Cities in England could be granted national park status – affording urban areas the same level of environmental protection as natural landscapes – as part of a new review of open spaces.

Harry Taylor www.theguardian.com 

The government is considering the proposed status, which would also entail management of the areas to maintain their biodiversity, in response to the Glover review of protected landscapes.

So far, London is England’s only city to have been awarded what is currently an informal designation, but officials are looking at officially granting it to others. It would mean that conservation and other environmental concerns would have to be taken into account when assessing planning applications.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “Natural England is taking forward a review of where any new designations might be, including whether there should be new national park cities or similar arrangements to protect nature close to where many people live.”

Natural England is also looking at increasing the number of national parks, with the Telegraph reporting that an upgrade of the Chilterns and the Cotswolds from Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to national park status is being discussed.

The impact of HS2 rail works on the landscape of the Chilterns has been the subject of protests in recent years, as under the plans, a 10-mile tunnel is due to cut through the area. It is unclear what impact the designation might have on construction.

If the move goes ahead, it could lead to the biggest increase in parkland in England since the creation of the Peak District, Lake District and Dartmoor national parks in 1951.

Work is currently under way to look at new AONBs in the Yorkshire Wolds and the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge. Potential extensions to the existing Chilterns and Surrey Hills areas are also being examined.

The proposals are in response to an independent review led by the journalist Julian Glover on natural landscapes in England. He proposed that all national parks be run by one authority, rather than by separate entities.

Presenting his report in 2019, Glover also called for a greater diversity in national park authority and AONB boards, criticising the existing makeup as having too few black, Asian and minority ethnic members, and too many who are male and of retirement age.

The government expects to consult on draft proposals later this year, after it has formally responded to the Glover review.

A Defra spokesperson said: “Our landscapes are national treasures, and we are committed to ensuring that they flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.

“The landscapes review set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We welcome this ambition, and we have been actively engaging with stakeholders to inform our response to the review, which we intend to publish in due course.”

Dominic Raab was ordered home from his holiday in Crete by Downing Street as Afghanistan collapsed into chaos but stayed for two more days because Boris Johnson told him he could.

Tim Shipman www.thetimes.co.uk 

A senior No 10 official advised the foreign secretary on Friday, August 13, to return but Whitehall sources say that Raab then “nobbled” the prime minister, who agreed to him remaining at the five-star resort until Sunday evening. Raab landed in Britain at 1.40am on Monday, after Kabul had fallen.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Afghanistan, was also on holiday as the militants swept to power. He was on a staycation until Sunday, the day they marched into the Afghan capital.

The confirmation that Johnson let his foreign secretary stay away at a time of international crisis will raise questions about his judgment. A senior government official said: “Raab was told to come back on Friday. On Sunday there was a sense of disbelief among everyone at the most senior levels in No 10 that he wasn’t there. He seems to have nobbled Boris after he was told to come back.”

Raab’s allies say he was told to “begin the process of coming home”, but one added: “In discussions with the prime minister it was agreed he would come back on Sunday.”

The exchanges cap an extraordinary week with a toxic briefing war over who was to blame for the Afghan catastrophe in which ministers, political aides, No 10 staff and civil servants have all found fault with the performance of Raab and the Foreign Office.

The bad blood continued last night as:

•It was revealed that Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador in Kabul, was “eyeballed” by a senior military officer and told not to leave as his team were planning to pull out last weekend. Bristow was ordered to stay by a Foreign Office mandarin London.

•Ministers in other departments complained that Raab banned them, several months ago, from speaking to ambassadors without his permission, a stance they say hamstrung British preparations for the Afghan withdrawal

•It was claimed the Foreign Office crisis centre is itself in crisis, with thousands of unread emails from people trying to get safe passage out of Afghanistan

•Raab was accused of not updating the “non-combatant evacuation plan” for Afghanistan in the weeks before US troops pulled out

•Raab was branded a “control freak” by cabinet colleagues, who said he had set up a system to micromanage decisions that collapsed in his absence.

One minister said that Raab’s time standing in for Johnson, when the prime minister was in hospital with coronavirus last year, “broke his brain” and led him to try to control too much, slowing down critical decision making.

“When he had to deputise for the PM he saw the whole picture and I don’t think he’s been able to rewind to just be the foreign secretary,” the minister said.

“In Dom’s head everything is his responsibility. Everything has to go through him. His control freakery is off the scale. He can’t bear to take a decision without the full information. He’s Theresa May on speed.”

Raab was told to come home after a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on August 13. Those present at the meeting say he was “obsessed with the airport” in Kabul, and spent most of his time talking about the logistical issues for evacuation, including plane timetables, rather than the consular work of processing visas.

“Dom and the Foreign Office seemed very focused on the airbase and air operations rather than the diplomacy of the situation,” said a source. “That raised quite a few eyebrows because frankly there are better qualified people to be worrying about that. He doesn’t need to be worried about air traffic controllers and the air base.

“When there was talk about the international diplomatic effort it seemed that people like Michael [Gove] had given more thought to it than he had.”

Allies defended Raab, saying he was a meticulous minister who works harder than anyone in government. They pointed out that his media operation was hamstrung last week by the absence of his experienced special adviser Robert Oxley, who was on honeymoon.

The foreign secretary was already under fire for refusing a request from his own officials to put in a call to the Afghan foreign minster Mohammed Haneef Atmar. Responsibility was instead delegated to Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, another Foreign Office minister. But it was Lord Ahmad, whose responsibilities cover South Asia, who was Atmar’s main point of contact in government over the past year as peace talks were under way in Doha between the Taliban and Afghan government.

A tweet of Dominic Raab making the phone call.

From a correspondent:

Following  Simon Jupp’s and Anthony Mangnall’s welcome views on the effect of holiday uses on our housing stock I urge everyone interested in this important topic to write to their MP as I have done (see below).

It is a disgrace that a widow of my acquaintance has had to raid her small nest egg to buy her working daughter a flat as she said:

“I cant have my daughter homeless. There are no rental properties for long-term rent.”

You could ask them why a holiday let has to have planning permission to change into permanent housing stock. Why does change of use of permanent housing stock not need planning permission to holiday lets?

simon.jupp.mp@parliament.uk

“Dear Simon,  

I was very interested in your article in the Exmouth Journal and pleased that you are taking an interest.

A resident of…………, I find myself living next to a house divided into 2 flats which are now second homes. I am lost as to why planning permission is needed to change a dwelling from a holiday home to a permanent dwelling but not the other way.

This next door dwelling has resulted in 2 of East Devon’s precious housing stock being lost to the community. In effect I now live next door to a rotating number of visitors, akin to a “small hotel”. This has resulted in loss of privacy and uncertainty as to the behaviour of visitors.

For many years I had neighbours. I was the first responder to a neighbour’s emergency button. Other neighbours helped in local societies.

