Eileen Wragg

Eileen Wragg, Exmouth district councillor, writes for the Journal.

Harrowing details have been given in recent court trials involving torture, neglect and murder of young children, their unimaginable suffering at the hands of those who should have protected and cared for them.

Shocking details were given in a recent court case by the parents of a man who has been locked away for 21 years. Yet he has committed no crime. The reason? He is autistic, and his name, Tony Hickmott, was allowed to be known following an appeal by his parents. His distressed, elderly mother 78, and father, 81, brought the case before a judge, in despair at having to continue to drive 100 miles each week to visit him in a secure hospital, despite a ruling in 2013 which said that he was fit to be discharged. His parents say that the situation has ruined their lives, and they don’t smile anymore. Ironically, he has been incarcerated for as long as a paedophile was sentenced to for heinous offences, following his conviction in a recent jury trial. Yet Tony is entirely innocent. He has done nothing wrong.

In October 2020, Conservative controlled Cumbria County Council decided to allow a new coal mine to be opened. There are estimated to be 750 million tonnes of coking coal underground which would be used for manufacturing steel, providing an estimated 500 jobs. However in February this year, Cumbria Council suspended its decision for review. An Inquiry has taken place which closed in October, and the Inspector’s decision will be made in January next year. Forty Conservative MPs have signed a letter in support of the proposal, yet the Prime Minister has said at the COP26 conference that he is ‘not in favour of more coal’. However the final decision will be made by Michael Gove, Communities Secretary, and it will be clearly an economical versus ecological outcome. We will bear witness to how seriously this Government is taking climate change, and whether finance or the planet is more important. On a local footing, the Conservatives at East Devon District Council are urging the rest of us to resume physical meetings at Blackdown House, Honiton. Covid has changed the way that we work beyond recognition, with virtual Zoom or Skype meetings being held instead. It was challenging to begin with, and could be very stressful, especially for Chairs of Committees. I became Chair of Planning, so I had to conduct the Zoom meetings using an iPad, watching for electronic hands to be raised, a mobile phone for the script of running order and speakers, and another mobile for WhatsApp messages between Officers and myself. One meeting lasted six and a half hours! But we have adapted to the new ways, and it beats driving 37 miles across the commons, often at night. To return to the physical meetings would drive up costs for mileage claims, and energy bills for the Council HQ. Let alone the harm to the environment. This is because we are bound by the Local Government Act 1972, way out of date, and not being reviewed in the foreseeable future. So there we have it, a Government and its local Councillors wanting to force us to go backwards to old ways of working, when current practices have proved much cheaper for taxpayers as well as being kinder to the planet. The hypocrisy of paying lip service to a climate change conference, while refusing the clear benefits of real change, is an affront. The Jurassic Coast has taken on a whole new meaning!

In 1805, a young woman was forced to walk through the lychgate of the graveyard to enter the church of St Margaret and St Andrew at Littleham, Exmouth. She was barefoot, wrapped in a white sheet, and weeping bitterly. She would have presented a pitiful sight, but alarmingly now that was seen as being a Christian act as she was excommunicated from the church, her ‘sin’ unknown by this writer. There have been several references and enquiries regarding this sad event in recent posts on social media, which made me reflect on how attitudes have changed over the centuries, even decades. It is unthinkable that people, including children, were transported to the other side of the world, even executed, for stealing food when they were starving. Those same unfortunate individuals would, in present times, be offered sustenance instead, and would be recognised as victims of a cruel system, not as the perpetrators of crime. Charles Dickens shone a light in the darkest corners of poverty, destitution, cruelty and oppression when he wrote his serialised novels which poor people could purchase for one halfpenny each month. The interest in his stories were often based on conditions which existed in the 1800s, and played a significant part in the encouragement of the poorly educated to read. The characters were illustrated as being victims or perpetrators, exposing the inequalities, injustices and deprivations which pervaded society in those times. In this decade, we are witnessing struggles across the world, more recently in Afghanistan, where desperate people are trying to flee an oppressive, brutal incoming regime, even offering their children to soldiers to fly them to safety. These too are victims, pleading, often impossibly, for help. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that if others have not been seen to succeed in life, then it is their own fault. We see it daily, the uncaring attitudes of some of those in positions of power, or among others in professional standing, even our colleagues or neighbours. However, values continue to change, with greater recognition being given to the less fortunate in the population, especially the ‘victims’. An example of this has emerged in recent years, when victims of crime are invited to make Victim Personal Statements to the Court which has heard the case where the crime committed has made significant impacts on their lives, many of which are lifelong. These can be cathartic for some of those affected, where they might not have been listened to before. Hopefully, the feelings that they have expressed will help them to move forward with their lives and they will begin to heal. Last week’s victim statements at the end of the Sarah Everard trial were a powerful reminder of how lives are left shattered by wicked and cruel acts perpetrated against innocent victims, and how those victims could ever begin to recover is beyond our imagination. They too are serving whole life sentences. Society has indeed moved a very long way from the scene at the lychgate in 1805, but there is a long way to go yet.

