Confidential documents leaked to the Observer reveal an extraordinary rift between Boris Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, over the potential economic effects of moving towards a zero-carbon economy, with just weeks to go before the crucial Cop26 climate summit.

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com 

As Johnson prepares to position the UK at the head of global efforts to combat climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions as host of the Glasgow Cop26 meeting, the documents show the Treasury is warning of serious economic damage to the UK economy and future tax rises if the UK overspends on, or misdirects, green investment.

Green experts said the “half-baked” and “one-sided” Treasury net-zero review presented only the costs of action on emissions, rather than the benefits, such as green jobs, lower energy bills and avoiding the disastrous impact of global heating. They said the review could be “weaponised” by climate-change deniers around the world before Cop26, undermining Johnson’s attempts at climate leadership on the global stage.

The internal Treasury documents say that while there may be economic benefits to UK companies from swift and appropriate climate action, there is also a danger that economic activity could move abroad if firms found their costs were increasing by more than those of their overseas competitors.

The leaked papers are understood to have been produced to accompany a slide show given confidentially to key groups outside government in the last month. The documents state: “The investment required to decarbonise the UK economy is uncertain but could help to improve the UK’s relatively low investment levels and increase productivity.

“However, more green investment is likely to attract diminishing returns, reducing the positive impact of ever more investment on GDP. Some green investments could displace other, more productive, investment opportunities. If more productive investments are made earlier in the transition, this risk may be accentuated later in the transition.”

On the risk of additional costs to companies from green initiatives, the documents say: “Climate action in the UK can lead to economic activity moving abroad if it directly leads to costs increasing, and it is more profitable to produce in countries with less stringent climate policies.”

On the fiscal implications, the documents say the cost of moving towards net zero could mean tax rises because of “the erosion of tax revenue from fossil fuel-related activity”. They say: “The government may need to consider changes to existing taxes and new sources of revenue throughout the transition in order to deliver net zero sustainably, and consistently with the government’s fiscal principles.”

Ed Matthew, campaign director at the E3G thinktank, said: “To governments looking to Cop26, this looks unprofessional and embarrassing. The UK is standing in front of the world at Cop26 trying to galvanise ambitious action from every country. If the government has not presented the robust economic case in favour of action, that’s going to significantly undermine those attempts.”

The Treasury’s approach is also starkly at odds with that of business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and the analysis of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in a report published in July this year.

On the costs of moving towards net zero, the OBR said in its report: “Between now and 2050 the fiscal costs of getting to net zero in the UK could be significant, but they are not exceptional … While unmitigated climate change would spell disaster, the net fiscal costs of moving to net zero emissions by 2050 could be comparatively modest.”

The Committee on Climate Change, the government’s statutory adviser, has also repeatedly said the costs of action are small and diminishing, at less than 1% of GDP by 2050, while the costs of inaction are large and rising.

While there are concerns over how the costs could fall on poorer households, the CCC chief executive Chris Stark has made clear that ministers can choose to distribute the costs and benefits fairly, through the design of green policies.

Whitehall sources said there was a belief that Sunak was keen to position himself as something of a climate-change sceptic in order to boost his popularity with Tory party members, and draw comparisons with Johnson’s green enthusiasms. “Rishi clearly sees an interest in showing he is not really down with this green stuff. He wants Boris to own the whole agenda.”

A source at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy confirmed that the Treasury was “kicking back” against many of the green plans being advanced by No 10 and Kwarteng. “They are not climate change deniers but they are emphasising the short-term risks, rather than long-term needs, which is what we are emphasising.”

In contrast to the Treasury’s caution, Labour committed at its recent party conference to invest £28bn extra every year until 2030 to secure a “green transition” creating good jobs with decent wages in the process.

The leak comes as the government prepares to publish its long-awaited net zero strategy, and heat and buildings strategy, which will contain policies on cutting emissions and creating green jobs, including a ban on new gas boilers from 2035 and grants for householders to move to green heating.

The government’s Cop26 president, former business secretary Alok Sharma, is embarking on a frantic last-ditch round of diplomacy, including with Chinese representatives, amid speculation that President Xi Jinping will not attend the talks. The US and the EU are also talking to key high-emitting countries in the final weeks before Cop26, which opens on 31 October.

The Treasury said: “The government is committed to tackling climate change and the prime minister has set out an ambitious 10-point plan to help us achieve that. The Treasury is playing a crucial role in this effort, by allocating £12bn to fund the plan, setting up the UK infrastructure bank to invest in net zero, and committing to raise £15bn for projects like zero-emissions buses, offshore wind and schemes to decarbonise homes.”

“The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn’t the 19th century.”

Caroline Wheeler, Will Pavia www.thetimes.co.uk 

Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has had a job offer from the United Nations withdrawn only four days after celebrating his appointment on Twitter.

In a tweet on October 12 Hancock, 43, said he was “honoured to be appointed United Nations special representative” on financial innovation and climate change. In a letter also posted on Twitter by Hancock, Vera Songwe, UN undersecretary-general, said his “success” in overseeing the UK’s vaccine rollout was “testament to the strengths” he could offer.

However, it is understood that the UN decided not to go ahead after it was pointed out that special representatives were not allowed to be sitting members of parliament.

Hancock, who is the Tory MP for West Suffolk, resigned as health secretary in June after being caught on CCTV kissing an aide, Gina Coladangelo, in breach of lockdown rules.

A UN spokesman said that his appointment had not been “taken forward”.

Hancock was already facing a backlash over the role, with leading figures from across Africa branding it “jaw-dropping”.

After initial reports Dr Ayoade Alakija, who co-chairs the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance for Covid-19 jabs, said: “This is so tone deaf, beyond arrogant that they think we in Africa need Matt Hancock to help 1.3 billion people recover from the pandemic, when he couldn’t manage the one in the UK! The definition of a colonial hangover. Decolonise aid — no, here’s Matty!”

Sagal Bihi, an MP in Somalia, said: “Africa is seen by the West as [the] dumping ground for their locally unemployable shady characters.”

The campaign group Global Justice Now welcomed the decision not to go ahead with the appointment. It had raised concerns about Hancock’s role in supporting the UK government’s opposition to proposals for an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. The waiver, first proposed by India and South Africa a year ago, would allow poorer countries to manufacture their own doses of the vaccines developed by richer countries, providing protection for hundreds of millions of people currently unable to get a jab.

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “It is right for the UN to reconsider this appointment. If Matt Hancock wants to help African countries recover from the pandemic, he should lobby the prime minister to back a patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines. If he’d done that when he was in government, tens of millions more people could already have been vaccinated.

“The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn’t the 19th century.”

More than 1,100 cases of coronavirus have been recorded across Cornwall and Devon in the last 24 hours, according to official figures.

Jonathon Manning www.devonlive.com

The latest statistics show that 411 new cases of the virus were found in Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly, bringing the total number to 51,755 since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, in Devon, a further 759 people tested positive for Covid-19.

It means 107,600 people have caught the virus in Devon since the start of the pandemic.

Plymouth had the highest number of new cases, with 155 found in the last 24 hours. Today’s update means there have now been 28,305 confirmed cases in the city.

Torridge and West Devon reported the fewest cases today, with each area recorded 37 cases.

There were no new Covid-related deaths reported in the region today.

So far 543 people have died within 28 days of catching the virus in Cornwall, and a further 1,259 people have died in Devon.

The Government said a further 57 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 138,584.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 163,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

As of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 45,140 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the Government said.

Government data up to October 16 shows that of the 94,756,683 Covid jabs given in the UK, 49,398,211 were first doses, a rise of 23,706 on the previous day.

Some 45,358,472 were second doses, an increase of 32,983.

This is the latest breakdown of confirmed cases across the 11 local authorities across Cornwall and Devon since the start of the pandemic, plus the change in the last 24 hours (in brackets):

• Cornwall and Isles of Scilly – 51,755 (+411)
• East Devon – 12,291 (+117)
• Plymouth – 28,305 (+155)
• Mid Devon – 6,735 (+86)
• Torridge – 4,738 (+37)
• Torbay – 13,548 (+74)
• Exeter – 13,511 (+62)
• North Devon – 7,678 (+60)
• West Devon – 3,951 (+37)
• Teignbridge – 10,479 (+68)
• South Hams – 6,364 (+63)

Coronavirus deaths in Cornwall and Devon since the start of the pandemic (and latest 24-hour increase as of October 17):

• Cornwall and Isles of Scilly – 543 (+0)
• East Devon – 202 (+0)
• Plymouth – 265 (+0)
• Mid Devon – 92 (+0)
• Torridge – 63 (+0)
• Torbay – 188 (+0)
• Exeter – 131 (+0)
• North Devon – 78 (+0)
• West Devon – 40 (+0)
• Teignbridge – 143 (+0)
• South Hams – 57 (+0)

Total: 1,802 (-)

These are the 24 parks and green spaces in Devon that have been awarded the prestigious Green Flag award for their high standard of quality and cleanliness.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

The national benchmark for quality parks, the Green Flag award is run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

Each park or open space is judged against set criteria and they need to show improvement every year to be awarded the coveted status.

