A welcome respose from East Devon District Councillor Ian Thomas inreaction to local and EDA concern about the proposals for 350 houses in the AONB near Uplyme. This would take overspill from West Dorset.
Some of what is included in Ian’s blog is about the grey areas of Village Plans and the SHLAA (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments). Some EDA members have direct experience of these processes being heavily and unduly influenced by councillors not declaring interests.
However, we are where we are. At least there is some evidence emerging of timescales for presenting properly sourced evidence back to the Planning Inspector.
East Devon Watch 
One part stands out in Councillor Thomas’s post:
3. Settlement Strategy; West Dorset has confirmed that the settlement strategy in the plan is not likely to change. For Lyme Regis specifically, this means that future growth will focus on meeting local needs only, due to environmental constraints.
How interesting that West Dorset can be so clear and that East Devon is so vague on this point. Just the inclusion of that sentence in the East Devon Local Plan would make all the diffrerence to those areas with environmental constraints.
Will EDDC do something similar? Who would like to take any bets?
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