Boris Johnson’s plan to build “the stupidest tunnel in the world” between Scotland and Northern Ireland – estimated to be at least $ 15 billion is being scrapped as part of the spending review.

newsbeezer.com 

It’s said Murdoch wants Gove for PM.  Obviously not what everyone wants …..! – Owl

 www.independent.co.uk

Michael Gove made crude sexual comments, joked about paedophilia within top levels of government, and used a racist slur in a series of remarks in his twenties, The Independent can reveal.

The Cabinet Office minister also described Prince Charles as a “dull, wet, drippy adulterer” in speeches at the Cambridge Union while he was a student at Oxford, and after his graduation while working as a journalist.

In apparent attempts at humour, Mr Gove referred to people living in countries colonised by the British as “fuzzy-wuzzies”, accused the late former Tory minister Sir Leon Brittan of being a paedophile, and made a string of sexual jokes at the expense of Conservative minister Lucy Frazer.

The chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, who has been tipped for the position of either foreign secretary or home secretary in a potential reshuffle, also described Margaret Thatcher’s policies as a “new empire” where “the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner”, and said that gay people “thrive primarily upon short-term relations”.

Mr Gove made the comments – which were met at the time by cheers, stunned laughter, and shouts of “shame” – at three evening debates at the Cambridge Union in February 1993, December 1993 and during the winter of 1987, recordings of which came to light this week.

By 1993 Mr Gove had forged a career in television at the BBC, working on the politics programme On the Record, and had performed on Channel 4’s short-lived comedy programme A Stab in the Dark.

In February of that year, Mr Gove made a number of comments about the then European commissioner Sir Leon Brittan, speaking in favour of the motion “This house would rather have a degree from the university of life”.

Imagining an exchange between the two men, Mr Gove said: “[Leon] said: ‘Cambridge taught me an appreciation of music. And in particular an appreciation of the mature male soprano voice.’”

Mr Gove further imagined Sir Leon telling him that there was “no sound sweeter” than a young boy’s voice breaking, apart from the sound of the same boy involved in a sex act.

Sir Leon was a key cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and, before his death in 2015, was targeted by Scotland Yard in a VIP sexual abuse investigation triggered by the testimony of fantasist Carl Beech. The allegations against Sir Leon were found to be false, and Beech was sentenced to 18 years for perverting the course of justice and for fraud.

Mr Gove went on to joke about reporting Sir Leon to “special branch”, saying that he “now satisfies his desires in the Bois de Boulogne and various other Brussels hangouts.”

In December of 1993 he made a speech in support of the motion “This house prefers a woman on top”.

Mr Gove boasted that current justice minister Lucy Frazer, who had invited him to speak at the time, was “actually capable of tempting me into bed with her”, and implied that one college’s entire rugby club had had group sex with her.

He then referred to her “preference for peach-flavoured condoms” and said she had done “remarkably well” to come from “the back streets of the slums of Leeds”.

The Independent understands that Michael Gove and Lucy Frazer were not romantically involved, and that his descriptions were purely fictitious.

In 1987, when Mr Gove was in his final year at Oxford University and serving as president-elect of its debating society, he spoke in favour of the motion “This house believes that the British empire was lost on the playing fields of Eton” as part of an intervarsity debating competition at the Cambridge Union.

In making his case, he used a racial slur, saying: “It may be moral to keep an empire because the fuzzy-wuzzies can’t look after themselves.

“It may be immoral to keep an empire because the people of the third world have an inalienable right to self-determination, but that doesn’t matter whether it’s moral or immoral.”

Referring to the practice of British rule, Gove said that “Eton took the cream of the colonial system, it took fettered foreigners and it turned them into gentlemen.”

“Fettered” is a term that is used to describe people, often slaves, who have been restrained with chains or manacles, typically around the ankles.

He later went on to describe the economist John Maynard Keynes as a “homosexualist”, adding: “Many of us are familiar with the fact that homosexuals thrive primarily on short-term relations.”

The speech also included Mr Gove’s opinions of Margaret Thatcher’s policies, which he described as “rigorously, vigorously, virulently, virilely, heterosexual”.

He continued: “We are at last experiencing a new empire: an empire where the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner.

“At last Mrs Thatcher is saying I don’t give a fig for what half of the population say because the richer half will keep me in power. This may be amoral, this may be immoral, but it’s politics and it’s pragmatism.”

Mr Gove, who became an MP in 2005, also said that the Prince of Wales was an example of how university education makes people boring. He referred to him as “a dull, wet, drippy adulterer whose romantic conversation is dominated by lavatorial detail”.

Another jibe was made at the expense of the then president of the union, with Mr Gove saying: “Putting you in charge of the Cambridge Union was rather like putting Slobodan Milosevic in Serbian high command in charge of a rape crisis centre.”

More recently, in 2017, when appearing on the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Gove joked that being interviewed by the presenter John Humphrys was like going into Harvey Weinstein’s bedroom – “You just pray that you emerge with your dignity intact.” Mr Gove later apologised, saying it had been a “clumsy attempt at humour”.

The Liberal Democrats have called for Boris Johnson to consider whether Mr Gove should remain in the cabinet in light of the comments.

Wendy Chamberlain MP, Liberal Democrat chief whip, said: “Michael Gove should be ashamed that he ever thought these things, let alone said them. These inappropriate and racist remarks are not befitting of a government minister, not befitting of a journalist, in fact not befitting of anyone.

“The prime minister should consider whether this is the type of person that deserves to be sat around the cabinet table. However, given Boris Johnson’s own history of disgraceful remarks, I expect this will be another shameful issue he lets go unchallenged.”

Mr Gove and Ms Frazer declined to comment.

Chronic neglect of the NHS, poor pandemic preparedness and flawed government policies have contributed to the appalling impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK, according to a damning assessment from the British Medical Association.

Ian Sample www.theguardian.com 

More than 130,000 people in the UK have died from coronavirus since the pandemic began, with non-Covid excess deaths up 12,000 last year, making the country one of the hardest hit among comparable nations, the doctors’ body said.

In a speech on Monday, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA’s chair of council, will warn that the country and NHS staff have never faced such a crisis before and urge ministers to take action to ensure the health service is better prepared to respond to pandemics in the future.

“We will not accept a return to the old pre-pandemic NHS, which was so patently understaffed and under-resourced, where nine in 10 doctors are afraid of medical errors daily,” he is expected to say. “We will not accept an NHS running at unsafe bed occupancy and without spare capacity.”

