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Claire Wright’s fulsome endorsement of Paul Arnott
Claire writes (from Facebook): I am really happy to announce that I am backing Paul Arnott to take Exmouth and Exeter East in the general election! For those of you not familiar with Paul, he is the Liberal Democrat leader of East Devon District Council, presiding over a rainbow coalition of LibDem, Independent and Green…
— Read on eastdevonwatch.org/2024/02/13/breaking-claire-wrights-fulsome-endorsement-of-paul-arnott/
Paul Arnott to stand for new Exmouth constituency
Paul Arnott, leader of East Devon District Council and long-time Colyton resident, is to stand for the Liberal Democrats in the new Exmouth & Exeter East constituency. Paul, who has been an inspiring leader of EDDC, co-founded the East Devon Alliance of Independents in 2013 and joined the Lib Dems when Richard Foord was fighting to become our MP in the 2022 by-election.
Most of the new Exmouth constituency is the old East Devon seat held first by Hugo Swire and now by Simon Jupp. Claire Wright, who stood as an Independent and was second in the last three elections (running Jupp close in 2019) is supporting Paul this time, and got together with him this week (above).
Since Labour have said that Exmouth (like Honiton & Sidmouth) is not a ‘battleground seat’ for them, Paul is now the frontrunner to defeat the Tories in this seat. Together, Paul and Richard could give East Devon an excellent voice in the new Parliament.
NHS Devon rectifies procedural error, confirms intention to hand back whole wing of Hospital
When NHS Devon’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) decided last autumn to hand back part of Seaton Hospital to NHS Property Services for disposal, the report it approved referred only to the former ward accommodation on the ground floor of the 1991 wing, although verbally they claimed to be handing back the wing as a whole, i.e. also including first floor offices being used by the Community Team (who visit patients in their homes) and the League of Friends Hospice at Home team. Thus although they claimed to only handing back unused space, they were in fact disposing of space that is still in use.
When we finally saw the report in late December, I wrote to the ICB pointing out that they did not have the authority to hand back the whole wing. This week, they put forward a new paper rectifying their error, and indicating that the Community Team offices would be moved to other rooms on the ground floor, including the area recently used as a vaccination suite.
The Seaton Hospital Steering Committee objected to this on the grounds that the suite in the Hospital had been very successful and it is important for vaccinations to be available locally. My question about this was read out by the chair, Dr Sarah Wollaston, at their Board meeting today, but they rejected our request to restrict the handback to the former ward area. She said that emptying the wing ‘facilitates the handback’, and that while they understand the concerns about the vaccination suite, they have an excellent track record of using all relevant spaces for vaccinations (thus she ignored our point that we need this facility locally). You can watch at NHS Devon board meetings – YouTube – it’s right at the end of today’s meeting.
The Steering Committee continues its discussions about uses of spaces in the Hospital and will meet representatives of the ICB and Property Services in the Hospital a week today.
Seaton works to slow coastal erosion will start in 2025
A stakeholder meeting of the Seaton Beach Management Plan heard yesterday that there are finally definite steps towards implementing the agreed measures to protect the cliffs from wave erosion, which amount mainly to increasing the stone revetment at the foot of the cliffs between Seaton Hole and the Hideaway Cafe. It is not clear yet how the failed gabion baskets at the latter end will be replaced.
The plan is for work to begin on or as soon as possible after 1 April 2025, and it is expected to last 6-12 weeks. Delays are most likely to occur in the obtaining of permissions and licences. The aim is to complete it before the school holidays, but it has to be done in the late spring or summer because of weather conditions, which have safety and also cost implications.
EDDC have brought in a specialist team from Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council (BCP) to manage the scheme. They both seemed competent and keen to get on with planning the work and appointing a contractor, on which they will report at a further meeting in July.
The scheme, to be known as the Seaton Hole Beach Management Scheme, will mainly involve importing large rocks by sea and then moving them into position along the beach. Heavy equipment will be brought along the beach and left down there during the period of the works.
There will probably be a site compound at Fisherman’s Gap. There could also be a small one at Seaton Hole, but only in the case that additional work needs to be done on the concrete revetment at the foot of the steps – which should not really be necessary because this was only redone in 2022.
