Hi all, I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, however you had to spend it.

I've been reflecting on the past year and have been annoyed with myself by how much time I've spent focusing on what others have done to hinder progress in East Devon, and most particularly my anger towards the Conservatives both nationally and locally.

I'm an independent, but I don't think it's looked that way this year.

The trouble is there's been so many things which have hindered any possibility of progress in our district and directly affected our residents.

The cut in universal credit, being given inadequate resources by the treasury to clean toilets, collect rubbish, run leisure services and maintain public housing stock etc, horrific shortages in mental health services due to poor funding, ridiculous new planning laws, the farcical Levelling Up Fund which took money from us instead of giving us any, dodgy government contracts, lack of transparency regarding the John Humphreys case, 100 backbenchers controlling the government's Covid policy... the list goes on.

Genuinely, if Labour or the Lib Dems, locally or nationally irked me, or followed policy lines that were damaging to our residents locally, I'd say so. But these are all Conservative issues, so it looks like I spend all my time bashing the Tories. The problem is they make it so... easy.

I just need to say that the reason this happens is not just 'Tory-bashing'. It's because the things they've done are inherently awful.

They've done good, too. The vaccine programme has been great, there was support for businesses in the early parts of the pandemic at least and speaking personally, they're knowledgeable and helpful on the Licensing Committee at East Devon, of which I am chair. For this I send thanks.

Getting any new and exciting initiatives off the ground is almost impossible right now. Our officers and staff have been working incredibly hard just to keep the council ticking over and simply don't have time for some of the exciting things some of us would love to do. I thank them immensely for their hard work.

Achievements this past year

With that in mind, here are a few of the things I think I've managed to get done in this past year:

1. I've managed to help secure the future of Exmouth hospitality businesses by working with officers to open up the Strand - a hugely successful experiment, I think. Despite what you may read on social media, EDDC bent over backwards to get this to work, and work it did.

1. I have spoken out for the residents of Exmouth where others haven't - Levelling Up being the biggest example.

1. I've helped welcome refugees arriving in the town, working with LED to get access to leisure services.

Pledges for next year

So, to next year. I'll try to stop blaming the Tories for everything, and pledge that...

1. I'll investigate and get answers to how and if we can move forward with regeneration of the Magnolia Centre.

1. Push for a permanent solution to the Queen's Drive Space.

1. Introduce free or low cost rehearsal space for local musicians.

1. I'll look to lobby the Home Office to change the rules so that harm to the natural environment can be used in licensing decisions.

1. Support all residents to get any support they need from council services. Get in touch!

Hopefully, we can have a more positive, prosperous year. Stay well!