Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Developers/ Development, Planning System

Cottage left off developer’s plans to be surrounded by 700 houses: council suggests developers phone cottage owners to tell them

THE PROBLEM

“A couple have been left horrified after they discovered their dream farm cottage is set to be surrounded by a modern 700 house estate.
Cheryle Walton, 56, and her partner Paul Jones, 50, were completely unaware of plans to build the mini town – insisting that at no point were they consulted.

It was only when they were speaking with passer-by who mentioned the development that they found out that the 507,500 square metre estate in Chippenham, Wiltshire, is set to completely encompass their detached cottage, which currently sits in miles of green fields.

The devastated couple’s house – estimated to now be worth £500,000 – doesn’t even appear on the submitted aerial drawings of the proposed new estate – despite being right in the middle. …

… If it goes ahead, they will be totally swallowed by the estate, joining up their currently rural home with the rest of the town. The plans propose erecting 700 homes on the 50 hectares site to the north east of Chippenham. It also includes 4.5 hectares of ’employment space’, 10 hectares of public open space, cycle paths, ‘retirement living’, a primary school and a nursery. …”

THE COUNCIL’S SOLUTION

“A spokesman for Wiltshire Council added: ‘The developers carried out public consultation events on these planning proposals and should have ensured all residents were told.

‘We understand from Miss Walton that she was not informed and was only made aware when she received a letter from us in January stating a planning application has been submitted by the developers.

‘We’ve suggested the developers call Miss Walton to explain what they are planning to do and why she was not involved earlier in the public consultation events.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3463832/Couple-discovered-300-000-dream-cottage-soon-surrounded-700-home-estate-hearing-neighbour-walked-dogs.html

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Exmouth

“Campaigners pursue judicial review over sale of sea-front land by council”

Campaigners have applied for a judicial review of Canterbury City Council’s decision to enter a contract for the sale, subject to planning permission, of seafront land in Whitstable.

The claimants, the Oval Chalet Preservation Community Group (OCPCG) and the Whistable Society, lodged their application in the Administrative Court last week (17 February).

They are advancing five grounds of challenge:

1. Failure to comply with the legal requirements for the disposal of open space land;

2. Entering into a contract that failed to fully accord with the expressed instruction of the council’s executive committee;

3. Excessive secrecy of the resolution-making meeting;

4. Failure to obtain best value for the land sold; and

5. Breach of the public sector equality duty in regard to disabled access to the site.

Angela Boddy, the Chair of the Whitstable Society, said: “Together with the OCPCG, we have tried to sort this out with the council, but to no avail. We have had no alternative but to ask the court to intervene.”

She added: “The council’s head of legal services, Sarah Bowman, told councillors last week that she is likely to spend over £20,000 on barrister fees to fight our claim, so nobody should assume we will win our case quickly or easily.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26101:campaigners-pursue-judicial-review-over-sale-of-sea-front-land-by-council&catid=58&Itemid=26

More background:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/seaside-land-sale-faces-high-91311/

http://www.canterburytimes.co.uk/Campaigners-demand-site-review/story-28789369-detail/story.html

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Comments

Just how big is Cranbrook going to be?

Apparently, DCC is looking into the possibility of having a second railway station in Cranbrook.

Just how big is this town going to be?

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Second-Cranbrook-station-pipeline/story-28800153-detail/story.html

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

EDDC, Rural communications, Rural communities

Rural broadband: still only sticking- plaster solutions

Will BT being “asked nicely” to let other providers share their network more make a difference?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35657210

Hard to say, especially as EDDC has decided to “go it alone” with rural broadband and try to provide its own service (if or when funded).

Will rural mobile “not spots” improve (a different matter, but still important) – some towns and villages still having no service or just 2G (unable to connect to internet)?

If you want answers to these questions get in touch (if you can from where you are) with EDDC Councillor Phil Twiss:

Email: ptwiss@eastdevon.gov.uk

Telephone: 01404 891327

Address: Swallowcliff, Beacon, Honiton, EX14 4TT

who is the councillor tasked with improving these services

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Developers/ Development, Ottery St Mary

Developer proposes that children walk to schoolby road separated only by a white line – no pavement!

