Exmouth Community College is proposing at the request of Devon County Council to have its current capacity increased from 2,418 pupils to 2,650.

Will Goddard exmouth.nub.news 

Exmouth Community College. Credit: Simon Cobb

The college is a secondary academy trust for ages 11-18.

The proposal is a 9% increase on the current number of students, and was prompted by East Devon District Council’s plan for more housing development in Exmouth – and Devon County Council’s responsibility to provide school places for all children in the county.

To accommodate the extra students, an eight-classroom extension has been proposed for the Maths Block at the site at Gipsy Lane. Detailed plans are available on the college’s website.

Devon County Council and East Devon District Council will fund the extension.

For more information, members of the public can access the full consultation document here.

If you would like to respond to this consultation, you can email consultation@exmouthcollege.devon.sch.uk or write to the following address:

Consultation on changes to provision

Exmouth Community College

Gipsy Lane

Exmouth

EX8 3AF

The closing date for responses is 5pm on Wednesday 23 June 2021.

A plan to preserve the picturesque seaside town of Teignmouth but to have a sustainable future is out for consultation.

Daniel Clark (extract) www.devonlive.com

The Teignmouth Neighbourhood Plan, which aims to provide a vision for the town for the next 20 years, outlines how the residents wish to ensure it remains a thriving town with a healthy and unpolluted environment, set in a protected coastal and estuarine setting.

There are 30 aims listed in the plan concerning topics ranging from housing, the future of the town centre, sport and leisure provision, traffic and parking, and flood prevention, with a ‘golden thread’ of climate change running throughout all the policies listed.

Cllr Joan Atkins, chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, in the foreword to the plan, said: “On the surface Teignmouth is a picturesque seaside town in South Devon, but underneath that first impression, it is far more than that. It is a complex town with a long history and many facets and styles which have been moulded by the hands of time, fashions in design and the topography and limitations of its location

“We very much hope and intend that this will facilitate appropriate future development in the town, taking into account a response to climate change, requirements of heritage conservation and, most recently, the impact and response required by the Pandemic.

“We will never be able to please all the people all the time, particularly as the goalposts keep moving, but we hope we have produced a balanced, even aspirational view after our many discussions, within the many limitations of what we can legally achieve through a Neighbourhood Plan.”

The vision statement says: “In 2040 Teignmouth will be a sustainable, thriving town with a healthy and unpolluted environment, set in a protected coastal and estuarine setting. It will have a high-quality public realm with all new developments meeting high standards of design and sustainability, good community, sports and recreational facilities for all ages and abilities, a diverse economy with opportunities to work from home or in business including the port, retail, tourism, leisure, art, and culture, and, good transport facilities for pedestrians, cyclists, buses, road vehicles, railways and parking.”

THE 30 AIMS OF THE TEIGNMOUTH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

• The historic environment should be recognised and appropriately protected and enhanced.
• New development should have a beneficial impact on the character and sustainability of the area and respond positively to the challenges of climate change.
• Improve and maintain the public realm.
• Provide more green space, play areas, trees and community horticulture opportunities in residential areas for reasons of health, amenity, quality of public realm and a response to climate change.
• New development proposals should prove their sustainability credentials.
• The rate of housing growth should be moderate and must not put a strain on local infrastructure.
• New housing provision should address Teignmouth’s evidenced needs.
• The impact of new housing development on its location should be physically, aesthetically and socially beneficial and respond positively to the challenges of climate change.
• Local green spaces that contribute to the amenity of their local area should be protected
• Sports, leisure and recreation facilities should be sufficient in quantity and quality to meet evidenced community needs.
• Encourage recreational activity appropriate to the outstanding geographical location.
• Local community facilities should be sufficient in quantity and quality to continue to meet community needs.
• Opportunities for young people should be adequately addressed.
• Ensure the local provision of quality education opportunities for all.
• The town centre must remain the commercial and social heart of the area.
• Continue to improve the appearance and amenity of the town centre and seafront.
• Arts and cultural projects should be welcomed and promoted.
• Appropriate improvements and enhancements to tourism facilities should be welcomed and encouraged.
• Sustainable tourism development should be encouraged and actively pursued.
• Sustainable transport modes should be encouraged and better facilitated.
• The traffic & parking implications of new development should be fully recognised & addressed.
• More parking should be provided.
• Measures to address traffic problems and their implications should be introduced.
• The countryside and natural coastal and estuarine areas should be safeguarded from the impact of development or over-use
• Strategic gaps between settlement areas should be recognised and protected.
• Public access to the countryside and coastline should be accommodated where it does not cause harm.
• The sea wall, groynes and other coastal and estuarine flood defences will be protected.
• Business development that is in keeping with and enhances the town’s distinctiveness should be accommodated.
• Encourage development that offers good quality employment opportunities.
• Appropriate community-based renewable and low carbon energy initiatives are welcomed.