In 1805, a young woman was forced to walk through the lychgate of the graveyard to enter the church of St Margaret and St Andrew at Littleham, Exmouth. She was barefoot, wrapped in a white sheet, and weeping bitterly. She would have presented a pitiful sight, but alarmingly now that was seen as being a Christian act as she was excommunicated from the church, her ‘sin’ unknown by this writer. There have been several references and enquiries regarding this sad event in recent posts on social media, which made me reflect on how attitudes have changed over the centuries, even decades. It is unthinkable that people, including children, were transported to the other side of the world, even executed, for stealing food when they were starving. Those same unfortunate individuals would, in present times, be offered sustenance instead, and would be recognised as victims of a cruel system, not as the perpetrators of crime. Charles Dickens shone a light in the darkest corners of poverty, destitution, cruelty and oppression when he wrote his serialised novels which poor people could purchase for one halfpenny each month. The interest in his stories were often based on conditions which existed in the 1800s, and played a significant part in the encouragement of the poorly educated to read. The characters were illustrated as being victims or perpetrators, exposing the inequalities, injustices and deprivations which pervaded society in those times. In this decade, we are witnessing struggles across the world, more recently in Afghanistan, where desperate people are trying to flee an oppressive, brutal incoming regime, even offering their children to soldiers to fly them to safety. These too are victims, pleading, often impossibly, for help. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that if others have not been seen to succeed in life, then it is their own fault. We see it daily, the uncaring attitudes of some of those in positions of power, or among others in professional standing, even our colleagues or neighbours. However, values continue to change, with greater recognition being given to the less fortunate in the population, especially the ‘victims’. An example of this has emerged in recent years, when victims of crime are invited to make Victim Personal Statements to the Court which has heard the case where the crime committed has made significant impacts on their lives, many of which are lifelong. These can be cathartic for some of those affected, where they might not have been listened to before. Hopefully, the feelings that they have expressed will help them to move forward with their lives and they will begin to heal. Last week’s victim statements at the end of the Sarah Everard trial were a powerful reminder of how lives are left shattered by wicked and cruel acts perpetrated against innocent victims, and how those victims could ever begin to recover is beyond our imagination. They too are serving whole life sentences. Society has indeed moved a very long way from the scene at the lychgate in 1805, but there is a long way to go yet.

In 1805, a young woman was forced to walk through the lychgate of the graveyard to enter the church of St Margaret and St Andrew at Littleham, Exmouth. She was barefoot, wrapped in a white sheet, and weeping bitterly. She would have presented a pitiful sight, but alarmingly now that was seen as being a Christian act as she was excommunicated from the church, her ‘sin’ unknown by this writer. There have been several references and enquiries regarding this sad event in recent posts on social media, which made me reflect on how attitudes have changed over the centuries, even decades. It is unthinkable that people, including children, were transported to the other side of the world, even executed, for stealing food when they were starving. Those same unfortunate individuals would, in present times, be offered sustenance instead, and would be recognised as victims of a cruel system, not as the perpetrators of crime. Charles Dickens shone a light in the darkest corners of poverty, destitution, cruelty and oppression when he wrote his serialised novels which poor people could purchase for one halfpenny each month. The interest in his stories were often based on conditions which existed in the 1800s, and played a significant part in the encouragement of the poorly educated to read. The characters were illustrated as being victims or perpetrators, exposing the inequalities, injustices and deprivations which pervaded society in those times. In this decade, we are witnessing struggles across the world, more recently in Afghanistan, where desperate people are trying to flee an oppressive, brutal incoming regime, even offering their children to soldiers to fly them to safety. These too are victims, pleading, often impossibly, for help. Unfortunately, there are some who believe that if others have not been seen to succeed in life, then it is their own fault. We see it daily, the uncaring attitudes of some of those in positions of power, or among others in professional standing, even our colleagues or neighbours. However, values continue to change, with greater recognition being given to the less fortunate in the population, especially the ‘victims’. An example of this has emerged in recent years, when victims of crime are invited to make Victim Personal Statements to the Court which has heard the case where the crime committed has made significant impacts on their lives, many of which are lifelong. These can be cathartic for some of those affected, where they might not have been listened to before. Hopefully, the feelings that they have expressed will help them to move forward with their lives and they will begin to heal. Last week’s victim statements at the end of the Sarah Everard trial were a powerful reminder of how lives are left shattered by wicked and cruel acts perpetrated against innocent victims, and how those victims could ever begin to recover is beyond our imagination. They too are serving whole life sentences. Society has indeed moved a very long way from the scene at the lychgate in 1805, but there is a long way to go yet.

