committee’s members – four Conservative MPs, two Labour and one SNP.

Johnson has also been offered the chance to provide written evidence to the inquiry setting out his response, should he wish, in advance of the oral evidence session.

Any response will be published, the committee said, and added that it had already disclosed all evidence submitted to the inquiry so far to Johnson “under secure conditions”.

The interim report published last month was intended to give Johnson notice of lines of inquiry before he testifies later this month.

“There is evidence that the House of Commons may have been misled in the following ways, which the committee will explore,” the report said, giving four examples, all backed up by lengthy footnotes.

A formal finding that Johnson deliberately misled parliament could result in him being suspended. Under parliamentary rules, an exclusion of 14 days or longer would mean Johnson’s constituents could seek a recall petition to remove him as their MP, a viable occurrence given the slim majority in his west London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

Johnson – who was forced out as prime minister last summer after Conservative MPs tired of repeated controversies – responded to the report with an immediate and orchestrated fightback, seeking to discredit the findings and the committee.

Council chiefs will consider ‘repurposing’ some East Devon public toilets with ‘commercial activities’ – after deciding to keep 28 sites open this summer.

East Devon Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk 

The district’s busiest loos will also be rebuilt or updated as part of a £3million overhaul.

More details of the refurbishment programme – agreed in February 2022 – will be announced later this year.

Members of East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) cabinet have agreed to keep 28 of its sites in use from April 1 – and they will be open daily from 8am to 10pm.

They include conveniences in Exmouth, Sidmouth, Honiton, Seaton, Budleigh Salterton, Axminster, Colyton and Beer.

Councillor Geoff Jung, EDDC portfolio holder for coast, country and environment said: “We recognise the importance of our public toilets especially at tourist destinations, and therefore we will be operating 28 facilities for the 2023 season.

“Our plans are now coming together to repurpose some toilets with commercial activities with public access to toilets whilst others will be totally updated or rebuilt to modern hygiene standards, good disabled access, with some providing adult disabled changing facilities.

“These changes will be scheduled to start this autumn to help minimise any disruption locally.”

EDDC says it ‘remains committed’ to a £3million refurbishment programme of its ‘Category A’ toilets.

“Discussions on other public toilets that can be repurposed to incorporate a public accessible toilet will continue through the summer,” said a spokesperson.

The 28 public toilets in East Devon are:

Axminster
West Street Car Park

Budleigh Salterton
Cliff Path (West End, Steamer Steps)
East End (Lime Kiln)
Station Road Car Park

Beer
Jubilee Gardens

Colyton
Dolphin Street Car Park

Exmouth
Exmouth Bus/Train Station
Foxholes Car Park
Imperial Recreation Ground (Royal Avenue)
Magnolia Centre
Manor Gardens
Orcombe Point
Phear Park
Queen’s Drive/Old Lifeboat
The Maer

Honiton
King Street
Lace Walk

Seaton
Harbour Road/ Thury Harcourt Place
Seaton Hole
Seaton Wetlands
West Walk

Sidmouth
Arches )paid for and managed by Sidmouth Town Council)
Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth
Long Park, Sidmouth (paid for and managed by Sidmouth Town Council)
Market Place
Triangle
Port Royal (Alma Bridge)
Sidbury toilets, Sidmouth (paid for and managed by Sidmouth Town Council)

NEU teacher strikes are scheduled to go ahead this week despite union members in Scotland backing a pay deal. National walkouts are planned for March 15 and 16 in schools in England and Wales.

Steve Hitchcock www.devonlive.com 

Unions are calling for above-inflation increases, and want schools to get extra money to ensure pay rises don’t come from existing budgets. The Department for Education said it wanted “formal talks on pay, conditions and reform, ahead of the latest strike days – but only if the NEU called them off.

One school in Devon will be closed on Thursday as staff at St Peter’s C of E Primary School, Budleigh Salterton, take part in a national day of strike action. Headteacher Steve Hitchcock has written to parents to inform them of the closure.

He said that staff feel strongly about striking in order to support our children’s education around staff recruitment, funding and pay, but recognise the pressure of two days of striking and an INSET day on parents, so have tried to compromise by striking on Thursday only. He added: “Personally, I am furious with the lack of engagement from the government, who are refusing to talk to the unions.”

He has written a letter which he sent to the DfE, his MP Simon Jupp, and the parents at our school. Read the full letter below

I felt compelled to reply to your email to headteachers on 24th February 2023. The views expressed here are my own, but I feel my work across my county gives me a good understanding and calibration of the feeling in schools. It is no wonder that the unions did not pause the strike action in the way you wanted. The DfE consistently refuses to listen to the profession and confront reality. My community of headteachers has been meeting with our local Conservative MP for many years, and we sound like a broken record.

Trust

The first point I want to make is that there is no trust between the DfE and Headteachers. In order for any profession to thrive, there must be equal measures of challenge and support. The matrix on the right very neatly shows this, and I am afraid to say the staff in your schools are predominantly in the ‘stressed’ box.

