At least 100% increases over two years:
Author Archives: East Devon Watch
Pegasus Life new Knowle exhibition TODAY
Noon – 7.30 p.m.
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/see_how_knowle_plans_have_evolved_at_exhibition_1_4388404
Maybe ask how they plan to have 100+ units on a site that is now in the Local Plan for 50?
Tax avoidance demo: Sidmouth, 1 February 11 am
From the Facebook account of Councillor Claire Wright (Independent, DCC)
PROTEST DEMO! BIG BUSINESS TAX AVOIDANCE RIFE WHILE MPs SET TO VOTE THROUGH HUGE FUNDING CUTS TO COUNCILS
MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY AT 11AM, ON PAVEMENT OUTSIDE SIDMOUTH’S CONSERVATIVE CLUB.
Please bring your own placards!
There will be a high profile PROTEST against the forthcoming vote in the House of Commons, which will see Devon County Council lose £28m, while big business tax receipts could fund Devon’s public services to around £380m.
The Conservative government’s austerity measures mean that our precious public services are being eroded each year, which is hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest.
I wrote to Hugo Swire asking him to take action on t his subject last week—including speaking against, and voting against the budget cuts.
But this subject is too important to leave it there…..
Here’s a map – http://sidmouthconservativeclub.co.uk/map.htm
It is REALLY important that there is a big turnout to give a clear message that we think it is unacceptable that our council services are being cut so severely, while the government does little or nothing to address the persistent loopholes in the tax system.
The House of Commons vote will probably take place on Wednesday 3 February.
Here’s more information – http://www.claire-wright.org/…/devon_portion_of_avoided_cor…
Local Plan: Save our Sidmouth press release
“The following press release has been issued (20/01/2016), on behalf of Save Our Sidmouth:
‘Response to East Devon District Council’s update on the LOCAL PLAN
The Inspector’s recommendation that the Local Plan should include both the Employment site at Sidford and a Housing site at the Knowle for 50 dwellings is a huge disappointment. It ignores the clear wishes of a large proportion of Sidmouth residents, Sidmouth Town Council and all the Sidmouth EDDC councillors.
At the Knowle, the decision to allow 50 houses on the site instead of continuing local employment for 400 professional staff will in economic terms, severely affect the town, as well as have a detrimental effect on the Parkland. In view of his decision, it will be interesting to hear how EDDC will reconcile this with the potential developer’s desire to build over 120 dwellings on the site.
At Sidford, we know that the decision to include the site is flawed, and is based on fallacious data. There is evidence to suggest that EDDC and their now disgraced Business Forum, canvassed developers for potential sites, and then manufactured the rationale and analysis to support their internally chosen site. EDDC let the proponents of that site produce “evidence” to support it, and never questioned the data. This included flawed traffic figures, no real visual analysis, and unsupported flood analysis, amongst other deficiencies. The Employment allocation arises solely because of the commercial pressures of one landowner and a business in the town.
Later, EDDC, under pressure from Sidmouth Councillors, saw sense and accepted that the site should not have been included. They decided to omit the Employment allocation from the third and final submission. Unfortunately the Inspector had ruled that no revisions were allowed at that late stage.
Thus the town may well end up with having an obtrusive, flood-prone, traffic- congesting group of sheds on its doorstep. Or the possibility of a large retail park, which will destroy the nature of the town forever. Moreover, the residents of Sidford will now have blight on their homes because of the impending development and a continuing worry about traffic and flooding.
Sidmouth does not need a further Employment site; the town already has one at Alexandria Road, which with a modicum of attention could accommodate all the minor employment opportunities that is needed.
We are extremely grateful for all the support that Sid Valley residents have given in time and money over the last few years, and they may rest assured that although we are naturally disappointed with the outcome, we have not given up.
R J Thurlow. Chair, Save Our Sidmouth’
http://saveoursidmouth.com/2016/01/21/inspectors-recommendations-for-sidmouth-a-huge-disappointment/
This is followed on the website by illustrative photographs.
MP refuses BBC interview because she can’t select questions to be asked!
