Much time and effort has recently been put in to trying to work out who is to blame for the current problems we have with our Draft Local Plan.  Various groups (including EDA) have been suggested as being responsible for the current situation, even though EDA was not in existence when the figures for the Draft Plan were submitted to EDDC by its Planning Policy officers and gave no evidence either to the Local Development Framework Panel nor to the Inspector.

It is far too late for blame.  Responsibility now lies with councillors and officers to give the Inspector what he wants as quickly as possible.  Only they can do this.

Can they do it?  We have to hope so and we must all give officers and councillors all the support they need to get their facts right and get their evidence in as soon as practicable so that developers will have no opportunity or excuse for building on land that is not meant to be available to them.

The effort to find scapegoats to blame needs to stop and the action needs to start.  Looking for scapegoats is wasting valuable time.

The Leader of East Devon District Council says he is “relaxed” about the failure of the draft Local Plan at its first hurdle.  He said:

“In the circumstances I am relaxed about the extra work we have to do. We will now put together an action plan showing what we will be doing and when. We hope to go back to the inspector in the autumn with the extra information he needs”.

Can we trust someone who is so relaxed to motivate others (the same people who gave the Inspector the first draft plan which took 5 years and one false start to produce) to give the Inspector what he needs and to give it to him quickly enough to put a stop to the development frenzy that shows no sign of abating and every sign of increasing during this policy vacuum?

Is an “action plan” enough?  Is” hope” enough?  Is being relaxed the appropriate way to deal with this crisis?