Recruitment and retention

The second point I want to make is that the DfE has to confront the reality that there is an acute retention and recruitment crisis in schools. It’s well known that MPs, ministers and certain elements of the population think that teachers are overpaid, lazy and get too much holiday. If that is really the case, then why does no one want to be a teacher (or teaching assistant) anymore? Things are getting worse, not better, as schools are expected to support families with health, parenting, diet, social work and more. These issues need to be taken more seriously by the DfE.

Rhetoric

It is incredibly frustrating to hear the DfE use the same line each time there is a criticism of school funding. “The additional £2 billion going into schools in both 2023-24 and the following year means that by 2024-25 schools will be funded at their highest levels in history.” But it is not enough. Relative to both needs and the proportion of GDP of other developed countries, it falls short. A decade of austerity and a pandemic has caused a significant erosion of all elements of schools. My role as a headteacher is more as a fundraiser and community worker than an educator.

Staff pay

To tell staff that they can’t have a pay rise because it would cause inflation is frankly an insult. The point of a pay rise is so our wages keep up with inflation. How is it acceptable to receive a 20% cut in your salary over a decade, whilst being expected to deal with more expectations in school? If I asked my hairdresser to trim my hair and then massage my back, cut my toenails and clean my shoes, whilst taking away some of her equipment and paying her less, she would think I was mad! That’s not an unfair analogy of what is happening in schools.

Solutions

My suggestions to fix this would be to start a national consultation on the point of schools and education in our country. Society has changed dramatically and the school system has not kept pace with this. A modern school is way more than just a place to learn a curriculum.

Parents no longer have access to support services, more children are in poverty, parents are expected to be in work more, and life growing up (particularly around safeguarding and the online world) is way more complex than in the past. Schools need to be re-imagined and given the resources to meet the needs of a modern family.

At the end of the pandemic there was an opportunity to revolutionise schools (hours, holidays, provision, expectations) which was missed, but it’s not too late to engage in a meaningful re-visioning of schools.

Children and families are still reeling from austerity and pandemic. We shouldn’t have children and families with so much stress, poverty and mental illnesses.

Does the government believe Schools are just about education? In that case, you need to instruct us to stop all the other support work we do, and provide it in another way. Schools are more than education? If we are ‘everything to everyone’ then schools need the funding, resources and recognition.

Whether you like it or not, schools feel the moral imperative to intervene constantly to support our families, with no recognition from the DfE or Ofsted. Imagine a school system where we were recognised for this, through inspection or more public respect from our MPs. It would improve staff wellbeing knowing they were doing more of a service than just teaching the curriculum.

Summary

It’s in all of our best interests, but most of all in children’s interests, to resolve these issues in a meaningful way. Strike action has a minimal effect on children’s education and well-being compared to the significant longer term issues that I have described above.

Pupils, families and school staff need way more support than ever before, and the current relationship between schools and the DfE is not going to resolve things effectively.

I would recommend that you:

· Re-imagine the purpose of schools and education in this country.

· Work towards a trusting relationship between the DfE and schools, so there is an equal level of challenge and support.

· Acknowledge the issues that we raise. If we can’t have more money, be clear what we need to stop doing and providing. If you can’t recruit more school staff, lower our expectations on what we can achieve.

· Stop patronising schools by saying school funding is at the highest level ever, when we are saying we need more to meet children and family’s needs, and keep our school buildings in good condition. I hope this is helpful. I would be happy to elaborate further on any of my points

Steve Hitchcock

Headteacher

St Peter’s CoE Primary School

Budleigh Salterton

Exeter City Council has a new chief executive.

At an extraordinary council meeting on Monday [13 March], and following a recruitment process, councillors unanimously supported the appointment of current deputy CEO Bindu Arjoon.

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

She is the council’s first female chief executive and replaces Karime Hassan, who is leaving after a decade in charge.

In a statement, Ms Arjoon said she is delighted. “Exeter is a fantastic city which has built very firm foundations for its future success, and I am looking forward to embracing the opportunities and dealing with the challenges that lie ahead.

“We have a fantastic team at the council who are committed to delivering the best possible services for all of our residents, and together with our partners we will continue to ensure that Exeter remains a city we can all be proud of.”

Ms Arjoon, who has worked in local government leadership for 19 years, is also chair of the governing body of St Leonards Primary School and St Peter’s Secondary School and is currently chair of the Corporation of Exeter College.

Council leader Phil Bialyk (Labour, Exwick) said: “Bindu has been part of our leadership team here at the council for many years. She brings a wealth of experience to the role and has the skills, vision and expertise to make sure that we succeed as a council and as a city, in collaboration with our partners.

“I know Bindu will be a great success and I very much look forward to starting a new chapter in the successful story of this great city.”

Speaking at the full council meeting, co-leader of the opposition Progressive Group, Cllr Kevin Mitchell (Lib Dem, Duryard & St James) added: “I think Bindu’s going to do an outstanding job for the council and, more importantly, also for the city.”