A record breaking 2,127 green spaces have received the award, and all 24 parks in Devon that that were awarded the Green Flag in 2020 have retained their status, with no new additions to the list

The parks that have been awarded Green Flag status in Devon are:

• Seaton Wetlands
• Seafield Gardens, Seaton
• Manor Gardens, Exmouth
• Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth
• Grand Western Canal Country Park, Tiverton
• Yeo Valley Community Woodland
• Bicclescombe Park, Ilfracombe
• Streatham Campus, University of Exeter
• St Luke’s Campus, University of Exeter
• The Den, Teignmouth
• Stover Country Park, Newton Abbot
• Courtenay Park, Newton Abbot
• Decoy Country Park, Newton Abbot
• Homeyards Botanical Gardens, Shaldon
• Cockington Country Park, Torquay
• Kingsbridge Recreation Ground
• Tothill Park, Plymouth
• Central Park, Plymouth
• Ham Woods, Plymouth
• Devonport Park, Plymouth
• Freedom Fields Park, Plymouth
• Hoe Park, Plymouth
• West Hoe Park, Plymouth
• Drake’s Place Gardens and Reservoir, Plymouth

Both of Devon County Council’s parks of Stover Country Park and the Grand Western Canal Country Park are among the recipients, with Stover is celebrating its 18th consecutive year of gaining the award, and it’s the 13th year that the Grand Western Canal has attained the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.

Cllr Andrea Davis, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport, said: “Congratulations to the Country Parks at Stover and the Grand Western Canal for achieving the highest standards for parks once again. Making the grade for environmental standards and visitor facilities is no mean feat and maintaining that for so many years takes an extraordinary effort.

“We have seen during the coronavirus pandemic over the past 18 months that these parks play a vital role in help people maintain their health and wellbeing. It’s been lovely to see lots of new visitors enjoying the parks during the pandemic, and the staff have really stepped up to give a great experience to all the visitors.

“Thanks to the staff and volunteers for their commitment and dedication that has made it possible to retain this prestigious award and provide people with green space that everyone can enjoy. We are extremely fortunate to have both parks and I really love both of these special places.”

Stover Country Park has had a productive year working on the development phase of its Restoring Stover Park project. If successful with its second round application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project will improve the water quality of Stover Lake, conserve historic at-risk buildings, recreate a section of the Serpentine Lake along with new opportunities for public access, and improve community engagement opportunities.

The Grand Western Canal Country Park has had another busy year as local people made use of the park during the covid pandemic. Following the lifting of restrictions, the increase in visitor numbers was sustained as staycations boosted domestic tourism. The Park was also pleased to welcome back the horse-drawn barge in late June after 17 months of not operating during the pandemic.

Cllr Ray Radford, Chair of the Grand Western Canal Joint Advisory Committee, Mid Devon District Councillor for Halberton and County Councillor for Willand and Uffculme, said: “This is fantastic news yet again. The Canal Manager, his support crew and all the volunteers have made this award possible again.

“The Grand Western Canal has been such an asset to our local community during the difficult covid times, and our canal has been widely used. As well as attracting visitors to the canal, it has brought with it revenue for the local economy. The green flag scheme sets a high standard and at the same time provides facilities to create healthy lives.”

Green Flag celebrations at the Grand Western Canal Country Park

Cllr Colin Slade, County Councillor for Tiverton East and Vice Chair of the Grand Western Canal Joint Advisory Committee, added: “I am delighted that the Grand Western Canal has repeated its Green Flag award success, 13 is indeed lucky for some! My congratulations to Canal manager Mark Baker and his team of rangers and volunteers in maintaining this standard of excellence, especially in such difficult times. I personally view the Canal Country Park as the jewel in Tiverton’s crown.”

Stover and the Grand Western Canal join other Green Flag Award winning parks and green spaces as diverse as the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, Woodhouse Park in Peterlee and Chiswick Old Cemetery in London.

Bicclescombe Park in Ilfracombe and Yeo Valley Community Woodland in Barnstaple are celebrating award success again this year, flying the flag for North Devon.

2021 is the 17th consecutive year that Bicclescombe Park has achieved Green Flag status, with Yeo Valley Woodland receiving the award for the 10th time in a row. Both spaces are owned and managed by North Devon Council, with the help of active community groups including the Friends of Yeo Valley Woodland and the Bicclescombe Park User Group.

Leader of North Devon Council, Councillor David Worden, said: “I am proud of our Parks team and community groups who work so hard to maintain these spaces to a high standard and achieve the prestigious Green Flag award for Bicclescombe Park and Yeo Valley year on year.

“I would like to congratulate everyone involved in achieving this award, especially the community groups for all the hours they dedicate to our parks.”

Looking along the Grand Western Canal in Tiverton.

Local ward member for Ilfracombe West, Councillor Geoffrey Fowler, added: “In yet another difficult year where outside space has been a haven for a lot of people, Bicclescombe has come up trumps once again.

“The limited staff, all credit to them, have maintained the park in extremely good condition under the circumstances, as several of our late influx of visitors have testified. Well done to all concerned.”

Ward member for Ilfracombe West, Councillor Netti Pearson, said: “It is great to see the park receive the award once more and is a credit to the park’s team and volunteers.

“We are still experiencing difficult times and it is a joy to stroll through and appreciate the changes through the seasons. Well done to everyone.”

Ward member for Barnstaple, Pilton, Councillor Ian Roome added: “This is an outstanding achievement by North Devon Council officers and the Friends of Yeo Valley Woodland.

“To achieve the Green Flag status is a testament to all their hard work and dedication. Our community can enjoy this beautiful green outdoor space as a result of many hours given by volunteers. It really is one of Barnstaple’s hidden gems.”

If you would like more information about becoming a volunteer at one of these parks, contact the council’s Parks Team on 01271 388326 or email parks@northdevon.gov.uk.

Three University of Exeter campuses have won a coveted Green Flag Award, in recognition of the outstanding quality of their outdoor spaces.

Streatham and St Luke’s campuses in Exeter and the Penryn campus, near Falmouth in Cornwall, are all raising green flags.

David Evans, grounds and operations manager at the University of Exeter, said: “These Green Flag Awards show the standard of custodianship of the University’s outdoor spaces remains at a high standard.

“It’s been an incredibly challenging 12 months dealing with the difficulties of Covid restrictions. However, we learned some important lessons as a team about how to manage outdoor spaces with a lighter touch, and we adopted and developed this approach in significant areas to support biodiversity.

“The achievement of this award is a direct result of all the hard work and effort of the team, and I’m so proud of them all.”

Toby Nenning, head gardener at the Penry Campus, said: ‘We are very pleased to have been awarded the prestigious Green Flag award for the Penryn campus and this conveys the level of care and dedication the team have to the outdoor spaces.

“As for everyone it has been a challenging 18 months, but with the team working throughout the pandemic the site has become a haven for anyone trying to escape the stresses and strains of the modern world, whether it be a walk with the dog, a jog through the grounds or simply to relax in the hammocks within our orchard.

“We are now working hard to protect and increase the biodiversity of the site with an increase in wildflowers, tree planting and organic gardening’

The two Exeter campuses boast 5,274 mature trees, which remove over two tonnes of pollutants each year. The campuses are home sports pitches, an arboretum, Italianate garden, Magnolia lawn, a collection of wild conifers and Azaleas, a cherry orchard and wildflower meadows. The campuses also contain top quality sports pitches for a range of high performance outdoor summer and winter sports and high levels of active participation in sport.

The Penryn campus is made up of historic sub-tropical gardens, with a walled garden, famous Victorian rhododendron collection, Italianate garden, terraces, parkland, orchards, and woodlands which are open to everyone 365 days a year. In the past year, four new sign boards were installed to highlight the spectacular biodiversity of the Penryn grounds.

Green Flag Award scheme manager Paul Todd said: “I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making parks worthy of a Green Flag Award.

“To meet the requirements demanded by the scheme is testament to the hard work of the staff and volunteers who do so much to ensure they have high standards of horticulture, safety and environmental management and are places that support people to live healthy lives.”

Green Flag awards have been retained by East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) for their Manor Gardens in Exmouth, Seafield Gardens in Seaton, and Connaught Garden in Sidmouth, along with Seaton Wetlands nature reserve on the Axe Estuary.

This is the 17th year in a row that this converted award has been awarded to the work at Manor Gardens, Exmouth and with Sidmouth’s Connaught Gardens now winning the accolade for 18 years in a row, and now the second year for Seaton’s Seafield Gardens.

Wild East Devon’s Seaton Wetlands first scooped the prestigious award 17 years ago in 2004 and has been flying the flag proudly ever since.

The awards are the result of the hard work of EDDC StreetScene and Countryside teams, helped tremendously by ‘in bloom’ groups and other volunteers.