“Safety measures branded ‘crazy and irresponsible’

“An outline planning application to build on a Greenfield site next to Sidmouth Road [Ottery St Mary]now includes provision of a white line on the highway to provide a footway for pedestrians and a pledge to start a ‘walking bus’ for schoolchildren.

The plans submitted by the Gerway Land Owners Consortium were put before Ottery Town Council at a meeting on Monday, where they were blasted as ‘unsuitable’, ‘unsafe’ – and described as even worse than the original proposal.

The decision to strongly oppose the plan – which has now received 688 objections – was agreed by a unanimous vote.

Mayor Glyn Dobson said: “I could never agree to either of these schemes where they are going to paint a line on a highway and expect children to walk along it. It is a crazy application – it’s not safe and it’s not suitable to build there.”

Speaking at the meeting, Dave McKinney, of Sidmouth Road, said: “To now introduce high volumes of pedestrian traffic, particularly schoolchildren, along this road with the current traffic conditions is irresponsible.

“The walking bus would have to negotiate this road at the worst time of day with no protection from the traffic. To sponsor a start-up walking bus is just paying lip service to the issue and has no longevity. The reality is people will not risk walking along the road and will drive. The footpath proposal illustrates a desperate attempt to gain approval for an unsuitable development.”

Paul Vickory said he has lived in the area for more than 50 years and suggested traffic calming measures proposed by the developer would only exacerbate existing congestion problems at Tip Hill.

Brian Nelson, chairman of Gerway Action Group, set up in protest to the initial proposal, said he has been informed by Devon County Council’s (DCC) highways team that the example of a white line walkway given by the developer – for a road in Dartington – would now be against policy.

This was backed up by planning chairman Councillor Ian Holmes, who said the aforementioned example would not be renewed.

Mr Nelson concluded: “I seriously worry for the safety of the children being walked in a long line on an 80-metre stretch of Sidmouth Road.”

Cllr Roger Giles put forward the proposal to ‘strongly oppose’ the application, saying: “Usually in these cases, the applicant submits something more reasonable. This application is different in that what the applicant has proposed is even worse, if that’s possible, and there are even stronger grounds to refuse it.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/safety_measures_branded_crazy_and_irresponsible_1_4425911

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Developers/ Development, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework

109% of all required housing already agreed in local plans

” 6.4 Local plans adopted since the National Planning Policy Framework was published in March 2012 allocate substantially more housing than those adopted before the Framework was published. The average post- National Planning Policy Framework plan makes provision for 109% of household projections (footnote 40) compared to only 86% for pre-Framework plans.”

Footnote 40 reads:

Household projections are from census data indicating future household formations

Click to access Planning_consultation.pdf

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Local Enterprise Partnership

Q: What is a “Mayoral Development Corporation? A: Another unelected, unaccountable group of business-people!

A mini-LEP!

They both use unelected, unaccountable businessmen to take control of local assets and shortcut legal and democratic processes to enrich a select few business people.

“The DCLG said an advisory board would be established to provide leadership and direction to the MDC for the regeneration of sites across Tees Valley. Ministers will work with local partners to appoint members for the board.”

watch out people of Teeside – you have no idea what is coming your way!

You see where this is going? Local councils and electors – OUT, local and non- local business people – unelected, unaccountable. nontransparent replacing them.

But it isn’t ALL business people – just a very, very select few.

Owl really isn’t a conspiracy theorist – this is just the way it is in Dave’s England now.

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Consultation, Local Plan, NPPF, Planning System

Comments

Consultation – you’re having a laugh, surely?

Just one paragraph from the consultation document below in a section on “planning in principle”:

“2.35 Before an application for technical details consent is determined, we do not propose to require by secondary legislation that local planning authorities consult with the community and others before making a decision.

We would welcome views about giving local planning authorities the option to carry out further consultation with such interested persons as they consider appropriate. This would be based on their judgement and would be informed by the engagement that took place when permission in principle was granted.

While we think that it is important for appropriate further engagement to take place at the technical details consent stage, we consider that centrally mandating what should be done risks unnecessarily repeating engagement and takes away an important local flexibility. We do propose that it should be mandatory for applicants to notify landowners and agricultural tenants of the application (as is currently the case with a planning application).”