Now ……………. Is finding it difficult to maintain local societies and elderly people can be isolated with no permanent next door neighbours. Community life is starting to crumble here like it is in so many Devon towns and villages.

My great worry is that my London acquaintances cannot see the problem and think that they have a “god given right” to a second home. This is likely to include many of those that control the legislature and media influencers.

I find it very upsetting that this change of use can take place with no prior permission and no consultation and ask that you consider that this could be an additional way forward.”

The highest number of new coronavirus cases confirmed across Devon and Cornwall has been recorded in the last week – with big rises everywhere.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

A total of 10,005 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed across the two counties – with the total since the start of the pandemic at 102,770 – with everywhere seeing a rise and the total up 40% – and a huge proportion of the new cases in those aged 15-19.

It is the highest weekly total in terms of the number of new cases, with Thursday and Friday both seeing more than 2,000 new cases confirmed, with Cornwall seeing 953 new cases on Friday alone.

Government stats show that 10,005 new cases have been confirmed across the region in the past seven days, to 6,642 new cases confirmed last week.

Since August 14, of the 10,005 new cases confirmed, 3,603 were in Cornwall, 750 in East Devon, 742 in Exeter, 431 in Mid Devon, 496 in North Devon, 1,222 in Plymouth, 487 in South Hams, 755 in Teignbridge, 868 in Torbay, 345 in Torridge and 306 in West Devon.

This compares to the 6,642 new cases confirmed between August 7-13, of which 2,250 were in Cornwall, 388 in East Devon, 582 in Exeter, 295 in Mid Devon, 409 in North Devon, 897 in Plymouth, 244 in South Hams, 535 in Teignbridge, 681 in Torbay, 207 in Torridge and 154 in West Devon.

Infection rates across Devon and Cornwall are currently highest in the 20-39s, but are falling, followed by the 0-19s, where rates are rising, and then by the 40-59s, 60-79s and 80+ in every region.

In Exeter though, the 40-59s have higher rates than the 0-19s, while West Devon has higher rates in the 80+s than the 60-79s.

For the week ending August 15, Torbay has England fourth highest infection rate, with Exeter sixth, with Teignbridge also inside the top 20.

Cornwall is just outside the top 20, but as data shown are cases by specimen date and because these are incomplete for the most recent dates and the period represented is the seven days ending five days prior, the huge spike which began with specimens from August 16 is not included yet in the data.

The latest Government figures, which give the position as of Tuesday, August 17, show that across hospital trusts in the two counties, there are 164 patients currently in hospital in the two counties – up from 107 as of August 10.

Numbers at Derriford Hospital have risen from 42 to 48 and to the highest level since February 15.

At the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, numbers are up from 28 to 34, and to the highest level since February 10.

In Torbay, the numbers at Torbay Hospital have more than doubled from 11 to 24, and to the highest number since February 15.

And at North Devon District Hospital, numbers have leapt from eight to 14, and to the highest number since January 6.

In Cornwall, there are currently 24 patients, up from 18 as of last Tuesday.

The figures show how many patients are in hospital following a positive test for Covid-19, but not whether they were admitted for Covid-related reasons, whether they were infected inside the hospital, or whether their admission was entirely unrelated but they happened to have Covid at the same time – figures for the South West show on August 10, around 25 per cent of beds were occupied by ‘non-Covid’ patients – up from 15 per cent a fortnight ago.

In the last week, there has been six deaths in Devon, one in Cornwall, and two in Plymouth, but none in Torbay.

In terms of the latest MSOA cluster maps, that cover the period of specimen dates between August 9-15, all 230 areas of Devon and Cornwall reported three or more cases, with only nine areas reporting ten cases or fewer, including three on the Isles of Scilly.

Newquay East reported 122 cases, and has the highest infection rate of any of the MSOAs in England, while Cranbrook, Broadclyst & Stoke Canon (82), Middlemoor & Sowton (76), Chelston, Cockington & Livermead (74), Blatchcombe & Blagdon (73), St Columb Minor & Porth (73), Shiphay & the Willows (67), Newquay West (61) and Pinhoe & Whipton North (60) all saw 60 or more.

Highest areas for each of the other districts were Crediton (50), Braunton (45), Millbay & Stonehouse (50), Ivybridge (46), Teignmouth South (58), Bideford South & East (55), and Hatherleigh, Exbourne & North Tawton (36).

Of the adult population, 86.5% in Cornwall, 90.2% in East Devon, 78.8% in Exeter, 89% in Mid Devon, 87.7% in North Devon, 83.6% in Plymouth, 88.2% in South Hams, 89.3% in Teignbridge, 85.7% in Torbay, 89.1% in Torridge, and 89.7% in West Devon, have had one dose.

And of the adult population, 76.8% in Cornwall, 81% in East Devon, 64.2% in Exeter, 78.7% in Mid Devon, 78.5% in North Devon, 71,6% in Plymouth, 78.9% in South Hams, 80.6% in Teignbridge, 77.3% in Torbay, 80.1% in Torridge and 81.5% in West Devon, have had a second dose.

The record number of cases comes just days after the Boardmasters festival in Newquay – and following reports that a growing number of young people who attended the festival at Watergate Bay have contracted the virus.

A statement issued by Devon County Council on Thursday added: “Festivals, and any such large gatherings where there are a lot of people crowded together, are environments that bring with them heightened risk of transmission.

“And when audiences to those gatherings include younger people, who are not all vaccinated, then the risk of transmission again is greater.

“The same is true though of any event or setting where there’s socialising. It’s not just festivals.

“So perhaps it should not surprise us that the majority of positive cases in Devon now – holiday, events and festival time – are in the 15 to 19 year old age group, and that socialising is the main driver of that trend.

“The largest proportion of positive cases continue to be in the younger age groups including those working in hospitality and other sectors.

“Vaccination levels are increasing rapidly in the younger age groups, and that’s important to stop the spread of the virus and serious illness.”

A spokesperson from Cornwall Council said: “We will be monitoring the data closely as we have done throughout the pandemic.

“Our advice to residents and anyone visiting Cornwall remains the same – if you have Covid symptoms then isolate immediately and book a PCR test.

“If you have no symptoms, please continue to test twice a week with rapid Lateral Flow Tests which are available for free from pharmacies or can be delivered to your home.”

FULL LIST OF MSOA CLUSTER AREAS here

Owl recalls one of the early posts in the then emerging “East Devon Watch” at the end of April 2014. The post went under the heading “Some councillors get away with Blue Murder, some don’t”.

It pointed out that this was the second time Councillor Wragg (Lib Dem) had been brought before EDDC’s Standards Board for comments that seem to be the sort of thing that councillors of another colour call “robust debate” when they make similar remarks and have no action taken against them.

Eileen Wragg was unrepentant then, Owl hopes she is unrepentant now.