The Staff and volunteers that work together in East Devon are already busy on exciting new improvements, with plenty of work being undertaken and new projects with thousands of extra bulbs being planted while they work hard to usher in a new eco-friendly way of working.

Councillor Geoff Jung, EDDC’s portfolio holder for Coast, Country and Environment, said: “We have now flown the Green Flag over Seaton Wetlands for 17 years.

“The Countryside Team are constantly striving to improve this much-loved nature reserve. It’s been a haven for people, and wildlife, in recent years and there are many exciting new changes being planned for next year, too.

“EDDC has been working hard to make its parks as beautiful as ever but to reduce our carbon footprint as well. We have been concentrating, more on putting in perennial plants that come back bigger and better every year, not only making the gardens look more stunning but also helping our bees and insects thrive, encouraging wildlife and nature to prosper.”

“This saves labour, reduces the need for watering and reduces costs long run, and continues the council’s commitment to both the climate change and biodiversity emergencies.”

EDDC has been focusing on being as green as possible, making spaces look interesting and contemporary – taking inspiration, from other leading gardens and shows like the Chelsea Flower Show where there is a lot of sustainable planting ideas to help save the planet and help reduce the carbon footprint.

It is now the bulb planting season, so the authority’s StreetScene staff have most recently been working hard to plant thousands of bulbs in the three Green Flag gardens, as well as across the wider East Devon area. By selecting flowering bulbs of all shapes, sizes and colours, flowering will continue throughout the different seasons, which pollinators will love – providing them with food when it is scarce.

Residents are being encouraged to look out for EDDC’s grand bulbs – “Fritillaria imperialis”– which have large orange flowers on top of a very long one-metre stem that will emerge across East Devon in late spring.

Staff have also been working on nurturing our more mature perennial plants and will soon be working on planting a great many new trees throughout the district.

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

In celebration of this year’s announcement, Green Flag Award is asking buildings and monuments around the UK to #GoGreenForParks today to show appreciation for the spaces that mean so much to people.

Green Flag Award Scheme Manager Paul Todd said: “I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making these parks worthy of a Green Flag Award. To meet the requirements demanded by the scheme is testament to the hard work of the staff and volunteers who do so much to ensure they have high standards of horticulture, safety and environmental management and are places that support people to live healthy lives.”

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

In celebration of this year’s announcement, Green Flag Award is asking buildings and monuments around the UK to #GoGreenForParks today to show appreciation for the spaces that mean so much to people.

One of my priorities since the pandemic has been to protect independent local businesses. Strides forward have included persuading a senior Council officer sceptical of a perceived impact on crime to allow pubs and cafes to expand into The Strand. This has been a huge success, and has made The Strand a wonderful place to spend time this summer.

Paul Millar www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

However, there is further investment required in other areas. The Magnolia Centre remains an eyesore and a monument to the very worst of 1970s planning and architecture. Money is needed to buy back this land from the overseas pension fund that owns it, so the area can be improved for the benefit of the community and the businesses which struggle on. I was pleased to see Labour’s new national policy to scrap the business rates system, in that I’ve recently had a case of the unfair tax crippling a much-loved local business in that area.

Meanwhile, Exmouth still awaits the money that Conservative MP Simon Jupp announced he had ‘secured’ from now sacked Cabinet Minister Robert Jenrick for Exmouth from the ‘Future High Streets Fund’ during the 2019 General Election campaign. Being Mr Jupp’s single and flagship election pledge, it is disgraceful that it has been broken without explaining to his constituents the reasons.

In fact, local Councillors only discovered that the pledge might possibly have been broken through a report in the national press, after the Council had attempted to contact Messrs Jupp and Jenrick on the matter without success. Seeking clarity, in March this year, the Minister for Local Government and Regional Growth Luke Hall MP kindly replied to a letter I’d written to him in which he confirmed the press reports were true: the Future High Streets Fund had closed without Exmouth receiving a single penny or being given the opportunity to even bid. I am reminded of the old proverb to be wary of strangers bearing gifts.

East Devon District Council under a more active-minded administration takes advantage of all major grant opportunities that come our way. Bidding for the new Levelling Up fund, I was proud that my idea to ensure better cycling provision including an E-bike hire scheme near the Imperial Road car park and Jurassic Coast cycle trail was part of our bid, which also includes the long-awaited Dinan Way extension. It’s now being assessed by Jenrick’s replacement, Michael Gove. I am told we stand a chance! But that will never stop the fact a previous major election pledge has been broken.

When I ran in 2019, I saw my pledges written on my leaflet as my duty to simply get done. One of them was to bring the neglected Warren View Sports Ground back into use for our local sports clubs. I committed myself to a great deal of work behind the scenes, to first understand the history, and then convince a Council Leader from Colyton unfamiliar with the history of the site (but thankfully a man who likes football) to agree to instruct officers, during a pandemic, to direct stretched resources into the ground going out to tender. Happily this resulted in Exmouth Town Football Club being granted a long lease at an affordable rent. I’ll write more about the exciting ‘Project Warren View’ in this column next time.

For now, I’ll end with a reflection of my two and a half years as a Councillor and prior to that, three and a half years as an MP’s advisor in Parliament. Committed elected representatives, and all political parties have them, are persistent in following up on pledges and ensuring they are good on their word to their constituents. Those who fail to honour their pledges, for whatever reason, should at the very least be required to explain why what they said during an election campaign didn’t become a reality in elected office. It would help defeat the myth that all politicians are compulsive liars.

As I watched people queuing round local fuel stations the other week, I wondered how Boris Johnson would try to get out of responsibility for the crisis and the other shortages which his extreme Brexit is causing.

Martin Shaw www.midweekherald.co.uk 

I might have guessed – it was all because he was trying to stop “uncontrolled immigration”, and the shortages were the growing pains of a “high wage economy”! 

You’d have to laugh if the issues weren’t so serious. Your government drives away, through xenophobia and totally unnecessary red tape, many of the European lorry drivers who were keeping the UK supplied with food, medicines and goods, just as you’ve driven away many of the nurses and doctors we desperately need in our hospitals. And then you blame the Europeans because they were, apparently, working for too low wages! I believe it’s called gaslighting.  

The “high wage economy” will have raised a grim smile from the tens of thousands of families in the South West who depend on wages which are so low that they have to rely on Universal Credit – and now find their incomes slashed by £20 a week, courtesy of Rishi Sunak. It won’t have seemed very funny to the thousands of NHS staff whose increase Johnson pared down to less than the rate of inflation, and are now looking forward – if that is the right word – to paying even more tax to fund the NHS, while wealthier retired people escape scot-free.  

The Johnson government rules with slogans, rather than policies. The rule is that whatever he says, it means the opposite. “Levelling up” means levelling down the low-paid – and areas like the South West where more people are on low incomes – still further. “Global Britain” means trying to antagonise the rest of the world, and especially our closest neighbours, in the hopes that jingoism will keep some voters onside. And “high wage economy” … well I think you’ve already got the picture on that one. 

Johnson and Sunak obviously take the voters for fools. After six – yes six – consecutive years in which Devon County Council has raised its council tax by an average of five per cent per year, while wages have barely gone up, their “new” idea to fund social care is – you’ve guessed it – to raise Council Tax by a further five per cent a year. That way, of course, they can still turn round and say that apart from the National Insurance rise, they haven’t raised (national) taxes. 

Don’t expect local Conservatives to help make their party see sense. The more serious ones know how bad these ideas are, but they’ll barely utter a squeak of protest. We discovered this month that a full 70 per cent of private rental properties in Devon have been lost to the holiday rental market. Let that sink in – 70 per cent. And what was the response of Councillor John Hart, the Devon Tory leader? “Airbnb has got a lot to answer for”.  

True. But what about the Conservative governments which deliberately destroyed council housing, refused to allow councils to spend the receipts from selling them to build new homes, and pushed even more tenants into the private rental market which has now proved completely inadequate for meeting people’s needs? 

***

When I was county councillor for Seaton and Colyton, one of the biggest items in my postbag was the completion of the Stop Line Way cycling and walking route from Seaton to Colyford. I pressed the Council to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order for the land to complete the missing link in Seaton Wetlands, which was finally done 9 months ago. 

This week we heard that the final objection to the order has been withdrawn, allowing the project to go ahead. This is a fantastic victory for campaigners and the local community – now let’s ask the County to put the rest of the route to Axminster back on the agenda! 

Meanwhile our “local” interconnector FAB (France – Alderney – Britain) project appears stalled.  – Owl

Jillian Ambrose www.theguardian.com 

One of Britain’s most important electricity import cables will not return to full service for another two years after a fire forced it to shut, compounding the UK’s energy woes ahead of a looming winter crunch.

The blaze at the Sellindge converter station in Kent forced a shutdown of the high-voltage cable that brings electricity from France to the UK last month as energy markets rocketed to all-time highs amid global energy supply difficulties.

