Daily Archives: 9 Jun 2018

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Jun 2018

Posted under

AONB, Councillor Marianne Rixon EDA, EDDC, Environment (local), Fords of Sidmouth, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Comments

3 Comments

No to Sidford Business Park update 2

From:
nosidfordbusinesspark@yahoo.co.uk

Campaign update no. 2

“We are now able to provide the link to Marianne Rixson’s powerpoint presentation – .

http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.com/2018/06/sidford-business-park-how-to-comment-on.html

At the public meeting we raffled an unframed painting of the proposed business park site, showing how it is today. Thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets. It helped raise much needed funds for the campaign. The winning raffle ticket number was 61. If that ticket was yours then please contact us and we will arrange for you to receive the painting.

So many of you who attended the meeting were generous and we were able to raise the magnificent sum of £523.17 towards the campaign’s costs! Whilst this is very helpful, it may be that we have to ask for further donations, particularly if we need to undertake a professional traffic survey to submit to East Devon District Council as part of its consideration of the planning application.

A number of you offered to get involved with the Steering Group. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to contact you until early next week. It’s not because we don’t want your help; but rather there just isn’t enough time to do this over the weekend!

Someone at the public meeting left behind a pair of black framed spectacles! If they are yours then contact us and we will reunite you with them!

Please show your opposition to the planning application by displaying a poster in your window. We have attached two versions of a poster. One is in colour and one is black and white. Please print one (or more) and display it. If you can, please also print one (or more) and offer it to a friend or neighbour.

The campaign now has a Twitter account – SayNOtoSidfordBusiness Park. If you are on Twitter please follow this and retweet its tweets. This is another way that we can reach the widest possible audience.

We understand that not everyone uses email, Facebook or Twitter and so one of the early discussions that the Steering Group will need to have is how best to engage with people locally who use none of these mediums. Already one suggestion has been to get up a petition and to go directly door to door obtaining signatures. Watch this space!

If you want to look at the full details of the planning application for the business park this link will take you directly to it – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Jun 2018

Posted under

AONB, EDDC, Fords of Sidmouth, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

“Say NO to Sidford Business Park” campaign gets off toflying start

From:
nosidfordbusinesspark@yahoo.co.uk

Campaign update no. 1

“Welcome to emails from the Say NO to Sidford Business Park campaign. If you don’t wish to receive these emails then please respond saying so and your details will be deleted from the mailing list.

Thank you to the 150 concerned people who attended the campaign’s public meeting on Tuesday evening. Now we have updated the campaign mailing list you will now receive information about the campaign, its activities and what is happening with the planning application.

If you are on Facebook please go to the campaign’s page – Say NO to Sidford Business Park – which you can find by typing that into the search bar in your Facebook page. Please follow the campaign page, like the page, invite your Facebook friends to like the page and share the postings that are on the page. You might even decide to post your own thoughts and to share photos and videos of the traffic difficulties in and around Sidford and Sidbury. Those photos can also be sent to this email account.

For those of you on Twitter; watch out as the campaign’s new Twitter account is about to hit social media! We will let you have its details shortly.

It was pleasing to see that today’s Sidmouth Herald, which had a reporter at the meeting on Tuesday evening, has placed its report of the meeting on page 5, and there is also a related letter on page 18. This link takes you to the Herald’s story as posted on Twitter today:

The campaign needs to maintain public interest and so please consider drafting a letter about your concerns about the business park and sending them to the Herald. Ideally, any letters seeking publication should be sent by the Tuesday of the week of publication. The Herald’s letter’s page email address is sidmouth.letters@archant.co.uk or they can be posted to Sidmouth Herald, Newbery House, Fair Oak Close, Exeter Business Park, Exeter EX5 2UL.

If you would like a copy of Marianne Rixson’s illuminating powerpoint presentation that she gave at the meeting let us know and it will be emailed to you. We would point out that it is a large document, but you are most welcome to receive it nonetheless.

A reminder that your objections to the business park planning application have to be received by next Friday, 15 June. The key information regarding that is –

WRITE TO: Planning Central, East Devon District Council, Knowle, Sidmouth, EX10 8HL or
email: PlanningCentral@eastdevon.gov.uk

QUOTE PLANNING REFERENCE: 18/1094/MOUT: Outline Application for the development of Employment Facilities on Land Adjacent to Two Bridges, Two Bridges Road Sidford

Please do not copy/paste comments from others, as identical responses do not count! If you have a personal story, or photos to back up what you say, then please include them.

ENSURE THAT YOU INCLUDE THESE MAIN AREAS OF CONCERN which are:

● Traffic size/volume and its consequences
● Flood mitigation and overflow
● Visibility from surrounding area
● Impact on Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
● Light & noise pollution
● Unsupported need

Best wishes

Campaign Team”

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Jun 2018

Posted under

Dorset, EDDC, Tourism

Tourism – where would you go …?

A correspondent writes:

“Nice to see EDDC is doing all in its power to attract tourist into the area.