“The MP embroiled in claims she faked a death threat and bullied her parliamentary staff has reportedly pulled out of a BBC interview because she couldn’t veto the questions.
Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford, Shropshire, was scheduled to appear on an upcoming Sunday Politics programme, but pulled out at the last minute after learning she would not be able to influence the line of questioning.
Rather than acquiesce to Allan’s demands, the BBC tweeted the development and wrote a short news story on its website.”
East Devon could solve more than 50% of Devon’s housing need …
… if every one of the new houses in the Local Plan was social or affordable housing.
According to a report on Spotlight tonight, Devon has 32,546 on its waiting lists.
EDDC is planning to build more than 18,000 houses here.
How many will be social or affordable? Depends on who you believe – but somewhere between almost none and hardly any is the best guess!
Sidford Fields: a suggestion to DCC and EDDC Councillor Hughes
… that he uses some of his council Locality Budget £10,000 per year at DCC) and/or Parishes Together funding to pay for a pollution measuring station on the Sidford-Sidbury road, to get baseline measurements of current and future pollution figures.
As Highways councillor for Devon this should be just up his street, so to speak.
Money where mouth is?
What happens when your Local Enterprise Partnership sets housing targets
Extract from article published in G2 20 Jan by Patrick Barkham concerning the development of Bicester, Britain’s only “Garden Town” entitled “Dog’s breakfast springs to mind”.
“In Bicester, as across the rest of England, high housing targets are driven by genuine need but also by the priorities set by unelected, unaccountable groups of businesspeople: Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).
Bicester must take so many homes because the Oxfordshire Growth Board, a joint committee of the six councils of Oxfordshire, commissioned a strategic housing market assessment to determine the county’s housing needs.
This assessment is strongly influenced by the LEPs, according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England. “Housing targets are very much informed by the LEPs’ growth aspirations and these growth aspirations aren’t informed by a county’s capacity to take that growth,” says Matt Thomson, head of planning at the CPRE. “LEPs do all their work on aspirations for economic growth without considering the environment or social impacts but also without any public input. There’s no consultation, there’s no accountability’.
The housing target for Oxfordshire is particularly ambitious: 100,000 new homes by 2030 – increasing the county’s population by a third. Thomson doesn’t think it will be possible to build homes at double the highest-ever previous rate.
If those targets are unrealistic, what’s the problem? “By setting very high targets you have to identify lots of sites. Once those sites are identified, builders will choose the ones that are cheapest to buy and most profitable to build on – greenfield sites,” says Thomson. Cherry-picking the best sites will create unnecessary sprawl, a lack of affordable homes and half-built estates badly served by infrastructure.
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/19/bicester-britains-only-garden-town
Also, if this ambitious target is not met, there is a very strong chance that the government will allow reversion to a developer free-for all.
Built-in failure for Local Plans – hmmm.
Sidmouth beach management steering group – update
EDDC Press Release about last Friday’s Sidmouth Beach management Steering Group:
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2016/01/bmp-steering-group-discuss-long-list-options/
For feedback to the members of the Vision Group for Sidmouth ( a more detailed explanation) see:
https://www.visionforsidmouth.org/news/2016/january/sidmouth-beach-management-plan-considering-the-consultants-proposals-full-report.aspx
Advice for East Devon Businesses from our Local Enterprise Partnership
Our Local Enterprise Partnership is pouring millions of our pounds into the Hinckley Point nuclear power plant:
Click to access growth_deal_2015_heart_of_sw-final.pdf
It is to be owned by the French and it is said that they are finding it difficult to get investment because it is the wrong kind of design:
and part-owned by the Chinese:
Half the suppliers will be from outside the UK:
including suppliers of steel, where the UK has just lost thousands of jobs:
http://processengineering.co.uk/article/2022130/uk-steel-snubbed-for-hinkley-point
Notwithstanding this, there is a puff job in the Express and Echo offering businesses in the LEP area a meeting to
A puff job in the Express and Echo East Devon says businesses are being advised by the LEP on how to “maximise opportunities” arising from the
project:
Good luck with that people – but don’t forget East Devon is quite a way from Hinkley Point and there are an awful lot of businesses competing for these crumbs!
