BREAKING NEWS: Sidmouth shake-up

There has been a huge shake-up in East Devon:
Futures Forum: BREAKING NEWS: "Bad day" for the Tories as Independents in East Devon gain an overall majority of two
Futures Forum: District Council elections: "Independents deliver blow to the Conservatives'" > further reports

A similar 'out with the old' seems to have happened at the Town Council level - with results just in from the Herald, reporting from Exmouth Town Hall.

For Ottery: 

LIVE UPDATES: Election results for East Devon town and parish councils

PUBLISHED: 09:00 04 May 2019
Beth Sharp

Here is a recap of what happened in the Ottery Town Council elections this morning. There was a BIG shake-up after voters took the polls.

ELECTIONS: East Devon town and parish results | Election news | Midweek Herald 

And for Sidmouth: 

LIVE UPDATES: Sidmouth and Ottery town council election results

PUBLISHED: 09:00 04 May 2019
Beth Sharp

Sidmouth Town Council RESULTS:

Primley: Deirdre Hounsom (uncontested), Emma Murdoch (uncontested), Jeff Turner (uncontested); 

Sidbury: John Loudoun (uncontested); 

Sidmouth West: Louise Cole (uncontested); 

Salcombe Regis: Ian Barlow (277 votes) , David Barratt (321); 

Sidmouth East: Louise Thompson (166 votes); 

North: Charissa Evans (357 votes), Stuart Hughes (354 votes), Dawn Manley (404 votes), Jenny Ware (358 votes); 

Sidford Village: Jack Brokenshire (209 votes) and Marianne Rixson (328 votes);

South: Denise Bickley (790 votes), Kelvin Dent (914 votes), Christopher Lockyear (552 votes), John Rayson (329 votes) and Paul Wright (448 votes).

Sidmouth Town Council results

Sidmouth (South) – 5 seats
Denise Sarita Bickley - 790 ELECTED
Kelvin Richard Dent - 914 ELECTED
Nicholas James Diprose - 277
Christopher Francis Lockyear - 552 ELECTED
John William Rayson - 329 ELECTED
Paul Alan Wright - 448 ELECTED

Turn Out: 41.7 %
Rejected ballots: 30

Sidmouth (Sidford Village)

Peter Blackmore - 140
Jack Brokenshire - 209 ELECTED
Ian Mckenzie-Edwards - 126
Colin Mills - 56
Marianne Rixson - 328 ELECTED

Turn Out: 38.84%
Rejected ballots: 0

Sidmouth (North)

Charissa Jane Evans - 357 ELECTED
Stuart Hughes - 354 ELECTED
Sheila Kerridge - 164
Dawn Manley - 404 ELECTED
Andie Milne - 308
Jenny Ware - 358 ELECTED
Edward Fleming - 132

Turnout: 28.21%
Rejected ballots: 10

Sidmouth (East) – 1 seat

Marc Kilsbie - 115
Louise Thompson - 166 ELECTED

Turnout: 35%
Rejected ballots: 24

Sidmouth Salcombe Regis

Ian Barlow - 277 ELECTED
David Barratt - 321 ELECTED
Cathy Gardner - 235

Turnout: 46.7 %
Rejected ballots: 5

ELECTIONS: Sidmouth and Ottery town council election results | Election | Sidmouth Herald
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Sidmouth Town and District council elections > supporting younger blood

There is a lot of interest in the up-coming local elections:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Town and District council elections > HUSTINGS event > Tuesday 30th April > more details

And there has been a lot of interest in independent candidates in particular:
Futures Forum: Independent candidates standing for council seats across Devon say they are "fed-up of being ignored by ruling political parties"

The Herald features one independent District councillor who's retiring after almost 25 years on the job - including holding the chair of the important Scrutiny Committee: 

Councillor to step down after more than two decades

PUBLISHED: 12:00 15 April 2019
Sam Cooper

A man who has dedicated more than two decades of his life to improving his community is about to step down as a councillor. Councillor Roger Giles has been on East Devon District Council (EDDC) since 1995.

This year he decided to step down after a run of 24 years in hopes to support younger blood getting on the council. He will however be continuing to run as a candidate for Ottery Town Council (OTC). He is a big ambassador of Ottery’s heritage, being eco-friendly and campaigning to save the town’s hospital.

Cllr Giles said: “It’s time to hand over to somebody else. It was in the back of my mind for some time because if I stood and got in, by the time I completed the four year term and I think it is important for people to commit to the four years, I would have been 75.”

Giles, who will still be running for a seat on the OTC, first became a councillor for Devon County Council (DCC) in 1993 before becoming an EDDC councillor in 1995.

