This frequently-asked question comes up yet again, in one of the latest raft of letters sent to the Sidmouth Herald (1st August 2014), this time concerning the planned King Alfred Way development.
‘Newton Poppleford is well known for its traffic problems especially near the exit to King Alfred Way (KAW) where the pinch point restricts the movement of traffic on a busy road. Residents of KAW have to park in the road and children play in the area but EDDC in their wisdom are planning for Clinton Devon Estates to build a new estate of 40 houses and the supposed doctors surgery and to have entry right through this road. At the top of KAW is a footpath (Farthings Lane) which gives people from the west of the village a safe passage into the village but especially the children who now have a safe walk to school, missing the pinch point of the busy A3052. When 40 houses and the supposed Doctors surgery are built, a road will be put across this footpath taking away the only safe way for the children to get to school. There are safer places to build the much needed affordable houses in the village. Why don’t EDDC listen to the 400 people who say no more traffic for the High Street in Newton Poppleford?’
Judith Cullip
See also http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/08/04/developers-offer-of-a-surgery-not-so-sweet/
http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/08/04/eddcs-double-standards-at-newton-poppleford/
http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/07/28/so-eddc-didnt-spot-extraneous-and-unlawful-planning-inducement-in-planning-app/
The King Alfred Way (KAW) controversy has been mired by other serious issues. A parish councillor (who had spoken out against the development) was reported to the police apparently by an unnamed person. The police dismissed the allegations against the councillor as totally groundless.
Many will recall that a charge of breach of Code of Conduct against the same parish councillor, brought to the attention of a special Standards Sub-Committee by the Monitoring Officer (now replaced), resulted in considerable time and public money being spent, only for the charge to be found so weak as not to warrant any action. http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/05/17/no-sanctions-to-be-taken-against-cllr-graham-salter/
N.B. The SIN blog http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com has a considerable archive on the relevant Parish Council meetings e.g. http://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/another-month-another-chaotic-planning-meeting-at-newton-poppleford/
East Devon Watch 
They don’t listen because they believe that democracy is the vote that got them into office and nothing more. They don’t understand that they work for us, that they are there to represent us.
Having been voted in, they just don’t believe that they need either to listen or be accountable. I haven’t listened to the recording, so cannot quote exactly, but a Tory councillor said exactly this at the last full council on 23 July.
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To be fair, they do listen – to developers – just not to us, the local population. We get treated like dirt.
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The traffic issue is secondary to the damage to some very habitat and wonderful AONB landscape. It can still be stopped by appealing to the Secretary of State – damage to an AONB – so we only hope that may happen before the bulldozers destroy this delightful piece of English countryside. Please will someone from EDA do something?
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Sara,
The EDA (which is simply a bunch of concerned citizens who have other calls on their time) simply doesn’t have the resources to fight every issue that is raised. It is the local residents like you who feel outraged by this planning decision who need to take the reins and run with this, not the least because the views of local residents are worth far more in any appeal than those of a more general campaigning organisation.
If local residents like you to form a group to appeal this planning decision, then we can help you based on the knowledge that some of our members have gained elsewhere.
It seems to me (and this is a personal view from someone who has NOT fought such an appeal) that such an appeal is likely to need to be legally based, so you need to review, in detail, the way that the planning decision was taken and how the AONB considerations were handled in order to try to identify a failure to follow correct legal process that would justify a challenge / appeal.
In other words…
Sara – you are Spartacus. We are all Spartacus.
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I hear that Mark Copell and Chris Burhap did a Judicial Review – can they do something? The surgery sounds insane as we need one of those like a hole in the head!
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I note on today’s (7 August) EDA blog that Neil Parish MP has written to the minister to review the procedures involved in the Gittisham planning application. May I suggest, Sarah, that you write to your MP asking him to do likewise in respect of the KAW application? It will be interesting to see if he accepts EDDC’s own account as he seemed to do over the Knowle office issue.
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I shall form a group – I will see if the local shop will help by acting as a hub to stop the village expanding. Failing that we have a number of other businesses who will be appalled at the prospect of more affordable housing and traffic. The sooner this travesty is stopped the better. No more white van man please here! I will write to my MP and hope that others join me. All good advice from EDA – thanks.
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And get a blog page, Fecebook and Twitter accounts Sarah – publicity, publicity, publicity.
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