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.
More deliberately misleading advertising from Jupp
Simon Jupp, the MP for the constituency centred on Exmouth, but who is standing as a candidate for our area in the election, is putting out this brochure in Colyton (sent to me by a resident) claiming to be the ‘local MP’, although in fact that is Richard Foord.
Inside, he also claims to be ‘working with health bosses’ to save Seaton Hospital, although of course it is Richard Foord who is doing that, it is Richard who is on our hospital steering committee, and it is Richard who is repeatedly raising the issue in Parliament.
This is deliberately misleading material, although not a surprise from Jupp, who likes to claim he lives locally but only moved into the area to stand as MP.
What is a surprise is that the Gateway in Seaton has allowed Jupp a second slot presenting a quiz night. You’d have really thought that any local community enterprise would think twice before hitching itself so clearly to one side in the election, and especially to the party that caused the dismembering of Seaton Hospital in the first place.
Seaton Hospital made Asset of Community Value by EDDC
East Devon District Council has declared Seaton Hospital an Asset of Community Value, which obliges its owners, NHS Property Services (NHSPS), to give the community first refusal in case of disposal.
NHSPS had opposed the move, but EDDC leader Paul Arnott (Lib Dem, Coly Valley), urged them to recognise local public opinion and refrain from appealing against the decision.
This is another step towards securing the whole of the hospital for continuing use as a centre for health and wellbeing.
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/
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 