Dave Beasley www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

A standards watchdog has ordered Councillor Eileen Wragg to publically ‘apologise’ to Exmouth’s mayor John Humphreys for ‘discourteous’ and ‘disrespectful’ behaviour.

But an unrepentant Councillor Wragg has refused – and has denounced the investigation as a ‘waste of tax payer’s money’ as well as criticising the year it has taken to resolve the complaint.

The complaint centres on comments Cllr Wragg made to Cllr Humphreys last May when he was inaugurated for a second term as town mayor.

The report of the standards hearing at East Devon District Council says that Councillor Wragg interrupted Councillor Humphreys during his acceptance speech in which he was giving a review of the previous year and what had been achieved.

Later in the meeting Councillor Humphreys then attempted to stop comments Cllr Wragg was making on the membership of the council’s committees.

The investigating officer Inspector Tim Darsley stated that Cllr Wragg said to the mayor: “We don’t want to hear what you have done in the past year.

She also said: “I don’t respect you as chairman and I never will. You don’t represent the people of Exmouth.”

Mr Darsley said the comments broke the town council’s councillors’ code of conduct which states that ‘you must treat others with courtesy and respect.’

However Councillor Wragg wrote to standards committee and said that ‘accumulated animosity’ between the two had lead to her comments.

The report reads: “The sub committee did not accept the excuse for accumulated animosity (between the two councillors) as justification for the breaches of the code of conduct.”

The standards committee added that Councillor Wragg must apologise to Councillor Humphreys at a meeting of the town council, while the town council would receive ‘guidance and training’ on the code of conduct.

Councillor Eileen Wragg told the Journal: “East Devon has decided to contact the press before having the courtesy to inform me first.

“I’m certainly not going to apologise.

“This is all part of the rough and tumble of political life, and I feel if you can’t take it you should get out of politics.

“I didn’t turn up to the hearing because I considered it a waste of thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money.”

A correspondent writes:

I can understand why Humphreys was able to get away with his crimes AND still be a councillor.  Everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty.  There was no such proof in the public domain until this month and no justice for the boys until  today.

What I CANNOT understand is why police dropped their first investigation in 2005.  And why it has taken from 2015, when the cases of the two boys were linked,  to 2021 to get justice for them.  6 lost years.  I accept it takes time to make a case – but 6 years?

If I were a councillor today at EDDC I would be asking for an inquiry – preferably public- into the case.  Who decided to drop these cases?   And what links they might have had – or still have –  and what roles did they have in common with other people who may also have had council roles or links during that time? Who during this long period of time was made aware of decisions taken by the police? 

Maybe EDDC Budleigh councillor and ex-policeman Tom Wright, who was for many years EDDC police liaison person when Tories were in control, can give us some insight from his experience, into how these things can happen?

A former mayor of Exmouth who abused two schoolboys in the 1990s and 2000s has been jailed for 21 years.

Ted Davenport www.devonlive.com

John Humphreys groomed and assaulted the first victim when he was aged about 13 and had three sexual encounters culminating in a violent sexual attack on Woodbury Common.

He went on to abuse the second boy when he was aged about 15 and met Humphreys while doing a work experience placement from school.

Humphreys was jailed after being found guilty at a trial at Exeter Crown Court earlier this week.

He was brought to justice by a long and complicated police investigation which started when the second victim told his girlfriend and mother of the abuse in 2005, some four years after it happened.

Police took a statement but did not prosecute at the time.

In a victim impact statement, he said he had bad feeling against the police at the time and felt Humphreys ‘had been favoured because of his political connections’.

The case was reopened in 2015, when the first victim came forward, telling officers that he was making his disclosures after 25 years of psychological trauma and sleepless nights.

Judge Timothy Rose told Humphreys he had done lasting damage to the victims and said many of his assaults would now be classified as male rape.

Humphreys was Mayor of Exmouth from 2012 to 2014 and served for 12 years as a Conservative councillor on East Devon District Council.

He was also a governor of a primary school in Exmouth.

He was appointed as an alderman by East Devon District Council in 2019 and accepted the honour despite knowing that he was under investigation by the police.

Humphreys ran his own gardening business in Exmouth and was considered to be a pillar of the community until the first allegations came to light in 2015.

He has been openly gay since coming out at the age of 21 and became one of the first people in Britain to take part in a same sex wedding when he married his partner in March 2014, 12 hours after the new law came into effect.

He denied having any sexual contact with either boy and said he was shocked and flabbergasted at the allegations.

He accused the first victim of being “wicked and vindictive” and making up his allegations to claim compensation.

Humphreys, aged 59, of Hartley Road, Exmouth, denied but was found guilty of three counts of a serious sexual assault (buggery) and two of indecent assault on the younger boy and five counts of indecent assault against older one.

He was jailed for 21 years by Judge Rose, who also put him on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Former mayor of Exmouth John Humphreys has been jailed for 21 years for sexually abusing two schoolboys (Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)

Judge Rose told Humphreys: “Six of these offences have to be assessed against the modern guideline for rape.

“These were shocking acts of sexual violence. You targeted a particularly vulnerable victim.

“It is clear you caused severe psychological harm which has damaged and blighted the life of your victims.

“You provided positive service to the community in your political career and as Mayor of Exmouth but your pursuit of a respectable life was undertaken while the dark and awful secret of your sexual offending remained unknown.

“These sentences must be consecutive. These incidents were entirely separate and 10 years apart against two children who did not know each other.”

Miss Fiona Elder, defending, said Humphreys should be given credit for the good work he has done in the community in the past and the punishment he has already suffered from the loss of his good name and the stress of the five-year investigation.

She said the offences were all opportunistic and there was no significant planning.

During the trial, the first victim said he was aged about 13 when he was picked up by Humphreys in public toilets in Manor Gardens in Exmouth, which was a well-known gay meeting spot, or cottage, at the time.

He said Humphreys took him to a friend’s flat after their first meeting and had sex with him.

He said they met again in the same way a second time and Humphreys took him back to his former home in Salterton Road where they had sex again.

The victim said he was taken to Woodbury Common on the third meeting where he was subjected to a brutal sexual assault he described as rape.

He said he was wearing a school shirt and was pushed up against the wall of an abandoned military blockhouse and raped.

The second victim said he met Humphreys when he was aged 14 or 15 in 2001 and off school on work experience.

He said he was assaulted for the first time after being taken back to his home during a lunch break and was so confused that he froze.

Humphreys later offered him holiday jobs and went on to abuse him on other occasions, telling him “this doesn’t mean you are gay”.

Following Humphreys’ sentencing, police have praised the two victims who came forward and gave evidence.

The officer who led the inquiry into his historic abuse of the boys 20 and 30 years ago said the verdict and sentence show that nobody is above the law.

Police Sergeant Angela Galasso said: “This has been a long and protracted investigation involving historic sexual offences that occurred more than 30 years ago during the early and late 1990s.