The effect of the Local Plan on villages of East Devon
Excellent summary of the effect of the Local Plan on the district’s villages – including potential pitfalls if the Plan goes hopelessly wrong, given the risky “high growth” strategy that the Inspector has accepted:
Exmouth at centre of world banking crisis!
“WHILE regulars at the Powder Monkey quietly sipped their pints, the young American sat jabbering on his phone and tapping away on a laptop.
He had been at the pub in Exmouth, Devon, since 2pm and stayed until closing time — but he did not drink much.
He was too busy trading with US banks 3,600 miles away, flogging £150million worth of financial products ahead of the 2008 global crash.
Not that Wall Street hedge fund guru Ben Hockett was particularly fond of English ale. He had been directed to the pub by his Brit brother-in-law, who told him it was the only place in the quiet seaside town with reliable wi-fi.
And as Oscar-nominated Hollywood film The Big Short makes clear, when it is time to make a fortune, there is not a minute to waste.
The movie tells the astonishing story of trader Ben Rickert — played by Brad Pitt and based on Hockett, who had been visiting his wife’s family in Devon before the crash.
Within four afternoons in the Monkey, Hockett had turned his firm Cornwall Capital’s £700,000 investment into a £55million profit.
The Big Short, out on Friday, is based on the best-selling book of the same title by former Wall Street man Michael Lewis. …..”
TV tonight: The Town that took on the taxman
“The Town That Took on the Taxman
9pm, BBC2
As part of the Black Economy season, Heydon Prowse looks at the techniques used by large companies operating in the UK to avoid tax and sees what might happen if local businesses in a small town in Wales used them.
Crickhowell is home to a number of independent concerns – including a salmon smokery and bakery – that have successfully fought off a large supermarket chain. Now, in a satirical experiment, they see if they can’t pull the same tricks to dodge tax as used by their more overbearing competitors.
David Stubbs”
National Public assets being sold off too cheap and investment evaluations not robust
“The Committee of Public Accounts publishes its Sixteenth Report of this Session, following its inquiry into the sale of the taxpayer’s stake in Eurostar.
Members conclude there is an over-reliance on a small pool of financial and legal advisers in some asset sales and projects, and the government relies heavily on external advisers for corporate finance skills and expertise.
The Report also highlights the Committee’s concerns about the Department for Transport’s approach to evaluating the benefits and economic impact of transport projects.
It is concerned the Department does not accept its own evaluation of HS1 shows the project was poor value for money – and describes the two year delay in publishing this evaluation as “unacceptable”.
The Committee finds this meant “important information that could have been used by Parliament to consider other projects, such as HS2, was not available”.
It calls on the Department for Transport to develop a “robust way” to evaluate its investments and report on progress by September 2016, and urges that in future such evaluations will be made available “promptly regardless of their findings”.
Covered by BBC here:
“Independent Person” needed for EDDC Standards Committee
Fancy dealing with what EDDC decides are its naughtiest parish, town and district councillors and being involved in the process of ever-so-lightly rapping their knuckles and/or sending them on rehabilitative training (since no other sanctions exist)?
EDDC is seeking to recruit what they call an “Independent Person” to join its Standards Committee. However, not so independent that they can over-ride the Monitoring Officer or even vote about the outcome of cases – just be there as an “independent” observer.
Advertisements appear in this week’s local press and the closing date for applications is 19 February 2016.
The process for dealing with recruitment of this very, very special person was shrouded in mystery – however, a Freedom of information request in 2011 threw light on the process:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/independent_person_appointment
Unfortunately, the vacancy does not appear in EDDC’s online list of current vacancies. Interested parties are told they can contact Monitoring Officer Henry Gordon-Lennox 01395 517408 for more information.
You must not be a relative or close friend of an officer or member of EDDC and you must not have served as an officer of any local authority in the last 5 years. Previous applicants are told they cannot apply.
