http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/group_to_offer_support_for_independent_candidates_1_3944520
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Reaching the parts others won’t reach
Real Zorro (http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/) gives the welcome news that Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce members have been encouraged to object to EDDC’s land grab at the Knowle. This land grab is being attempted in order to give potential developers a nicer package.
It is a pity that the majority of local Tory district councillors do not appear so far to have followed suit – not a peep out of them.
Sidmouth might be better off with Shaun the Sheep, who at least displays some feistiness and fighting spirit, rather than the sheep they voted in at the last election.
Better luck at the next election in May, Sidmothians. What you need is more Independents!
DEADLINE FOR OBJECTIONS TO KNOWLE LANDGRAB IS 20 FEB. Your voice counts!
More thoughts from the public on EDDC landgrab at the Knowle are here: https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/3w1f67nozab7/
Info and how/ where/ to object, at this link: http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/02/04/fact-file-on-knowle-plan-and-land-to-be-appropriated-reminder-deadline-for-objections-20th-feb-2015/
Local MP’s meetings on planning like London buses: none for four and three quarter years then two come along together!
Suddenly, after four and three quarter years of rarely being spotted in East Devon and never appearing to have had a single public thought about its shambolic Local Plan or the Knowle relocation fiasco and never having said anything about any of the massive developments afflicting our district, our current MP Hugo Swire starts saying Knowle relocation is a mistake (duh: Claire Wright’s being saying that for 2 years) and he arranges to talk about planning in Clyst St Mary on Thursday 19 February in the school hall (no time yet given)and in Woodbury Village Hall on Friday, 20th February from 6.30 till 8.0 p.m. So, that’s 2 meetings for Hugo, scores and scores for Claire Wright.
If you have a burning question – particularly about he just seems to have woken up some 3 months before a general election, when it is far too late for most of the towns and villages suffering massive and inappropriate developments already agreed by EDDC – now is the time to ask it.
“Ask difficult questions, rock the boat, annoy and upset powerful people …”
In an article titled “These failures show that Rotherham is not alone” by Gaby Hinsliff in today’s Guardian:
… “Casey signalled that an unhealthy culture had become embedded partly because this was a solidly Labour council, one where there was not much political opposition, but also officers who knew the same old people would be re-elected next time. It didn’t do to fall out with them. The same will be true not just in solidly Tory councils but in any organisation where people stay forever, where problem employees aren’t confronted but kicked upstairs.
And that’s why all institutions need faintly oddball, stubborn, counter-cultural people who may well be irritating to work with but ask the questions others don’t. Several of the MPs who have campaigned on institutional child abuse have the same quality; so do most of the investigative reporters who have pursued the story and so arguably does Casey.
It is to be hoped that Goddard does too, because if sunlight is the best disinfectant then contrariness – the ability to ask difficult questions, rock the boat, annoy and upset powerful people – is a crucial second line of defence. An organisation that can listen when the wrong people are talking inside it has at least a chance of listening to the wrong people outside too.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/05/child-abuse-failures-rotherham-management
£9m council “palace”
“The town hall development would be funded by the authority, planning deals and private investors, say council documents.”
Now, where have we heard this before!
The dead cannot cry out for justice …
Touching tributes on the Sidmouth Herald front page, inner pages and letters page to the homeless man, Tommy Duffy, who died on a bitterly cold night in a bus shelter in Sidmouth. A memorial service was recently held for him at the Unitarian Church in Sidmouth
Comments on the Letters pages:
“What greater irony could there be. Tommy Duffy, a homeless man, dies in freezing temperatures, in an area where the local council is spending thousands of taxpayers’ money on a vanity project to relocate their offices”
and
“… we are in real trouble when our elected representatives are unable to make an empty building available to someone in need because their own take on profit, value and worth extends towhether they might one day sell it to Persimmon or Premier Inn. I don’t know, but just maybe there is a different way of doing this.”
“The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.”
Lois MacMaster Bujold
“Anchor stores”: regeneration or degeneration?