National Grid, which owns the 2,000 megawatt cable, expects half of its capacity to return to service on Wednesday but said “extensive work” would be needed to bring the power link back to full service.

The FTSE 100 energy company hopes to bring another 500MW of capacity back to service between October 2022 and May 2023, meaning the cable will be running at three-quarters of its capacity through that winter.

The cable, known as the IFA Interconnector, will finally return to full service after further work, which National Grid hopes to complete by October 2023.

“We are completely focused on getting IFA safely returned to service as soon as possible and ensuring we are able to support security of supply,” the company said in a statement.

The shock shutdown of the subsea cable sparked concern among industry experts over Britain’s energy supplies during record high market prices across Europe.

Phil Hewitt, a director of the market consultancy EnAppSys, said at the time that the fire was “a major event” that would leave the UK “in a risky position” this winter “especially if we suffer from periods of low wind and cold temperatures”.

Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

The electricity system operator, which is also owned by National Grid, warned last week that the risk of power cuts to factories and homes this winter had increased after the cable outage combined with planned shutdowns at gas plants and the retirement of two nuclear reactors.

The operator’s annual winter outlook report said the UK had enough capacity to avoid blackouts affecting households and factories but tight supplies were likely to keep market prices at near record levels throughout the winter.

UK homes and businesses face some of the highest energy bills on record because of the global dash for gas, which has led to soaring market prices. The impact is expected to plunge hundreds of thousands of homes into fuel poverty for the first time and has already forced a slowdown at factories to manage eye-watering energy costs.

Ministers are facing questions about the Covid testing company linked to suspected wrong PCR results, as it emerged its sister company in the UK is being investigated over travel testing failures and a related US firm sent out used DNA test kits filled with other customers’ saliva.

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Immensa Health Clinic is under scrutiny after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) found at least 43,000 people may have been wrongly given a negative Covid test result, leading to the suspension of operations at its privately run laboratory in Wolverhampton.

It followed an investigation into reports of people receiving negative PCR test results after previously testing positive on a lateral flow device, many of them in the south-west and Wales.

Immensa was founded in May 2020 by Andrea Riposati, a former management consultant and owner of a DNA testing company, just three months before it was awarded a £119m PCR testing contract by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). He is the sole listed owner and board director.

Riposati is also the founder of Dante Labs, which is under investigation in the UK by the Competition and Markets Authority over its PCR travel tests.

The watchdog said it would look into concerns that Dante Labs may be treating customers unfairly by not delivering PCR tests or results on time or at all, failing to respond to complaints or provide proper customer service, refusing or delaying refunds when requested and using terms and conditions that may unfairly limit consumers’ rights.

In the US, Dante Labs admitted having sent five used DNA test kits to customers containing the saliva of other people. One reported finding the tube where he was meant to deposit his spit was already filled with bubbly liquid and sealed up in a biohazard bag.

After the incident in 2018, Dante Labs issued a statement saying five people received “used kits” as a result of an error by its shipping provider, with Riposati saying he took “full responsibility”.

There have been further questions over the management of Immensa. Earlier this year, the DHSC promised to launch an investigation after the Sun on Sunday found that workers appeared to be fighting, sleeping, playing football and drinking on duty while working at Immensa’s Wolverhampton lab. The government said at the time it would speak to Immensa as it took “evidence of misconduct extremely seriously”.

Despite this, Immensa won a further £50m contract from the DHSC as recently as July. It appears to have opened another PCR testing laboratory at Charnwood, Leicestershire, in September, with the launch attended by the Tory MP for Loughborough, Jane Hunt.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “Serious questions have to be asked about how this private firm – who didn’t exist before May 2020 – was awarded a lucrative £120m contract to run this lab.

“From duff PPE to failing test kits, ministers have sprayed around tax money like confetti and utterly failed to deliver the service people deserve.”

The original £119m PCR testing contract was awarded to Immensa last year without being put out to tender, raising questions about how and why the firm was given the deal.

In an unusual move, the government press release announcing the suspension of the Wolverhampton lab on Friday contained a supportive quote from Riposati, saying: “We are fully collaborating with UKHSA on this matter. Quality is paramount for us. We have proudly analysed more than 2.5m samples for NHS test and trace, working closely with the great teams at the Department of Health and Social Care and UKHSA. We do not wish this matter or anything else to tarnish the amazing work done by the UK in this pandemic.”

Immensa has been approached for comment via Dante Labs, and the DHSC has been asked for comment on its due diligence procedures.

NHS test and trace said about 400,000 samples had been processed through the Wolverhampton lab, the vast majority of which will have been negative results, but an estimated 43,000 people may have been given incorrect negative PCR test results between 8 September and 12 October, mostly in south-west England.

Test and trace is contacting the people who could still be infectious to advise them to take another test.

The UKHSA said it was “an isolated incident attributed to one laboratory but all samples are now being redirected to other laboratories”.

A spokesperson for Immensa said:“We have been cooperating fully with the UKHSA on this matter and will continue to do so.”

The company did not respond to questions about the used tests incident in the US or behaviour of staff at its Wolverhampton lab.

In relation to the CMA inquiry, the spokesperson said it was disappointed about the move but fully cooperating, adding: “Dante Labs has completed over 4m tests in support of families, small businesses and local authorities since the pandemic began. We have a strong track record of providing all major Covid-19 tests, as approved by the Department of Health and Social Care.

“While the overwhelming majority of our customers have received a timely and cost-effective service, we recognise the challenges faced by a small proportion of those who have purchased our tests. We have invested significantly in our customer service operation to improve our overall delivery in the face of huge demand.”

Dr Will Welfare, the public health incident director at UKHSA, said: “There is no evidence of any faults with LFD or PCR test kits themselves and the public should remain confident in using them and in other laboratory services currently provided.”

However, some scientists are concerned that false results could have been partly responsible for the recent rise in Covid cases, which have topped 45,000 a day.

Dr Kit Yates, a mathematical biologist at the University of Bath and a member of the Independent Sage group of scientists, suggested the suspected testing errors could have had serious consequences.

He said: “We now know 43,000 people are believed to have been given false negatives, but this doesn’t even come near to the cost of the mistake.

“Many of these people will have been forced into school or work, potentially infecting others. This could be part of the reason behind some of the recent rises we’ve seen.

“We need to find out exactly what happened here in order to make sure it doesn’t happen again elsewhere.”

Speaking on a visit in the West Country, Boris Johnson said officials were still “looking into” what had gone wrong but denied that it was a factor in overall rising case numbers.

A major £365,000 investment to revamp a popular skate park in Devon has unexpectedly opened today as soon as works were finished.

Owl expects this to be very popular!

Anita Merritt www.devonlive.com 

The sudden completion has been welcomed by skaters who have been desperate to use Exmouth Phear Skate Park since it closed in June.

The official opening event will take place on Saturday, October 30, from noon to 4pm, which will include an informal competition and professional demo riders.

The investment into the project saw £240,000 coming from East Devon District Council, and £125,000 from Exmouth Town Council.

The design was agreed in consultation with a group of local skate park users. It is free to use.

An aerial view of the revamp plans at Exmouth Phear Skate Park (Image: EDDC)

A spokesperson for East Devon District Council said: “Work on the new skate park in Phear Park, Exmouth, finished this afternoon, October 14, and as we knew skaters were keen to use the site we have already opened it up for use.

“Security fencing will remain around the edge of the site to help the new landscaping to settle in and the new grass to grow.

“We ask that users please keep off the fenced-off areas as much as possible to help prevent the new skate park getting covered in mud.”

Phear Skate Park received a £150,000 redevelopment in 2018, and when it reopened it was hailed as ‘one of the best skate parks in the country’.

It involved the demolition of old wooden equipment which was replaced with a new concrete skate park, designed with input from a group of local skaters and BMX riders.

Among those happy to see the skate park back in use again is Graham Hill, owner of Exmouth skate shop Rule 1, who has helped bring the new facility to the town.

He said: “I’m pretty sure I’m right in saying this is now Devons biggest skate park.

“I would like to thank councillor Paul Millar for helping me to finally getting this finished after five years of trying.

“Enjoy the radness and wear a helmet.”

UK trade negotiators should prioritise economic growth over the environment in trade deals, according to a leaked official document.

www.independent.co.uk 

The paper, drawn up by officials at the Department for International Trade, says environmental safeguards should not be treated as a red line when other countries do not want to include them in agreements.

It comes a month after it was revealed that the UK secretly dropped climate promises to get a trade deal with Australia’s government, which is hostile to action on climate change.

In the latest document, circulated to around 120 officials this week before being leaked to Sky News, department bosses say the “economic case” for reducing trade barriers should take precedent.

The UK is currently trying to negotiate a trade deal with Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right Brazilian government, whose policies on Amazon deforestation have caused an international outcry.

Campaigners have suggested that the UK should use trade deals as leverage to encourage Brazil’s government to stop its deforestation policies.