Click to access Planning_consultation.pdf

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, AONB, Developers/ Development, Devolution, EDDC, Environment (local), Infrastructure, Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework, Neighbourhood Plans, Planning System, Sustainability

Comments

Yet another battle to fight: more, many more, sneaky changes to planning

The devil is in the detail here – so many “minor” changes, never seen before – all gearing up to give our LEP total control of the planning system:

“This consultation seeks views on the proposed approach to implementing the planning provisions in the Housing and Planning Bill, and some other planning measures. It covers the following areas:

 Changes to planning application fees
 Permission in principle
 Brownfield register
 Small sites register
 Neighbourhood planning
 Local plans
 Expanding the planning performance regime
 Testing competition in the processing of planning applications
 Information about financial benefits
 Section 106 dispute resolution
 Permitted development rights for state-funded schools
 Changes to statutory consultation on planning applications”

Click to access Planning_consultation.pdf

WE HAVE UNTIL 15 APRIL 2016 TO RESPOND

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Dear Owl …

I went to a boys’ school – a rather famous boys’ school – where I made many, many friends, a lot of whom I now work with and see every day.

One of them is now CEO of the massive – and I mean massive – company in which I am a somewhat lowly sub-deputy-sales manager. But the CEO and I get on (he has even once tapped my posterior in public!).

Another one of my friends from school is the manager of a large sub-division of the firm and is always getting his picture in the newspapers (sometimes not for the right reasons) and seems very popular with staff and a lot of the customers.

Recently, we have had a bit of trouble in the company. The CEO says it is just a little blip, the sub-division manager disagrees and he says that money has gone missing and the CEO’s workers (mostly people on zero-hours contracts and often immigrants) are to blame. The CEO says no money is missing and he is cutting down the number of workers who MIGHT be tempted to steal from the company anyway, so no need to worry.

Now the divisional manager has launched a bid to oust the CEO and replace him and I have to take a side.

As if that wasn’t hard enough, one of my jobs is to control a very small section of the workforce, which has been really troublesome. For years they were (I thought) loyal to me and were always happy to do what I told them. I didn’t see them often as I am always away on sales trips, but I would turn up at their social events and smile a lot and all seemed well.

I was shocked when recently I had to re-apply for my job. This happens every few years (we would like to do away with this old custom but haven’t yet managed it) but the CEO always makes sure he butters up my workers and so it has never been a problem getting reinstated.

Imagine my shock and horror last time when last time one of my workers stood against me and seemed, for reasons I will never understand, very popular. Other workers tried it in the past and failed miserably but this one did surprisingly well.

It was a nasty shock, and I ended up having to drag my dog around the workplace and talk to the workers. I even had to cancel some of my sales trips (though, to be fair, no-one tells me much about what we are selling). I kept my job but it looked very sticky for a while I can tell you!

Now, I am in a real dilemma. The CEO wants me to back him in re-negotiating a big contract in Europe. The manager of the sub-division says it is tosh and the European client is bankrupt and we shouldn’t trade with them at all. Our workers can’t seem to make up their minds and in my little division I can’t work out what they think at all.

As if this wasn’t enough, my job will be up for re-application again soon and I have no idea who will be in charge then. If it is the CEO I will be fine. If it is the Divisional Manager and I don’t choose his side mow, I could lose my sales job and be demoted. If I can’t satisfy my workers and I am challenged again by that awful person from last time, I could even lose my job with the company completely! And not only would I lose my job, my wife would lose hers too, as she is my secretary.

So, what should I do, back one chum or the other? I really need some advice from a wise old owl here.

But could you delay publishing it for a few days – I am on a sales trip at the moment and my old Nokia phone isn’t getting a signal.

Yours sincerely,

Rupert

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Local Enterprise Partnership

Brexit: Bank of England makes contingency plans

“The Bank of England is preparing a contingency plan for the aftermath of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership.

However Mark Carney, the Governor, said the central bank will not predict the likely outcome or economic consequences of a vote to leave.

Mr Carney also acknowledged that uncertainty about the outcome was fueling instability for the pound in evidence to MPs on the Treasury select committee.

