Axminster’s MP Neil Parish said he will be ‘banging down the door’ to ensure that the Masterplan for the town has a viable future. Action man Simon Jupp MP is refusing to vote for HS2 whilst the two rail lines into Devon remain unfit for purpose. He is also trying to resolve the Budleigh Shandford care home crisis. Are witnessing a concerted “Charm Offensive”?

Daniel Clark  www.devonlive.com

Axminster’s MP Neil Parish said he will be ‘banging down the door’ to ensure that the Masterplan for the town has a viable future.

The Axminster Masterplan for 800 new homes and the long-awaiting relief road was agreed last January, only for Homes England’s Housing Infrastructure Funding of £10m to be turned from a grant to a loan.

Homes England state that they believe that the development could afford to repay the HIF monies, but East Devon District Council are convinced that the development cannot afford to repay the monies and the developers have no interest in progressing down the route of a repayable loan.

The funding would have been used to forward fund the new £16.7m north-south relief road that aims to end the severe congestion, pollution and HGVs having to travel on the existing road that runs through the centre of the town.

East Devon District Council’s Strategic Planning Committee on Tuesday morning agreed to send a letter to Neil Parish, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, to seek his further assistance in securing funding towards the masterplan, as the council are now under threat of the monies being withdrawn by Homes England and lost forever.

Having been shown a copy of the letter, Mr Parish told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I will continue to support EDDC in getting the funding they need for the Axminster Relief Road. Together with our excellent local councillors in Axminster, we will be banging down the door of the Housing Minister and Homes England to ensure the Axminster Masterplan has a viable future.

“We met with Homes England last year on this matter – but it is clear further discussions must take place to get this sorted.”

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, Cllr Ian Hall said that it was imperative to get help from the MP so forward delivery of the relief road happens and the funding position is revisited by Homes England, as ‘doing nothing is not acceptable’.

He added: “I want the best for Axminster and for it to be a resilient town in the future. We must unlock Axminster’s potential. I believe that the agreed masterplan was nailed on the best for Axminster and East Devon. We have already wasted too much time and I will not watch Axminster stagnate and die, or at best we a reteriment area. Can we hurry up and get this done.”

Fellow ward member Cllr Andrew Moulding added: “We have concerns over the masterplan at the moment as it is not deliverable as we don’t have the grants for the upfront delivery of the relief road. The case for us is very clear as delivery of the masterplan and relief road is essential for Axminster.”

He said that he was concerned that plans for the southern parcel of land could be permitted soon, and that unless the relief road was forward-funded, that would be delivered without the infrastructure needed.

Cllr Moulding added: “It is essential to get upfront delivery of the relief road, stop the gridlock and get the cars out of the town.”

But the third Axminster ward member, Cllr Sarah Jackson, disagreed with the wording and the content of the letter as it heavily leans on the discrepancy in the land values between the parties and that the committee had not been privy to the land valuations and viability assessments.

She said: “I would hope that members seriously consider if they have the information in front of them before they send the letter and what we ask the MP on our behalf to do.”

Cllr Paul Hayward added that the committee were being asked to agree the text and tone of the letter which alludes to report that they haven’t seen.

But Cllr Philip Skinner though said he was happy to trust the judgment of the people who had been the valuations and that they were trying to do their best for Axminster, and called for the letter to be sent to get him on board, as everyone was ‘rolling in the same direction’.

The letter outlines the background, why delivering of the homes is important, what may happen if the relief road is not delivered in advance of development, and why the council would not happy with the consequences of it, as well as the reasons why the council does not agree with the Homes England position on the land values.

It says: “Expecting the developers to pay the full cost of the road does not leave a reasonable incentive for the land owners because the costs of the relief road are so great. The relief road is also not just about servicing the proposed development but about addressing a wider issue of resilience in the road network and current congestion and air pollution in the centre of Axminster. To expect the development to cover the full cost of the road is unrealistic and unreasonable.

“In Axminster we have a project to deliver an urban extension of 850 homes which has already been master planned with planning applications that will be ready to be determined by Easter 2020. The developers could be on-site within a year and delivering these homes if only we could deliver the relief road. All we need is for Homes England to release the money as traditional grant funding as originally indicated they would.

“All we are asking is that the viability work undertaken by Homes England reflects the values previously negotiated with land owners on the evidence now provided which shows that these are reasonable.

“Without this public investment the relief road will not be delivered but we are in real danger that some of the housing will have to come forward without it

“We may soon be in a position where we cannot resist the applications for the southern part of the site and are forced to allow this to proceed despite the communities’ clear requirement that the relief road be delivered first.”

Councillors voted by eight votes to four, with two abstentions, to send the letter.

The Mirror’s Mikey Smith has filed a deliciously colorful piece on some of the hardworking folk whose deep pockets made the “People’s Government” a reality. He reports that “a handful of millionaires and billionaires” pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into the Tory campaign to topple Labour’s red wall seats across the north of England. “One secretive group of donors has historic links to the Freemasons,” Smith writes. “Another is a millionaire motor racing mogul who has treated Boris Johnson to a chummy photo op in a sports car.” Best of all, however, is the retired investment banker who lists his occupation on official documents simply as “Gentleman.” Something for us all to aspire to there.