A section of the beach, together with the path down at Seaton Hole, may be closed off during the works, at least on weekdays. We are promised that the arrangements will be flexible and will attempt to minimise inconvenience.
West Seaton & Seaton Hole Association representatives gave a detailed account of the recent deterioration of the beach. Storms have exacerbated the underlying problem caused by works at Beer thirty years ago, which is leading to the growth of Beer beach and the weakening of Seaton Hole’s. We also made them aware of how busy Seaton Hole is in the summer.
Scrutiny blocks Teignmouth referral – as government ends committee’s power to refer
Community hospital supporters with long memories will recall that in 2017, Devon Health Scrutiny Committee refused to refer the closure of beds in Seaton, Honiton, Ottery and Oakhampton to the Secretary of State. Tory councillors, mostly from East Devon, blocked the referral, the last chance to keep our hospitals as they were supposed to be when local communities paid to build them. This is the background to the new crisis in Seaton, and now also in Okehampton.
Today, the Committee refused by 8-5 to refer the closure of Teignmouth Community Hospital to the Secretary of State, with Tory councillors once again blocking the decision and Lib Dem, Labour and Independent councillors voting for. And this is the last time they will have the chance to refer any decision – the Government has abolished scrutiny committees’ powers to refer, from 31 January. No reason has been given, but it’s pretty clear that they are just removing the last vestiges of local democratic accountability. Another reason to vote them out later this year!
Health Scrutiny backs Seaton again
Devon’s Health Scrutiny Committee once again urged Devon NHS and NHS Property Services to come to an agreement with the Seaton Hospital Steering Committee today, after Jack Rowland, Marcus Hartnell and I addressed them. Seaton Hospital supporters were out in force.
‘Sewage pollution alert’ issued for every East Devon beach
The Surfers Against Sewage app shows a ‘sewage pollution alert’ for every beach in East Devon this morning (Jan 22).
— Read on www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/24064929.sewage-pollution-alert-issued-every-east-devon-beach/
Campaign, now 3 hospitals, returns to County Hall next Wednesday
Seaton and Teignmouth Hospital campaigners will be joined at Devon Health Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday by supporters of Okehampton Hospital, where the ICB are also trying to hand back a ward to Property Services. Please join us if you can!
A three-community protest, Save Devon’s Community Hospitals, will meet outside County Hall at 1.30. The Committee is at 2.15 and Jack Rowland and I will again be speaking, along with Teignmouth and Okehampton colleagues. We are talking to supportive members of the Committee about what it can best do.
Richard Foord MP had intended to be present, but now needs to speak in a debate on international affairs in Parliament, and is sending a letter of support to the Scrutiny Committee. He presented the Seaton Hospital petition in Parliament two days ago.
Planned discussions with the ICB and Property Services have been postponed, but we are now hoping to meet them on 1 February at the Hospital. In the meanwhile, our Steering Committee is also meeting next week to discuss progress on our own plans for using the empty space.
The Carpetbagger’s Tale
I don’t want this blog to be consumed with Simon Jupp, the new Conservative candidate for our area who has jumped ship from his present constituency centred on Exmouth. But as well as misrepresenting Devon’s NHS crisis, he is making a lot of the fact that he is now standing where he lives, in Sidmouth, and making out that because Richard Foord lives in Uffcolme, a few hundred yards outside the new Honiton & Sidmouth constituency (which includes neighbouring Cullompton), Richard is somehow an outsider.
The truth is that Simon is a serial carpetbagger. He moved to Exmouth in 2019 so that he could take over from Hugo Swire in the old East Devon constituency, having been a special advisor to Dominic Raab in London.
And now Simon has moved to Sidmouth. I strongly suspect that he moved there because it’s in the new Honiton & Sidmouth constituency, which he decided was a better bet than the new Exmouth & East Exeter seat where most of his present constituents live. The voters will shortly have a chance to prove him wrong about that, and then he’ll be on the move again.
So isn’t Simon just the model of a local boy made good!
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 