Giles said the make-up of EDDC is not representative of the people living there and that the age and sex profile is ‘wrong’. He added: “We need some older councillors of course but there are too many older ones and not enough younger ones. We need a mix of older councillors for experience and you need a mix of younger people to be more energetic.”

Giles stressed that it was important to have younger councillors as a way of engaging with the younger demographic.

He said: “Younger people tend to be the ones who don’t vote. I’m not criticising them for that, that’s not their fault. It’s our problem. We’ve got to make local government interesting and engage with them. As far as I’m aware, of the 59 councillors at East Devon, there is nobody below 40 and the vast majority are much older than that. You need councillors that are in their 20s, that are more in touch with younger people. It’s a problem to be addressed. If councils are to be relevant and engage with all the people that live in the council area then they need to engage with younger people.”

The candidates contesting the three Ottery St Mary seats on EDDC are Paul Carter, Anne Edwards, Peter Faithfull, Luke Gray, Vicky Johns, Margaret Piper, Geoff Pratt and Harv Sethi.

East Devon councillor to step down after more than two decades | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

The East Devon Watch blog has a couple of follow-up pieces:
14 days to local elections – today’s picture | East Devon Watch

Including: 

WHY VOTE INDEPENDENT IN LOCAL ELECTIONS?

17 APR 2019

A response to today’s post on retiring EDDC Councillor Roger Giles:

“When I first moved to OSM and had a leaflet from Roger through the letterbox, I could tell immediately that he was the best councillor you needed no money to buy. I voted for him without any hesitation, and I have never been disappointed in the decision.

(Ditto for Claire Wright but that is another story.)

More importantly it was also the beginning of a journey for me, to understand what genuinely Independent councillors do that makes them so different from the Party clones, and to understand the depths of the dodgy behaviour perpetrated by EDDC’s Conservative / Liberal Democrat regime.

Unfortunately I have now moved away, but I do hope that Roger’s shoes are filled by a new crop of fiercely independent-minded Independent councillors who will fight for the rights and needs of local residents against the elite powers-that-be and who will continue Roger’s fight to shine a spotlight and hold the council leadership to account on both the decisions made by them and the process by which those decisions are reached.

To anyone considering standing as a genuine Independent in any of the roles Roger has until now held, I urge you to take the plunge – the last thing East Devon / Devon needs is yet another Conservative / Liberal Democrat clone who will vote as directed in a totally non-critical brain-dead manner.

To anyone voting, equally I urge you to AVOID candidates from the national parties (or indeed any candidates who until recently were associated with national parties and who have decided to stand as Independents even though we can see through this ploy) and to support your genuinely INDEPENDENT candidate.”

Why vote Independent in local elections? | East Devon Watch
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New community online newspaper for East Devon

As reported by Cllr Claire Wright of Ottery: 

Online newspaper launches in East Devon

Posted: 28 Feb 2019 06:14 AM PST

A new online newspaper has just launched in East Devon. The plan is that Nub News will be a presence in each East Devon town including Ottery St Mary. Currently, it is operating in and around Exmouth but is interested in running stories across the district ....

I met with the company’s chief executive, Karl Hancock and East Devon regional editor, Joe Bulmer this afternoon, who told me that this new online model was designed to keep costs to a minimum, which means less need for advertising and clickbait and instead a keen focus on investigative journalism. Otherwise it is a community online newspaper which aims to support local businesses and promote ‘what’s on.’ 

If you have a story for Nub News contact Joe Bulmer, his email address is: joe.bulmer@nub.news

Online newspaper launches in East Devon - Claire Wright

In Exmouth:
Exmouth Area News Round-up | exmouth.nub.news

And in Sidmouth:
Sidmouth Area News Round-up | sidmouth.nub.news
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"Without any plan to tackle the financial crisis in the social care system, it’s hard to see how the vision in this 10 year NHS plan can be achieved."

If patients are either not treated in hospital or discharged at the earliest possible moment:
Futures Forum: The value of community hospitals

... there needs to be a better care system - which is not yet forthcoming:

Futures Forum: Doctors object to retirement village plans > they can't cope with the pressure of extra elderly residents
Futures Forum: Ensuring a sustainable future for social care > disrupt the market, and deliver greater supply, sustainability and fairness
Futures Forum: "Put more money into care services to help overflowing hospitals"
Futures Forum: "The loss of community hospital beds was intended to be offset by increasing the capacity of community care... Unfortunately there is not sufficient capacity in the home care services to do this job."
Futures Forum: Care Closer to Home: It's Not Working > new video from Save Our Hospital Services Devon
Futures Forum: By 2022, Devon will have the largest shortage in number of care homes places

With further comment today from ITV: 

Big questions left unanswered in long-term strategy for NHS

7 January 2019 at 11:10am
EMILY MORGAN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

An extra £20 billion has been promised to the NHS over the next five years. Credit: PA

Today at last the long-term strategy for the NHS in England will be published. So long-term, it will take the health service right through the next decade, which is no mean feat.