Before the pandemic, NHS bed occupancy was regularly above the 85% considered a reasonable safe threshold. While the NHS had 7.3 critical care beds per 100,000 people, Germany had nearly 34 per 100,000 as the crisis unfolded.

Further planning failures left the NHS with inadequate stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline staff, leading to last-minute orders of masks, visors and gowns that in some cases turned out to be unsafe or unusable.

Years of underfunding, inadequate facilities and nearly 90,000 staff vacancies meant the NHS was in crisis before coronavirus emerged, leaving it ill-prepared for the demands of the pandemic, Nagpaul is to argue at the BMA’s annual representative meeting.

He will criticise ministers for dismissing calls for a rapid inquiry into the crisis, before the second wave of infections struck last year, meaning that crucial lessons from the previous six months were not learned. He will add that the ministerial mantra of “living with Covid” belies the reality that thousands of people continue to need hospital care for coronavirus with hundreds dying each week.

Despite warnings from senior doctors at the time, Boris Johnson’s decision to lift coronavirus restrictions this summer contributed to almost 40,000 being admitted to hospital and more than 4,000 deaths since so-called “freedom day” on 19 July, the BMA said.

“We will not accept an NHS in crisis every summer, let alone every winter,” Nagpaul will add. “We will not accept a nation bereft of public health staff, facilities and testing capacity, with ministers then paying billions to private companies who were unable to deliver.”

In the past week, ministers announced substantial extra funding for the NHS, including money specifically targeted at easing backlogs in treatment. While welcoming the funds as an important first step, Nagpaul will urge the government to provide realistic projections as to how far the money will stretch and to acknowledge that the amount will not address the drastic shortage of NHS staff. The BMA estimates that the NHS has 50,000 fewer doctors than the EU average.

More than 4 million people were on the NHS waiting list in England in March 2020, the month the country went into its first Covid lockdown. That number has since risen to 5.61 million. The Nuffield Trust has said waiting lists could top 15 million people in four years without a significant increase in NHS trust capacity.

Last week, GPs in England said they were finding it “increasingly hard to guarantee safe care” for patients, as the shortage of doctors meant they could not keep up with the surge in demand. Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), warned of a crisis in primary care after a 4.5% decrease in the number of GPs across England led to a risk of mistakes being made.

One of the first complaints lodged with the post-Brexit environmental watchdog accuses the government and Ofwat of failing to enforce the law to stop water companies from routinely discharging raw sewage into rivers.

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

The office for environmental protection (OEP) is being asked to investigate why water companies have been able to continually fail to meet duties placed on them by law to treat sewage. The secretary of state for the environment, George Eustice, and the financial regulator, Ofwat, had failed to enforce the law, the complaint said.

Lawyers for Salmon and Trout Conservation lodged the complaint with the OEP, whose role is to act as an independent to hold the government and public bodies to their commitments and environmental law.

The complaint says water companies have for 30 years had a legal duty – enforceable by the secretary of state and Ofwat – to “effectually drain sewers” and “effectually deal with sewage”.

But the charity said that despite the legal framework, water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and coastal waters in England more than 400,000 times in 2020, according to Environment Agency data. The spills via combined sewer overflows lasted for 3.1m hours. Yet the overflows are supposed to be used only in extreme weather to relieve pressure in the sewage system.

“By common understanding, the water companies have failed, and continue to fail to meet the duties placed on them by the 1991 (Water Industry) Act and that duty, patently, remains dramatically unenforced by the secretary of state and Ofwat,” the complaint reads.

The environment bill going through the House of Lords places a duty on government to publish a plan by September 2022 to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows.

In its complaint, Salmon and Trout Conservation said the government could be using the law to force water companies to cut sewage discharges.

“The secretary of state can just tell Ofwat and issue directions to the Environment Agency now to ensure the water companies just comply with existing law,” said Guy Linley-Adams, a solicitor for S&T Conservation.

“In practical effect, the law already says that untreated sewage shouldn’t be discharged into rivers except during very heavy rainfall, and then only to avoid sewers flooding. At all other times, sewage must be fully treated before anything is discharged – and that discharge must not cause pollution.

“The law is clear and has been since 1991. What is missing is the strength of will within government to get this sorted”.

The complaint says the current situation where sewerage infrastructure, by the government’s own admission, has not kept pace with population growth, has been allowed to develop since 1991 because the financial oversight provided by Ofwat has neither sufficiently required, nor sufficiently enabled, the water companies to ensure their infrastructure keeps pace with population growth and meets the requirements of the Water Industry Act.

Data released by the Environment Agency in 2020 shows that sewage and wastewater discharges by water companies into rivers account for damage to 36% of water bodies. Only 14% of English rivers are of good ecological standard, a rating that suggests they are as close to their natural state as possible.

“In the absence of sufficient sewage treatment infrastructure and capacity, rivers have been asked to do that ‘treating’ instead, which has harmed many English rivers,” the complaint said.

A former parish councillor from Staverton in Devon is urging politicians at all levels to take more urgent action to tackle the climate crisis. 

Philip Churm, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Simon Oldridge, who co-founded Sustainable South Hams and Sustainable Staverton, says more than 32 parishes in the South Hams area are already involved in his campaign, but local authorities and central government are failing to act on “compelling” scientific data which proves the threat of climate change. 

In 2019 the government amended the Climate Change Act to commit the UK to achieving net zero carbon by 2050.

But Mr Oldridge claims authorities like South Hams District Council need to be more proactive if they are to achieve those targets.  

“We actually wrote them a letter urging them to do something about the planning laws, locally, that allow house builders to continue to build houses that just aren’t fit for the future net-zero economy that we’re going to live in,” he said.

“They’re still building houses with gas boilers. And those gas boilers are going to have to be taken out before the end of their lives.”

He explained that such changes would be very costly because it would also involve replacing radiators throughout an entire property. 

“That’s really disruptive for people. But that’s being hidden and they’re just bashing these cheap houses out,” he said.

“South Hams should be using the planning laws to stop that. Although I would say it should come from the government, but South Hams I think could probably do better.” 

South Hams declared a climate change and biodiversity emergency in 2019 and has committed to reducing its organisational carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030.

South Hams has also committed to working with partners through the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group to aim to reduce the district’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 at the latest.

But it’s not just local authorities who are failing to act on climate change, according to Mr Oldridge. He also points the finger at some politicians, saying some take the issue more seriously than others. 

He said Sir Gary Streeter MP (Conservative, South West Devon) does not appear to have grasped the importance of the issue. “He’s still writing very misleading comments about how the UK is halfway to net zero,” said Mr Oldridge.