Owl has been thinking of filling in an application form …
One thought: it says that the person must not be a close relative or friend of any officer or member of EDDC. However, there is now so much close working with Exeter City Council, Teignbridge and the like, could there not be conflicts of interest from even wider circles these days.
What if a member of the Local Enterprise Partnership were to apply, for example!
High-end Exeter estate agent says 50% of purchasers from outside Devon
Jackson-Stops estate agent, Exeter
” …During the course of 2015 around 50% of the purchasers through our Exeter office came from outside the Westcountry and around 25% were from London and the Home Counties.
… Predictions going forward are always dangerous, bearing in mind that we all had thought there would be significant improvement immediately following last year’s General Election, but the conditions do appear to be still in place for a reasonably active market moving into the spring: The gap between values in London and those in the South West are greater than at any time for the last 30 years and borrowing money is cheaper than at any time since the Second World War.
Many of our local buyers are people who have moved down to this part of the world from elsewhere within the last ten years and are simply moving to a different part of the county, or perhaps “down or up-sizing” and as for those from outside the area, still there are significant numbers who realise that “Devon is heaven!”.
Newton Poppleford: 26 home development refused by Inspector
” … In his decision report, published on December 23, planning inspector Jon Hockley said the appeal centred on whether the site was suitable for housing. He said positive aspects of the scheme were that it would generate economic and social benefits through the construction of the new houses.
And the proposed 10 ‘affordable’ homes, Mr Hockley said, would be a real benefit to the village, which suffers from a lack of such properties.
But he said national planning policy is clear that major developments can only take place on AONB land in ‘exceptional circumstances’ and where it can be demonstrated that they are in the public interest.
In conclusion, the inspector said: “I do not consider that the benefits of the scheme would reach the high bar required to constitute exceptional circumstances.”
Can we get it through to the Development Management Committee that AONB is precious … really precious … and even Planning Inspectors understand that.
Swire – Gagged Minister: Reality or Myth?
From a correspondent”
“I have been keeping a watch on what my own MP, Hugo Swire, says in
parliament for the last 2 years using the “They Work for You” web site.
In that time, I have not seen Hugo say even one word about East Devon,
not a single, solitary word. He has frequently said things about Burma
and other far-flung parts of the world in his role as one of the Foreign
Office Ministers, but nothing at all in support the needs of his
constituency of East Devon.
I have heard it said fairly frequently that ministers cannot say
anything in parliament about their constituencies, and I thought I would
take a look and see what I could find to see whether this as true or
simply used by such MPs as a justification for them not saying anything.
It is the Ministerial Code:
that
governs the behaviour of ministers like Hugo Swire. This code says
things like:
“Ministers in the House of Commons must keep separate their roles as
Minister and constituency Member”, and “Ministers are provided with
facilities at Government expense to enable them to carry out their
official duties. These facilities should not generally be used for Party
or constituency activities.”
But nowhere does it say that ministers should abstain from speaking in
parliament about their constituency. This is (as far as I can tell) just
Urban Myth, apparently used by MPs who are also government ministers as
an excuse to spend all their time on ministerial duties and not have to
spend any time doing their day-job as a constituency MP.
Unless, of course, you can point to evidence to the contrary. ….
Masterplans: EDDC’s new Achilles heels
Exmouth, Axminster and Cranbrook – all needing new Masterplans in our new Local Plan, according to the Inspector. And Sidmouth needing one at its eastern end according to EDDC.
Given the omnishambles EDDC has made of the new local plan – at least 8 years in the making, one false start wasting more than two years, and two rejected drafts plus the interference of the East Devon Business Forum – what are the odds of our current councillors and officers getting these new Masterplans right?
Below are the challenges they face. It will take more than crossed fingers to see these through … especially as, with so many of them, the councillors and officers are at odds with the electorate about what is acceptable and appropriate.
A new commuter town, a rural town massively expanding , and two seaside towns fighting to retain their identities … and all with AONBs, important wildlife sites and the World Heritage Coast to accommodate, not to mention thousands of homes and industries and their infrastructure to create under an “asset sweating” ruling party.
