It is absolutely shocking. If we had consulted only with Exeter and West Dorset (as was required under the duty to co-operate in the National Planning Policy Statement) instead of broadening it to Teignbridge and Dartmoor National Park (which was not required), that would have helped – we are now waiting for them all to tell us just how many houses THEY think should be built in East Devon. But even more help would have been to divert the £700,000 plus already spent on the relocation vanity project (spent mostly on expensive consultants and this figure not including officer time which must have run into thousands of hours that could have been spent on the Local Plan) into getting enough man/woman power to get this sorted.

Other local authorities seem to be able to do their Local Plans, get them examined and get them passed. What is it about East Devon that seems to make this impossible? Roll on the Independents who don’t have to worry about party loyalties when making important decisions for the district!

MidweekLocalPlanFeb10th2015