NHS England’s Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, has written the plan at the request of the prime minister. He says it can save up to half a million lives by focusing on killer conditions and getting people to live healthier lifestyles. An extra £20 billion promised to the NHS over the next five years will be used to help achieve this. But how?

Well, we’re told diagnosis of major diseases will be made easier and quicker with technology, mental health provision will increase and patients will be looked after better in the community - keeping them out of hospital, ensuring they live longer and healthier lifestyles. This all sounds plausible when you take into account that GPs, local community and mental health will get a third of the extra funding.

So, less money you might say, going straight to hospitals.

The buzzword today is integration. Few really know what that means, but in essence it’s about the NHS working better with local authorities who control social care in the community. It might seem crazy that this isn’t joined up already, but it’s not, and while local authority funding has decreased, care in the community has had to be scaled back, putting huge pressure on hospitals.

That will change we’re told. It’ll all be joined up, hospitals will be able to discharge elderly patients more freely and community care will take over.

That’s all well and good but there remain some big unanswered questions. We’ve been waiting two years for a Social Care green paper, which will consult on the best way to fund and manage social care in England.

Without any plan to tackle the financial crisis in that system, it’s hard to see how the vision in this 10 year NHS plan can be achieved.

Health secretary Matthew Hancock. Credit: PA

That, along with dwindling local authority budgets, seems right now a fantasy. The health secretary Matt Hancock has promised the Social Care green paper will be published in the coming weeks so all eyes will be on whether it can deliver what the NHS needs.

It is also admirable to encourage healthier lifestyles and to offer healthy living programmes to those most at need, but that pledge is at odds with the massive cuts to public health budgets. 

Local authorities, in charge of those finances, have had to cut back on key services which ultimately help those with drink problems, drug problems and weight problems. How will the government achieve this pledge if councils aren’t given extra money to keep vital service?

My last point is who will deliver this? The staffing crisis in the NHS is not a joke. Around 100,000 doctors and nurses are needed and unions have warned that this figure will just keep rising. If there are no medics to deliver this, the plan is pretty much pointless. The government has promised to tackle staffing in the service at a later date, but until that happens there will always be a fear this plan can’t be delivered in full.

There is a lot of good in this plan. Of course there is. But until these questions are answered there will, I think, always be doubters.

NHS 10-year plan launched in bid to save 500,000 lives

Last updated Mon 7 Jan 2019

Big questions left unanswered in long-term strategy for NHS - ITV News

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Climate change: and concrete: "the massive CO2 emitter"

There are issues around the creation of a quarry near Ottery St Mary:
Futures Forum: Holcim/Aggregate Industries: the costs and benefits

One of the biggest 'costs' of quarrying is the creation of cement:
Futures Forum: Quarrying in East Devon > and The Big Polluting Cement Giant

And one of the biggest issues around cement is climate change:
Futures Forum: How sustainable is the construction industry? ... 'Concrete is responsible for 7-10% of CO2 emissions' ... 'The industry must shift its emphasis beyond recycling and towards reuse'
Futures Forum: Climate change: and changing the old, polluting ways of the cement industry

The BBC looks at the latest:

Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about

By Lucy Rodgers

BBC News

17th December 2018



Concrete is the most widely used man-made material in existence. It is second only to water as the most-consumed resource on the planet.

But, while cement - the key ingredient in concrete - has shaped much of our built environment, it also has a massive carbon footprint. Cement is the source of about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,according to think tank Chatham House.

If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world - behind China and the US. It contributes more CO2 than aviation fuel (2.5%) and is not far behind the global agriculture business (12%).

Cement industry leaders were in Poland for the UN's climate change conference - COP24 - to discuss ways of meeting the requirements of the Paris Agreement on climate change. To do this, annual emissions from cement will need to fall by at least 16% by 2030.

So, how did our love of concrete end up endangering the planet? And what can we do about it?

In praise of concrete

As the key building material of most tower blocks, car parks, bridges and dams, concrete has, for the haters, enabled the construction of some of the world's worst architectural eyesores.

In the UK, it helped the massive wave of post-World War Two development - much of it still dividing opinion - with several of the country's major cities, such as Birmingham, Coventry, Hull and Portsmouth, largely defined by the concrete structures from that building push.