But the leaked document says: “[The government] should not refuse to liberalise on products of environmental concern where there is an economic case for liberalisation, or partner interest is so strong that not doing so would compromise the wider agreement.

“In these cases, we should continue to liberalise and address carbon leakage risk (in general, as well as any marginal additional risk from the fair trade agreement) using those FTA levers outlined in this note and non-FTA levers outlined elsewhere.”

It adds: “HMG should not pursue a conditional liberalisation approach. This is due to the very high negotiability challenge (little precedent and proven difficulty of raising with partners on related issues) and WTO compliance issues/creating double standards with trade partners.”

The overall economic case for free trade agreements is relatively weak, with the government’s estimates putting the benefits of even the largest agreement with the US at less than 0.16 per cent of GDP over 20 years.

But the government has effectively accepted that this deal will not happen under president Joe Biden, and is instead focusing on other deals with even smaller economic benefits.

Yet ministers are politically desperate to be able to point to concrete wins from leaving the EU, with other benefits so far few and far between.

The Department for International Trade downplayed the significance of the leaked document, but trade experts say the approach it outlines is clearly already being pursued by civil servants.

Opposition parties also criticised the approach.

“It’s really shocking to see a document going round government where they’re essentially saying, ‘never mind about climate change, never mind about the environment, Bolsonaro is a difficult guy, if you want a trade deal from Brazil, and he wants to sell us stuff from a rainforest, we probably shouldn’t get in the way that much because otherwise we won’t end up with a trade deal’ – really?” said Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow international trade secretary to Sky News.

A Department for International Trade spokesman said: “This is not government policy, and is not being considered by ministers.”

Heavy precipitation that can damage crops is also on the rise, since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. “In times when there is extreme heat or extreme precipitation, by protecting plants in this manner, it can actually benefit them,” says Madhu Khanna, an economist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who also won funding from the USDA’s new agrivoltaics grant. “So that’s another factor that we want to look at.” 

By Kemal Pasha swiftheadline.com

Khanna will be studying what the ideal solar array might be for a particular crop, for instance, if it needs bigger or smaller gaps between panels to let sunlight pass through. Height, too, is an issue: Corn and wheat would need taller panels, while shrubby soybeans would be fine with a more squat variety. 

Thanks to those gaps, crops grown under solar panels aren’t bathed in darkness. But, generally speaking, the light is more diffuse, meaning it’s bouncing off of surfaces before striking the plants. This replicates a natural forest environment, in which all plants, save for the tallest trees, hang out in the shade, soaking up any sunbeams that break through. 

Barron-Gafford has found that a forestlike shading under solar panels elicits a physiological response from plants. To collect more light, their leaves grow bigger than they would if planted in an open field. He’s seen this happen in basil, which would increase that crop’s yield. Barron-Gafford has also found that the pepper Capsicum annuum, which grows in the shade of trees in the wild, produces three times as much fruit in an agrivoltaic system. Tomato plants also grow more fruit. This is likely due to the plants being less stressed by the constant bombardment of sunlight, to which they’re not evolutionarily adapted.

But every crop is going to be different, so scientists have to test each to see how they react to shade. “For example, we probably wouldn’t recommend that somebody plant summer squash directly in the deepest shade, directly under a panel,” says Mark Uchanski, a horticultural scientist at Colorado State University who’s studying agrivoltaics and tested that exact scenario. “The better location for that might be further out toward the edges where it’s more likely to get a little bit more sun, because we did see a yield decrease in that case.” 

While setting up the panels entails some up-front costs, they might actually make farmers some money, as Kominek told Grist in this 2020 story before his panels were in place. They’d produce energy to run the farm, and the farmer can sell any surplus back to a utility. And since some plants—like those salsa ingredients in Barron-Gafford’s experiments—will use less water, that can reduce irrigation expenses. “If we can actually allow farmers to diversify their production and get more out of the same land, then that can benefit them,” says Khanna. “Having crops and solar panels is more beneficial for the environment than solar panels alone.” 

This kind of setup also cools the solar panels in two ways: Water evaporating from the soil rises up towards the panels, and plants release their own water. This is dandy for the panels’ efficiency, because they actually perform worse when they get too hot. They generate an electric current when the sun’s photons knock electrons out of atoms, but if they overheat, the electrons get overexcited and don’t generate as much electricity when they’re dislodged. 

Courtesy of Greg Barron-Gafford

A Devon woman [Dr Cathy Gardner] who is challenging the government over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic says a report from MPs has “skipped over” the initial failure to protect care home residents who were “sitting ducks”.

[The High Court judicial review starts on Tuesday, October 19.]

Edward Oldfield www.devonlive.com

Dr Cathy Gardner, from Sidmouth, has brought the case following the death of her father Michael Gibson, at the age 88 in a care home in April 2020, early in the first lockdown.

Dr Gardner, who has a Phd in virology, claims that the UK Government, and NHS England, unlawfully failed to do enough to protect the right to life of vulnerable care home residents in the early response to the virus.

A report from MPs on the Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, published on Tuesday, said the UK’s preparation for a pandemic was far too focused on flu, while ministers waited too long to push through lockdown measures in early 2020.

In the wide-ranging study stretching to 151 pages, MPs criticised the fact community testing was abandoned in March 2020 as a “seminal error”, said NHS test and trace was too slow and failed to have a big impact, and that thousands of people died in care homes partly due to a policy of discharging people from hospital without testing.

The MPs concluded that the “decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”.

Dr Gardner, who has a science background and worked in the pharmaceutical industry, said: “For me, the section on social care skipped over the surface. It mentions in the first paragraph that the arrangements to protect the elderly were of vast importance, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, but it does not go back to mention what were the measures to protect the elderly, what should have been done, and if they were not done, why not.”

She added: “Nothing was done for people in care homes. They were sitting ducks. The government has a legal duty to protect the most vulnerable. We have asked what steps were taken over the infamous protective ring around care homes, which was not there – we know it was not there.”

Dr Gardner, who represents Sidmouth Town on East Devon Council and is a member of the East Devon Alliance, has raised more than £130,000 with a public appeal to fund a legal challenge to the government, but the campaign is still £35,000 short of the total amount needed.

She said she was partly bringing the case in memory of her father, who was an assistant registrar and filled out thousands of death certificates. Dr Gardner said his own certificate is inaccurate as he was not tested for Covid, but it states his death was due to “probable” Covid-19, suspected to have been caught from a patient discharged from hospital to his care home in Oxfordshire.

Dr Gardner is bringing the judicial review alongside Fay Harris, whose father also died with Covid-19 in a care home. They argue certain key government policies and decisions led to a “shocking death toll” of more than 20,000 care home residents from Covid between March and June 2020. These include a policy of discharging around 25,000 patients from hospital into care homes – including the homes of the claimants’ fathers – without testing and proper isolation.

A judge has allowed the case to go forward to a full hearing which is due to take place over four days in the High Court, starting on Tuesday, October 19.

Dr Gardner said: “I would like the ministers involved to admit that they made mistakes, and that those mistakes cost lives. I am not interested in an apology, but I think the failure to apologise is disgusting. To me it is about admitting they were wrong. It is about the law, it is about, did you do what you were supposed to do?

“You had a legal duty to try and protect the elderly, just admit that you did not do it, and you should do better. Just have some humility about this, rather just waving the vaccine around like some shiny distraction.”

The claim to be heard in the High Court in London states that the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, “unlawfully failed to protect care home residents from the three principal routes of transmission of Covid: infection by other residents, by external visitors to care homes, and by care home staff.”

Dr Gardner said the claim sets out that the government failed to consider the health and wellbeing of care home residents when hospital patients were released without testing, or advice to care home staff on PPE or isolating new arrivals.

She said the government had so far refused to hand over key documents explaining why decisions were made.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Stephen Barclay defended the government’s handling of the pandemic. He told Sky News’ Kay Burley the Government “did take decisions to move quickly”, including on vaccines, and that both scientists and ministers were acting on information they had at the time.

However, he admitted he had “not had chance to read” the MPs’ report, which was circulated to the media under embargo on Monday morning and also sent to Government departments, including his own Cabinet Office.

Mr Barclay said: “It was an unprecedented pandemic, we were learning about it as we went through and of course, with hindsight, there’s things we know about it now that we didn’t know at the time.

“Of course there are going to be lessons to learn, that’s why we’ve committed to an inquiry, but the Government took decisions at the time based on the scientific advice it received, but those scientists themselves were operating in a very new environment where they themselves were learning about the pandemic.”

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Barclay was asked if the Government was too slow to go into the first lockdown – a key criticism in the MPs’ report. He said: “Well I think there is an issue there of hindsight, because at the time of the first lockdown the expectation was that the tolerance in terms of how long people would live with lockdown for was a far shorter period than actually has proven to be the case, and therefore there was an issue of timing the lockdown and ensuring that that was done at the point of optimal impact.

“And so it is a point of hindsight to now say that the way that decision was shaped and how long we could lock down for… because we now know that there was much more willingness for the country to endure that than was originally envisaged.”