“He says the environment bill will solve everything. 

“The environment bill has got nothing to do with climate change at all.  If you do a word search on it, it doesn’t have the words ‘carbon’, ‘CO2’, ‘aviation’, ‘peat’, ‘marsh’ or ‘diet’. On anything to do with climate – it’s not there. 

“It’s an important bill. It’s needed as we leave the EU for tidying up lots of loose ends. But it’s nothing to do with tackling climate change or protecting nature on a wider scale. 

“It mentions ‘forest’ once and that’s in relation to commercial logging.”

Sir Gary gave a short but vehement rejection of Mr Oldridge’s comments “None of those quotes attributed to me are in any way accurate,” he said.  

South Hams plans measures to improve biodiversity and tackle climate change including recently consulting on whether more than 13 hectares of land should be used for ‘rewilding’. 

The council also aims to reduce its own carbon emissions, working with partners, including the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group, Plymouth City Council and West Devon Borough Council, and to increase biodiversity by 10 per cent in its green and wooded public habitats by 2025.

But Mr Oldridge said, although he welcomes many of the measures, he is concerned that politicians often claim they are doing enough.  

“The evidence now is so clear and so compelling that I don’t think that excuse is going to stand for very long for politicians who fail to act,” he said. 

• Variations of conditions 2 (odour management) and 5 (feedstock and digestate) of application 15/1512/FUL Enfield Farm Biodigester Oil Mill Lane Clyst St Mary EX5 1AFRef. No: 21/2375/VAR | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Prior approval for the change of use of an agricultural building to 4 no. dwelling houses and associated works Barn At Orchard Farm Plymtree EX15 2LWRef. No: 21/2388/PDQ | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey extension and extension to garage 15 Hayes End West Hill Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1GGRef. No: 21/2383/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey side extension, single storey front extension, erection of car port and alterations to fenestrations Eastleigh Slade Road Ottery St Mary EX11 1JERef. No: 21/2382/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Prior notification for the change of use of agricultural building to 4 no dwelling houses and associated works Barn At Orchard Farm Plymtree EX15 2LWRef. No: 21/2389/PDR | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of storage/workshop 4 Burnt Oak Sidbury Sidmouth EX10 0RBRef. No: 21/2364/FUL | Validated: Thu 02 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Sycamore : Crown lift secondary branches on south side to give 3m clearance to neighbouring roof. Reason: to achieve a space of approximately 3m between roof and tree which is free of branches. T,2 Cherry : Reduce low over extended limb back to a point above the boundary wall. Reason to reduce excessive shading. The Vicars House The College Ottery St Mary EX11 1DQRef. No: 21/2365/TRE | Validated: Thu 02 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition number 2 (approved plans) of application 20/2223/FUL The Laurels Church Road Whimple Exeter EX5 2SYRef. No: 21/2363/VAR | Validated: Thu 02 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 – Large ash tree by decking area. This tree has ash dieback and needs to be removed due to safety concerns. A replacement tree will be planted. T2 – Large ash in middle of garden. This tree has ash dieback and needs to be removed due to safety concerns. A replacement tree will be planted. T3 – large ash in far top of garden adjacent to the road. This tree has ash dieback and needs to be removed due to safety concerns. A replacement tree will be planted. T4- large ash next to T3. This tree has ash dieback and needs to be removed due to safety concerns. A replacement tree will be planted. T5 – large ash next to T4 & T3. This tree has ash dieback and needs to be removed due to safety concerns. A replacement tree will be planted. Olleston St Johns Road Exmouth EX8 5EGRef. No: 21/2367/TRE | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of outbuilding to form ancillary accommodation. Olinda Offwell Honiton Devon EX14 9SARef. No: 21/2366/FUL | Validated: Thu 02 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Conversion of garage to habitable use to include a side extension for use as a residential dwelling. 15 Birchwood Road Exmouth EX8 4LHRef. No: 21/2355/FUL | Validated: Wed 01 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 1/. Sycamore – overhanging garage – crown reduction 2/. Ash – Shading garden and hanging onto lawn, plus lounge window – crown lifting 3/. Ash – Hanging onto bungalow roof, causing blockage to downpipe – crown reduction (partial) 4/. Birch – Preventing light entering kitchen window and door – crown reduction (partial) 5/. Ash – Overhanging bungalow roof and blocking light to rear kitchen window plus blockage to downpipe – crown reduction (partial) 7 Walden Road Dunkeswell Honiton EX14 4XBRef. No: 21/2339/TRE | Validated: Thu 02 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of office to holiday let Crosshill Farm Weston Honiton EX14 3PFRef. No: 21/2353/FUL | Validated: Wed 01 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Suppressed Beech leaning into Liquidambar : fell to as near ground level as possible. T2, Hazel : reduce height to leave an arch. 9 Little Knowle Budleigh Salterton EX9 6QSRef. No: 21/2356/TCA | Validated: Wed 01 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of two storey extension. Slades Farm Rockbeare Exeter EX5 2EGRef. No: 21/2326/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of raised decking. 24 Brixington Drive Exmouth EX8 4HJRef. No: 21/2336/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed first floor extension over existing garage and single storey rear extension. 3 Spring Meadow Jackson Meadow Lympstone Exmouth EX8 5DFRef. No: 21/2327/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 40 x Ash – Fell. Reason: Appropriate arboricultural management. Elbury Farm Broadclyst Exeter EX5 3BHRef. No: 21/2328/TRE | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a single storey rear sunroom and shower extension 4 Joslin Road Honiton EX14 1RHRef. No: 21/2337/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of a poultry house phase 3 Land South Of Hanger Farm Stafford Hill BroadhemburyRef. No: 21/2333/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• New farm access Stopgate Farm Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9NBRef. No: 21/2332/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a poultry house phase 4 Land At Hanger Farm Stafford Hill BroadhemburyRef. No: 21/2334/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Fell leylandii hedge made up of 17 individual trees. The trees have become too large for the garden and are causing excessive shading. Brook Cottage The Square Whimple Exeter EX5 2SLRef. No: 21/2313/TCA | Validated: Wed 01 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversation of barn in 2no holiday lets and new Sheppard Hut (holiday accommodation) expansion of approved application 20/2365/FUL Little Northmostown Barns Northmostown Sidmouth EX10 0NLRef. No: 21/2325/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1 – Elm – Felling due to Dutch Elm Disease G1 – Coppice/trim Hazels across rear boundary Flint Barn Ottery Street Otterton Budleigh Salterton EX9 7HWRef. No: 21/2315/TCA | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension, first floor side extension and new chimney breast to side of dwelling 10 Butts Road Ottery St Mary EX11 1ELRef. No: 21/2310/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a lean to veranda. 13 East Terrace Budleigh Salterton EX9 6PGRef. No: 21/2298/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Use of land at Killerton for a Festive Light Trail, including siting of Catering concessions and overflow parking. Killerton House Killerton Exeter EX5 3LERef. No: 21/2301/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey front and side extension, removal of lime mortar and repair of exposed building, replacement of existing windows and enlargement of opening to create a new doorway 4 Victoria Place Chardstock Axminster EX13 7BWRef. No: 21/2289/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey front and side extension, removal of lime mortar and repair of exposed building, replacement of existing windows and enlargement of opening to create a new doorway 4 Victoria Place Chardstock Axminster EX13 7BWRef. No: 21/2290/LBC | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Installation of 1 x outbuilding for use as a kitchen and installation of 1 x outbuilding for use as a office/laundry room Heron Farm Weston Honiton EX14 3NZRef. No: 21/2293/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Ground floor rear extension and first floor rear extension 7 Lime Close Broadclyst Exeter EX5 3LURef. No: 21/2279/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of two agricultural storage buildings. Longwood Farm Combe Raleigh Honiton EX14 4TGRef. No: 21/2274/AGR | Validated: Mon 30 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of guarding around existing terrace, and installation of new door/window within existing window opening. 9 Witheby Sidmouth EX10 8SRRef. No: 21/2281/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Part two storey part single storey side extension with re cladding of dwelling. Longreach Lower Broad Oak Road West Hill Ottery St Mary EX11 1UFRef. No: 21/2249/FUL | Validated: Wed 01 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Sub division of existing annex and creation of new vehicular access. The Barn Annexe 2 Lower Court Cottages Fluxton Ottery St Mary EX11 1RLRef. No: 21/2246/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Reserved Matters Application (access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale) for construction of 146 dwellings including affordable housing, landscaping, associated site infrastructure and all other associated works. The proposal includes the discharge of conditions 6, 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 28 and 37 of outline planning permission 03/P1900. Environmental Statement submitted to the planning authority at Outline stage Cranbrook Ingrams Land Cranbrook New CommunityRef. No: 21/2236/MRES | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• First floor side extension and installation of front and rear dormers 3 Madison Close Stoke Canon Exeter EX5 4AGRef. No: 21/2234/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of new vehicular access The Meade Sanctuary Lane Woodbury Exeter EX5 1EXRef. No: 21/2232/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace 8no. windows: 4no. at first floor and 3no. at ground floor on front (south) elevation and 1no. at first floor side (east) elevation. Talaton Farm Cottage Talaton Exeter EX5 2SARef. No: 21/2242/LBC | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Remove existing render and re-render with lime based plaster on all elevations Upham House Farringdon Exeter EX5 2HZRef. No: 21/2208/LBC | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of agricultural land to class B8 use (expansion of existing B8 use compound) Compound 10 Hogsbrook Greendale Business Park Road To Greendale Business Park Woodbury Salterton Greendale Business Park EX5 1EWRef. No: 21/2154/COU | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing bungalow and erection of a replacement 2 storey dwelling and associated works Little Gables Green Lane Exton Exeter EX3 0PWRef. No: 21/2145/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use from tent only field to a tent, caravan and motorhome field with associated electrical hook up. Prattshayes Farm Maer Lane Exmouth EX8 5DBRef. No: 21/2141/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of two second floor windows. 1 Addington Cottages Upottery Honiton EX14 9PNRef. No: 21/2133/FUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of two second floor windows. 1 Addington Cottages Upottery Honiton EX14 9PNRef. No: 21/2134/LBC | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolish existing garage, build new garage and rear single storey extension 13 Elmfield Road Seaton EX12 2EGRef. No: 21/2064/FUL | Validated: Tue 31 Aug 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of the existing Devoncourt building and outbuildings, construction of 81 no new residential apartments (25% affordable) and new 62 bed hotel with access via Maer Road car park, associated car parking and landscaping works Devoncourt Hotel 16 Douglas Avenue Exmouth EX8 2EXRef. No: 21/0821/MFUL | Validated: Fri 03 Sep 2021 | Status: Awaiting decision