Tesco’s profits crisis means that plans for 49 shiny new stores have been ditched. Where does that leave places such as Kirkby, Bridgwater and Wolverhampton, where regeneration schemes linked to the supermarket chain now lie in ruins?
John Harris wrote a lengthy article in the G2 section of this week’s Guardian about two intertwined stories connected to Tesco’s financial crisis.
The first concerns the demise of what has effectively become Britain’s only viable model of regeneration, staking everything on an “anchor store”. This is the one size fits all policy EDDC uses. Does anyone out there have a clue what might replace it?
Here are some key extracts and below is a link to the full article.
“By the mid-1990s, this regeneration strategy was well established: base your plans on an “anchor store” and attract one of the big four supermarkets. If you were lucky, whichever store had designs on your neighbourhood might extend its proposals to an entire retail development, and perhaps assent to a so-called Section 106 agreement (a reference to part of the 1990 Planning Act), and build not just a big store and a handful of satellite shops, but something for the local community: a new library, say, or a public square.
If you were less fortunate, you would just get a bog-standard supermarket. Throughout the 1990s and all the way up to the crash of 2008 and beyond, this was how whole swaths of Britain were rebuilt, and Tesco led the charge, to the point that it sometimes seemed to be a wing of government, and some people began to fear the dystopia crystallised in the title of Andrew Simms’s best-selling book Tescopoly. Now, though, Tesco is in retreat, and its sudden withdrawal from scores of places has left behind resentment, anger and what feels like a strange state of shock.”
The other side of the story concerns the fate of places that had either pinned all their hopes on Tesco’s arrival, or opposed its plans from the start. Of his three examples of towns now blighted by abandoned Tesco sites (listed above), the one closest to home is Bridgewater.
“On a freezing Tuesday afternoon in Bridgwater, the Somerset town that sits next to the M5, 35 miles south-west of Bristol, I meet some of the people who have spent six years opposing the now-abandoned plans for their town centre. The first thing I see is a vast expanse of grey gravel, extending into the distance: what would have been a cluster of shops surrounding a new Tesco, on a site between the town centre and the old docks, and eating into a much-used park called the Brewery Field.”
“This used to be the site of a big leisure centre, the Sedgemoor Splash, built in 1991 and based around a huge swimming pool with slides and wave machines, which, say some locals, attracted visitors from as far away as South Wales. But in 2009, Sedgemoor district council announced it was to close, claiming it was losing money and in need of repairs. ……..”
“A replacement pool was promised, but it took more than three years to open, on the site of a school a mile and a half out of town, well away from most local bus routes. A facility for people with learning difficulties on Tesco’s intended site – owned by Somerset county council, which, for some reason, donated £20,000 to Tesco’s planning fees – also had to find a new home. Given that Bridgwater already has a Sainsbury’s, an Asda and a Morrisons – as well as eight other supermarkets of various sizes – there was widespread bafflement about why the town needed another. Party politics were also streaked through the story: though Sedgemoor council is Conservative-run, Bridgwater has a long tradition of Labour-voting, and local politicians felt the Tesco plan was yet another example of folly and stupidity being imposed from outside.”
“The borough council finally approved Tesco’s plans in February 2013. Then, at the end of last year, news leaked out that Tesco was not coming after all. For Labour councillors Brian Smedley and Ian Tucker, and Glen Burrows, a local woman who is one of the founders of Bridgwater Forward, there is a mixture of relief and seething frustration at how this story played out.”
““I’m glad; I’m really glad,” says Burrows. “But it was market forces that stopped Tesco, not the fact that we had a massive campaign, and we had all the arguments. The council should have listened to us, and they didn’t. That’s the biggest lesson: the fact that we’ve got a problem with democracy.””