“The sentencing today shows that nobody is above the law, regardless of their standing in the community.

“I can only thank the complainants in this case for their tenacity, patience and the trust that they have continued to place in myself and colleagues investigating these matters.

“Both victims have voiced separately that they feared they would never be believed or that their complaints would be taken seriously.

“I sincerely hope that this guilty verdict will now provide this validation and allow them to feel that they can move on with their lives.”

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said the force takes offences such as these very seriously and encourages any victims to come forward.

Anyone who may have been affected by anything raised in this article can contact police in their local area by emailing 101@dc.police.uk or calling 101.

The freephone NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000 is available for anyone to report or seek advice about non-recent abuse. Calls can be made anonymously.

When the government first drew up plans to axe the virtual parliament and bring MPs back to the Commons chamber, ministers argued that it would boost support for the prime minister. Boris Johnson tends to work best with a crowd, so events such as prime minister’s questions were trickier when only a handful of Tory MPs were allowed in the chamber.

Katy Balls www.theguardian.com 

But when Conservative politicians turned up en masse to the Commons on Wednesday to debate the situation in Afghanistan, the opposite proved true. Rather than provide supportive interventions, Johnson soon discovered his biggest critics were sitting right behind him.

As Tory MPs lined up one after another to vent their anger on how the government had allowed the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan and criticise the response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, it was clear how little support the prime minister had. “It’s good to see Tory MPs suddenly realising how crap their boss is,” noted one Labour figure.

As Johnson grapples with his biggest foreign policy challenge since entering 10 Downing Street, he faces a feuding cabinet and a febrile parliamentary party. To make matters worse, the questions being asked about the UK’s place in the world cut through to the very identity of the Conservative party.

The party has long prided itself on its commitment to defence, its special relationship with the United States and the ability to wield both hard and soft power on the global stage. Yet after the UK was bounced into withdrawal in Afghanistan with little in the way of consultation from the Biden administration, all three things have been called into question. Little wonder that a blame game is under way. Tensions have risen between the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office with regard to the rescue effort.

When the prime minister stood up to open the debate, attention was as much on the stony-faced two men sitting either side of him: Dominic Raab and Ben Wallace. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if fisticuffs had broken out,” remarked one old-timer MP.

The foreign secretary and defence secretary have clashed, with the Guardian reporting Wallace telling colleagues there will be “a reckoning” for the department after several diplomats left “on the first plane out”, leaving MoD officials processing complex resettlement claims. While Wallace has publicly defended Raab since, staff in the Ministry of Defence claim their prior warnings were not taken seriously enough.

But Raab’s problems go further. The foreign secretary is facing a growing Tory backlash over his decision to only fly back from a holiday in Crete on Sunday evening when the Taliban were well on their way to taking Kabul. “Of the cabinet, he has a reputation for being sensible. What the hell was he thinking?” asks a government aide.

New revelations from the Mail alleging that Raab failed to listen to advice from Foreign Office officials and make a crucial phone call to the Afghan foreign minister to seek help to get translators out of Afghanistan will only add to the pressure. When Raab addressed MPs in a call earlier this week to answer questions, several came away unimpressed. “He seemed genuinely taken aback by how quickly things were moving. He had a nice tan at least,” says one attender.

“There’s a lot of anger at Boris and Dom,” says a member of government. “Why were they on holiday at the same time? Raab is his deputy. The only person who has come out of this with any integrity is Ben [Wallace].” Not that Wallace has escaped criticism entirely. When he appeared to shed a tear in a radio interview over the situation, some colleagues were quick to compare it unfavourably to the time Matt Hancock was accused of pretending to cry on television in reaction to the first coronavirus vaccines. Meanwhile, Priti Patel is due to address Tory MPs today and a number of so-called “red wall” MPs are seeking reassurances over the security checks being carried out on Afghan refugees accepted on to the resettlement scheme.

While the debate failed to point to mass support for an alternative strategy to the government’s, it did point to the problems Johnson now faces. As MPs heaped praise on foreign affairs select committee chair Tom Tugendhat – who served in Afghanistan – for his emotional speech, and more criticism on Raab for failing to reference it in his closing remarks of the debate, there were complaints that it contained clearer leadership and vision than the frontbench contributions.

The fact that Joe Biden has only spoken to the prime minister by telephone a handful of times since entering the White House is leading to concern among Johnson’s own supporters that he has little sway over a key ally. This means pressure on Johnson to strengthen European ties at a time when rows continue over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Meanwhile, if Johnson no longer believes the UK is able to lead on military missions, should that mean a focus on soft power? If so, the timing of foreign aid cuts – and the closing down of the Department for International Development as a single department – are hardly ideal. “There is no strategy or vision. That’s the problem,” says a government source.

For now, the government’s best hope is that the situation in Afghanistan does not deteriorate further in either cruelty and violence there, or terrorism here. In that time, Johnson needs to work out what he now thinks Britain’s place in the world is, who is best placed to help him deliver it and how to articulate it to his party.

• Katy Balls is the Spectator’s deputy political editor

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab can answer that — he spent Sunday on the beach in Crete.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson can also answer that – he went on holiday in Somerset on Saturday.

(Multiple sources)

Who is looking after the cat? – Not to worry, Owl doesn’t think either No 10 or the FO has a resident mouser at the moment.

The message lit up her phone late last Thursday afternoon, and as soon as Vicky Alvarez saw it the tears came. She ducked out of her meeting, hurried to the loo and began phoning family.

“We’ve won,” she told them.

“Won what, the lottery?”

“No, bigger than that.”

Aditya Chakrabortty www.theguardian.com 

Much bigger. Alvarez isn’t just a victor in a battle that has swallowed 17 years of her life; she stands now at the intersection of some of the largest questions facing our pandemic-battered cities: how they are run and in whose interests. If you want to gauge where post-Covid, post-Brexit London could go next, Alvarez and her allies are the ones to watch.

You might assume Alvarez is wheeler-dealing at City Hall or flogging penthouses to passing oligarchs In fact, she runs a stall in a market in one of the poorest parts of Britain. Yet Alvarez and 40-odd other traders, most of whom are women from across South America, have created something that amounts to so much more.

The Latin Village market in Tottenham, north London, is a maze, offering everything from empanadas to nail jobs to news about jobs. Before the pandemic, it was a bustling shopping centre-cum-labour exchange-cum-community hub for expat Latin Americans and their kids – until Saturday night drew in, when the music bumped up a few notches and the dancing started. Vicky and many other traders came here as refugees. Together, they built businesses that sustain dozens of families and proudly watched their children grow up to become doctors and lawyers. The market is a story of how migrants can build a future for themselves and improve their new home, too. Trading out of tatty buildings, including a once grand but long abandoned Edwardian department store called Wards, they have breathed colour into dereliction.

