Owl is – as so often being an East Devon Owl – confused.
According to today’s View from newspapers, EDDC has again turned down affordable housing on the Seaton Tesco site being built on by Bovis, in part because of the high cost of raising the land because it was on a flood plain. This led, it says, to it being unviable to build three storey or terraced housing without the use of “prohibitively expensive” piled foundations. This means that density and height of the houses on the site has to be reduced and this means building affordable homes is unaffordable on the site. EDDC Development Management Committee has agreed.
So why did original plans show more and higher housing WITH affordables when it was known that this would not be financially viable to developers who would not want to take on the extra cost of piling? Why was it not mentioned that the original plans relied on piling and might need to be changed? Did Bovis know when the bought the land that it could only build lower density, lower rise housing and that this would rule out any affordable housing?
And what of the three-storey houses that have already been built on the site – are they in any danger of subsiding or do they have piling or other strengthening construction:
http://www.bovishomes.co.uk/new-homes-on-pebble-beach/the-tetbury?hse=p307
(early part of the sales video showing at 20-30 seconds in shows three-storey housing – and an impression at 1 minute 20 seconds that somewhere close to the site (“local amenities”) has a beautiful indoor swimming pool, too).
A check with the planning application shows that (terraced) Premier Inn IS being built with piling, so that’s a relief!
East Devon Watch 