Ring any bells?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/03/betrayed-by-tesco-kirkby-bridgwater-wolverhampton-let-down-by-supermarket-regeneration
Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters (Paperback – 29 Mar 2007) by Andrew Simms. ISBN: 978-1-84529-511-0
Local Plan – further setbacks – “complexities” cause delays
Full story, Page 6, Sidmouth Herald: Development blueprint suffers further setback
Our comment:
Why the delay? Councils need to show that they have co-operated with but not necessarily agreed with) adjacent authorities.
For us this means Exeter (and inevitably mopping up some of their housing need) and West Dorset – but EDDC decided, for no obvious reason, to add Mid- Devon, Teignbridge AND Dartmoor National Park into the mix. So we have to take into account the needs of Dartmoor National Park where almost no new building is allowed! Still, Exeter and Dartmoor have ex-EDDC planners at the helm, both of whom were very enthusiastic supporters of the East Devon Business Forum, so it will make for nice cosy chats.
AND Teignbridge and East Devon CEOs know each other well – having both been dragged before a Parliamentary Committee on Voter Engagement in December 2014 to explain why they had not been registering voters in their areas. Perhaps they shared a first-class railway carriage there and back!
The Planning Inspector who threw out the first draft Local Plan in March 2014 anticipated a re-hearing in October 2014 and cleared his diary in anticipation.
Looks like it won’t be going in his 2015 diary either.
The £750,000 already spent on relocation consultants (the figure not including officer time) could have had this wrapped up within the Inspector’s timeframe.
What was it Councillor Halse said about relocation: the council had “fallen flat on its face”? Seems to be making a habit of it.
Vision: with apologies to Coleridge and Kubla Khan
A Vision
(with apologies to Coleridge)
In Honiton E.D.D.C.
Says its new offices shall be –
Far from the town where, as we know,
The office workers like to go.
No longer all Knowle’s greenery
But superstore and factory.
An Exmouth office, too, a place
Where few will find a parking space –
The building looks like an old barn,
Not like the “dome” in “Kubla Khan”.
But, Oh, the waste of public money –
The ratepayers don’t think it funny:
To build a glass and concrete shed
And trash the park and Knowle instead,
For “Our Great Leader” and his crew
Have no care for the public’s view;
Nor badger-setts, nor many a tree;
Nor office blocks, built ’83;
Nor Chambers, used by you and me;
Nor weekend tourist-parking, free;
Nor jobs and trade Sidmouth will lose;
Nor all the lovely parkland views –
All sold to builders for a fee –
And all for what? For vanity?
This Council, with no Local Plan,
Lets builders build where’er they can.
Yet in my crystal ball I see
A new look for E.D.D.C.:
Independents there will be
As councillors for you and me,
Come from every town and shire
With the Wright One to remove Swire,
Who all will cry: Please be aware:
We will not relocate somewhere
Based on false claims that there will be
“Big”(?) savings made in energy.
We come to bring Democracy,
And Probity, Transparency.
You all know there’s a better way –
It’s signposted by E.D.A.* ,
So, all you readers, lend a hand
And save our green and pleasant land.
(*EDA is East Devon Alliance)
by Mike Temple, Sidmouth (with permission of author)
Council forced to un-redact redacted information on housing viability assessment
No, not EDDC, though no doubt if we had any numbers available they would automatically want to redact them! But if any figures WERE redacted from developers affordable housing changes (Tesco, Seaton?) this probably means that they must now be revealed and may have major implications for all other “commercial confidentiality” excuses made by EDDC – past, present and future:
“The First-tier Tribunal has ordered a London council to disclose redacted information in a viability assessment that led to the authority allowing a developer to vary the amount of affordable housing on a major site.
The background to the case of Royal Borough of Greenwich v IC and Shane Brownie EA/2014/0122 was a deed of planning obligation dated 23 February 2004 concerning the development of the Greenwich Peninsula.
The commitments entered into by the developers included one that 38% of the more than 10,000 homes to be built would be ‘affordable’.
Following the 2008 financial crisis work on the development stalled. In 2012 there was a risk of a £50m housing grant being lost.