More residents whose homes have decreased in value because of the proximity of the South Devon Highway will finally receive compensation payments.

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Devon County Council’s ruling cabinet approved a £5 million fund this week, which will also go towards outstanding payments from the road’s construction, including surveys and contract commitments.

The £110 million expressway opened in December 2015, linking Torquay with Newton Abbot and bypassing the village of Kingskerswell. It has eased congestion between the towns and ended the misery  – of both residents and drivers – caused by congestion at Kingskerswell.

Data from earlier in the year also found that, since opening, levels of pollution in the village have dropped ‘like a stone’. Previously, it had been so bad that it was designated as an air quality management area requiring statutory monitoring of pollution.

However, many homes near the South Devon highway have dropped in value and are therefore eligible for compensation under the Land Compensation Act 1973. Homeowners were told they would receive their claims within five years of the road opening, but almost six years on some are still waiting.

The pandemic is to blame, at least in part. A reduction in traffic caused by lockdowns and more people working from home meant accurate noise measurements couldn’t be carried out.

Last year, leader of Devon County Council John Hart admitted that while some payments had been made, progress for others had been slower than hoped – partly due to the pandemic which also meant some meetings were postponed.

Councillors had previously been told that more than 800 residents initially submitted claims, but only 270 were eligible for part one – defined as compensation if the value of property “goes down because of pollution or disturbance from the use of a new or altered road.”

Providing an update, a Devon County Council spokesman said: “To date we have agreed 78 part one claims of varying value.

“With new claims continuing to be received and negotiations ongoing, it’s not possible at this stage to confirm the number of valid claims. However we can confirm that we are progressing with further offers and negotiations with agents.”

At the cabinet meeting, Cllr Hart was told that the £5 million fund includes money for land compensation and that payments are now being made to residents.

Many people will still rack up sizeable costs when it comes to paying for social care, experts say, despite government pledges to protect families from “potentially catastrophic” bills.

Rupert Jones www.theguardian.com 

Ministers last week announced a huge shake-up of adult social care and how it is funded – but, as with many financial deals, there is plenty of small print that could catch out the unwary, and detail yet to be published.

One key announcement was that from October 2023 no one in England would pay more than £86,000 for the care they require in their lifetime.