Birmingham is known for its concrete structures

But concrete is also the reason some of the world's most impressive buildings exist. Sydney Opera House, the Lotus Temple in Delhi, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai as well as the magnificent Pantheon in Rome - boasting the largest unsupported concrete dome in the world - all owe their form to the material.

The unreinforced concrete dome of the Pantheon in Rome has yet to be beaten in size

A mix of sand and gravel, a cement binder and water, concrete is so widely embraced by architects, developers and builders because it is a remarkably good construction material.

"It's affordable, you can produce it almost anywhere and it has all the right structural qualities that you want to build with for a durable building or for infrastructure," explains Felix Preston, deputy research director at the Energy, Environment and Resources Department at Chatham House.

Despite known durability problems with using steel reinforcement, which can crack concrete from the inside, it is still the go-to material across the world.

"Building without concrete, although it is possible, is challenging," says Mr Preston.

Growth of cement industry

It is these unrivalled attributes of concrete that have helped boost global cement production since the 1950s, with Asia and China accounting for the bulk of growth from the 1990s onwards.

Production has increased more than thirtyfold since 1950 and almost fourfold since 1990. China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the US did in the entire 20th Century.

But with Chinese consumption now appearing to level off, most future growth in construction is expected to happen in the emerging markets of South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa - driven by rapid urbanisation and economic development.

The floor area of the world's buildings is projected to double in the next 40 years, say Chatham House researchers, requiring cement production to increase by a quarter by 2030.

Concrete has a long history

While many of us assume concrete is a recent addition to our cities, architects and builders have actually been using it for millennia.

The earliest use of concrete is believed to have been more than 8,000 years ago, with traders in Syria and Jordan creating concrete floors, buildings and underground cisterns. Later, the Romans were known to be masters of concrete, building the Pantheon in Rome in 113-125AD, with its 43m-diameter free-standing concrete dome the largest in the world.

But the concrete used in our modern-built environment owes much of its make-up to a process patented in the early 19th Century by bricklayer Joseph Aspdin of Leeds.

His new technique of roasting limestone and clay in an oven and then grinding it to a powder to make "artificial stone" is now known as Portland cement - still the key ingredient in almost all modern concrete.

But, despite its ubiquitous presence, concrete's environmental credentials have come under increased scrutiny in the last couple of decades.Not only does the production of Portland cement involve quarrying - causing airborne pollution in the form of dust - it also requires the use of massive kilns, which require large amounts of energy.

The actual chemical process of making cement also emits staggeringly high levels of CO2.

'Action needed'

The sector has made progress - improvements in the energy-efficiency of new plants and burning waste materials instead of fossil fuels has seen the average CO2 emissions per tonne of output fall by 18% over the last few decades, according to Chatham House.

The newly-established Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), currently representing about 35% of the world's cement production capacity and with a focus on sustainable development, was at COP24.

Chief executive Benjamin Sporton says the fact the organisation now exists "is a demonstration of the commitment of the industry to sustainability, including taking action on climate change".

The GCCA is due to publish a set of sustainability guidelines, which its membership will have to follow.

"By bringing together global players to provide leadership and focus, as well as delivering a detailed work programme, we can help ensure a sustainable future for cement and concrete, and for the needs of future generations," Mr Sporton says.

Shanghai, like many Chinese cities, has seen a rapid rise in development

But despite the promise, Chatham House argues that the industry is reaching the limits of what it can do with current measures. If the sector has any hope of meeting its commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, it will need to look at overhauling the cement-making process itself, not only reducing the use of fossil fuels.

'Clinker' - the big polluter

It is the process of making "clinker" - the key constituent of cement - that emits the largest amount of CO2 in cement-making.

1. Raw materials, mainly limestone and clay, are quarried and crushed
2. They are ground and mixed with other materials - such as iron ore or ash
3. They are fed into huge, cylindrical kilns and heated to about 1,450C (2,640F)
4. The process of "calcination" splits the material into calcium oxide and CO2
5. A new substance called clinker emerges as marble-sized grey balls
6. The clinker is cooled, ground and mixed with gypsum and limestone
7. The cement is transported to ready-mix concrete companies

In 2016, world cement production generated around 2.2 billion tonnes of CO2 - equivalent to 8% of the global total. More than half of that came from the calcination process.

Together with thermal combustion, 90% of the sector's emissions could be attributed to the production of clinker.

Because of this, Mr Preston and his colleagues argue the sector urgently needs to pursue a number of CO2 reduction strategies. Further efforts on energy efficiency, a move away from fossil fuels and pursuing carbon capture and storage will help, but can only do so much.

