News in Honiton

At last week's Honiton Town Council meeting, following a vote on the council budget for the new year, six serving councillors stood up and abruptly left the meeting. It was then made apparent, following the meeting, that these councillors had tendered their immediate resignation from the town council. The council is now left with 11 members, of whom 10 joined the council within the last eight months.

This marks an important junction in the history of the council – [with new leadership] in important roles such as the chair and vice chair of the council [...]. Now is also the time for councillors to focus on the wants of the town, and all projects – old and new – that need completing.

Novak Djokovic is pathetic and will rightly face criticism for taking advantage of an exemption in Covid-19 rules to avoid being vaccinated ahead of the Australian Open.

The 20-time major champion has been condemned for his distrust of vaccines and his alternative approach, which appears to rely on the supposed healing power of water and positive thinking.

Following the sentencing of a former member of East Devon District Council (EDDC) after being found guilty of despicable sexual crimes against children, the Conservative Group of councillors on EDDC are calling for Disclosure and Barring (DBS) checks for all existing councillors.

The Conservative Group wants every prospective candidate and all existing councillors to undergo the checks which show any criminal convictions now, with the enhanced version required if an individual is expected to work with vulnerable people, including children, being demonstrated as necessary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Honiton Forward has been delighted by the response from members of the community who wish to stand for election as Honiton Independents for the Community (HICS).

A high calibre collection of candidates, of all ages and backgrounds, have put themselves forward and it is already clear that the Council would be safe in their hands.

A Honiton canine care professional and dog walker has predicted that this Christmas will see higher levels of dog aggression, unwanted behaviours and dog bites.

Jude from Park Life Honiton, wants to help owners prevent a 2020 Christmas day disaster by giving advice to help people and their dogs have the best time.

Jude Davidson, an experienced dog walker and canine care professional from Park Life Honiton, is urging puppy owners to work really hard on their pups' training.

It helps to do this before bad behaviour sets in and with a few simple techniques in place you can avoid heartache and stress.

Honiton's remaining rump of seven councillors lead by Cllr Zarcynski have abandoned their three year legal action against Baileys costing the Honiton taxpayer £60,000 - with more costs to follow.

That is the equivalent of 20 per cent of a band D council tax bill.

The importance of the retail, hospitality and leisure sector in the East Devon Area is highlighted in a dramatic way by these latest figures on universal credit claims. We were hit early by the close-down and it shows.

Tourism and eating out could be one of the last out of lock down, which explains why the Devon Districts are towards the most affected areas in the UK. Some of the larger hotels and holiday sites laid off staff relatively soon after lock-down. In addition, wage levels in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are lower than average. This means more of our workforce who seek to claim Universal Credit will not have significant savings and so they are immediately eligible for Universal Credit

Well as I said a couple of weeks back, this here Corona thing ain't going away and as I'm sure you all know it has escalated somewhat.

I guess we will all be spending a bit more time at home over the next few months. The England Italy game as you know is off and I fear the game won't be played any time soon.

East Devon District Council leader Ben Ingham has responded Conservative criticism of his Independent administration's spending plans.

Here is his full response: "It is worth noting the current East Devon Portfolio Holder for Finance was of course, not only the Leader of the Conservative Group and East Devon District Council in to 2018/19 Council year, prior to his resignation from the party in the run up to Council Elections. Post election he subsequently served as the first Independent Leader of East Devon District Council before being appointed Portfolio Holder for Finance in the Independent administration - the experienced and widely respected councillor Ian Thomas with continuous Cabinet service through the last decade.