From a Fairy Godmother!

A CHRISTMAS MESSSAGE FROM CLYST ST MARY

TO EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL PLANNERS!

It is usual for most of us to send good wishes at this time of year to celebrate the year gone by and to look forward to a happy new year in the future.

However, the residents of Clyst St Mary feel they have not got much to celebrate since East Devon Planners approved extensive Winslade Park development in their rural community; firstly by approving the Hybrid Application (20/1001/MOUT in July 2021) then subsequently in 2022 – the double whammy of both losing a protected green field space safeguarded (or so they thought!) in their Local and Neighbourhood Plans with the approval of 38 houses (21/2235/MRES in June 2022), then, close on the heels of that loss, came the approval on 1st December 2022 of 40 four-storey flats overlooking and encroaching on Clyst Valley Road homes and a protected woodland (21/2217/MRES)!

Overall that’s not much to celebrate in this small corner of East Devon!

We appreciate that it is in the psyche of Developers to get whatever they can for the best profit margins, by ignoring and crushing the social and environmental pillars of sustainability, in favour of ‘dangling the carrot’ of inducements of economic advantage – so we all looked to both East Devon’s planning professional and political personalities to make good judgements for our communities – but it would now appear that they rate Clyst St Mary as expendable and only worthy of registration on their ‘Naughty List’ this Christmas!

To all those who supported the protection of this small community from inappropriate development (you know who you are) – we hope you have a Wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year 2023 – but to those who made such bad planning judgements for this village, during the past two years, (you equally know who you are) – we suggest (for the protection of other communities), rather than you either re-locate professionally to another local authority or seek re-election in a district other than East Devon, that you re-train in an entirely different business, so that others, in future, do not feel the ‘bleak mid-winter chill’ that we have experienced from your substandard recommendations and decision-making.

It appears ‘the Grinch’ is not fictional at all – but is alive, administering and personified by far too many established characters at EDDC, who have ruined Christmas this year, through their misconceived recommendations and judgements under their leaky-umbrella -grasp of the planning processes and their misunderstanding of quality planning procedures!

Unfortunately, (unlike Dr.Seuss’ famous celebrity) – it will not all turn out to have ‘a Happy-Ever-After’ storyline – and sadly there is no Fairy Godmother who can wave her magic wand and improve a very worryingly, bad situation! This Christmas, it’s more a NO! NO! NO! State of Affairs for Clyst St Mary – rather than the more traditional HO! HO! HO! one!