Sexual harassment and bullying case involving leading Devon councillor: I think the County has handled it properly
At the last Devon County Council meeting, Councillor Emma Brennan (Labour, Heavitree and Whipton Barton, Exeter) made a protest about the continued presence in the Council of Councillor Brian Greenslade (Barnstaple), who has been found guilty of sexual harassment and bullying against Council employees during his time as leader 10-15 years ago. Earlier, we had approved the minutes of the Standards Committee which considered the matter.
Councillor Greenslade has lost his membership of the Liberal Democrats and now sits as an Independent (but he is not a member of the Non-Aligned Group to which Claire Wright and I belong). He has also lost his membership of Council committees and his access to all but the minimum Council facilities necessary for him to act as a councillor. These are the maximum penalties the Council is able to impose; it is not possible for the Council to force him to stand down as a councillor.
DevonLive reports that Devon County Council has refused to release details of the case. Based on what I know now, I think that Council officers and the Standards Committee have handled the case properly, taking the matter extremely seriously, and if they say that releasing sensitive details would undermine confidentiality and the integrity of the case, I accept their judgement.
Electric bikes scheme to be expanded
East Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee heard the other week that the publicly funded electric bikes scheme in and around Exeter will expanded into the eastern end of East Devon, with more bikes and pick-up/drop-off locations. The batteries are capable of lasting for a return trip from Exeter to Exmouth. In the near future, however, these bikes won’t make it to Seaton and Colyton, although I and other members expressed interest in a wider scheme.
East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: new partnership plan is out for consultation
Go to the AONB website for the plan and consultation form.
Desperate Conservatives advertise for candidates on Facebook, as they try to cling to control of East Devon in 2019
Conservatives control our County and District councils and both parliamentary seats in East Devon, but their members are so thin on the ground that (not withstanding the well-known pitfalls of social media) they are trawling Facebook for candidates to replace councillors who retire next year. The big problem with their pitch is that if you really ‘want to stand up for your local community and the interests of local residents’, you’re going to come bang up against how the Tory party works both at local and national level.
2019 looks likely to be the year when the Conservatives finally lose control, as the local party (discredited by its failure to defend community hospital beds) is further undermined by the mess the national party has made of Brexit (due to take place 6 weeks before the district elections). Lots of people who really want to represent their local communities will be standing as Independents, so as not not to have their hands tied by a party machine.
I realise why Devon’s Tory leaders are resigned to a train-crash Brexit – after 8 years of austerity, they just want to ‘make whatever comes down work’, however bad it is for everyone
Following the chaos in Westminster over the UK’s customs relationship with the EU, and the Government’s cave-in to extreme Brexiteers who want the country to crash out – even if that means turning Kent into a giant lorry park, risking our food and medicine supplies and renewed violence in Northern Ireland – Devon County Council discussed the customs union last Thursday.
To a man and woman, the Tories opposed the Council expressing a view. While the Leader, John Hart, recognised the mess in London, he said it was not our job to try to influence Government. ‘We know we’ve got to make whatever comes down work. That’s the important bit for us’, he said. At that moment I realised that the local Tories’ complacency towards Brexit is exactly the same as their attitude to the austerity of the last 8 years. However bad it is for the Council’s services and the people of Devon, for our Conservative councillors, Brexit is another just another stage in our inexorable decline which they have to manage.
Cllr Hart reminded the Council that 6 Devon districts voted for Brexit, and only 2 against. True – but no one voted to leave the Customs Union, since it wasn’t on the ballot paper, wasn’t part of the Leave campaign, and no one knew what it was when they voted!
Photo: me at the anti-Trump demonstration in Exeter ten days ago. Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg want a Trump trade deal, but that it is likely to involve US healthcare and pharmaceutical firms taking getting their hands on our NHS.
County Council confirms its support for Wilmington A35 improvements, and will meet Highways England with me early next month
On Thursday, the County Council unanimously gave its support to Cabinet recommendations asking for it to be a formal consultee on Highways England recommendations for safety improvements on the A35 in Wilmington. This was in response to my motion and the campaign of local residents. Right, Wilmington’s Speedwatch team on BBC Spotlight ten days ago.
I will be meeting Highways England together with County officers on August 9th.
NHS Support worker jobs available now in Sidmouth, Seaton and Axminster
Richard Anderson, the Health and Social Care Community Services Manager for Sidmouth, Axminster and Seaton, has asked me to publicise the fact that NHS Support Worker jobs are available now in the three towns.
Good rates of pay, pension etc. Please ring Julia Blake on 07592 579919.
Devon STP: there is ‘no rush’ to make decisions on community hospital buildings. What’s more, it hasn’t agreed what a ‘health hub’ is or how many there should be
Speaking for the Devon NHS Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP), Dr Sonja Manton told a meeting of county councillors this morning that there was ‘no rush’ to decide the future of community hospital buildings.
Contrary to Dr Simon Kerr’s suggestion in April that decisions would be made in July, Dr Manton was clear that the end of July is a deadline for the Devon Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to bid for capital funding from NHS England, but not for decisions about the local estate. If these two were previously linked, they are not any more.
She also confirmed what she said to me some months ago, that no decisions will be made about buildings until after the conclusion of the ‘community conversations’ such as Seaton Area Health Matters and Honiton Health Matters, launched earlier this year, and that discussions are still going on about the distribution of local services.
Dr Manton, who was launching the STP’s two-year report, also stated that there was no agreement yet on what a ‘health hub‘ is, or how many of them there should be.
There is no room at all for complacency, however, since the report states:
We know a large amount of space in our community hospital buildings is underused. The revenue cost of our community hospital estates is in the order of £20 million; money the NHS could use to improve other services. Working with other public sector partners, as part of the One Public Estate initiative, we will review the space that is required to deliver care, and plan to consolidate the number of sites to free up estate and generate money, which can be re-invested in technology and infrastructure.
It also appeared from the meeting that midwife-led maternity services are unlikely to be restored in Honiton or Okehampton any time soon. References were made to staffing difficulties and also safety issues in case of difficulties during birth.
Aristocrat who lives in Powderham Castle wins lifetime seat in Parliament after getting SEVEN votes in a hereditary peer by-election: Charles Peregrine Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, will be able to vote on your laws and claim £300 a day
The story is here. And they say we are the greatest democracy in the world!
Local refugee support group backs County Council’s request for help in finding accommodation for refugees
Ottery Refugee Response have sent me Devon County Council’s appeal for help in finding accommodation:
Devon is playing its part in meeting the UK government’s pledge to bring 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to the UK by 2020. We are also part of the government’s national programme to look after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Resettling Syrian families
Local councils working together across Devon have pledged to house over 40 Syrian families. Since June 2016, families have arrived in Devon at the rate of just over one each month on average. Families continue to arrive when housing is ready for them. To meet our pledges, we need landlords who will rent properties to councils to house refugee families. The UK government’s resettlement programme provides funding to Councils for housing and other resettlement costs such as English classes, interpreting, cultural orientation and help into work.
Looking after unaccompanied children
In summer 2016, the government set up a ‘national transfer scheme’ so that councils across the country could share the responsibility for looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. These children may arrive in the UK independently or under government programmes. Devon joined the national transfer scheme from the start. We are already looking after children placed with us under that scheme and we have indicated to the government that we are prepared to receive children over the next few years in line with that commitment.
In autumn 2016, Devon hosted a temporary Home Office centre to look after children brought into the UK to be reunited with family members when the Calais ‘Jungle’ was closed.
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Contact email address: refugeesupport@devon.gov.uk