"We've got a long way to close the gap," Mr Preston says.

What the industry really needs to do is plough efforts into producing new types of cement, he argues. In fact, low-carbon cements and "novel cements" might do away with the need for clinker altogether.

New cements

One of those trying to drum up greater support for such alternative cements is Ginger Krieg Dosier, co-founder and CEO of BioMason - a start-up in North Carolina that uses trillions of bacteria to grow bio-concrete bricks. The technique, which involves placing sand in moulds and injecting it with microorganisms, initiates a process similar to the one that creates coral.

"I have a long fascination with marine cements and structures," explains Ms Krieg Dosier, a trained architect who was surprised to find no real green alternatives to bricks and masonry when she began research at an architectural firm more than 10 years ago.

The discovery led her to create her own solution, which, after years of development, now takes only four days. It happens at room temperature, without the need for fossil fuels or calcination - two of the main sources of the cement industry's CO2 emissions.

Ms Krieg Dosier believes green cements and technologies such as hers offer a solution to the sector's emissions issue.

"Traditional Portland-based cement production practices will continue to release CO2 due to its fundamental chemistry," she says, adding that rather than turning to carbon capture and storage, we should be investing more in techniques that actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. Alternative cements and binding technologies go beyond evolutionary CO2 capture to revolutionary methods that fundamentally sequester CO2."

'Disruptive forces'

Alongside such alternative cements, other "disruptive" forces are also beginning to drive change. Digitalisation, machine learning and an increasing awareness of sustainability are all having an impact on the cement industry's culture.

"It's partly changing because of how people want to live, but also because of our ability to dream up new and innovative structures and test those with computer models," says Mr Preston. "There's also the ability to build things more cheaply with robots - with automation."

But changing processes quickly enough to meet the cement industry's obligations will be a challenge.

Bio-cement start-up BioMason grows bricks out of sand and bacteria

The sector is dominated by a small number of major producers who are reluctant to experiment or change business models. Architects, engineers, contractors and clients are also, rather understandably, cautious about using new building materials.

"This quite slow-moving, difficult-to-change sector is starting to bump against these quite profound disruptions that we're starting to see in the built environment," says Mr Preston.

But, with very few low-carbon cements reaching commercialisation, and none being applied at scale in an industry where bigger and taller is often the ambition, it looks likely that sustained government support will be needed. Without governments applying pressure on the industry or providing funding, it may not be possible to get the next generation of low-carbon cements out of the laboratory and into the market within the required timescale.

And the timescale is ever-shrinking.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the leading international body on global warming - last month argued the global average temperature rise needed to be kept below 1.5C - not 2C as noted in the Paris Agreement. This means CO2 emissions need to decline by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030.

Like other young companies, Ms Krieg Dosier describes the difficulties of simultaneously developing and marketing her products and scaling up manufacturing processes to compete within the wider construction industry.

Concrete is the chosen material for most large-scale projects

But she thinks there are reasons to be optimistic. "I do believe the construction industry is approaching a point where alternative materials will be more widely adopted," she says. "This is in part due to market demand, other innovative technologies and wider concern for climate change."

The cement industry, too, points to more optimistic assessments of the industry's progress on emissions and suggests that, across its lifetime, concrete could make a net climate benefit when all possible action is taken into account. This includes re-carbonation (or the re-absorption of CO2 by cement), concrete's contribution to the energy efficiency of buildings, and innovation in the way cement is manufactured - including carbon capture and storage.

The GCCA says such innovation is its key priority in the months and years ahead. Projects are already underway and showing promise, it added.

But Mr Preston says it is imperative that governments and industry now act quickly at a time when global development is expected to rise but CO2 emissions need to fall. "There's a desperate need for quality, affordable homes," he says. "There's a need for new infrastructure. We can only square this circle if we can dramatically improve the way that we build, so that overall these buildings are constructed with, as close as possible, net zero emissions."

Design by Lilly Huynh.

Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about - BBC News
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A healthy democracy and a free press

The press is having a tough time in the States at the moment:
Donald Trump threatens other reporters' White House press passes
The US press corps has to learn to stand up to Trump | Suzanne Moore | Opinion | The Guardian

Even Fox News is finding this difficult:
Trump slams CNN’s Acosta for press conference performance: ‘You are a rude, terrible person’ | Fox News
Some at Fox News are tired of the Trump-cheering. | The New Republic
Fox News’ John Roberts Defends CNN After Trump Refuses Question from ‘Fake News’
ThinkProgress - Trump’s press conference with Putin crosses the line for Fox News | Facebook

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, civil society - including the freedom to report on issues - is under a lot of pressure
Futures Forum: Civil society under threat
Futures Forum: Against charity: for NGOs