Mr Barclay denied there had been groupthink on handling the pandemic, even though former health secretary and fellow Tory MP Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the Commons health committee, said there had been.

“No, I don’t accept that, and we followed the scientific advice throughout. We protected the NHS from the surge of pressure that we saw in other countries, such as Italy, and we can’t apply hindsight to the challenges that we faced,” Mr Barclay said.

Asked whether he agreed, however, that it was an “appalling error” not to introduce a second lockdown earlier, even though scientists on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) recommended one six weeks before it was introduced, Mr Barclay said: “No I don’t, because I think there were difficult judgments to be made. We followed the scientific advice throughout, we took action to protect our NHS, we got a vaccine deployed in record time, but I don’t shy away from the fact that there will be lessons to learn.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, when Covid-19 emerged in China, MPs said the UK policy was to mistakenly take a “gradual and incremental approach” to interventions such as social distancing, isolation and lockdowns. They said this was “a deliberate policy” proposed by scientists and adopted by UK governments, which has now been shown to be “wrong” and led to a higher death toll.

The MPs concluded that the “decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”.

After hearing evidence from people including the Prime Minister’s former adviser, Dominic Cummings, and former health secretary Matt Hancock, the MPs said it was only in the days leading up to the March 23 lockdown that people within Government and advisers “experienced simultaneous epiphanies that the course the UK was following was wrong, possibly catastrophically so”.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Mr Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018, admitted he was part of the “groupthink” that focused too much on flu and failed to adequately plan for a pandemic such as Covid.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the UK should have locked down earlier and “the Prime Minister is of course ultimately responsible, but some of the advice that he got was also wrong”.

Mr Hunt added: “There was a groupthink that the way you tackle a pandemic should be similar to a flu pandemic, I was part of that groupthink too when I was health secretary.”

Questioned on the impact of the Prime Minister’s personality early on in the pandemic, and whether Boris Johnson did not want to shut down the nation in case it was “unpopular”, Mr Hunt said that “every prime minister’s personality matters but in this particular case, on those particular decisions, he was following the scientific advice, and the question we have to ask is why across the whole of the system in those early months, everyone was advising the wrong approach?”

Mr Hunt also said that when images of the pandemic in Italy hit TV screens in the UK, the focus was on hospitals rather than other places such as care homes.

He added: “We say this was like a football match with two very different halves, and yes there were those very serious errors that… led to many tragedies.

“But in the second half of the match, we have the vaccine programme which was, we say, the most effective initiative in the history of British science and public administration, we had the discovery of treatments like dexamethasone in the UK which saved a million lives worldwide, we had that extraordinary response in the NHS which saw everyone who needed a ventilator and an intensive care bed, got one.”

Meanwhile, Tory MP Greg Clark, who chairs the Commons science committee, told BBC Breakfast that “other countries elsewhere in the world, particularly in East Asia” quickly mobilised testing capacity so they could test people in the community and isolate them, which “allowed them to get a grip of the pandemic earlier than we were able to do”.

He said increasing testing capacity in the UK was “painfully” slow, adding that if everyone coming out of hospital into a care home could have been tested “then undoubtedly we could have stopped the seeding of infections into care homes”.

In a joint statement on the publication of the Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Report, Mr Hunt and Mr Clark said: “The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future.

“Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective. The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.

“In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right. We record our gratitude to all those – NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers – who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.”

Barnstaple town centre has been described as ‘messy,’ ‘unsafe,’ and ‘not a nice place to be’ in emails sent to a local MP.

Ami Wyllie www.devonlive.com

The revelation comes as Conservative MP Selaine Saxby announced findings from a months long survey asking where locals would like to see £6.5 million spent in North Devon’s ‘retail capital.’

Results from the survey showed that locals were in support of a budget dedicated solely to restoring, cleaning and maintaining Barnstaple town centre.

Constituents have told Ms. Saxby that they actively avoid the town’s centre due to its run down appearance.

Ms. Saxby said the ‘Broken Window Theory,’ which suggests that scruffy and unkempt neighbourhoods lead to crime and disorder due to their ‘social neglect,’ summarises the rapid decline of Barnstaple.

Work with Barnstaple in Bloom has been a short-term solution to the issue and Devon County Council and North Devon Council have both been invited to see the positive impact a ‘small amount’ of money can do.

Ms. Saxby hopes the Government’s investment will help put the centre of North Devon back on track as thriving hub, but know that financial backing is only the beginning.

She said: “This will not solve all the problems we are currently seeing like littering and anti-social behaviour”.

She added: “Barnstaple town centre needs to adapt and be a social destination, a place to spend time and not just money.”

While her survey found a lack of interest in pedestrianisation of the town centre, there was overwhelming support for improved public transport links, including the Barnstaple to Exeter train link.

Having a visible ‘front desk’ for the NHS, local Police and North Devon Council in the centre of town was also a highly supported idea.

Ranked as the most ‘economically vulnerable’ neighbourhood out of all 457 that Devon County Council look after, Barnstaple was awarded the funds as part of the Government’s ‘Future High Street Fund.’

Ms. Saxby has welcomed this funding, and wants to find creative ways to best spent the money and ‘build back better,’ while warning that a one-time lump sum is not a total fix.

She said: “The Pannier Market, Butchers Row, and the Boutport Street entrance to Queen Street car park are the current focuses of the Government and North Devon Council’s investment.

“These should not, however, be the only focuses.

“Investment and changes need to encompass and benefit the whole of the town centre and while I am encouraged with what is happening, we cannot wait around for the next big funding round.

“I will continue to lobby for government investment, but we do need our councils to do more, and we can all play our part by supporting the town centre, buying local when we can, helping keep Barnstaple clean and tidy, and reporting anti-social behaviour.”

Owl posted this comment yesterday:

“I really enjoy East Devon Watch, but please could it be in darker type – I find the grey print really hard to read. I have mentioned this before and was told it was up to the designer, so please could you mention it to him or her. Thank you. Best wishes, Liz Rhodes”

This is beyond Owl’s skills set, but help was volunteered by one of the original site designers who has “tweaked” the type appearance. For which Owl is very grateful.

Liz reports that the changes are “fantastic”.

A bit more “joined up” thinking might help as well. 

Owl recalls that the “promised”  GP surgery site on the Alfred’s Way development in Newton Poppleford was used by Clinton Devon Estates to build a couple more houses instead. The NHS, in its wisdom, however, insists that Newton Poppleford inhabitants must use Ottery St Mary GP facilities. The only way to get to the surgery by public transport is to go into Exeter and out again. A short journey as the crow flies takes all day by bus. There is a surgery on the Exeter to Sidmouth route!

Real sustainability should be a prerequisite of major planning decisions.

Plan for £34 million boost to Devon’s buses

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

Devon could get a £34 million boost to its bus services, if the county council’s bid for a pot of government funding is successful.

The council’s ruling cabinet has agreed to bid for the cash from the government’s £3 billion ‘bus back better’ programme to improve local bus services across England.

But whilst the plan was broadly welcomed by councillors from across the political spectrum, one Lib Dem thought transporting people in “huge buses” was a blast from the fifties and that more people should be hitchhiking.

The county’s proposals, being developed in partnership with Devon’s bus companies, aim to make buses cheaper to use, greener, more frequent and more reliable. A public consultation will start across Devon in November.

Also included are plans for regional zone tickets to simplify fares, by working with neighbouring councils, and bringing in ‘young person’ tickets for 16 to 18 -year-olds, one of the age groups most heavily reliant on buses.

An additional £7.5 million could also be spent on bus priority measures to speed up journey times in urban areas such as Exeter, Exmouth, Barnstaple and Newton Abbot, as well as improving bus stops and other infrastructure in the rest of the county.

A council report said: “Bus is the main form of public transport in Devon, providing services to a large range of people, many of whom have no alternative means of transport. The opportunity provided by the government to bid for extra funding will provide a quantum leap in how the bus service operates in the future.”

Councillor Andrea Davis (Conservative, Combe Martin), cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport told the meeting: “It’s very ambitious, it supports Devon County Council’s carbon reduction. It’s about operating services, cutting fares, lots more services and frequent services so that residents have the choice over the mode of transport that they use.”

Councillor Alan Connett (Lib Dem, Exminster & Haldon), opposition leader on the council, said it was a “very exciting set of proposals” and added: “If successful it would bring an enormous benefit to Devon and for the bus passengers across the county who use them. There’s much to be applauded here and I really do hope the bid is successful.”

Leader of the Labour group Councillor Rob Hannaford (Exwick & St Thomas), while saying the “proposals to make buses greener, cheaper and more reliable is really welcome,” pointed to the current problems at Stagecoach South West, including a shortage of drivers and industrial action, as reasons for why the council should look into public ownership of buses, as has recently happened in Manchester.