Source, which includes a full list of donors, can be found : 

www.mirror.co.uk

Council dares to order Persimmon Homes to halt work on a building site but it’s not EDDC.

Torbay Council has ordered Persimmon Homes to halt work on a controversial building site after claims that an ancient Devon bank, trees and parts of their gardens had been removed.

And angry residents say trees are still being felled despite the enforcement notice.

The site for 68 new homes off Kings Ash Hill has long been contentious in the area. It was approved in December 2018 and work began last summer. The new homes are being built on a picturesque former horse paddock in Luscombe Lane.

The residents raised fears that parts of an ancient Devon bank’s trees and hedges have been removed. They also claimed the building work has undermined their back gardens causing landslides.

Local councillors Jackie Thomas and John Kavanah, raised their concerns with Torbay Council’s head of legal planning and an enforcement notice has now been served.

A spokesman for Persimmon Homes has confirmed that they are aware of the enforcement notice and are working with Torbay Council ‘reviewing the situation’. The housebuilding company added in a statement: “Persimmon Homes believes it is acting in accordance with planning approved site plans.”

Full story here

www.devonlive.com 

Owl catches up on Honiton: Angry members of the public heckled Honiton Town councillors as tempers flared at last night’s meeting. [Monday 25 Feb]

There were noisy exchanges between councillors and the packed public benches before one well-known member of the community stormed out while hurling abuse at Mayor John Zarczynski.

Almost 4,500 social media users have since viewed Honiton Nub News’ Facebook Live coverage of the meeting, held at the The Beehive.

Hannah Corfield

honiton.nub.news 

Angry members of the public heckled Honiton Town councillors as tempers flared at last night’s meeting.

There were noisy exchanges between councillors and the packed public benches before one well-known member of the community stormed out while hurling abuse at Mayor John Zarczynski.

Almost 4,500 social media users have since viewed Honiton Nub News’ Facebook Live coverage of the meeting, held at the The Beehive.

Trouble erupted when councillors agreed to move several items on the agenda into the private Part B section of the meeting.

Earlier, it had addressed items which had been included on the previous agenda and funding was agreed for two charitable organisations – Honiton Scouts and The Air Cadets – along with a consideration of Honiton’s Fairtrade status, an update on Gate2Plate 2020 and a discussion regarding VE/VJ Day commemorations.

Mayor, Cllr John Zarczynski, announced that the following four items – 18, 19, 20 and 21 – were of a ‘confidential nature’ and the clerk had ‘recommended’ they be moved to Part B.

Part B excludes the public from council debate, usually for the reason of financial sensitivity.

Cllr Vera Howard then proposed the motion, which was seconded by Cllr Philip Carrigan.

Frequent use of Part B has caused many to question the council’s transparency.

Cllr Jason Hannay spoke out to address this concern stating that a lot of what is ‘confidential’ is already ‘in the public domain through the Freedom Of Information Act’ and ‘that it was what a lot of people wanted to listen to as it was their town’.

Cllr Zarczynski responded that he ‘could only go by the agenda prepared by the clerk’ however conceded that two votes take place on whether the items be moved to Part B.

Following a vote on the initial motion that the items be moved to Part B, Cllr Caroline Kolek spoke out saying that she was ‘conscious’ of the large volume of people who had showed up and whether time be set aside for some questions.

The mayor rejected the proposal, stating that public question time had been part of the previous meeting and would only be permitted again at the next full council meeting.

He acknowledged that there were issues that people wanted answers to and that there ‘was a lot going around on social media’ however members of the public were invited to submit their questions for the meeting in two weeks time.

Someone sitting in the public gallery shouted: “What are you afraid of?” to which Cllr Zarczynski responded “nothing”.

At this point, well respected member of the Honiton community Joseph Furneaux-Gotch, spoke up to say that he ‘rejected the decision as a member of the public’.

Addressing the mayor directly, he said: “What you’ve just done is to move stuff into Part B, and all these people who live and work in Honiton deserve to know what’s going on.

“And do you know why they’re not going to hear it? Because an unelected group of people are pushing stuff into a secret meeting.”

This was met by a loud round of applause and people expressing their support.

He went on to say: “Hardly anyone uses Part B, except for financial matters, but you use it all the time.”

The mayor defended his position, stating that he was ‘following the agenda’, however Mr Furneaux-Gotch left the meeting calling the mayor ‘horrific’ and ‘horrendous’ and ‘why didn’t he put himself up for election to see what the people voted’.

Another member of the public gallery, Steve Keene, called on everyone to ‘keep it level’ and ‘not to become a mob’.

He said: “Let’s just leave and we’ll come back on the 9th.”

This morning it emerged that a councillor later resigned – click below for more.