No wonder the Latin Village gets love letters from the Washington Post and the UN. Were this in Berlin or Brooklyn, the market would be prized as a community jewel. Except this being London, it has been underfunded and under threat of demolition since 2004.

Alongside other traders and locals, Alvarez has spent years fighting developers and the local council, Haringey, as well as Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London, which owns the old Wards store and has let it rot. Over nearly two decades the fight for the Latin Village has grown in strength and significance. The arguments over a local market have become a battle for the future of our cities.

Until last Thursday, when the developer, Grainger, publicly announced it was dropping the entire scheme. It’s extraordinary enough for a big-money builder to flush away nearly two decades of deal-making and pledge-signing and buying up of land, but what follows could be really momentous. Starting next week, every big politician with a say on this issue – Khan, his deputy Heidi Alexander, David Lammy, Haringey’s senior councillors ­– will hammer out a plan for what to do next. Ultimately, they have two choices: stick with the broken old model of regeneration, or try something new.

Most city-dwellers know all too well what the busted model looks like, so let me sketch it only briefly. A big developer takes over a tract of rundown public land, usually aided by a nice slug of taxpayer money. They swear solemnly to give back to the public realm, typically providing a sliver of “affordable” homes, before sometimes rowing back on even those small promises because they are “not viable” ­– which means they would eat too far into their profit margins. By then, the developers have local politicians and officials over a barrel. The result is shoebox apartments sold at eyewatering prices (to say nothing of the cladding bills yet to arrive). The big winners are the developers, the big losers are locals who aren’t owner-occupiers, and the greatest work is done by the passive magic of rising land values.

This is a top-down system of development that treats people’s lives and livelihoods as brownfield land to be torn down and concreted over. Grainger’s original plans for the site jettisoned the Latin Village for a “Pasta Express” and a “Coste Cafe”, as if that were better than the Colombian coffee already on offer. Traders had to fight for every major concession, from saving the market to securing a temporary home for it during the rebuilding process (which Grainger later deemed not viable). Those calling the shots treated them as inconveniences throughout.

When traders complained about the market manager, Jonathan Owen, calling them “bloody illegal immigrants”, TfL took no action apart from ordering him to apologise. When they pointed out there was something funny going on with the market’s energy supply, TfL investigated and found evidence of electricity theft. The transport body told Owen to pay the suppliers but admitted to me that it ended up footing the bill, handing over £83,000 of public money. When asked about these issues and others, Owen declined to comment.

What makes this project and its collapse so instructive is that it shows the old model of regeneration no longer works economically, politically or environmentally. The economic point is easiest to see. Grainger admits that a large part of its withdrawal was driven by “the changing economic environment”. In the new world of white-collar workers spending more of the week at home, it will not be so easy to shift a bunch of expensive two-beds above a busy main road, whose main selling point is that you can get on a tube in seconds. Nor do 3,800 sq m of generic shops now seem like a wise investment. Far better to have the kind of social infrastructure that the Latin Village offers, where shopping is also about community cohesion, and where the money that people spend remains in local pockets rather than disappearing to remote shareholders.

Over the past three years, each time I have written about Latin Village it has been clear that even in a Labour stronghold like Haringey, when councillors support developers over locals they cause severe and long-lasting damage to their party. So it has proved. A few months ago, the leader of the council, Joe Ejiofor, was deposed in large part because of Labour members’ unease about his enthusiasm for Grainger. That makes him the second Haringey council leader, after Claire Kober in 2018, to be ousted over regeneration politics.

Straight after Grainger pulled out, the new council leader Peray Ahmet publicly supported a community plan for the market. This has the overwhelming backing of traders, many of whom have been involved in drawing it up. Instead of throwing up carbon-intensive concrete and steel, the plan will refurbish the buildings that are already there. At the heart of the alternative scheme will not be a FTSE 250 developer, but a community benefit society that will reinvest profits locally. The plan is a step into the unknown and it is not without risks, but Haringey has seen just what the old way delivered – or failed to.

In 2011, councillors in the city of Preston were told that the vast shopping centre they’d pinned their hopes on wasn’t coming after all. Developers no longer saw it as viable. That forced local politicians to rethink not just their plans, but their model. The result is one of the great experiments in guerrilla localism and alternative economics: a city that outperforms even in hard times and a local Labour party that actually thrives.

Sadiq Khan pledges “high streets for all”. Every politician in a suit swears they’ll “build back better”. Well, now they can live up to their promises. Let’s see London try bottom-up development, based around imagination and heart and giving people a say.

An ambitious vision for a huge new  park in East Devon is in the running for a top South West planning award.

eastdevonnews.co.uk 

The district council’s Clyst Valley Regional Park is one of ten projects shortlisted.

It is up against Torbay Heritage Strategy ‘Excellence in Plan Making’ category of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) South West Awards for Planning Excellence 2021.

Winners will be announced in November.

“Given the high calibre of entries, the judges will no doubt find it difficult to pick an overall winner…”

The protected green space proposed – described as being ‘half the size of Exeter’ – will take in Clyst St George, Broadclyst, Poltimore, Killerton, Ashclyst, Cranbrook, Whimple and Bishops Court.

A ‘multi-disciplinary team’ at East Devon District Council (EDDC) has turned the vision into a 25-year masterplan,backed up by public support and a partnership of 17 organisations.

The area covered by the proposed Clyst Valley Regional Park. Image: EDDC

Councillor Geoff Jung, EDDC portfolio holder for coast, country and environment, said: “I am delighted for the hardworking and dedicated officers and team who worked on the Clyst Valley Regional Park Masterplan successfully being shortlisted.

“It is so important whilst we recognise the need for extra housing and infrastructure, we should not lose sight of the importance of protecting and improving our countryside.

“The masterplan is to make the area around the Clyst River catchment more accessible for people to appreciate and enjoy, plus to improve and enhance the biodiversity for nature and most importantly locally, help towards protecting against global climate change.”

RTPI South West chair Angharad Williams added: “The shortlisted entries are a mix of outstanding planning, reflecting the really high standards and achievements of the planning profession throughout the South West.

“Given the high calibre of entries, the judges will no doubt find it difficult to pick an overall winner.”

Work to build a community centre with a play park, multi-use games area and shops at the Redhayes development in Clyst Honiton can now begin.

eastdevon.gov.uk

Work to build a community centre with a play park, multi-use games area and shops at the Redhayes development in Clyst Honiton can now begin.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) gave the plans, which come as part of a wider housing development, the go ahead on Friday 23 July.

The proposals, which were approved with conditions, also included a public square and parking on the development at the Old Tithebarn Lane in Clyst Honiton.

Outline planning permission was originally granted for the area to be developed in 2013 – this included 930 dwellings, a new link road, employment area, park and ride facility, local centre/square, health and fitness centre, crèche, public and private open space car and cycle parking, together with landscaping.