While the government has pointed out that under the new rules, some people could see the amount they have to pay cut by £100,000 or more, it was less keen to clearly spell out that “daily living costs” in a care home – accommodation, food and so on – would not count towards the new lifetime cap.

“Board and lodging” costs would easily be one third of the total bill, says former pensions minister Steve Webb, now a partner at actuaries LCP.

With the average cost of a residential care home for an older person estimated at £35,000-plus a year, that could mean a £12,000-a-year bill for living costs, and a lot more in some cases. For a nursing home, the total average cost is significantly higher – just over £48,000 a year.

Ros Altmann, another former pensions minister, told the Observer that by the time they reached the £86,000 cap, some people would probably have spent £150,000 or more.

It’s also important to note that, with living costs excluded, it would take a typical care home resident a little over three and a half years to hit the cap. Unfortunately, a significant number would not make it to that point because they would die before then.

Webb reckons the new lifetime cap will “benefit very few people for many years to come”. He adds: “No money which people have spent to date, or spend before October 2023, is expected to count. The clock will start at zero in October 2023.”

Webb and Altmann were more positive about another planned change. Currently in England, if someone has assets worth more than £23,250, they are responsible for the full cost of their care in a care home, with no cap on costs. Under the new system, anyone with assets below £20,000 won’t have to make any contribution from their savings or the value of their home. Those with assets from £20,000 to £100,000 will be eligible for some means-tested support. Those with assets above £100,000 must meet all fees until their assets fall below £100,000.

So how might it all work in practice? The government has given the case study example of “Yusuf” in his late 70s, who has lived on his own since his wife died 10 years ago. When she died, he downsized from their family home to a smaller property worth £180,000. As a result, he has £70,000 in savings. Yusuf develops dementia, can no longer cope at home and needs to move into residential care. He ultimately spends eight years living at the home. Yusuf’s care home costs £700 per week, or £36,400 a year.

Officials say that under the current system, over that eight years, Yusuf would spend a total of just over £290,000 on his care from his assets and his income (he has a pension of £210 a week), and as a result would only have £72,000 left in assets.

Under the new regime, the government claims Yusuf would end up spending £123,000 less than under the current system. He would hit the £86,000 cap after three years and four months, and so would no longer need to contribute for his personal care from his assets or his income after that. Beyond this, he would only have to pay towards his daily living costs. He is now left with £173,000, which is 69% of his original £250,000 assets.

In response to this official case study, Webb says that eight years living in residential care “would be at the upper end, I would have thought – I think something closer to three would be more typical”.

He adds: “Although it’s true that with £70,000 in savings, he would currently get zero help, because of the £23,250 capital cut-off, in the new world he still racks up substantial bills until he hits the cap.”

Relative to population, the UK’s green recovery investment is just 24% that of France, 21% that of Canada, and 6% that of the US.

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com

Up to 660,000 jobs will be at serious risk if the UK continues to fall behind other countries in the amount it invests in green infrastructure and jobs, according to an alarming study published on Saturday.

Coming just two months before Boris Johnson’s government hosts the United Nations Climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, the report by the TUC makes clear that the impact on employment in the UK as a result of jobs moving “offshore” to countries in the vanguard of green investment and technology will be particularly acute in the UK’s industrial heartlands in the north-west, Yorkshire and the Humber.

Separate research by the TUC in June found that the UK is second from bottom in the league table of G7 economies for its record in investment in green investment and jobs – despite Johnson’s claims to be a leading force in the race to save the planet from global warming.

While the UK Treasury is expected to invest only about £180 per person on green recovery and jobs over the next decade, President Joe Biden plans to allocate more than £2,960 per person on a green recovery in the US: jobs and programmes involving public transport, electric vehicles and energy efficiency retrofits.

Relative to population, the UK’s green recovery investment is just 24% that of France, 21% that of Canada, and 6% that of the US.

The study, launched on the first day of its annual Congress, which marks the opening of the political conference season, says jobs in UK sectors such as the steel industry are at grave risk because manufacturing is still dependent on the environmentally damaging process of burning coal at high temperatures. Other countries are blazing a trail in technologies that allow “green” production of high-grade steel without coal and these pioneers will prosper and expand while “dirty” old producers will wither and die.

Last month the Swedish firm Hybrit announced the delivery of its first consignment of “green steel” to the car maker Volvo while another Swedish firm, H2 Green Steel, is planning a hydrogen plant that will begin production in 2024.

The report says that 79,000 jobs are at risk, as other countries race ahead in green development, in the UK rubber and plastic sector, 63,200 in the UK chemicals sector and 26,900 in iron and steel. In total it says that 260,000 manufacturing jobs could be at risk as well as 407,000 in supply chains.

Alan Coombs, a workplace rep for the Community trades union who has worked at Port Talbot steelworks for 40 years, said: “Companies overseas are already setting target dates for green steel. But the UK isn’t even putting our toe in the water.

“We have families here who are the third or fourth generation working at the plant. If we don’t have apprenticeships in green steel technology soon, there won’t be another generation. If we put ourselves at the forefront of green innovation, we can protect the workforce. But it needs government action.”

The TUC is calling on the government to fund an £85bn green recovery package to create 1.24 million green jobs. In addition it is stepping up calls for a scheme to help protect working people through this and other periods of profound industrial change, which would act as a bridge for those in jobs and industries under threat from offshoring during the global transition to net zero.

The union body says that such job protection schemes exist in Germany, Japan and many US states, producing significant savings on redundancies, training and hiring costs, and enabling firms to keep skilled staff on their books.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “The world is moving very clearly in one direction – away from carbon and toward net zero. The UK must keep up with the pace of change. There’s still time to protect vital jobs in manufacturing and its supply chains.

“But the clock is ticking. Unless the government urgently scales up investment in green tech and industry, we risk losing hundreds of thousands of jobs to competitor nations. If we move quickly, we can still safeguard Britain’s industrial heartlands.”

A government spokesperson said: “These claims are untrue and we do not recognise this methodology.

“In recent months we’ve secured record investment in wind power, published a world-leading hydrogen strategy, pledged £1bn in funding to support the development of carbon capture and launched a landmark North Sea transition deal – the first G7 nation to do so – that will protect our environment, generate huge investment and create and support thousands of jobs.”

Yes – you read it in the Express, but in case you didn’t, Owl posts the headlines!

A survey of Express readers found 56 percent don’t want Mr Johnson to try and beat the Iron Lady’s record, versus 42 percent who do. Mrs Thatcher served as Prime Minister for eleven years, from 1979 to 1990.