Last month, I wrote a column following the May AGM of the meeting of EDDC, which had to be held at Westpoint due to social distancing seating arrangements, when I expressed a hope that Councillors would be able to put aside political differences and work together in the best interests of their constituents. Sadly, that plea has proved to be short lived, with the Conservative group opposing the other groups regarding the holding of future meetings. The recently elected Chair of the Council discussed the possibility of holding Full Council by Zoom, with decisions made then being delegated to a quorum of the Council meeting at Council HQ, consisting of fifteen Councillors. The Tories rejected this, demanding instead that the Council meets at Blackdown House, Honiton, in person. That demand is, along with so many Government diktats, nonsensical, unreasonable and downright dangerous. Blackdown House meetings of Full Council mean that Members have to sit elbow to elbow, with difficulty in even moving from their seats, literally herded into cramped conditions which would shame a responsible farmer. The response from the Conservative Leader stated that all Councillors should have had their second vaccinations, and that with the wearing of masks, and the implementation of using screens which were used in the recent by-elections, there was no reason why physical meetings of Council and Committees should not go ahead. That decision demonstrates a woefully worrying lack of understanding of the reality for so many people, and Councillors are ordinary people, not an elite. Some have vulnerable relatives to care for, or have unvaccinated children, some are in the highly vulnerable group themselves, with serious medical conditions, and I know of two who are donor recipients. There are others, including myself, who have hearing impairments, and struggle to hear what speakers wearing masks are saying. Yet the Conservative group seems hellbent on herding us all into a dangerous and potentially life-risking situation. Fortunately, the recently elected Chair of EDDC, Cllr Ian Thomas, has given considerable deliberation and reasoned thought to the matter, and has proposed that an Extraordinary General Meeting of Full Council will be held at Westpoint, where social distancing will be exercised, on July 26, when all attendees will have been Covid tested prior to the meeting. His proposal is that meetings of all Committees and Full Council will be held via Zoom, and that those decisions will be sent to the Chief Executive for ratification. No doubt there will be opposition from the expected quarter, but this is a matter of good common sense, and conscience. The Chair of the Council IS supposed to be the conscience of the Council, which has not always been the case in the past. However, in this instance, we have an Independent Chair who genuinely cares about the welfare and safety of his Members, regardless of political affiliation, and personally, I believe that he was the right person to be elected to the Chair in May, and will support him in carrying the light of hope forwards for the future of East Devon residents and their decision makers.

Many readers of The Journal will be able to recall the childhood diseases such as mumps, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough and the often crippling polio virus. Thanks to medical science, many of those illnesses have been prevented, with relieved parents allowing their children to be vaccinated to protect the sometimes serious consequences of contracting those viruses. Perhaps because many younger people have not experienced disease, they are unaware of the seriousness of what are now mostly historical afflictions, having grown up in a much safer health environment than their older relatives. Now the conspiracy theories have sprung up and are spreading throughout the country and elsewhere globally, that the vaccines developed against Covid are an insidious attempt to control the population, that they contain tracking devices linked to G5, or Bill Gates, founder and former chairman of Microsoft. Many even believe that Covid does not exist. One can forgive, even understand their scepticism and disbelief, when they see monetary greed, exploitation, and the lack of moral and ethical standards by those in power. We are beginning to witness this at the lower levels of Government, not least in the planning system. There is a video in existence which shows one prominent councillor dancing around a recording studio in a frenzied, manic mode, arms waving, screaming ‘Build! Build! Build!’. It is his Government which is now overriding the long thought out Local Plans which have been drawn up by District Councils, and Neighbourhood Plans which have been worked on by residents, councillors and officers, sometimes taking several years of painful consideration. A recent example of this came before me, as chair of planning at EDDC, for a delegated decision to refuse, based on the officers’ recommendation. The Ward Member then intervened at the last minute, as he disagreed with the recommendation, and wanted it to go to committee. That proceeded to the Planning Committee, who were informed by officers that new legislation is coming in at the beginning of August, in favour of even more development in the countryside, and that if we refused the application, the applicant could go to Appeal, by which time it would be allowed in law. So here we have a Government which is riding roughshod over locally made plans, and has been since at least 2012, controlling what happens locally from Westminster. Little wonder that there is distrust of those in power which is spreading like a disease itself, and out of control.

Although the administration of EDDC changed last May, to the Democratic Alliance of East Devon Alliance, Liberal Democrat’s, Greens and some Independents, the only time that the council has had a physical meeting was on May 25 this year when the AGM was held at Westpoint, due to the social distancing, as required under the Covid rules.