And that includes the UK:
Futures Forum: The Lobbying Act, civil society and criminalising dissent >> 'Why charities have been gagged in the UK election'

Peter Pomerantsev, author of "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia" is suggesting that we are entering a new model of how things happen in politics:
Futures Forum: "Political technologists" - is this the future of democracy?
Futures Forum: Brexit: and "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible"
Futures Forum: Moving beyond the ideological boundaries and "empowering people to find the solutions to their problems themselves"
Futures Forum: Managed democracy: "The deliberate undermining of people's perception of the world, by creating confusion and contradiction ... undermining any opposition to existing power structures ... which leaves us feeling helpless and depressed and to which the only response is: 'Oh dear'." 

These themes are considered on Radio 4 this week:

How to kill a democracy

Sunday 11th November 2018
Analysis

How many democracies around the world are gradually being dismantled. Democracies today are less and less likely to be overthrown in violent coups. Today’s methods of establishing one party rule are much more subtle and insidious.

Political scientist Professor Matt Qvortrup explores how the modern authoritarian leader takes control of his or her country.

High on their list will be subtly manipulating elections to win with a comfortable but credible majority: appointing their own supporters to the judiciary whilst watering down their powers: silencing critics in the press while garnering positive coverage from their media supporters: punishing opponents by denying them employment while rewarding lackeys with key positions. And using technology to help rig votes and spread propaganda.

Matt traces these methods back to Roman times while looking at their contemporary relevance in countries as diverse as Kenya, Poland, Hungary, and Venezuela.

BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, How to kill a democracy

Andrew Marr also looked at this at the beginning of the week:
BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Reporting from the Front Line

And every morning, we had one very brave journalist's account of reporting from the front line:
BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, Episode 1

Things seem to be going the other way - hopefully - in East Devon:

A new newspaper for Ottery!

Friday, 02 November 2018

The Paper for Honiton has recently gone on sale in Pearson’s Newsagent in Ottery and I can thoroughly recommend it.

It carries Ottery news and from around the district as well as stories from Honiton. It was launched last year following the sad closure of the Pulman’s View From Series.

It has quite a strong health focus and its editor is Tim Dixon, who formerly edited the Western Daily Press. If you’re in Pearson’s don’t be put off by the title, buy a copy and see what you think. It’s a great newspaper! ....

A new newspaper for Ottery! - Claire Wright
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Building Cob Castles in East Devon... on Grand Designs > five years on

Devon is the natural place for cob:
Futures Forum: A cob cottage for £150...
Futures Forum: RIBA House of the Year shortlist > Cob Corner, Devon

Five years ago, Kevin McCloud was in Ottery St Mary:
Futures Forum: Building Cob Castles in East Devon... on Grand Designs

He has just made a return visit:

Grand Designs: 
Everything you need to know about Devon's stunning 'cob castle'

It is believed to be the 'largest cob building on the planet'

Abbie Bray
31 OCT 2018

(Image: Channel 4)

Grand Designs is back for its 18th series and tonight's show will feature a stunning cob house from East Devon.

The 'cob castle' has been built by the 'King of cob' himself, builder Kevin McCabe from Ottery St Mary.

The home - believed to be the 'largest cob building on the planet' was built a stone's throw from the cob house Mr McCabe shared with his then wife and their family.



It has also been dubbed the most 'eagerly anticipated' revisits in the show's history.

Talking to the Daily Mail, Mr McCabe admitted that he doesn't know how much he had spent on building his dream home, however being eco-friendly it costs nothing to run.

He said: "Size wise it's a manor house but its running costs are negligible. That's what I was trying to show. You can have a very green building that is still a very luxurious building."

Passionate about the historic building approach, he wanted to show how it could be brought up to modern standards by meeting the highest environmental performance targets ever set in the UK.

The property took the shape of two separate cob cylinders, connected by a glass-sided greenhouse walkway.



The basement level of the main three-storey cylinder, built into the ground, houses an 'arcade-sized' games room and a gym.

The main access is via a bridge to the second level where the living spaces are and the third level contains the master suite and two 'cavernous' additional bedrooms.

The annexe is now a self-contained rental home generating extra income. The undulating roof, which mirrors the curves of the rolling hills beyond, is covered with soil and a natural wildflower garden.



At the start of the project Mr McCabe estimated it would take three months for the cob build to complete, a prediction presenter McCloud thought was wildly ambitious.

Stepping onto the site for the first time, McCloud said "It looks like they're building a bloody bypass. And there's a Roman ampitheatre being revealed. It's vast."