CRANBROOK
On Cranbrook, Diviani says this in a press release today:
“The Cranbrook masterplan, which is currently in production, will put some meat on the bones of these policies and will provide a strong vision and guide to future development at Cranbrook to ensure that it becomes an attractive, vibrant and sustainable modern town.”
Remember that the first plan of Cranbrook neglected to plan for appropriate health facilities, it did not include enough shops, not enough green spaces and a football pitch that could not be used in the evenings because it was no-one’s responsibility to pay for or maintain floodlights and where roads are still unadopted.
The highly critical DCC report is here:
AXMINSTER
On Axminster, he says:
“a North South relief road for the town will be delivered as part of this development linking Chard Road (A358) to Lyme Road (B261). A Masterplan will be required for this site and development will be subject to improved public transport provision.”
and
“Prior to the granting of planning permission for any major residential schemes at Axminster, the Council will agree, with the Environment Agency and Natural England, a timetable for the review or development of a Nutrient Management Plan for the River Axe.
This plan will set out detailed actions that allow for new growth at Axminster to progress with adequate mitigation in place to negate the additional phosphate load that would be caused. The Nutrient Management Plan will work in collaboration with the diffuse Water Pollution Plan, and will seek to restore water quality for the River Axe SAC to enable it to meet its conservation objectives within a specified timescale, and in accordance with commitments to European Directives.
Depending on the findings of the plan, growth will only proceed in accordance with the mitigation delivery set out within that plan. Growth at Axminster will also be informed by the current status of the relevant discharge consents for waste water treatment works, and any upgrade required to support new growth will be the subject of Habitats Regulations Assessment prior to planning permission being given. The determination of such development applications will be informed by Habitat Regulations Assessment that takes account of the consent requirements.”
EXMOUTH
Oh, where to start with Exmouth. Suffice to say the Inspector says:
“The Exmouth Seafront is recognised as a key asset for the town and the Council is a key driver in its further enhancement. To this end, along with Devon County Council, the District Council appointed LDA Design to undertake a town centre and waterfront design study to identify opportunities for renewal and improvement in the physical, economic and environmental quality of the town.
The Final LDA study5 and recommendations and conclusion have been endorsed by the Council. The implementation of some projects in the Masterplan is underway but the Council also recognises that it is time to re-evaluate the Masterplan. The future intention is that a new or refreshed Masterplan will be produced with this becoming a Supplementary planning Document (SPD).”
Hard to see how this can be worked into what seems now to be a fait accompli with the developer (though the Inspector fired several warning shots about protecting the environs of the Exe Estuary.
SIDMOUTH
Mr Thickett says:
“Land at Port Royal Site – Land for residential use is allocated for 30 homes (site ED03 (this site will incorporate mixed use redevelopment to include housing and community, commercial, recreation and other uses).”
Gardens: greenfield or brownfield – depends where you live
“The Planning Court has today begun hearing a case over whether some private residential gardens can be considered brownfield land.
The case of Dartford Borough Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CO/4129/2015) has implications for owners of residential gardens, and could potentially signal a return to so-called “garden grabbing”.
Dartford is seeking to quash a decision by a planning inspector, who found that only residential gardens “in built up areas” are greenfield land, whereas others, in the countryside, are previously developed land (also known as “brownfield”).
The Communities Secretary is resisting the challenge, relying on the same reasoning as the inspector.
Ashley Bowes of Cornerstone Barrristers who is representing Dartford BC, said ahead of the hearing that the Department for Communities and Local Government’s position was “surprising” given that the present Secretary of State, Greg Clark, in his role as Planning Minister in 2010, amended PPS3 “Housing” to exclude residential gardens from the definition of brownfield land.
Bowes added that the amendment was accompanied by a written ministerial statement to the House of Commons and a letter to all chief planning officers, explaining that local communities now had the power to stop “garden grabbing”.
He said: “This case has the potential to radically alter the status of private residential gardens in the countryside, from greenfield to brownfield, increasing their prospects for development. A good many people will be watching the outcome with interest.”