Rather than try to design a single planning policy about climate change and how mitigation and adaptation measures can be supported, the authors of the plan have sought to “climate change proof” policies and community actions and projects, which means the response to the changing climate, is a “golden thread” running through the plan.

With Teignmouth being a coastal town partially reliant on tourism, issues relating to climate change that will need to be addressed and mitigated, the plan says, include rising sea levels and flood risk from high tides, including the impact on the seafront and resilience of the railway infrastructure, the potential impact of flood risk and a changing climate on the local economy, the impact on the retention of beaches, and, the impact of current levels of traffic on carbon dioxide emissions.

Despite its familiarity, many of us still don’t know who’s land we are walking across when we visit the site.

Lili Stebbings www.devonlive.com

Dartmoor is one of the most famous national parks in the UK with its vast moor land making it perfect for long country walks.

Many of us have visited, some have even camped and of course the well-known annual Ten Tors takes place on its famous hills.

But despite its familiarity, many of us still don’t know who’s land we are walking across when we visit the site.

In actual fact 47 per cent of Dartmoor has 14 owners divided into a collection of families, businesses, royals and farmers. That’s 110,619 acres of its total 235,986.

So here’s who owns it:

Duchy of Cornwall

Starting with the largest owner of land is Duchy of Cornwall covering 67.274 acres spanning from part of Brent Moor in the south to Princetown leading west past Peter Tavy and up to Okehampton.

It first came about in 1337 after being founded by Edward III who honoured it as a private estate for his son, later becoming the first Duke of Cornwall.

Despite owning other areas of land around the country, this plot is the Duchy’s largest land possession.

The name of the estate is derived from the Earldom of Cornwall. Edward elevated the Estate to a Duchy and endowed it with lands, many of which remain in the estate’s possession today.

Lord Roborough’s Maristow Estate

The second biggest landowner of Dartmoor is the Maristow Estate to the west, owned by the Barons Roborough, the Lopes family who own 6,118 acres within the NP boundary and at least 11,500 acres in total.

The Maristow Estate was first constructed in the early 19th century by Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st baronet.

Included in the ownership of this land are the commons of Roborough Down, Walkhampton and Ditsworthy Warren, as well as woodlands near Bickleigh and parkland surrounding Maristow House.

National Trust

Canonteign Falls in the Teign Valley

The National Trust own the third biggest lot of 5,891 acres including various properties, with the largest being Hentor Warren, south Dartmoor, also woods at Holne and Teign Valley.

It also owns Dartmoor’s most beautiful river valleys and intriguing buildings, including Castle Drogo, which was the last castle to be built in England – a granite fortress come family home on a granite spur above Teign Valley.

South West Water

Land was acquired from Lord Roborough in the late 19th century by Plymouth Corporation – later becoming South West Water.

This came about after the growth of Plymouth during the 19th century which meant there was an increasing need for larger supplies of water.

During the search for a new water supply, negotiations between Plymouth Corporation, which was the municipal utility, and Lord Roborough, who owned the land were in full swing.