Together with his family and hired help, Mr McCabe tirelessly worked to build his home with his bare hands.

The schedule was further delayed by the torrential downpours of the summer of 2012, meaning the roof wasn't laid until just before their deadline of winter 2012.



The cameras returned the following spring to find the home was starting to take place and by the summer of 2013 Mr McCabe had started to insulate and clad the 1m thick cob walls with polystyrene to make it more energy efficient.

The master craftsman revealed he had to return to full-time work in order to cover the spiralling costs and the family put their five-bedroom £1.1million home on the market.

They were dealt a blow when a potential buyer pulled out, with Mr McCabe's then wife receiving the call on camera.



On Mr McCloud's final visit of the initial stint, in September 2013, he said: "You get a sense coming in of a farmstead really... It gets bigger.

"It goes from one to two to three stories. It's a cob castle, a fortification in mud that sits astride the hill.

Take a look inside Cob Corner below

CLICK TO PLAY INSIDE COB CORNER IN DEVON

"The rooms are monumental and the thick, hefty cob walls suggest extraordinary mass... But not a single room is habitable... It's clear this house won't be ready to live in any time soon."

Returning this summer, seven years after the project started and five years after his last visit, Kevin McCloud explained Mr McCabe had divorced his wife and now lives at the property with his new partner and her children.


Grand Designs: Everything you need to know about Devon's stunning 'cob castle' - Devon Live
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Community banking for the South West comes to Ottery

Banks are closing:
Futures Forum: More high street banks to close in Devon >>> "If you don’t keep a town’s pubs, restaurants, shops – and, yes, its banks – a town starts going into decline."

There are innovative ideas out there, but the conventional banks are not interested:
Futures Forum: No 'multi-bank' for Sidmouth > banks reject sharing facilities

However, one idea is gaining traction:
Futures Forum: A Bank of the South West > to serve the everyday financial needs of ordinary people, local community groups, and small and medium sized companies >> Tony Greenham in Exeter
Futures Forum: The Bank of the South West > Tony Greenham's presentation from the RSA in Exeter

Something very similar is coming to East Devon:

Community banking for the South West

South West Mutual has been formed to establish the first ever customer-owned high street bank dedicated to Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset.

Subject to regulatory approvals we aim to launch in late 2019.

South West Mutual - Ethical Banks, Co-Operative Bank, Community Bank

The Herald reports from Ottery: 

Ottery set to benefit from regional bank proposal

09 October 2018

Clarissa Place

Tony Greenham, co-founder and director of South West Mutual. Picture: Graham Flack

A new bank could be set to open in Ottery as part of a £20million project to create a regional bank across the South West.

Tony Greenham, founding director of South West Mutual, spoke to the town council on Monday night about the company’s plans to help communities affected by the closure of branches.

Lloyds, the town’s last bank will close next Wednesday (October 10) and has begun operating a mobile bank service two days a week. Barclays and NatWest both shut in 2015.

Under South West Mutual’s proposals, the regional bank would run seven staffed and 21 satellite branches across Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset.

Mr Greenham said the plans were still in early stages with no branches likely to open until 2020 and that the company was working to secure £20million in capital and £500,000 towards its banking licence application.

He added: “One of the aims of the regional bank is to be able to serve communities across the region which are finding themselves without any banking services because of the closure of branches.

“What we are aiming to do is be a high street bank serving personal customers and businesses, particularly smaller businesses with current accounts, savings products and loans products, mortgages, overdrafts, secured personal loans and so on. A normal high street bank if you like, but the key difference is we will be owned by our customers.

“The interest of our customers will be aligned with our owners because they are the same people.”

He said the town would ‘definitely’ be a satellite branch, where customers can use machines to carry out their banking, video link assistance, and meeting room for face-to-face meetings at times during the week.

Mr Greenham replied: “There are more people choosing to use digital banking much more, but that doesn’t mean that people do not want branches anymore. But we can’t support the size of branch networks that banks had in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s.

“The answer is this hybrid branch, which is entirely capable of self-service with nobody there, though our intention in each community is to see when would be the critical times to try to have a personal assistant when people really do need to use one-to-one.”