James Bickerton www.express.co.uk

“Secret handshakes don’t seem to work with the tax man….”

David Byers www.thetimes.co.uk

The Freemasons, the secret society known for its charitable work and strange initiations, has failed to win a multimillion-pound tax break.

The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), the governing body for Freemasons in England and Wales, has lost a battle against HMRC to secure a £2.83 million VAT rebate by getting a judge to officially recognise it as solely “a philosophical, philanthropic or civic” organisation.

This comes after a push to publicise its charity work and to attract more members by advertising at universities.

UGLE claimed in court that it should be given the refund, which covered VAT on membership fees between 2010 and 2018, because it had become so outward-looking since the turn of the century that its philanthropy and philosophy was its “main aim and it did not have any other main aims”.

HMRC disputed the claim at the first-tier tax tribunal. Although it agreed that the Freemasons carried out many worthy charitable works, it said that many objectives were still “for the benefit of its members”, and included “making friends, socialising and networking” so it should be taxed as a normal membership organisation. Judge Greg Sinfield ruled that UGLE had stretched its definition of philanthropy too far. “The giving by Freemasons through UGLE and the masonic charities for the benefit of other Freemasons is not philanthropy,” he said.

UGLE said: “We are obviously disappointed with the outcome, but will not be providing further comment during the appeal period.”

[Including commentators such as Dominic Lawson – “This is about inheritance, not the quality of care” – Owl”]

The parliamentary vote on social care passed pretty comfortably for the prime minister, but a nasty war over the funding of his social care reforms rages on in the Tory-leaning press. Accusations of treachery and “disgrace”, of addiction to tax hikes, of being an ideological void – and even of murdering conservativism – are all being laid at Boris Johnson’s door.

Vanessa Thorpe www.theguardian.com 

And this from the closest he has to friends in the media. The leftwing press may have piled on its own allegations that the new tax scheme will hit the struggling employed and yet leave wealthy pensioners and high earners untouched, but much of the harshest criticism is still coming from the right.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday title, attacked the reputation of the PM with a frenzy. “Shame on Boris Johnson, and shame on the Conservative party. They have disgraced themselves, lied to their voters, repudiated their principles and treated millions of their supporters with utter contempt,” Heath argued under the headline “Boris’s shameful Tory betrayal guarantees the total victory of socialism in Britain” and a sub-heading that proclaimed “The Conservatives have trashed their intellectual traditions for the sake of short-term political gain.”

Fraser Nelson, editor of the venerable rightwing journal the Spectator, had no kinder words for Johnson, although he certainly did not declare a covert victory for socialism.

Under the claim that Johnson’s cabinet has presided over the “inversion of the welfare state”, Nelson explained the mechanics by which this trick has been pulled off. “The traditional logic of the welfare state – that those with power and money help those with less of it – would be turned on its head… Some will help families who can in no sense be described as rich. But after the NHS waiting list has begun to ease, the tax becomes a care home insurance scheme, and the refusal to impose any means-testing has big implications.”

On the eve of the vote, the Spectator’s economics editor, Kate Andrews, alleged Johnson had “reneged on manifesto promises left and right” and was now revelling in the growth of the “big state”.

She feared, she added, that the NHS hole will drain all the new cash. “Unless decades of politicalisation and idolisation of the health service are undone overnight, and it becomes politically possible to critique the health service, this seems like a near-impossible situation. The only guarantee, then, is a new, higher tax burden.”

Another pair of missiles launched on the eve of the vote came from the Telegraph. Robert Taylor claimed Johnson is “addicted to big government”, predicting further tax rises, while Camilla Tominey, the paper’s associate editor, said Johnson lacked shame “as he sounded the death knell for conservatism”. She argued: “Mr Johnson’s suggestion that the public feels in their bones the need to spend more on the NHS appeared to miss the point that most would rather it was the government’s money than more of their own hard-earned cash.”

The NHS will be at breaking point within two months if the Government fails to implement basic Covid precautions such as mask wearing and social distancing, a new scientific paper has found. 

By David Parsley inews.co.uk

The paper, which is at the pre-publication stage at the highly regarded medical journal The Lancet, has been authored by a number of leading scientists and was funded by vaccine producer Moderna. 

The report finds that, even with a 100 per cent take up among the over-16s currently being offered a vaccine, there will have been up to one million hospital admissions to Covid wards between “freedom day” on 19 July and the end of the year if the reproduction rate (R-rate) rises above two. 

At an R-rate of 1.7 the paper, seen by i, estimates that the UK will suffer a further 340,000 hospital admissions before the end of the year. 

The current R-rate in England is 0.9 to 1.1, but with the margin of error could be as high a 1.3. In Scotland, three weeks after schools returned, the R-rate stands at around 1.3 to 1.6. 

Without any Covid restrictions in place and with pupils returning to school in England this week, one of the authors of the research believes NHS hospital admissions for Covid across the UK will have reached that same level as at the last peak of 5,671 on 12 January. 

Co-author Dr David Strain, a senior clinical lecturer in the college of medicine and health at the University of Exeter, said: “We found that there is going to be a steady and continued rise in infections and hospitalisations if further interventions are not put in place, whether they be physical distancing, the reintroduction of masks, or different vaccines strategies. 

“If we don’t do anything, hospitalisations will be at the same level as they were at the previous peak by the beginning of November.” 

Since pupils return to school in Scotland three weeks ago there has been a more than fourfold increase in infections north of the border, while hospital admissions are up more than 3.5 times those before the autumn term began.

However, Scotland did open up other hospitality venues and large events around the same time a school pupils returned. 

Dr Strain believes the Government must do something in order to mitigate an “inevitable” rise in cases over the coming weeks in order to ensure the NHS remains operational. 

“We have to do something,” he said. “Whether that something is a firebreak, whether that something is changing the vaccination strategy, or just reintroducing masks and social distancing. But we will definitely have to do something between now and Christmas.” 

The report’s authors also include three researchers from the modelling group Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Marc Evans of Cardiff University, as well as three scientist from Moderna. 

Despite ongoing concerns that the Government may be forced to re-introduce Covid restrictions, ministers have claimed any lockdown in October to ensure the NHS is not pushed beyond capacity was a “last resort”. 

A senior No.10 source suggested to i last night that the only contingency measures under active consideration by ministers in case of unsustainable pressure on the NHS were relatively non-invasive ones such as mask wearing and capacity limits at large events. 

The biggest shake-up of planning laws for 70 years is set to be abandoned after a backlash from voters and Tory MPs in southern England.

