Question 9: Procedure Rule 9.2 to the Leader of the Council from Councillor Roger Giles

When were the EDDC staff last consulted about relocation from The Knowle? Please indicate the questions asked in the consultation, and give the detailed results of the consultation.

Answer:

Every year we conduct a staff engagement survey – last year 89% of staff said they were happy with EDDC as their employer. We will continue to conduct this survey throughout the period of our impending relocation.

This is the question that I included in last year’s staff engagement survey.

Q5. Members have decided to relocate from Knowle and will soon decide where we move to based on various criteria.

If it were up to you, which of the following would be your preferred locations?

Answer: 239 staff gave 355 responses, the results are shown below:

NOTE FROM RG -NOT COPIED THE BAR CHART WHICH SHOWS PERCENTAGES:

HONITON 57 CLYST HOUSE 42 CRANBROOK 29 SKYPARK 21

Question 10: Procedure Rule 9.2 to the Leader of the Council from Councillor Claire Wright

Does the leader of the council share my very great concerns at the loss of vitally important facilities from very many communities in East Devon as a result of the government announcement of a reduction in S106 funding for small developments? What actions does he propose to take to make the government aware of the damaging impact of the decision, and what does he plan to persuade the government to recognise the needs of smaller rural communities and to reverse the iniquitous decision?

Answer:

I am very concerned that as a result of recent changes to government planning guidance small scale developments in rural areas will not be making contributions towards infrastructure and affordable housing. This change in guidance is unfortunate and is something that as a council we formally objected to when consulted in May. We have to acknowledge the government’s plan to get the country building again and this is a measure that will hopefully help to achieve this admirable aim. Putting this need in context, the Council currently has 2,813 (B Band – 262; C Band – 481: D Band – 786: E Band – 1284) applications for an affordable home in East Devon. The thresholds for developer contributions should however be set at a local level so that they have regard to local circumstances such as property values and local demand. Without such local input there is a danger that the profits of small of scale developers are put ahead of the needs of communities

The first thing we now need to do is work within this new guidance to minimise the loss of infrastructure funding and affordable housing provision that will result from these changes. This is something that officers in our planning team are looking at in terms of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations and the re-drafting of policies in our new Local Plan. It is considered that we can minimise the impact of these change but we think that there will still be a significant impact. Sadly the government did not listen to our reasoned arguments for why this change was a bad idea and so it would appear that real life evidence is needed to demonstrate the impact of the new guidance. Once we have gathered such evidence we will be in a stronger position to persuade the government to change the guidance again but in the meantime we have to work within the guidance that has been put in place.