South West Mutual reveals plans for Ottery as part of regional bank | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
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Campaigning to save rural banks

High Street banks are are continuing to close:
Futures Forum: More high street banks to close in Devon >>> "If you don’t keep a town’s pubs, restaurants, shops – and, yes, its banks – a town starts going into decline."
Futures Forum: No 'multi-bank' for Sidmouth > banks reject sharing facilities

Two branches will be closing in Sidmouth:
NatWest is accused of ‘banking on the cheap’ with mobile unit in Sidmouth | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
Barclays Bank announces Sidmouth branch to close in November | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

And the last bank has now closed in Ottery St Mary:
Ottery’s Lloyds Bank mobile bank gets up and running as the branch closes - Claire Wright 

There are campaigns to slow this down - or at least to offer alternative services - as reported by the Rural Services Network:

01.10.2018

PLANS ANNOUNCED TO SAVE RURAL BANKS

NEWSBANKSFUTURE OF RURAL AREASBARRIERS TO ACCESS

Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Rebecca Long-Bailey MP was interviewed by the Eastern Daily Press during the Labour Party Conference about plans to protect rural bank branches.

She said a Labour Government would hand more power to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) so that if a bank wanted to close a branch it would have to meet certain criteria, including ensuring that closure would not ‘degrade local financial infrastructure’. Ultimately, she said, the FCA would have the power to veto bank closures if they were found to be detrimental to the local community.

Long-Bailey said that this would have the added benefit of reversing the increase of pay-day lenders on high streets: ‘The fear is that if Government doesn’t take action on this, the first point of call for people financially would be to go to these lenders and get a loan instead of getting financial advice from the bank.’

Full articles:

→ Eastern Daily Press - Labour vows to save East Anglia’s rural banks

→ The Mirror - Labour's plan to save the high street - buses for under 25s, no ATM charges and wi-fi for all

Plans announced to save rural banks - Rural Services Network
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County Council to consider "taking a strong position on protecting our community hospitals and a strong position on resisting any future plans to sell off the buildings"

It is acknowledged that small is beautiful in health care:
Futures Forum: "Small hospitals have a big role to play"

The District Council thinks so:
Futures Forum: District Council "strongly opposes closure and removal of community hospital beds and hospital-based services throughout East Devon"

But the County Council doesn't:
Futures Forum: County Council approves NHS Integrated Care System - despite its own scrutiny committee and the public showing overwhelming opposition

All in the face of uncertainly and austerity:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and the "NHS dividend": and planned CCG cuts in Devon

In Ottery St Mary earlier in the week, we had the makings of a farce: 

Secretary of State for Health visits Ottery Hospital but leaves at speed, James Bond style!

Wednesday, 26 September 2018 4 Comments by Claire

Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care sped out of Ottery Hospital car park, in his ministerial car, with blue lights activated this morning, in an apparently desperate attempt to avoid speaking to me and around a dozen hospital supporters.

Just before he left in a hurry, officials asked me and around a dozen residents to leave the car park where we were peacefully waiting for him to exit. We didn’t have placards and there was no chanting.

Pic: The Secretary of State’s car with blue lights activated leaves the hospital’s rear entrance at speed. For more photos see Twitter and my Facebook account at Claire Wright Independent Parliamentary Candidate

Secretary of State for Health visits Ottery Hospital but leaves at speed, James Bond style! - Claire Wright

But apparently the video of the Minister 'fleeing' has been deleted: 

Why did ITV delete the film of the Secretary of State’s car speeding through Ottery Hosp car park

Friday, 28 September 2018 1 Comment by Claire

ITV’s short clip of Matt Hancock, Health Secretary’s ministerial blue-lighted car travelling at speed through Ottery Hospital’s car park, was deleted yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours after it was posted.

Given that the video, which was in the process of going viral, must have dismayed both Mr Swire and Mr Hancock, my suspicions are directed firmly at these two.

I will be interested to hear from the two politicians whether they played a role in removing the embarrassing footage.

The tweet in question from political correspondent, Nick Smith, also confirmed that Mr Hancock’s black jaguar, using its security alert blue lights, appeared to be fleeing the apparently terrifying prospect of talking to me and around a dozen peaceable looking residents...

I have a motion at Devon County Council’s full council meeting next Thursday afternoon, urging councillors to take a strong position on protecting our community hospitals and a strong position on resisting any future plans to sell off the buildings.


Why did ITV delete the film of the Secretary of State’s car speeding through Ottery Hosp car park - Claire Wright

Here are details of this coming council meeting:
Agenda for Council on Thursday, 4th October, 2018, 2.15 pm

Meanwhile, if you would like to see a video of a Secretary of State running to his ministerial car, here it is:
Dean Stewart | Facebook
dean stewart on Twitter: "Apologies for poor quality. This is Sec of State Matt Hancock running away from 11 middle aged middle class bystanders @catherine5news @HSJEditor @guardian @drphilhammond @PrivateEyeNews @ClaireWrightInd @MattHancock @HugoSwire @Peston @Davewwest @UNISONOurNHS @DHSCgovuk… https://t.co/UswkMufCyQ"
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