This latest application means work can now start on the next phase of the project –  the local centre – which will comprise a convenience store and cafe, community facility, healthcare facility and local centre square.

The convenience store and café will occupy the ground floor and the healthcare facility and community facility will be located on the first floor.

The building will be located on the junction of Tithebarn Link Road and Southern Mosshayne Link Road.

A public square with street furniture will then be built to the east of the local centre building with car parking to the south for 40 vehicles, plus two disabled user spaces. Cycle parking spaces are proposed in areas with good natural and/or CCTV surveillance. A pocket park will also be located in the north east section of the site.

The square and associated buildings will be followed by construction of a play park and multi-use games area The play area will have a focus upon natural play as well as integrating formal pieces of play equipment and multi-use games area will comprise of a tarmacadam-based area with a fence to act as an effective ball stop.

Cllr Eileen Wragg, East Devon District Council Planning Chair said:

“The further addition of the Community Centre and play area moves the whole project towards becoming a sustainable and inclusive community and must be welcomed by residents of all ages.

I recall being on the Committee at Devon County when the pedestrian  bridge was granted permission in 2011, so it is very pleasing to see the evolvement towards completion in the near future, and is a credit to all the Councils which have contributed towards a safe and happy environment.”

Councillor Sarah Chamberlain, EDDC ward member for Broadclyst added:

“I am so pleased that this much needed area is now coming forward for the new community, making it much more sustainable.

It is fantastic to see these areas now start to have the facilities they will need as a community going forward, I am sure the local residents will welcome the local shops and play areas along with the new community centre.”

Cllr Eleanor Rylance, an EDDC ward member for Broadclyst, said:

“Development of houses should always bring positive change both for existing residents and for the new ones who will soon move in. I am pleased to see these firm plans made for a community centre and areas for children’s games- they will improve the lives of Clyst Honiton residents to accompany the development taking place.”

Record numbers of coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Devon with more than 1000 cases alone reported in today’s Government update.

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

In the latest daily figures, the Devon County Council area saw 1040 further 872 Covid-19 positive cases added – the first time that figure has breached the four figure mark – with a further 285 in Plymouth and 159 in Torbay.

East Devon (172), North Devon (122), Teignbridge (204), Torridge (88) and West Devon (95) all saw single day records for the number of new cases confirmed, as did Cornwall with 872 – taking the total tally for the two counties past the 100,000 mark.

The 1484 cases is the highest single daily figure yet for new positives in Devon – with the vast majority of cases coming from specimens taken on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday this week – although Plymouth and Torbay have each seen higher daily totals.

The overwhelming majority of the new cases are in the 15-19 age range bracket.

And so far, 777 specimens from Monday and a staggering 1026 specimens from Tuesday have been reported as positive in the Devon County Council area – higher than the previous single day record of 601 – and those figures are likely to rise in the upcoming days as specimens from the most recent five days of data are excluded from infection rate calculations as they are ‘subject to change’ due to lag in reporting positives.

It means that Devon’s infection rate for the week ending August 14 is at 363.8/100,000 – just shy of the record rates seen a month ago – will explode and soar to new heights in the upcoming days when the newer cases replace those from the seven days prior – with the totals for August 16 and 17 already more than double those of August 9 and 10.

At upper tier level, Torbay has the second highest infection rate of 535.2/100,000 – with only Kingston-upon-Hull higher, with Exeter the 6 ^th highest at a lower tier level.

The record number of cases comes just days after the Boardmasters festival in Newquay – and following reports that a growing number of young people who attended the festival at Watergate Bay have contracted the virus.

Boardmasters had worked closely with experts from Cornwall Council’s Public Health service, wider Cornwall Council departments, the NHS and emergency services to put in place a variety of measures to manage the risk of infection at what is effectively a pop-up town with 50,000 temporary residents and visitors.

It is unclear yet how much of a link, if any, between the festival and the newly reported cases there has been, as figures relating to age of those testing positive and the MSOA area they reside in are also based on the five-day specimen delay.

But a spokesperson for the festival had previously said they would be monitoring the impact that it had on rates, adding: “In addition to having the advantage of perhaps the best ventilated venue in the country, we asked festival goers to play their part in reducing the impact of potential infection by showing proof of full vaccination, a negative lateral flow test or immunity from having had the virus before they could join us on site.

“All staff, regardless of vaccination status, had to show a negative test every 48 hours and all campers were asked to re-test before they could come back into the arena on Friday.

“By giving those who had to isolate on festival dates, or who tested positive for Covid-19 before or during the festival, the ability to roll-over their tickets to 2022, we made sure they would not lose out by following the guidance and helping to reduce infections. We are processing over 450 requests from those affected and we are very grateful to them for doing their bit for the entire Boardmasters community.”

The spokesperson added: “Like any town, we cannot eliminate risk entirely and, while it is still too early to see from the data if there has been any impact on Covid-19 cases, there are likely to be anecdotal reports of some people who were at the festival among those who test positive in the days following. Cornwall Council’s public health team will be closely monitoring the data in the coming weeks, as will we.”

A spokesperson from Cornwall Council agreed it was still too early to say whether the festival has had any impact on Covid case numbers in the county.

“We will be monitoring the data closely as we have done throughout the pandemic. Our advice to residents and anyone visiting Cornwall remains the same – if you have Covid symptoms then isolate immediately and book a PCR test. If you have no symptoms, please continue to test twice a week with rapid Lateral Flow Tests which are available for free from pharmacies or can be delivered to your home,” added the council spokesperson.

A statement issued by Devon County Council on Thursday added: “Festivals, and any such large gatherings where there are a lot of people crowded together, are environments that bring with them heightened risk of transmission.

“And when audiences to those gatherings include younger people, who are not all vaccinated, then the risk of transmission again is greater.

“The same is true though of any event or setting where there’s socialising. It’s not just festivals.

“So perhaps it should not surprise us that the majority of positive cases in Devon now – holiday, events and festival time – are in the 15 to 19 year old age group, and that socialising is the main driver of that trend.

“The largest proportion of positive cases continue to be in the younger age groups including those working in hospitality and other sectors.

“Vaccination levels are increasing rapidly in the younger age groups, and that’s important to stop the spread of the virus and serious illness.”

It comes as the number of people in hospital following a positive Covid-19 test in Devon has risen in the last week.

The latest Government figures, which give the position as of Tuesday, August 17, show that across hospital trusts in Devon there are 120 patients currently in hospital in the two counties – up from 89as of August 10.

Numbers at Derriford Hospital have risen from 42 to 48 and to the highest level since February 15.

At the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, numbers are up from 28 to 34, and to the highest level since February 10.

In Torbay, the numbers at Torbay Hospital have more than doubled from 11 to 24, and to the highest number since February 15.