George Grylls, Political Reporter  www.thetimes.co.uk

Reforms designed to help ministers hit a target of 300,000 new homes annually by the middle of the decade will be watered down, The Times understands.

The government had intended to rip up the planning application process and replace it with a zonal system, stripping homeowners of their rights to object to new houses. It said that councils would also be given mandatory housebuilding targets.

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, will announce a more limited set of changes. Tory MPs blamed the planning overhaul for their party’s shock defeat by the Liberal Democrats at the Chesham & Amersham by-election in June.

The need for wholesale reform has been questioned after developers set records for housebuilding. Almost 244,000 homes were built in 2019-20, the highest number since the late 1980s, and developers appear to have coped well with the pandemic.

In the first three months of this year construction began on 46,010 dwellings, an increase of a third on the same period last year and the highest number of quarterly starts for 14 years. There are more than 1.1 million homes with planning permission waiting to be built, analysis by the Local Government Association has found.

Ministers are expected to abandon their intention to make housebuilding targets mandatory. The zonal system proposed last year is also likely to be dropped — although councils could be asked to designate “growth sites” where there is a presumption in favour of development and planning applications will be fast-tracked.

Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, said in July that the government had already achieved its aims for housing reform by slipping through changes to the planning system this year.

Cummings said that an expansion of Permitted Development Rights (PDRs), which let developers turn high-street businesses into flats and add two storeys to existing buildings without planning permission, had passed unnoticed in Westminster. The changes had been “barely discussed publicly” so that Tory MPs would not get “over-excited”.

A Whitehall source said: “The changes we made this year have been received positively and we’re hearing of examples of them being put to good use and helping our high streets.”

The backbenchers are likely to seek more concessions. Bob Seely, a leading rebel, said: “Communities . . . have a right to demand to be listened to without being shouted down by the Westminster elite as so-called nimbys.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We will not comment on speculation. Our response to the consultation will be released in due course.”

It’s been a busy week.

On Thursday, incoming Information Commissioner, John Edwards, was questioned by MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Unprompted, he suggested he thought it was legitimate to charge some Freedom of Information requesters. 

We issued the following statement in response to his comments:

“John Edwards was cautious about taking a firm position on the FOI questions he was asked, understandably wanting to brief himself fully on the issues before commenting.  Unfortunately, that did not deter him from suggesting off his own bat that some requesters should be charged for making FOI requests, a topic no-one on the committee had even raised with him. He seemed unaware that the ICO has always opposed the introduction of charges. For the incoming Commissioner to advocate a reversal of ICO policy on this critical issue before he’s even taken office is not an encouraging sign. We may have the first Information Commissioner who is willing to take the initiative in proposing to restrict FOI rights.”

Our comments have been quoted in this report on the hearing by openDemocracy. 

Mr Edwards is currently the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner. He takes over from Elizabeth Denham, the current UK Information Commissioner, on 31 October 2021. 

Rights to see personal data at risk

As if that wasn’t worrying enough, today the government published its long awaited proposals for reforming data protection law post-Brexit. It didn’t take us long to figure out that they would seriously reduce the rights of individuals to obtain their own personal data by making a  ‘subject access’ request. 

The consultation document proposes several changes based on provisions under the Freedom of Information Act:

1. allowing subject access requests to be refused if the cost of answering the request exceeds particular limits;
2. requiring data controllers to advise and assist requesters whose requests are refused on cost grounds; and
3. permitting burdensome requests to be refused as vexatious.

Under the Freedom of Information Act requesters can challenge such refusals by complaining to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which must investigate and can overturn refusals. This doesn’t happen under Data Protection legislation. The ICO normally refuses to enforce subject access rights, telling requesters to go to court instead. Few do because of the high costs. 

The consultation would extend the grounds for refusals while strengthening the ICO’s ability to ignore complaints. Any comparison with the FOI regime is misleading: the ICO’s ‘hands off’ approach means individual rights would simply be slashed.

Katherine Gundersen 

Campaign for Freedom of Information go.cfoi.org.uk

“…..handing the high streets over to a blundering herd of developers is not democracy.”

Simon Jenkins www.theguardian.com 

The summer of 2021 may be remembered for Covid and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. But another lasting and insidious change took place: the death of the high street. By approving the building of residential homes on ailing shopping streets, planning minister Robert Jenrick effectively allowed any shop, restaurant, cafe or business premise in England to become a house. Since almost everywhere houses make more money, this puts every high street under threat.

Although done in the name of creating “thriving town centres”, Jenrick’s policy will strip away the cohesion that still binds many communities together, urban as well as rural. The diversity of English towns and cities has long been protected by planners enforcing classes of use. Restaurants and shops could not simply become houses without planning permission. But as of last month, if any landlord thinks to profit by turning the use of one building into another, it will require no permission to do so. A building need only to have been vacant for three months (after Covid-19, this already applies to one in seven shops, and could easily be achieved by eviction). Hit by lockdown, online shopping and the end of rental holidays, high street shops are struggling to survive. They need time to recover, not Jenrick kicking them in the teeth and sending their landlords cheering to the bank.

Listed for Jenrick’s chop are high street shops, restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, clinics, creches and gyms. Protests against the change to planning rules have been universal. The Royal Town Planning Institute dismisses the reform as “a golden gift for unscrupulous landlords and developers”. The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) calls it “no way to revitalise our high streets or level up”. Even the official developer lobby, the British Property Federation, deplores “the damaging impact uncontrolled conversions to residential could have on the future of our high streets”. The National Trust protests at conservation areas not being given protection, “leaving councils powerless to prevent businesses turning into poor-quality housing”. There is nothing to protect York’s Petergate or London’s Beauchamp Place from becoming flats, top to bottom.

Already, research is showing the likely consequences of this madcap policy. A report from University College London for the TCPA studied Huntingdonshire, Leicester, Barnet and Sussex. The expected loss of high street businesses to housing varies from 89% in Barnet to 75% in Huntingdonshire. Overall, four out of five shops are likely to disappear, mostly small, locally owned businesses.

Perhaps Jenrick’s family lives online, their idea of a high street being a van at the door and a delivery driver. Others romanticise community institutions such as the nursery, the newsagent and the village shop. We tease the French for saving every tabac and boulangerie. England’s high streets may be changing in the direction of the internet cafe, the hairdresser and the delicatessen, but all risk falling to a tidal wave of free-market entrepreneurship and Airbnbs. We should remember that such a market is not fluid. A housing estate that replaces a meadow never reverts to a meadow, nor will it revert to a high street.

