From an earlier commentator:

It all seemed so simple back in 2012, or so they would have had us believe!

At that time, the East Devon Extra, a publication from the EDDC spin department, popped through our doors. Headlined “Facing up to the planning challenge”, EDDC then went on to tell us how wonderful and capable they were and how everything would be hunky dory with the Local Plan by 2014. Well the doubters knew better and have been shown to be correct.

May I reprint a couple of sentences from the EDDC document dated November 2012.

“Councillors have a mandate to lead and, when called upon, lead they will – to ensure that East Devon’s Local Plan meets Government requirements. On these pages is a timetable showing the work we have been doing, when it started, where we are now, and where we know we have to be within the next year or so”,

and elsewhere,

” A Planning Inspector will examine the Draft Local Plan and a final version is set to be adopted early in 2014″.

These are the same people who are behind the above report on their ‘ongoing commitment’, and the same ones who know best about the vanity new HQ project.

Leadership is not a quality that has been demonstrated in this matter. Incompetence, now thats a much clearer element.

See http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/facing-up-to-the-planning-challenge.pdf

if it stays in the EDDC website long enough!

But report stays confidential! Puff job? And no mention of 5 year land supply …

Here’s EDDC’s update on the situation:
“As part of East Devon District Council’s ongoing commitment to finalise its Local Plan with the East Devon Local Plan Inspector, the council’s service lead for Planning Strategy and Development Management, has written to the Inspector to update him on progress made with the East Devon Local Plan Examination.

“We are very much aware of the need to finalise our Local Plan, but at the same time we have to take the reports with proposed changes to the Plan to our members for consideration and consultation. We had envisaged that the earliest we would have been able to take the reports to our members would be March or early April 2015. The process of consultation would then take around six-weeks. ”

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