And at North Devon District Hospital, numbers have leapt from eight to 14, and to the highest number since January 6.

Of the 120, there were 18 patients in a mechanical ventilation bed – but despite the increase in patients in hospital, numbers are still only about a fifth of the peak of hospitalisations from January, although due to the lag between infection and illness, won’t take into account the most recent positive cases.

The figures show how many patients are in hospital following a positive test for Covid-19, but not whether they were admitted for Covid-related reasons, whether they were infected inside the hospital, or whether their admission was entirely unrelated but they happened to have Covid at the same time – figures for the South West show on August 10, around 25 per cent of beds were occupied by ‘non-Covid’ patients – up from 15 per cent a fortnight ago.

Owl had been slightly worried that some of Dominic Raab’s laissez-faire attitude may have rubbed off onto his one-time SPAD.

Simon Jupp MP writes in this week’s Exmouth Journal:

If you glance out of your window or take a short stroll, you’ll be reminded that we live in a very special corner of the country. East Devon is a beautiful place with picturesque villages and towns nestled around breath-taking countryside and coastline.

Now we’ve emerged from restrictions, our beaches and high streets bustle with residents and visitors. We need both to keep the shop doors open across East Devon and I’m proud to represent a place people want to visit.

Many visitors will no doubt wander past the many estate agent windows to peruse the property market. They may romanticise about the idyllic lifestyle they could have if they upped sticks from somewhere up the line and made East Devon their home. Some may even be able to afford that dream.

Meanwhile, some local people may look at the estate agents’ windows and experience a sinking feeling. The average salary in East Devon is £28,800 and the average price of a property is around £327,000.

Many people who’ve lived here for generations are being pushed further away by property prices they simply cannot afford. We also risk our communities becoming unsustainable because those who work in town can’t afford to live there, resulting in a recruitment crisis as we’ve seen in places including Salcombe and St Ives. The solution is not simply to build more houses everywhere, although affordable and social housing prioritised for people with local connections is undoubtedly needed locally. We must also look at the rise of second home ownership and the increasing numbers of holiday cottages. Whilst some holiday cottages are being run as legitimate businesses which provide accommodation for visitors which spend money in our local economy, others are being run as a tax dodge.

After a hard-fought campaign by MPs in the South West, the Chancellor has committed to closing a loophole that lets second homes avoid paying council tax by registering as a holiday rental, signing up for business rates and then receiving business rates relief. I hope we’ll get a date in the diary for this change sooner rather than later. Separately, a countrywide survey assessing the impact of Airbnb-style rentals on the housing market would surely provide a sobering wake-up call in Westminster and Whitehall.

We must also take action to protect newbuilds from being lost to the local market. We could follow the example recently set in Salcombe by setting a specific rule in any new Section 106 legal agreement to ensure new properties remain a principal residence in perpetuity. South Hams District Council recently agreed to pursue this policy and it is now with an independent examiner. I will be watching the outcome of the examiner’s conclusions carefully and I hope our local councillors will too. I’d argue that we need this intervention in some of our towns and villages and the Secretary of State is aware of my views. We should also consider the way we build homes. Mid Devon District Council is showing the way with a modular home development in Cullompton. I’ve had a tour of similar types of housing and I’d very happily live in one. They are considerably cheaper to construct and a firm reminder that our local housing crisis shouldn’t become a license to print money for developers. Over 300 properties are currently advertised on Airbnb in East Devon. Meanwhile, just 25 properties are available for longterm rent in the constituency, some asking for eye-watering monthly rents.

Homes for long-term rent and buy are out of reach for many people who grew up here, work locally or need the support of family to look after children or care for a loved one. Local politicians at every level owe it to everyone in East Devon to consider more than their own backyard.

Cash for the Tories buys you access. And access means cash from the public purse. That’s the abysmal two-step that channels public cash to Party donors. 

goodlawproject.org

All of this happened secretly through the VIP backchannels for PPE and Test and Trace contracts unearthed by Good Law Project. But now the institutionalisation of favours for those with special access is out in the open.

Mandating Covid testing services for travellers entering and leaving the UK has meant a bonanza for those firms lucky enough to get approved. An investigation by Good Law Project into the process for obtaining that lucrative approval has revealed the apparent existence of another VIP lane. 

Applicants for approval are asked to say whether they have a ‘sponsor’ who is a ‘Member of Parliament or Minister’ and to name them.

The fact of a Minister ‘sponsoring’ your application is – or should be – irrelevant to your prospects of gaining authorisation. It is hard to see any reason for this criteria – beyond a desire to red carpet those lucky enough to be on good terms with Government Ministers. 

We also know that many of the firms operating in the lucrative PCR testing market have ties to the Conservative Party. 

Rapid Clinics

Rapid Clinics was incorporated in December 2020 by Dr Ashraf Chohan and has a ‘poor’ rating on trust pilot with users labelling their service as “terrible” and “unprofessional”. 

On the other hand, Chohan does have strong ties to the Conservative Party. He is chairman of the ‘Conservative Friends of the NHS’, a Party donor and a member of the Party’s ‘treasury team’. He has also been snapped at events with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, and a host of other senior Conservative Party figures.

Quick Clinics

Dr Chohan’s son Jamal Chohan also operates a Government approved Covid testing firm – Quick Clinics. Like his father’s business, it also has a ‘poor’ rating amongst consumers, who have labelled the firm “dishonest and avaricious”.

Qured 

Qured, another Government approved testing company, was last week labelled a “joke” and a “fraud” by UK travellers let down by the firm. 

Qured’s company name is Health Technologies Ltd and the firm appointed Stephen John Oakly Catlin as a director in April 2020. Catlin is a major Conservative Party donor and has handed the party £450,000 – including £50,000 as recently as February 2021.

Mr Catlin is also a member of the Conservative Party “Leader’s Group” – an elite Conservative dining club whose members get direct access to Boris Johnson. 

We don’t make any allegations about how these firms won Government approval that many customers don’t think they deserve. But we do say as a general rule this: cronyism – welfare for the wealthy – gives short shrift to the public interest.

Following the guilty verdict on former Exmouth Mayor, John Humphrey, George Dixon posted the following question:

Perhaps Councillors Ingham and Hughes would care to tell us why they felt it appropriate to make him an alderman in 2019, four years into the investigation which led to this?

He was one of eleven proposed by Cllr Ben Ingham, seconded by Cllr.  Andrew Moulding to receive the title of Honorary Alderman or Alderwoman at an extraordinary meeting of EDDC on 18 December 2019.

Cllr. Stuart Hughes, the Chairman, put the proposals to the vote.

The vote was carried by a majority with one abstention. (No details of the vote appear to have been recorded)

Details of the meeting can be found here , though the audio recording appears to be no longer available.

The phrases: “due diligence” and “bringing the Council into disrepute” come to mind.

Will he now be stripped of this title?