Mr Carney said: “We’re treating this vote exactly how we treat any other political event, which is not to make a judgment on the outcome and assume the status quo continues. …”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12170936/EU-referendum-Bank-of-England-is-making-contingency-plans-says-Governor-Mark-Carney.html

So, where is our Local Enterprise Partnership’s Plan B, bearing in mind it sees one of its funding streams as being the European Union? AND, if there is a Brexit, will the cost of Hinkley C increase, it being majority-funded in France?

Our chances of finding out from the LEP – zero.

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Local Enterprise Partnership, Misc

Comments

Quote of the day

“The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.”

Jean-Jaques Rousseau, “The Social Contract”, 1762

District councils and LEPs didn’t exist in 1762!

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Misc

Comments

Brexit? Here’s something to help you to decide

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Green Wedges, Hugo Swire

Another green wedge under threat

Topsham is not in the East Devon District but IS in the East Devon parliamentary constituency of Hugo Swire. Let’s see if he speaks up for Topsham as Honiton and Tiverton MP Neil Parish did for Feniton. But don’t hold your breath – he’s travelling the world and probably won’t even know what’s happening here. And if he does, he will almost certainly not help, citing “being a minister” as his usual excuse.

Sorry, but if you voted for him, this is what you get – an absentee MP who doesn’t even have a second home in the constituency, preferring to have it in Mid-Devon.

“Hundreds of people have attended a public inquiry to object to plans to build on an area of green space known as the “Topsham Gap”.

The land separates the town of Topsham from the city of Exeter.

The public inquiry follows Exeter City Council’s rejection of Waddeton Park’s plans to build a 60-bed care home plus more than 100 homes for over 55s.

The developer says it would provide “much-needed” housing for the area’s ageing population.

A campaign group, Save the Topsham Gap, objects to the development, claiming Topsham has its own identity and the “gap” is the last bit of land physically separating the two areas.

‘Antagonise the inspector’

An earlier inquiry in November was adjourned because the venue at Newcourt Community Centre was deemed too small for the numbers wanting to attend.
A number of local people who wanted to attend the start of the four-day inquiry at the Westpoint Centre, were angry at being “locked out” after arriving late, but an official said she was not willing to “antagonise the inspector” by allowing latecomers into the proceedings.

“This is like a court of law and the inspector is the judge – and the inspector decides how it will be run,” she told BBC News.

She said the people would be able to attend the afternoon session of the inquiry, but one objector said he was “appalled” at being locked out.
“It’s a public inquiry and we should be allowed in,” he said.

The inspector’s decision will be announced at a later date.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-35639773

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Local Enterprise Partnership

Everything you wanted to know about devolution but couldn’t get our Local Enterprise Partnership to tell you’

A meeting about Devolution – Thursday 25th February at 6.30 in the Guildhall, Totnes.

A paper written in 2012 that predicted with uncanny and very scary accuracy what would happen when LEPs decided to rule the world:

http://transitionculture.org/2012/05/28/why-we-need-to-put-the-local-back-into-local-enterprise-partnerships/

And a petition to sign if you feel that all this is happening democratically and non-transparently::

go to

change.org

and search for the petition:

Stop the ‘unlawful’ devolution process in Devon and Somerset

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

EDDC, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Sidford Fields owner wastes no time putting in planning application

And DCC allows the owner to dictate where cycle and footpaths should go. Nicely done.

“A planning application for a 12-acre business park between Sidford and Sidbury is expected in the spring, according to the district council.

The Herald reported last week that a long-awaited cycle link between the villages had been put on hold to allow ‘further dialogue’ between Devon County Council and the park’s applicant.

County Hall’s decision came after a government inspector controversially ruled that the employment land allocation must be included in East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) Local Plan.

An EDDC spokeswoman told the Herald this week: “We anticipate receiving an application [for the business park] in spring 2016.

“However, even if an application were to be successful, we don’t know when work would commence on site.”

Designs for Devon County Council’s 900-metre cycle route and footpath showed it running from Sidford to Sidbury alongside the A375 – starting in an area allocated for development.

It agreed to withdraw its planning application to allow further dialogue with the business park applicant about what alignment changes might be needed.

The delay will not affect a scheme linking Byes Lane and Laundry Lane as this does not require planning permission. Funding is in place for work to start in the next financial year.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/sidford_business_park_plans_anticipate_in_spring_1_4425821

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

EDDC, Exmouth, Moirai Exmouth project

Exmouth seafront demo: Wednesday 24th February at 5.45pm,

Campaign group Save Exmouth Seafront will hold a demo outside The Knowle over development plans.