The developers approached the Royal Borough of Greenwich asking to be released from some of their promises to build affordable homes. The revised proposal – affecting 11 plots – moved some of the affordable homes from the more attractive areas of the site which have river views; the number of affordable homes was also reduced by about 500.
One of the developers, Quintain (whose interest has since been bought out by Knight Dragon), commissioned an ‘economic viability report’ from BNP Paribas.
Dated 23 January 2013, it stated on the cover “FOIA exemption Sections 41 and 43(2) Private and Confidential”. Paragraph 1.4 of the report said the report was being provided to the council on a confidential basis. It also requested that the report not be disclosed to third parties under FOIA.
The FTT noted that companies could ask for exemptions or exceptions to be considered, but they were not decision makers in relation to freedom of information. “That task falls to the public authority, the ICO and, sometimes, the Tribunal,” it said.
Greenwich asked another firm, Christopher Marsh & Co, to review the BNP Paribas report. Then, on 28 February 2013 the council’s planning board approved the proposed variation to the deed of planning obligation.
Two months later Knight Dragon approached the council again for the variation itself to be varied. This was approved by the planning board on 25 June 2013.
On 12 June a local resident, Shane Brownie, submitted an FOI request to obtain a copy of the financial viability report.
The council disclosed both the BNP Paribas report and a letter from Christopher Marsh & Co. However, both documents were subject to redactions under regulation 12(5)(e) governing confidential commercial information.
It was these redactions that were at the heart of the dispute. The Information Commissioner overturned the council’s decision to redact the documents. Greenwich appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal.
The FTT conducted a public interest balancing exercise as the exception under regulation 12(5)(e) only applies if in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining it outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. The presumption is in favour of disclosure.
The Tribunal said two factors told particularly in favour of disclosure:
The number of affordable homes to be provided on what was an enormous development, as well as their location, was an important local issue on which reasonable views were held strongly on both sides;
This was a case where a company, robust enough to take on the development of a huge site over a period of 20 years, acquiring its interest in 2012 and increasing its share in 2013, immediately asked to be relieved of a planning obligation freely negotiated by its predecessor. “It justifies this change on the basis of a downturn in house prices it knew about at the time of purchase, using a valuation model that looks at current values only and does not allow for change in the many factors that may affect a valuation over time. It seems to us that in those circumstances the public interest in openness about the figures is very strong.”
The Tribunal said: “Having weighed all the evidence and arguments, in our judgement the admittedly important public interests in maintaining the regulation 12(5)(e) exception in this case do not outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information.”
The residents were represented by Michael Armitage, having also been advised during the proceedings by Julianne Kerr Morrison (both on a pro bono basis). Gerry Facenna acted for the Information Commissioner. All three are barristers at Monckton Chambers.
Massive Exmouth development site for sale for £8 million
What a buzz about East Devon Alliance!
In two of East Devon’s towns today and what a buzz about East Devin Alliance! People seem overjoyed to have a real local alternative the former major parties with much spleen vented! Absolutely the talk of the towns.
Seismic changes ahead, one feels.
Save Clyst St Mary..next meeting, 12 Feb 2015. Hugo Swire taking an interest.
Save Clyst St Mary Notice of meeting 12 Feb 15 (1)
Thank you to everyone for your support over and attending the meetings. A lot has been achieved in a very short space of time.
The Parish plan is progressing well and there is another meeting(Sorry!) on Thursday 12th February at 7.00pm this is to discuss the draft proposals of the village plan the venue is in the village hall. Once this plan becomes adopted it should help to stop our village from the continual threat of further large scale planning applications from developers!
Many of our residents have asked what our local MP is doing about all these planning applications and why Clyst St Mary has had so many in such a short space of time. Mike Howe has convinced Hugo Swire to come and talk to us on Thursday 19th February in the School Hall at 6.30pm (Sorry we couldn’t get the village hall it was already booked) I would really like to fill the hall to show how much support we have behind us and to ask what he is doing about it! Please Please come if you can.
Claire Wright’s odds improve yet again!