An agreement was eventually made and the reservoir and its surrounding catchment from Lord Roborough’s land now belongs to privatised water company South West Water.

Spitchwick Estate

Spitchwick Common (Image: Plymouth Herald)

This historic estate situated within the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor is owned by the Simpson family who purchased the land in 1934.

The family own 3,891 acres including the Spitchwick Commons and various woods and fields surrounding Spitchwick Manor House.

Later the family also acquired the 1,200-odd acres of Holne Chase and Holne House.

Dartmoor National Park Authority

After Dartmoor was developed into uses for those such as utilities, foresters and the military during the 20th century, two preservation charities the National Trust and, previous to it being named National Park in 1951, Dartmoor National Park Authority took over large parts of the land.

Dartmoor National Park Authority currently own 3,512 acres.

Ministry of Defence

A Royal Marines Commando during an exercise to rescue a stranded pilot during HMS Queen Elizabeth’s deployment in which F-35B Lightning jets landed on the aircraft carrier for the first time. This images was part of a winning selection for the Commandant General Royal Marines Prize won by HMS Queen Elizabeth. Picture by Leading Photographer Dan Shepherd

The Ministry of Defence own 3,343 acres of Dartmoor on freehold with their main possession being Willsworthy Range in which there is one of their two training camps.

The rest of the training area for the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, and Royal Air Force belongs to other landowners, including the Duchy of Cornwall, Maristow Estates and Southwest Water.

Forestry Commission

Bellever/Riddon Ridge on Dartmoor

The forests are managed as part of the public forest estate which covers 3,278 acres. This stretches from Fernworthy in the north, three miles west of Chagford, through Soussons and Bellever, close to the village of Bellever, to Brimpts in the south and the Canonteign plantations.

The public forest is predominantly conifer having been planted after the First World War to address the national timber shortage by the Duchy of Cornwall.

Alexander Darwall

Stall Moor is owned by fund manager Alexander Darwall. He owns 2,784 acres of the land.

Stall Moor lies between the Yealm and Erme rivers of south Dartmoor.

Stonewood Ltd

Brent Moor is currently up for sale with Knight Frank – going at a price of £750,000. However despite being put up for sale, the 2,750 acre land is currently listed as being owned by Stonewood Ltd.

There has been said to be rumours that the moor is owned by Saudi businessman Sheikh Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, since the late 1980s.

But despite that, this part of the moor has been listed for sale twice before – once in 2002 for £300,000 and a second time 2011 for £600,000.

Hurrell family

Dartmoor

Ugborough Moor spanning 2,294 acres is owned by the Hurrell family. HG Hurrell was a noted Devon naturalist and acquired the moor. Henry George Hurrell was a well known naturalist and a most public spirited citizen of Plymouth and passed away on 23 May 1981.

When the Dartmoor National Park was designated in 1951 he was nominated by the Minister as one of the independent members of the Park Committee on which he served until 1972, twenty years of valuable public service.

Today, this part of the moor is still owned by his descendants.

Howell family

Harford Moor contains Piles Copse – one of the three fragments of upland oakwood on Dartmoor of which the Howell family have owned since the 1930s.

In 1867 the Duchy of Cornwall sold Harford and Higher and Lower Piles, to the Rivers family, who owned Stowford estate, which is the old manor of Harford.

Howard Howell bought both Harford Moor and Higher Piles from the MacAndrew executors in 1931, along with the Lukesland portion of the Harford estates.

The Stowford estate and the moor were bought by James MacAndrew in 1878 and Lower Piles was later sold on sometime between 1867 and 1929, and has remained in separate ownership.

After that time, the Piles farms had long been abandoned and the Higher Piles boundaries were no longer stock proof.

Both Harford Moor and Higher Piles have stayed in the family since. Brian Howell was the legal owner of the 1,978 acre land from 1966 until his death in 2003, when it passed to John Howell.

Treneer family

The Treneer family own 1,138 acres across Dean moor which was excavated between 1954 and 1956.

