Firstly, can I please highlight the excellent response to the planning application consultation from Ottery St Mary Town Council and Mark and Monica Mortimer, who have provided extremely well informed and detailed reasons why the planning application should be refused. I object on the following grounds: Lack of justification Par 145 of the nppf states that councils must hold only a seven year [...]
If you live in these areas please consider displaying a poster! An A1 board for a garden or fence or an A4 window poster And check if you are registered via EDDC - http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk or ring 01395 517402. The deadline for registrations is Thursday 13 April. Polling day is Thursday 4 May. Don’t forget to vote!
Join me and other residents across Devon who are campaigning to protect their own hospitals, to form a Red Line along the front of Ottery St Mary Hospital. on Saturday 1 April, 2pm WEAR RED!
The call for voters to sign up comes as the Electoral Commission launches a national voter registration campaign to encourage as many people as possible to register ahead of elections taking place this year across the country. East Devon District Council is now also reminding voters in East Devon that they need to register by the deadline of Thursday 13 April otherwise they won’t be able to [...]
Prizes include: - Exclusive tour of Goren Farm - Membership to : - The Devon Wildlife Trust - Buglife - Bumblebee Conservation Trust - Wildflower seed packs - And many more! Visit http://www.naturaldevon.org.uk for more information and resources on how to build a bug hotel for pollinators. To Enter: Send photos of your bug hotel to us on Facebook or Twitter using #BuildforBees and [...]
A number of species which are found in Devon such as the dormouse, otter and bats are given extra protection under EU legislation. These directives will no longer apply in their current form in UK law, even if the UK remains in the single market. At the same time as all of these sites are set to lose this high level of protection under EU law, the latest State of Nature report outlined [...]
Transport * The proposal is to put a maximum of 172 HGVs on the B3174 Exeter Road every day during the 5-7 week campaigns, 2-3 times a year, over 10-12 years; although the plan has apparently been ‘tested’ for up to 200 HGVs a day. * 172 movements would mean one heavy truck every 3½ minutes over a 10 hour day. * This is on the main road in to and out of Ottery, between the Birdcage [...]
Last week, Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG) made a decision to close 71 beds at Whipton, Okehampton, Honiton and Seaton Hospitals, retaining beds at Exmouth, Tiverton and Sidmouth. Their proposal had previously been to retain beds at Seaton and close beds at Sidmouth, but the CCG’s governing body decided to shut beds at Seaton instead of Sidmouth [...]
The CCG’s preferred option had been to save the beds at Tiverton, Seaton and Exmouth, but they say that they have listened to residents who made a case for Sidmouth on the basis of its demographics including a mainly elderly population. But surely if this is the case, then the CCG has implicitly accepted that older people need hospital beds more than younger people. And Devon, especially [...]
Unable to deny he hasn’t attended a single meeting in the town about the bed closures, spoken out against them, or voted down my two proposals at health scrutiny in November and January, Cllr Diviani cites a whipped vote at Devon County Council full council meeting, where he voted in favour of two motions that opposed health cuts, in his defence. But this admission simply raises more [...]
I have now proposed twice at health and wellbeing scrutiny committee for a deferral on any decision on the basis of this unfairness, as well as the huge number of responses (well over 3000) that the NEW Devon CCG received in its consultation, which ended in January. Both times I was voted down by conservative councillors, including Honiton’s ward member, Paul Diviani. The final decision on [...]