We need time to assess the communal impact of the pandemic. I know of villages that have found a new sense of neighbourliness in lockdown. But shops, offices and other businesses have suffered a huge, many hope temporary, economic distortion. To exploit such distortion by freeing the use of buildings from planning control risks tearing the heart out of one community after another.

The point of town planning is to regulate the use of a scarce resource – land – for the public good. People want to see the places where they live sensitively regulated, not left to a free-for-all and to be insulted as nimbys if they complain. Boris Johnson should realise what cost him the Chesham byelection.

Planning has to change with the times and the 1987 use-classes orders were certainly archaic and rigid. But just because a law is out of date does not mean it must be abolished. A sense of community is a delicate thing. Its infrastructure will depend on market forces that are in turn disciplined by local debate and consent. Stripping out that consent – the essence of Jenrick’s planning reforms – and handing the high streets over to a blundering herd of developers is not democracy. The concept of English community is to be a snaking procession of delivery vans, one of Johnson’s most miserable legacies.

Extra staff are being recruited by East Devon District Council (EDDC) to help deal with ‘horrendous problems’ of homelessness caused by the end of the Government’s eviction ban.

Joe ives, Local Democracy Reporter sidmouth.nub.news 

The moratorium on evictions, which began during the first wave of the pandemic, ended on 31 May. EDDC says this has fuelled homelessness in the area, with current housing staff unable to keep up with cases and some even having to take time off because of stress.

An EDDC report says an ‘unsustainable’ number of people are approaching the council for help. As of Thursday, August 5, there were more than 250 open homelessness cases, and the number is expected to rise as evictions by private landlords soar.

Councillor Megan Armstrong (Independent Progressive Group, Exmouth Halsdon) told cabinet that the end of the eviction ban was causing ‘horrendous problems’ for many people in East Devon.

Councillor Jack Rowland (Democratic Alliance Group, Seaton) said: “It’s sad that we’re in a position that we have to consider this but the staff have been under such pressure and that pressure isn’t going to go away.

“You can only see the situation becoming worse over the remaining months of this year.”

The council’s cabinet, meeting on Wednesday, September 8, agreed to hire two extra housing officers for the next year at a cost of £67,500.

A worrying increase in insecure accommodation

Homelessness was already rising because of the pandemic, as was domestic violence and rent costs. It is claimed that Airbnb and a growth in the number of holiday homes is adding to the problem.

The legal definition of homelessness is that a household has no home in the UK or anywhere else in the world available and reasonable to occupy. Homelessness does not just refer to people who are sleeping rough. It also includes those in temporary shelter without permanent accommodation, those living in inadequate or unfit housing such as campsites, and those living in insecure housing. The last definition can involve people with insecure tenancies, or facing eviction or domestic violence, or those forced to sofa surf.

Councillor Megan Armstrong picked up the general mood of the cabinet when she concluded: “There are no easy fixes to this, but we will keep trying as best we can.”

East Devon District Council‘s night-time service to help elderly and vulnerable people with health emergencies will be partially outsourced to a private company for the next four months because of staff shortages – and could save £4,000.

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

The service, known as Home Safeguard, provides users with a pendant with a button for them to press in an emergency. An operator then provides over-the-phone help and, if necessary, calls emergency services. 

Home Safeguard operates between 10:15 p.m. and 7:15 a.m., receiving an average of 21 calls a night. But it has lost three team members recently,  and remaining staff have become overstretched.  Now the council is outsourcing four nights a week to a private company called Night Owl, with the in-house team covering the other three nights. The arrangement will run for four months.

Unlike the council’s in-house service, Night Owl staff are not based in East Devon but at offices in Chichester, Exeter and Ashburton. Nevertheless, council officers say the new people have been familiarised with East Devon’s needs.

Some members of the council have taken against the idea, and are particularly worried by comments made in a report that the change could be made permanent if the service offered by Night Owl proves acceptable and more cost-effective. Officers believe around £4,000 will be saved over the next four months.

Speaking before the cabinet’s decision, Councillor Paul Millar, who recently switched from being an independent to join Jake Bonetta as a Labour Party member, said: “So often this kind of policy can come at the expense of quality, working conditions and democratic accountability and, in the end, costs in the long term if our residents suffer from poor communication between the company and the council.”

He said the current salary offered by the council, under £17,500 per year pro-rata, needed to be increased if it is to address its recruitment problems. 

Cllr Millar added: “The core argument about saving money is not one I subscribe to. The savings are negligible.

“I don’t think it should be about money at all. It should be about quality of service.”

Councillor Jake Bonetta (Labour, Honiton St. Michael’s) added: “I cannot support any move to take our council services out-of-house.

“Investing in our own services with better pay and better conditions is so much more valuable than potentially outsourcing permanently.” 

Council leader Paul Arnott (Democratic Alliance Group) said he sympathised with the criticisms and that he disliked the idea of outsourcing, but in his opinion it was a matter of necessity. He argued that without the emergency measures the service could not be maintained. 

He concluded: “I know the answers don’t please everybody or perhaps entirely anybody, but we will revisit this soon. That’s an absolute commitment.”

In a joint statement issued after the decision was agreed, Councillors Bonetta and Millar said they would work to prevent “any future potential cabinet decision to make any unnecessary and expensive outsourcing of the highly valued Home Safeguard social service permanent.

“Labour councils in other parts of the country have proven that bringing services back in-house and maintaining them there leads to cost savings, greater quality, and a more democratically accountable service to voting residents.”

The issue will be discussed again by the cabinet when the contract ends next February.

More than 8,000 people in the UK were in hospital with Covid on Wednesday – the highest figure for nearly six months – leading to fears of a resurgence in the virus’ ability to cause serious illness and death among the population.

And:

COVID cases no longer climbing as feared

Professor Tim Spector, lead scientist on the ZOE COVID Study app, comments on the latest data:

“It’s great to see the return to schools and summer festivals haven’t yet resulted in a spike in cases as feared. However, the picture is worse in Scotland, where rates are still rising and our figures indicate that Scottish hospitals could soon be overwhelmed. The Scottish situation makes it clear we can’t be complacent about COVID as winter approaches. We are still producing far too many Long Covid cases and hospitalisations unnecessarily. For 521 days, ZOE and King’s College London have demanded cold and flu-like symptoms be recognised as common COVID-19 symptoms and communicated widely as in other countries. With UK rates the highest in Europe, if the government continues with no restrictions, surely we should at least help people to recognise the symptoms early and know when to stay at home.”