Louise MacAllister, spokesperson for the group highly critical of the £18m Queen’s Drive project, said many of their questions about “remain unanswered” by East Devon District Council.

It’s despite EDDC recently publishing information in the form of a Q&A on their website.

Louise will lead the demo outside the council offices in Sidmouth on Wednesday 24th February at 5.45pm, as district councillors arrive ahead of a full council meeting.

The group will then field some of the “unanswered” questions at the district authority during the public speaking section of the meeting.

“Previous questions asked by the campaign group have remained unanswered …”
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Save-Exmouth-Seafront-hold-demo-ahead-council/story-28784552-detail/story.html

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Budleigh Salterton, NHS (local)

Budleigh Hospital to remain closed while two parts of the NHS wrangle about who owns it and who can charge the other for it!

“The wait to reopen Budleigh Salterton Hospital as a multi-purpose health facility is set to continue for the unforeseeable future.

A dispute over ownership of the site means it is already five months behind schedule for when it was due to open its doors to the community again.

Nearly a year ago, NHS Northern, Eastern and Western (NEW) Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) approved an £800,000 transformation of the facility owned by the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust.

The hospital closed last summer and was due to reopen in September. NEW Devon CCG is in discussions to hand over responsibility for East Devon’s community hospitals to the Royal Devon & Exeter hospital.

It would mean the ownership of Budleigh Hospital would be automatically transferred to NHS Property Services, which would need to generate a commercial rent from the hospital building.

As a result, the scheme for a wellbeing hub in Budleigh will have to be put on hold until issues surrounding the ownership of the site can be resolved. …”

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Budleigh-Salterton-Hospital-remains-closed/story-28784586-detail/story.html

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Misc

Planning decision quashed: council made decision while application was with Secretary of State for decision on EIA

“Whilst the local authority was not precluded from granting planning permission in such circumstances it ran the risk that if that direction was positive it would then have granted a planning consent which was infected with illegality, as was the case here. The judge also remarked that he would also have been minded to conclude that no reasonable planning authority, knowing when they formed a resolution to grant planning permission that there was an outstanding request of the Secretary of State to make a determination on a screening direction, would proceed to grant planning permission without knowing the outcome of that screening direction process. Accordingly, the permission was quashed.

While the facts are a little unusual it is now clear that where both a third party and the Secretary of State become involved prior to a planning determination, it is advisable always to allow EIA procedures to run their full course, however desirous it may be to secure an early planning permission. Given that the Secretary of State is under no timing restrictions, unlike a local authority, that could be many months. So, the Roskilly case now sits as another and telling reminder amongst EIA jurisprudence that screening considerations should never be treated lightly, and, that unreasonableness can still be a successful ground to challenge that process.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25999:eia-trumping&catid=63&Itemid=31

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

Posted under

Democracy, Developers/ Development

David versus Goliath in the planning process

The local people kicking up a storm against billion-pound developments.

A selection of comments from the article”

““One reason we are seeing more campaigns such as mine is that you don’t have the public interest being served by councils or government; instead, they act as an arbitrator between communities and business. The people whose job it is to work in the public interest don’t see that as their job anymore”

Turner says many developers are successfully lobbying government to tie the hands of campaigners like him – hence the measures in the housing bill.”

and

“To understand what was going on with the scheme I had to visit the council offices,” explains McHattie. “I couldn’t see the plans online. When I turned up I was put in a room and shown the plans, which were dragged up from a box in the archives. I was told I could not take photographs but I have no architecture expertise so I didn’t understand what I was looking at. How could people of the city understand what was going on if they all had to visit this room to get information?”

and

“It’s in a developer’s interest to make the documents as difficult to comprehend as possible,” says Donoghue, who adds that it is “ridiculous” that the Goodsyard documents have more pages than the complete works of Shakespeare or the bible.”

and

“Groups like ours do not oppose development per se,” says Hammerson, a local researcher and author. “We oppose bad development, and unfortunately we get too much of that.”

He says more developers now use the planning system as a “second throw of the dice” to overrule refusals made under local policies.”

http://gu.com/p/4gjxc