Russell Ashford

Russell Ashford is Chairman of the Hill Farm Project Steering Group and as well as being a land owner of 848 acres of the Buckfastleigh Moor, he is also a grazier and advocate for the industry and the vital role upland farming plays on Dartmoor.

When we consider the likely effects of Boris Johnson’s administration over the next three years, and possibly beyond, it is easy to believe his achievements will be near or less than zero.

Phillip Inman www.theguardian.com 

Looking back to his time as mayor of London, he wasted most of his first term dealing with arguments among his close lieutenants before procrastinating about which of his limited set of manifesto pledges he would implement. Only in his second term did he press ahead with the capital’s cycle superhighways – for many people his only visible achievement.

Yet taking a narrow view of his time as mayor would be a mistake. The skyline across London changed hugely during his tenure and much of Britain could follow suit with him at the helm in No 10.

It doesn’t matter that he spends his time dozing while he holds the tiller, or distracting himself with designer wallpaper. The winners in the battle to be his lieutenants can be trusted to get on with the job – which includes a particular form of wealth creation based on property.

It is not surprising that the scandals affecting the Johnson administration – setting aside his own personal troubles over flat refurbishments and a subsidised holiday in the Caribbean, and the vast scale of corruption affecting the purchase of PPE and other essentials at the beginning of the pandemic – involve property deals.

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, approved a £1bn development in east London that shadow communities minister Steve Reed said had saved the former pornographer and property tycoon Richard Desmond £150m in tax and contributions to local amenities.

Reed connected the alleged agreement between Jenrick and Desmond, as many others did, with a modest £12,500 donation by Desmond to the Tory party a few days later.

It’s true that Jenrick was always going to bump into property developers at dinners and party gatherings; what is disturbing is how he fits in a pattern of behaviour that runs through the Johnson administration.

Edward Udny-Lister is another closely tied to Johnson’s coat tails. The former leader of Wandsworth council became chief of staff towards the end of Johnson’s first term as mayor and rejoined him as chief strategic adviser in Downing Street. Late last year he took over as chief of staff at No 10 following the departure of Dominic Cummings.

Property developers were never far away from City Hall and, to Londoners, it would seem construction projects were approved almost daily. The city is a sea of towers, most of them foreign owned and built without any requirement for affordable homes to be included.

An investigation by the Guardian found that several firms that succeeded in getting planning permission in London donated almost £1m to the Conservative party after Johnson became PM.

Lord Udny-Lister recently stepped down from his latest role as an envoy to the Gulf states after apologising for his failure to declare a conflict of interest that occurred when he approved a £187m loan underwritten by the taxpayer for a property developer he was being paid to advise.

An earlier investigation by the Times found that he was paid almost £500,000 by the Malaysian property company EcoWorld between 2016 and 2019 while he was also chair of Homes England, the housing authority charged with funding affordable homes.

To say that Britain is a giant property whirligig spun for the benefit of a closed group of Conservative party supporters is possibly overstating the makeup of the economy and its dependence on real-estate values.

But when so many agencies of the state have found their main job is to keep the housing market spinning, surely it is not such an exaggeration.

The Bank of England says it keeps interest rates at near zero to support small- and medium-sized businesses and the broader economy. But in truth it worries more about a fall in property prices, such is the power of a collapsing housing market to destroy consumer confidence and the balance sheets of high street mortgage lenders.

Huge numbers of baby boomers now own their homes outright and see the value of their property as a barometer of their lifetime achievement as much as a vehicle for inheritance.

Many of them like the view from their homes and refuse to sanction planning applications near where they live. Once called Nimbys – “not in my back yard” – for their disapproval of development in general, they are now the main target of this Tory obsession with property.

A new planning law will strip them of their right to question planning applications once areas are targeted for expansion.

Older Nimbys are already casting themselves as environmentalists in this new conflict. And good luck to them. The green agenda is a legitimate way to fight back.