RMT union members are currently set to walk out over pay for 24 hours on Monday 18 October. Stagecoach has offered drivers a 9.7 per cent increase, linked to productivity changes. It says passenger numbers are below pre-covid levels, with fares insufficient to cover day-to-day costs of running the serice. The RMT says the offer comes with strings attached which equate to “savage cuts.”

Devon County Council’s new plan calls for greater integration with the rail and coach network in Devon and better cooperation with other neighbouring councils to recognise that journeys often cross county boundaries.

The strategy also sets out targets for moving towards zero-emission vehicles. The council has been involved in two previous unsuccessful bids for reduced emission or electric vehicles. The report says: “The challenge in a county like Devon is the range of the vehicles versus the length of the routes operated.”

However, Councillor Julian Brazil (Lib Dem, Kingsbridge) said the report was a “massive, missed opportunity,” and claimed the council should be doing more to get people sharing smaller vehicles and even hitchhike.

“The old fashioned idea of transporting people in huge buses around rural lanes, or indeed on roads that were built for horse and coaches and not for double decker buses, I think is going back to the fifties.

“Instead, we should be looking to introduce some kind of hybrid bus-taxi service using the information technology that’s available to us, using people carriers. Looking to introduce things like a hitchhiking app that encourages more people to hitchhike, car-sharing…

“That’s what this report should be encouraging. More innovative, forward-thinking and ground-breaking ways of delivering truly public transport to all areas – not just towns, but to rural areas as well.”

The cabinet unanimously agreed the main principles of the plan, to submit the bid and to launch a public consultation. From the start of November, the Department for Transport will assess the bids submitted by each authority and respond with a funding package for the next three years.

PROPOSED BUS IMPROVEMENTS

Improvement to rural services

• Provision of at least four return journeys Monday to Saturday for all communities with a population of over 500.
• Exploration of alternative models of delivery including Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), expansion of Fare Cars or fixed routes

Evening and Sunday services

• On improved inter urban and city corridors; a service of at least three journeys per evening and on Sunday.
• Expansion of hourly night-time services for routes carrying over 2 million passengers* per annum. Inter-urban services
• Improvements to services identified in the Exeter Transport Strategy up to a maximum frequency of 15 minutes.
• Other services into Exeter to gain an additional journey per hour, plus those to strategic towns such as Barnstaple, Newton Abbot or Plymouth currently carrying over 100,000 passengers* per annum.

Devon “Lynx” services

• Strategic links improved between centres of population.
• Better connections with the strategic rail and coach network. Examples of possible links included in Appendix A.

City and town services

• Towns with a population of 20,000 to gain an additional journey per hour if carrying over 100,000 passengers* per annum.
• Towns with a population of between 5,000 and 15,000 to gain a minimum provision of an hourly off-peak service.

From a correspondent:

A friend fell in the centre of Exeter at about 8.30 pm on Saturday evening.  It was a bad fall and she had obviously hurt her arm and her collar-bone and was in great pain.  A local shopkeeper called an ambulance and 30 minutes later called again and was told there were none available. 

After one and a half hours lying on the concrete pavement the ambulance service sent a local taxi to pick her up.  The lady’s partner had to get her into the taxi for the journey to RD&E A&E and had to help her out when they got there as the taxi driver was not allowed to touch her.  

She had dislocated her shoulder and spent 12 hours in A&E before she was allowed home.

Ministers and civil servants are required by policy to set instant messaging chats to delete automatically, it has been revealed, as a judicial review over the government’s use of self-destructing messages was given the go-ahead.

Cabinet policy obliges ministers to delete instant messages

Haroon Siddique www.theguardian.com 

The not-profit organisation the Citizens says the use of disappearing messages, which has been described as “government by WhatsApp”, violates British law on public records and freedom of information.

Its legal challenge comes amid concerns that the likes of WhatsApp and Signal, which have a disappearing messages option, are being used to avoid scrutiny of decision-making processes, including on significant issues such as the government’s coronavirus response.

At a high court hearing in London on Tuesday, it was revealed that the Cabinet Office’s “information and records retention and destruction policy”, disclosed in response to the Citizens application for a judicial review, obliges officials to delete instant chats.

The policy says: “Instant messaging is provided to all staff and should be used in preference to email for routine communications where there is no need to retain a record of the communication. Instant messages history in individual and group chats must be switched off and should not be retained once a session is finished. If the content of an instant message is required for the record or as an audit trail, a note for the record should be created and the message content saved in that.”

The Citizens says making a separate note, as opposed to preserving the actual message, is insufficient to comply with the law. Other documents disclosed ban the use of personal phones, email and WhatsApp by ministers and civil servants. The Citizens, which is being supported by the campaigning law group Foxglove, says the policies are “a confusing, contradictory mess”.

It is challenging the lawfulness of:

• Use for government business of instant messaging services that allow messages to be automatically deleted, permanently, within a short period of receipt by ministers, civil servants and special advisers.
• Cabinet Office policy requiring the use of automatic deletion within all instant messaging services.
• Use for government business of personal devices, email and communications applications in breach, it says, of the government’s own policies.

After Mrs Justice Lang granted permission for the case to go to full judicial review, Clara Maguire, the director of the Citizens, said: “This is a good day for democracy. Lack of transparency has been at the heart of the UK government’s disastrous handling of the Covid catastrophe as today’s parliamentary report points out so clearly.

“It says that a culture of secrecy contributed to tens of thousands of excess deaths. We believe this case goes to the very heart of this problem and we look forward to proving government by WhatsApp is not only dangerous but also unlawful.”

The non-profit organisation argues the use of instant messaging makes it impossible to carry out required legal checks about whether a message should be archived for posterity. Information that could be useful to a public inquiry, or otherwise fall within the scope of a freedom of information request, may be lost as a result.

Cori Crider, the director of Foxglove, said: “Government by WhatsApp is an existential threat to Britain’s historical record. From people in positions of public trust, the law – and the country – require more.”

In July, the information commissioner announced an investigation into the use of private correspondence channels at the Department of Health and Social Care.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “Ministers will use a range of modern forms of communication for discussions, in line with legislative requirements, and taking into account government guidance.”

The joint parliamentary committee report “Coronavirus, lessons learned to date” can be found here.

A good summary of the key findings  can be found here.

A more critical review: “Hard hitting” Covid reports fails to land a single punch can be found here.

Two comments from Owl:

We  urgently need to know the: who, what, where and when; and

The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt’s participation as one of the Chairs, given his responsibilities as a former Health Minister, was/is totally inappropriate.

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary www.thetimes.co.uk

The findings of the joint select committee report into the government’s Covid response came as a surprise to no one, but to read the litany of monumental and tragic errors catalogued so clearly is still devastating.

We all remember watching in horror as desperate scenes unfolded in northern Italy last year and questions started to be asked as to why we weren’t locking down here. Instead, race meetings and European football fixtures went ahead. The pubs remained open.

We all heard the demands of the World Health Organisation to “test, test, test”, but here testing was abandoned in early March.

We were all angered as our brave NHS staff pleaded for PPE to replace the flimsy bin-bags they were forced to wear or visors and goggles they had to purchase from local DIY stores. Doctors said they were abandoned like lambs to the slaughter.

Most shameful of all was the failure to protect care homes. In the rush to free up hospital beds, the frail were quickly discharged without a test. The virus inevitably spread with an unforgiving ferocity. Boasts of a “protective ring” now ring sickeningly hollow.

The need to free up so many beds was a consequence of needing to find “surge” capacity in the NHS. But that in turn reflects a cold reality: that for ten years the Tories have run the NHS into the ground. The deepest financial squeeze in NHS history, cuts to 15,000 beds and shortages of 40,000 nurses meant we entered the pandemic desperately unprepared.

The reality is that the NHS and social care sector needed protecting even before the pandemic hit.

Sign up to receive Red Box, our poke at politics delivered every weekday morning.

The running down of our health service, social care and public health capacity meant that ministers were slow in their eventual response. As the virus began to spread rapidly in the UK, Boris Johnson took an approach that differed from almost every country around the world; he kept society open for longer, favouring herd immunity.

Government officials — experts in “nudge theory” — were sent out to tour TV studios extolling the virtues of allowing the virus to rip through the strong while the weak “cocoon”.

Nadine Dorries tweeted videos of a bucket overflowing with water to explain the approach. Inside government, figures joked of mass “chicken-pox parties”. Meanwhile, our dedicated public health medical experts (none of whom had a seat on Sage) looked on aghast.

The line being taken by uncomfortable Tory ministers is to say that this is all passing judgment with hindsight. But Labour raised questions with the approach throughout March 2020.

As country after country closed its borders or introduced testing of people returning home, in public statements we asked why the prime minister had not done the same. We demanded mass testing and contact tracing to be protected, and support for people to isolate when sick — a demand to this day still not fully met.

Highlighting the monumental scale of the failures experienced at the start of the pandemic is not being done for political point-scoring. It is crucial that the mistakes from the pandemic are learnt, to ensure that catastrophic failures on this scale never happen again.