To park in a nearly deserted Lime Kiln car park in Budliegh at 6.00 pm cost £1 per hour (maximum £6)

To park in Lyme Legis long stay £2 …… all day

To park at an almost full West Bay, Bridport, car park 8.00 am to 10.00 pm £2.

So it cost 3 times as much to park in East Devon seaside resorts than it does to park on the coast in Dorset.

Where would you go?

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Jun 2018

Posted under

Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton, Tourism

Comments

1 Comment

Colyton “businesses” tell Mum not to hang out washing – Colyton residents react by hanging theirs out!

Owl says: “local businesses” rely on families with young children for their livlihood. Just as well “they” didn’t identify themselves – the cowards. What nicer sight than washing drying naturally in a country village?

Oh, and it has hit the national press, with comment from East Devon Alliance and Colyton resident Paul Arnott chipping in – obviously in his personal capacity, though Owl would vote for anyone who had hanging out washing in their manifesto!

“Claire Mountjoy received an anonymous note which claimed to be ‘on behalf of local businesses and your neighbourhood’, asking her not to hang her washing out the front of her house.

The note said: “We all try hard to keep our lovely town thriving and looking good.

“The visitors walk up Dolphin Street from the tram and your terrace is a prime location.

“While we understand you have a small house with no outside room… would you please consider using a tumble dryer or hanging the washing indoors.”

Claire posted the note to Facebook earlier this week, sparking uproar from outraged community members.

Residents have since replied by hanging their washing outside their homes, a move Claire’s children have coined the ‘laundry revolution’.

Claire said: “I think it is so lovely that I live in a community that’s so supportive of me and doing something that people have done for generations.

“The community response has been amazing – the rebellious nature of Colyton has come to the fore and the laundry revolution has begun!”

Claire, who is an education officer for Devon Wildlife Trust, said she was initially sad when she read the note, but decided she would not continue to be affected by it.

She added: “I want to say to whoever wrote the note that they really should be doing their washing in a more environmentally friendly way and putting it outside.

“It would have been better to have had a nice chat.”

More support has come flooding in from Claire, with Dunkeswell-based Skydive Buzz offering her a £100 voucher for a full-height skydive.

Ruth Fouracre, of Skydive Buzz, said: “We think it’s a great thing that Claire is standing up for, and it’s a bit of fun.

“I am originally from Colyton – the town has a brilliant community and the support is great!”

Tomorrow (Saturday), the Nunsford Nutters Carnival Club will stage a children’s pram and bed race in Colyton from 1pm.

A washing line, with pyjamas pegged to it, will also be strung up between the town hall and the Colcombe Castle pub in support of Claire.

Gail Jarman, one of the race organisers, said: “The reaction for Claire has been fantastic – the amount of people who have got behind it is absolutely brilliant.

“The note is ridiculous – none of us are supporting the person who wrote it.

“You have got to dry your washing somewhere.”

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/it-s-the-laundry-revolution-residents-support-colyton-mum-who-was-criticised-for-drying-washing-outside-1-5553455

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

9 Jun 2018

Posted under

Austerity cuts, Business Rates, Economy

“Retail space returned to landlords in high street crisis, Colliers International reveals”

Owl says: would Tesco be calling for a “level playing field” between high street and online shopping if they had not just closed Tesco Direct – their online retailer!

“Retail space equivalent to about 180 football pitches has been handed back to landlords this year, in a stark sign of the challenges facing the high street.

A day after House of Fraser announced that it would be closing more than half of its stores, an analysis by Colliers International shows that 11.6 million sq ft of retail has been “lost” to administrations, company voluntary arrangements and planned store closures this year.

The property consultancy said that this included the two million sq ft of retail space that Marks & Spencer planned to offload by closing 100 stores.

Fears are growing for the future of high streets as more retailers struggle and try to close stores through CVAs — the contentious insolvency process that allows retailers to shut shops and cut rents at landlords’ expense. New Look, Carpetright and Mothercare are among those that have entered into CVAs this year and House of Fraser’s proposed CVA has infuriated many in the property industry. The British Property Federation, which lobbies for landlords, has called for an urgent inquiry into the practice.

However, retailers say that they are facing a toxic mix of high rents, rising wages and costs and a structural shift in the industry as more people shop online. Yesterday, Dave Lewis, chief executive of Tesco, told the BBC that the burden of business rates, which hits retailers with large store estates hard, was to blame for many of the present woes.

He said that Tesco paid more than £700 million a year in business rates and that “you need a level playing field . . . between an online digital world and a traditional retail store base model”.

Dan Simms, co-head of retail agency at Colliers, said that the retail space at risk of closure this year was already more than the 10.7 million sq ft handed back in 2016, the year BHS collapsed.

“What we are seeing now are a lot more retailers closing stores,” he said. “It is much more broadly based so it feels like things are markedly worse.”

Analysis by Harper Dennis Hobbs shows that about 25 million sq ft of retail space was lost between 2008 and 2010 …”