[The award of Aldermanic status on this occasion seemed to have been unusually extensive. Handing out lollipops is a bit of a British obsession, easily debased.]

There are fears of a huge Covid spike in Torquay as teenagers returning home from Newquay’s Boardmasters festival at the weekend report that “everyone is testing positive”.

It seemed to Owl that the Boardmasters festival was always going to be a super spreading event waiting to happen. We wait to see just how big a spike it generates and whether it can be contained.

Stay safe!

Colleen Smith www.devonlive.com

The 16 and 17 year olds also reported that people who suspected they had Covid while at the festival were skipping tests on Friday organised to detect people carrying the virus in the 50,000 strong crowds.

Health officials say that data is being monitored from the Festival that finished last Sunday and results should be available later this week.

One Torquay grandmother said: “I want to warn everybody to be careful in Torbay because we are about to get a huge Covid spike.

“The young people are all coming back from Boardmasters festival and testing positive with Covid. My grandaughter is at Torquay Girls Grammar School and lots and lots of her friends are all testing positive.”

A 17-year-old Torquay Boys’ Grammar School pupil from Newton Abbot said everybody in his group of 10 who hadn’t been vaccinated came back with Covid – plus one person who had been vaccinated. He said that out of 30 who went – at least 15 to 20 have since tested positive.

The grandmother, who didn’t want to be named, said: “They have all been to Boardmasters and on Tuesday every one of them who went has tested positive. I was horrified when my grandaughter told me.

“These are mainly 16 to 17 year olds and they were all celebrating after getting their GCSE results.

“What I want to warn people about is that the numbers in Torbay are going to go very high and I want everyone to be aware.”

A 17-year old from Newton Abbot who attends Torquay Boys’ Grammar School said: “All the people in my group who hadn’t been vaccinated came back with it.

“Even one who had been vaccinated had a positive PCR – it spread through pretty much everyone.

“In my group there were 10 of us and I know about 30 who went and I would say at least 15 to 20 have since tested positive.

“I started to have a sore throat before I left, obviously it was hard to know at the time whether you have caught Covid or not but 100 per cent Monday I was feeling under the weather.

“Everyone realised they had it after they got back. They had a thing on Friday (the third day) when everyone was retested and I heard it showed about 1,000 came forward as positive.

“But there were loads who had it but didn’t come forward because they wanted to stay until the end of the festival. Everyone was quite aware about it and it and the tests coming back positive.”

Andrew Topham, CEO of Vision Nine – the company behind Boardmasters – said before the event organisers had put everything in place to minimise the risk.

Mr Topham said organisers went “above and beyond what was asked of us” by implementing its own Covid-19 policy.

Staycationers are thought to be a key reason for the general rise as Brits head to UK beaches rather than contend with the hassle of travelling abroad.

Newquay, where the festival took place, had 182 new positive tests between August 5 and 11.

In the seven days up to August 13 Newquay East’s infection rate rose to 1,123.8 per 100,000 which is higher that cities like London and Manchester.

A former mayor of Exmouth is facing years in jail after being found guilty of the historic sexual abuse of two schoolboys.

Ted Davenport www.devonlive.com

John Humphreys raped one of the boys after taking him into an abandoned military blockhouse on Woodbury Common 30 years ago and went on to abuse the other a decade later.

He is not only a former Mayor and long-serving Conservative councillor but also served as governor of a primary school for many years.

He is openly gay and became one of the first people in Britain to take part in a same sex wedding when he married his partner in April 2014 on the first day the new law came into effect.

He denied having any sexual contact with either boy but was found guilty of all charges by majority verdicts at the end of an eight day trial at Exeter Crown Court.

He said he was shocked and flabbergasted at the allegations and accused his first victim of being ‘wicked and vindictive’ and making up his allegations so he could claim compensation.

Humphreys ran his own gardening business in Exmouth and was considered to be a pillar of the community until the first allegations came to light in 2015.

Former Exmouth mayor John Humphreys who is accused of sexually abusing to boys in the 1990s and 2000s (Image: MARTIN WHITHAM)

He was prosecuted after police unearthed records of a previous complaint from the second victim, which was not pursued when it was first made in the 2000s.

Humphreys, aged 59, of Hartley Road, Exmouth, denied but was found guilty of three counts of a serious sexual assault (buggery) and two of indecent assault on the younger boy and five counts of indecent assault against older one.

The jury were out for more than eight hours before they delivered their majority verdicts.

Judge Timothy Rose adjourned sentence to Friday to allow the victims time to update impact statements.

Miss Fiona Elder, defending, said Humphreys knows he will receive a long jail sentence.

(Image: DevonLive)

Mr Piers Norsworthy, prosecuting, said he would submit a schedule setting out the sentencing guidelines for modern offences which are the equivalent to those he was convicted of.

The first victim was aged about 13 when he was picked up by Humphreys in public toilets in Manor Gardens in Exmouth, which was a well-known gay meeting spot or cottage at the time in 1990 or 1991.

He took the boy to a friend’s flat and had sex with him before dropping him off. They met again in the same way twice and on the first occasion he took him back to his former home in Salterton Road where they had sex again.

The victim said he was taken to Woodbury Common on the third meeting where he was subjected to a brutal sexual assault he described as rape.

When police asked him why he had decided to make a complaint, he replied ‘because I’ve had 25 years of sleepless nights’.

The second victim met Humphreys when he was aged 14 or 15 in 2001 and off school.

He said he was assaulted for the first time after being taken back to his home during a lunch break and was so confused that he froze.

Humphreys later offered him holiday jobs and went on to abuse him on other occasions, telling him ‘this doesn’t mean you are gay’.

Even the Telegraph has criticised Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as “missing in action”.  

Marina Hyde’s satirical comment in the Guardian is headed: “Can someone fill in Dominic Raab about the news? He only watches it on catchup.“ She also writes: “News that Dominic Raab was spotted lounging on a beach in Crete on the day Kabul fell certainly sends a message.”

But we shouldn’t forget that one of his recent special advisors (SPADS) was none other than our own Simon Jupp. Simon was appointed a SPAD to the then “First Secretary of State” in 2019, before running for parliament. 

SPADS have also come in for much criticism (see the recent New Statesman debate). The essence of this is that they usually possess a surfeit of ambition coupled with little experience.  Many SPADS see their appointment as a stepping stone to preferment to a “safe seat”.

In the case of Simon, one has to ask what foreign policy expertise could he “bring to the table”, or was appointed because of his political “nous”? Doesn’t look as if much his wisdom rubbed off.

In turn, we might ask what did he learn at the feet of his master? – Owl 

[In 1982 Peter Carrington resigned as Secretary of State, taking full responsibility for the complacency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in its failure to foresee the invasion of the Falkland Islands and for the misleading signals sent by the Foreign Office on British intentions for retaining control over the Falklands.]