This means starting a public inquiry now. There is no reason to wait.

But it also means preparing for the coming winter. As case rates remain high, we need proper ventilation for businesses and schools. We need the rollout of vaccinations for children to be sped up, and we need to target the areas that have the lowest vaccination rates to drive up the number of people being jabbed.

Our NHS too must be given support this winter. Today, the Royal College of Physicians has issued a stark warning about hospitals’ ability to cope with winter. No doctor should be forced to make a choice between Covid care and cancer care. But without a proper plan to keep infections down and reduce the pressures on hospitals this winter, it is likely that once again our NHS will be faced with this difficult choice.

Covid has not gone away. We can learn to live with the virus, but that is not the same as pretending that it no longer exists.

The lessons from this report must be that ministers keep on top of the virus — and that preparing for a pandemic can never come too soon.

UK’s high Covid case rates buck trend as western Europe outperforms east

Experts have suggested this may be because most western European countries retained significant distancing and other Covid-related restrictions when they opened up during the summer, while England decided to drop almost all of its measures.

Jon Henley www.theguardian.com 

Higher vaccination rates are translating to lower Covid infection and death rates in western Europe than in parts of central and eastern Europe, the latest data suggests – except in the UK where case numbers are surging.

Figures from Our World In Data indicate a clear correlation between the percentage of people fully vaccinated and new daily cases and fatalities, with health systems in some under-inoculated central and eastern EU states under acute strain.

The outlier appears to be Britain, which – though now overtaken by multiple EU states – has vaccinated a similar share of its population to most western European countries, but has an infection rate that more closely resembles those in the east.

Slower vaccination programmes in central and eastern Europe combined with an easing of most social distancing requirements over the summer have led to a dramatic surge in Covid cases in some central and eastern European countries.

Driven by the more infectious Delta variant, the Baltic states of Lithuania (771) and Latvia (737) have the highest rolling seven-day average of new daily cases per million, according to Our World In Data, with Romania (678) and Estonia (675) not far behind.

The same countries, with Bulgaria, are also enduring among Europe’s highest daily fatality rates per million, with Romania on a rolling average of 14 and Bulgaria on 13, followed by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on 9, 5 and 3 respectively.

Those figures stand in stark contrast to some of the best-performing countries in western Europe: new daily infections per million in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and France are more than 10 times lower, at about 38, 43, 59, 59 and 76 respectively, with figures for daily deaths per million similarly down at between 0.5 to 0.9.

Health systems in Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia are struggling to cope, with hospitals running at 80% to 100% capacity. Romania last week postponed all non-essential operations, Bulgaria is battling a wave of fake vaccination and PCR test certificates and Latvia has declared a medical emergency.

“If the current flow of patients continues, in one or two days the health system will collapse because we already don’t have enough place to accommodate the sick,” the director of Bucharest’s Matei Bals hospital, Cătălin Apostolescu, said last week.

On Thursday there were 14,457 new Covid cases in Romania in 24 hours, in a country of just over 19 million, while Friday’s death toll was the highest of the pandemic so far, with 385 people dying from coronavirus. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the country is envisaging sending critically ill patients abroad.

“I fear we are already in the Italy scenario,” said the head of the national vaccination campaign, Valeriu Gheorghiță, referring to the healthcare system in northern Italy becoming overwhelmed in March 2020 during the first wave of the virus.

The correlation with vaccination progress appears plain. Again according to Our World In Data, Bulgaria and Romania have the EU’s lowest immunisation rates, with just 20% and 29% of their total populations having received two doses.

Latvia and Estonia are performing better at 48% and 43%, but even those figures are a very long way from the percentages recorded by many western European countries.

Portugal has now fully vaccinated nearly 86% of its total population, Spain nearly 79%, Italy more than 68% and France more than 66%, with any increase in cases having only a very limited impact on fatality figures.

Official data shows more than 70% of confirmed infections and 93% of deaths in Romania are in unvaccinated people, “We are still a battlefield, sadly,” said Adrian Marinescu, the medical director of the national institute for infectious diseases. “Vaccination is often the difference between life and death for a vulnerable person.”

Bulgaria and Romania face the additional challenge of political crises. Bulgaria is heading into its third parliamentary election in less than a year while Romania’s government was toppled last week in a no-confidence vote, leaving politicians in both countries reluctant to impose tougher restrictions for fear of upsetting voters.

Britain is in the unusual position of having fully vaccinated a relatively high percentage of its population (just over 66%), but also having Europe’s fifth-highest infection rate, at 534 new daily cases per million people – not far behind the Baltics and between eight and 12 times higher that France, Italy and Spain.

After a hugely successful early vaccination rollout, the UK has been overtaken by seven EU states, partly because many continental countries began vaccinating children over 12 as early as June – although other factors, such as strong incentivisation through vaccine passports, have also helped boost vaccination rates in countries such as France.

While the UK’s relatively high vaccination rate means deaths per million are a fraction of the daily total in Bulgaria and Romania, they are still the highest in western Europe, significantly above such countries as Spain, France, Italy and Germany.

Experts have suggested this may be because most western European countries retained significant distancing and other Covid-related restrictions when they opened up during the summer, while England decided to drop almost all of its measures.

Germany and Italy, for example, still restrict large gatherings, while Spain enforces social distancing in schools. Many countries also require proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter public spaces such as museums and theatres, as well as cafes and restaurants, and masks are still mandatory on public transport and in shops.

Christina Pagel and Martin McKee, members of Independent Sage, an expert group critical of the UK government’s approach, wrote last week in the Guardian that the UK was pursuing what they termed a “vaccine just” strategy, while much of western Europe had opted for “vaccine plus”.

“Both require vaccinating as many people as possible,” Pagel and McKee wrote. But while Britain had relied only on vaccines – where it was now starting to fall behind – “face coverings and vaccine passports remain widespread across western Europe”. They said England, “not for the first time, is the odd one out in Europe.”

Coronavirus infection rates have gone up in all ten areas of Devon.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Torridge continues to have the highest coronavirus infection rate in Devon, as the area recorded a rate of 451.1 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending October 7, according to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency.

The lowest infection rate is in Mid Devon, where the rate is 291.8 cases per 100,000 people.

In Devon as a whole, the infection rate is now 357.9 cases per 100,000 population – slightly higher than the national average, which is 356.6 cases per 100,000 people.

A total of 4,330 people tested positive for coronavirus across Devon in the week which ended on October 7. The county-wide weekly total has increased by 566 cases compared to the previous week, which means the infection rate was up 15 per cent in the last week.

The infection rate is higher than the national average in 4 areas of Devon. It is lower than the national average in 6 areas.

Deaths

In the week ending October 7, a total of 11 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test across Devon, which is 8 fewer than the week before.

Cases reported in each of the ten areas

There was a rise of seven per cent in cases in East Devon over the week ending October 7, and the infection rate is now 336.3 cases per 100,000 population.

East Devon recorded 498 positive Covid-19 tests over the seven-day period, and that is 33 more than the previous week.

Teignbridge saw a total of 463 cases in the week ending October 7, which is 37 more than the previous week. That is a rise of nine per cent.

In Teignbridge, the most recent coronavirus infection rate is now 342.9 cases per 100,000 people.

In Torridge, there were 310 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 55 more than the previous 7 days.

Torridge has the highest infection rate in the region. The infection rate in Torridge is up slightly compared with the previous day and the week-on-week trend is up by 22 per cent.

In North Devon, the latest infection rate is 410.5 cases per 100,000 people and the number of cases has gone up by eight per cent.

A total of 403 people tested positive for Covid in North Devon over the seven days ending on October 7, which is 29 more than the week before.

In Exeter, the number of cases is up by nine per cent compared to the previous week – leaving the infection rate at 315.0 cases per 100,000 population.

There were 420 positive Covid-19 tests in Exeter in the week ending October 7, which was 35 more than the previous 7 days.

There were 241 positive tests over the last week in West Devon, which is 68 more than in the previous week.

The week-on-week trend in West Devon is up by 39 per cent and the latest infection rate is 429.3 cases per 100,000 people.

Plymouth recorded 1016 coronavirus cases, which is 126 more than in the previous seven days.

The latest infection rate in Plymouth is 386.5 cases per 100,000 people and that is up 14 per cent week-on-week.

The trend is up in Torbay, where there were 478 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 130 more than the previous 7 days. That is up by 37 per cent compared to the previous week.

The latest infection rate in Torbay is 350.9 cases per 100,000 people, which is lower than the national average.

South Hams is an area where the trend is up. The latest infection rate here is 293.4 cases per 100,000 people.

There were 258 cases recorded in South Hams, which is 17 more than the previous week – a rise of seven per cent.

Mid Devon, which has the lowest infection rate in the region, recorded 243 positive Covid-19 tests in the week ending October 7, which is 36 more than the previous 7 days.

The coronavirus infection rate in Mid Devon is now 291.8 cases per 100,000 people and is up by 17 per cent week-on-week.