As of this evening:
Con 1/10
UKIP 10/1
Claire Wright 10/1
Lib Dems 50/1
Labour 100/1
Recall that Claire Wright started out at 66/1 and Hugo Swire at (as we recall) 1/18. A truly astonishing reversal of fortunes – and still 3 months to go.
If you want a truly LOCAL MP who has devoted herself for years to fighting on local issues and has a sound track record on them, she really is the only choice.
Hugo Swire has rarely been here over the last 5 years as his Foreign Office travels take precedence, the UKIP candidate moved here only when his candidacy was announced a few months ago (though still retaining his family home elsewhere), the Lib Dems have yet to reveal their candidate and the Labour candidate dropped out last week and has not yet been replaced.
Remember if you want to bet responsibly and you are over 18, betting can be found under:
Politics/General/Election/Constituencies/Devon East
(NOT East Devon)
And clever those who got in at 66/1!
Independent now “front-runner” to unseat East Devon’s MP
Message sent in to EastDevonWatch:
FIND OUT HOW CLAIRE WRIGHT WOULD REPRESENT YOU AS OUR NEW MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IF EAST DEVON ELECTS HER IN MAY. She’ll be at a PUBLIC MEETING IN SIDMOUTH, WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2015,
7PM, UNITARIAN CHURCH (AT THE JUNCTION OF HIGH STREET WITH ALL SAINTS ROAD).
The public meeting scheduled for 7 pm on Wednesday 11th February in Sidmouth’s Leigh Browne Room has been moved around the corner to the larger premises at the Unitarian Church on the corner of the High Street and All Saints Road.
A spokesman for Independent Candidate Claire Wright said: “Claire lives in West Hill, Ottery St Mary. Sidmouth was chosen as the first venue in her planned series of public meetings throughout the East Devon constituency as she bids to become our next Member of Parliament.
“Since the meeting was announced last month, Claire has been overwhelmed with messages of support from Sidmouth residents. She has therefore decided to move the event to a larger venue to accommodate the likely numbers.
“Another public meeting is scheduled for Woolbrook on 1st April and Claire will also be attending several events and taking part in election hustings with other candidates in Sidmouth during the run up to May 7th’s General Election.”
When Claire Wright first announced her candidature the bookmakers gave odds of 66-1 against her winning. The odds have shortened week after week since then and she is now seen as the front-runner to displace the current MP.
Local MP wakes up to his constituency’s planning issues!
As the General Election approaches, Hugo Swire MP will be holding a meeting in Woodbury Village Hall on Friday, 20th February from 6.30 till 8.0 p.m. to discuss planning issues. Is this a first? There could be a full house!
Action on Knowle landgrab
Planning meeting this evening… 05/02/15..reminder
Just a reminder that this evening there is a meeting in the village hall at 7.30pm to discuss the planning proposal to demolish no 16 Clyst Valley Road and build 40 new houses on the land sandwiched between the football ground and the back gardens of houses on Clyst Valley Road. Charlie Hopkins (Expert planning consultant) will be there.
Should anyone need transport please ask. We have several willing volunteers that have offered to ferry residents to and from the meeting.
Hope to see you all later on.
Best wishes
A moving plea to EDDC – don’t move!
Letter in today’s Exmouth Journal:
I live in a big old house that costs a lot to heat and maintain, and with my budget tightening, I certainly won’t plan to move.
I don’t think East Devon District Council should move either. Not to Exmouth. Not to Honiton.
To waste £700,000 of our money “just thinking about it” (Cllr Ben Ingham’s letter, January 29) while at the same time drastically cutting services seems not the wisest of moves.
We need more common sense voices like the Independent Claire Wright to urge sense and sensibility on our council.
Rather than expensive vanity projects, they should stay in their old home in Sidmouth (even expensive to heat) and concentrate on spending our money more wisely.
May I make a moving plea to our council: Don’t Move!
JED FALBY
Budleigh Salterton.
East Devon Watch 