Sidmouth may have the most 90+ residents, but Seaton is the dementia capital
Sidmouth has got some publicity because it has the highest proportion of people over 90 in the country. But overall, Seaton, Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton are the most elderly towns in Devon, with similar percentages (43-45 percent in the last census) of people over 65. Sidmouth has slightly more very old people, mainly because it has more nursing homes. But Seaton has more people with dementia than anywhere in Devon – our two GP practices are consistently 1st and 2nd in Devon for its prevalence. Both our towns need their community hospitals.
Seaton Hospital Steering Committee requests clarification from Devon NHS
This post contains the letter which we have just sent to the Integrated Care Board. I also took our concerns to a recent meeting of the Devon Health Scrutiny Committee and I expect that they will discuss them more fully later next month.
New threat to Seaton Hospital
Readers will remember that Seaton Hospital was threatened two years ago with the demolition of a wing which had been paid for entirely by the local community 30 years before. A huge public meeting elected the Seaton Hospital Steering Committee, of which I am secretary, and in June 2024 we submitted a plan to rent the wing and provide a range of health and wellbeing services. (It was assumed that the NHS would continue to provide services in the rest of the Hospital.)
15 months on, we still haven’t received a reply from NHS Property Services, the owner of the Hospital. This summer, however, Devon NHS’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) approached the Hospital’s League of Friends saying that they wished to withdraw NHS services from Seaton Hospital and offering to sell the entire hospital to the League.
The League have been trying to find out from the ICB (who presumably are acting together with Property Services), what is involved, and are still seeking further clarification.
Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, Jack Rowland, the chair of the Steering Committee, and I are concerned about the threatened loss of NHS services. Although at the moment, this is a stated intention rather than a firm plan, on Friday I took the matter to the Devon Health Scrutiny Committee, supported by our County Councillor, Paul Arnott. You can watch us on the DCC Health Scrutiny YouTube recording (I’m at 11 minutes, Paul is at 2 hours 38).
Health Scrutiny decided to put Community Hospitals, including Seaton, on their future agenda. Our MP, Richard Foord, also issued a strongly worded statement about the new threat.
Our full Steering Committee will meet on 2nd October to discuss the whole situation, and we will send out further updates.
Far right likely to threaten asylum seekers again this Saturday
Far right activists are expected to turn up in numbers at the Hampton Hotel near Exeter Airport again this Saturday. There are fears they may be emboldened by last weekend’s extremist rally in London. We’ll be joining the Stand Up to Racism Exeter counterprotest from 11, to make sure the extremists don’t threaten the women and children in the hotel.
Far right retreats from hotel intimidation
The far right activists who attempted for five weeks to harass asylum seekers living in a hotel near Exeter backed away on Saturday. Two far-right councillors (one from Reform UK, another ex-Reform) had managed to get into the hotel, and discovered that the far-right story that the hotel was full of young men was untrue. The ‘protestors’ then used this as an excuse to move their action to Cathedral Green in Exeter.
This is a victory for those of us who took part in counterprotests (disclosure: I only went once). But far-right activists, even if councillors, should never have been admitted to a hotel housing vulnerable asylum seekers. And if there had been young men in the hotel, they would still have deserved protection. It is outrageous for extremists like Nigel Farage to stigmatise ‘young men’. They are often those who are most vulnerable under dictatorial regimes and in wars. Most who come here are granted asylum. No refugees should be targeted by the far right in the UK.
Controversial Tory councillor shouted ‘migrants are a danger to British women’ outside hotel housing women asylum seekers
The complaint to Exeter City Council about Tory councillor Alison Sheridan concerns far more than ‘wearing official ID’ at a far-right protest outside the Hampton hotel at Exeter Airport, as the BBC reported. She also shouted out, ‘Migrants are a threat to British women’, and this was part of the complaint. However, this has not been reported – although video showing her doing this was sent by the complainant to BBC SW Spotlight reporters last Friday.
In video posted on YouTube by a far-right activist, she can also be seen saying that Nigel Farage’s mass deportation policy is ‘brilliant’. ‘I want mass deportations’, she says.
When I was an Independent member of Devon County Council four years ago, there was no Tory councillor who would have done what Sheridan did. It is now for the Conservative Party to decide if she represents them. Even Reform have suspended councillors for less.
The BBC must also explain why they failed to report her intimidatory racist outburst, delivered at a site housing over a hundred vulnerable people, mostly women and children.
Protecting asylum seekers in airport hotel against far-right intimidation
On Saturday, we went to a counterprotest organised by Stand Up Against Racism Exeter against far-right activists who are trying to harass asylum seekers living in the Hampton by Hilton hotel at Exeter Airport. The asylum seekers are mainly women and children, and after we left (we were there for two hours), the far-rightists tried to surround women from the hotel, including one with a baby in a pram, as they got on the bus. They stood up against the bus windows, in a clear attempt to intimidate these young and already vulnerable individuals.
The far right have targeted the hotel for 5 consecutive weeks – there were 30 of them this week, but around 80 of us. Who knows how much worse it would be if we weren’t there. So long as they continue, Stand Up to Racism will be there, and we hope to join them again. Let me know if you would like to help, and sign up to follow Stand Up to Racism on Facebook.
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