Author Archives: transparencyforeastdevon

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15 Aug 2014

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EDDC

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“Are we making the best use of Council meetings?” Councillors clearly don’t think so!

At last night’s Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee,there was overwhelming support for Cllr Roger Giles’ motion that Council meetings should have no presentations unless there is a compelling reason.
This was no reflection on the presentation to the Committee by hardworking Portfolio Holder, Cllr Jill Elson. But could her almost 40-minute report on Housing have been summarised more succintly? Later in the meeting, Cllr Ray Bloxham suggested a possible maximum of 10 minutes for presentations would suffice.

The debate is to be continued…..

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14 Aug 2014

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Misc

Dog elected town mayor

Well, it is the silly season:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2725124/Dog-usually-seen-pub-eating-hamburgers-chips-wins-mayoral-election-Minnesota-village-landslide.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

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13 Aug 2014

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EDDC, Local Plan

Dear Mr Thickett …

EDDC does not seem to have written to our Local Plan Planning Inspector since 22 May 2014. He wrote back immediately suggesting October/November 2014 for re-examination.

The next Development Management Committee is scheduled for 23 September 2014 (there is no item on the agenda in August for the Local Plan). Even if the revised Draft Local Plan were ready then (which it won’t be it appears) there would need to be a six week re-consultation period which, even if it started the next day (always assuming we WILL be consulted), would take us to the middle of November and then time would be needed to collate comments so October/November re-examination is looking near impossible. And then, of course, comes Christmas.

Perhaps time for EDDC to write to Mr Thickett again? And perhaps let the public know what is going on – we can assume, of course, that developers are up to speed.

Interesting that all these delays take us just about up to council elections in May 2015 (with or without those missing voters!).

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13 Aug 2014

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EDDC, Local Plan, NPPF

Rural housing – smoke and mirrors

… “But we’re back to smoke-and-mirrors because it is simply not a fact that, once more new houses are built, they mean more new jobs.

Add this to the constant watering-down of agreements concocted in things called “pre-applications” (known as pre-apps for short) and what we see are housing developments, originally given planning permission IF they included a healthy percentage of affordable homes, being built with just one or two per 100.

I do not know many people in the Westcountry who would welcome a politician saying: “We are going to build all these new houses – and just building them is going to create so many new jobs we will have to bring workers in from Eastern Europe to help – then they can live in some of the few affordable homes that have gone up and look for new jobs once the last slate has been put on the last bijou, unaffordable, home.”

But it is exactly the kind of crazy scenario we are looking at when we smash through the smoke-and-mirrors surrounding magic catchphrases like “cut-red-tape” and “seeding economic opportunity”.

Careful development aimed at the region’s many brown-field sites is what is needed first and foremost – not the killing of the beautiful rural goose that lays our golden tourism egg. That seems to be the result of the New Planning Policy Framework which many see as a government induced land-grab or developer’s charter.”

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Smoke-mirrors-way-rural-housing-debate/story-22714064-detail/story.html

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13 Aug 2014

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Cranbrook, EDDC, Environment (local)

Cranbrook – Community Forum – some highlights

Cranbrook Community Forum Steering Group

Meeting July 2014 – some highlights

… A discussion was held around roads and parking after a resident asked if KS/EDDC is happy with the strategy as the roads are too narrow. CW advised that the Forum have reviewed the plans for Phase 2. The Planning Group (including AB and AN) spent a fair bit of time looking over the plans and provided comments to EDDC regarding car parking allocation and lack of open spaces. CW added that AN spent a weekend reviewing the parking allocation to each of the 580+ properties and even reported that a couple of properties didn’t have any form of parking allocated. Although nothing can be done with regards to the parking allocation in phase 1, the Forum has had some influence over phase 2.

… Future Planning Application

DS informed the Forum that EDDC have been advised by the Consortium to expect a planning application for the expansion of Cranbrook in October of this year. The Consortium has confirmed that this application will include areas to the East and West of the existing plans approved, along with an area to the South of the old A30.

DS advised that EDDC do not know the exact location that the application will cover, the likely number of homes, what facilities or infrastructure will be included, or what plans there may be for the Consortium to engage with
the Community on this matter. DS added that EDDC have no further information relating to the detail and can confirm that EDDC have not
been involved in any pre-application discussions or negotiations. East Devon and the Consortium agree that a thorough assessment of Cranbrook is required and that a comprehensive and joined up approach to planning the next phase is essential.

Q from the floor –

How many houses are meant to be built in Cranbrook?

AB – Not entirely sure how many homes were in the first application, however the second application is 587. Therefore we would assume that the first application was similar possibly around 700 homes.

The original plan was to have 2,800 homes , but then this increased to
3,500. There is also an eastern and western expansion area, which would take the number of homes to around 6,000. The 3,500 homes have got outline planning approval.

Click to access community_forum_meeting_minutes_8th_july_2014_-_final.pdf

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13 Aug 2014

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Misc

Lies, damned lies – and employment statistics

Under the headline “Sharp drop in unemployment in Cornwall and Devon in the last year” we have the following remarks:

“Some 15,020 people were on the dole in the two counties in July, 7,805 people fewer than the same month last summer, according to the Office for National Statistics.”

Followed later in the article by:

“The wider measure of unemployment in the greater South West – which records all those out-of-work, not just on JSA – increased by 10,000 in the three months to June. It was the largest jump of any UK region.”

Pays your money, takes your choice!

Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Sharp-drop-unemployment-Devon-Cornwall-past-year/story-22715410-detail/story.html#XBLZgJHLAveXMF6R.99

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13 Aug 2014

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EDDC, Environment (local), Flooding, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Sidmouth beach management plan delay to amass more historical information

http://www.middevonstar.co.uk/news/devon_news/11405533.Beach_Management_project_delayed_to_ensure_vital_information_from_25_years_ago_is_tracked_down/?ref=rss

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13 Aug 2014

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Cranbrook, EDDC

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Cranbrook wins award but …

Cranbrook appears to have won some sort of award for “planning excellence” from the Royal Town Planning Institute.

However, in its monthly newspaper, four couples who have moved to the town are asked what they would like to see there and their answers are all the same: shops and a pub. Many mention that they have to go to Sainsbury stores in Exeter or Ottery St Mary to do their daily, weekly or monthly shops.

How can you get an award for “planning excellence” when you design a town that doesn’t start off with shops?

There are towns smaller than Cranbrook with massive superstores put in because EDDC planners said they were “essential”. Planning excellence? Hmmm.

Oh, and they don’t have dog bins either it seems according to locals, though it does have quite a few dogs.

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12 Aug 2014

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DCC, Democracy, EDDC

Cornwall Council outsources legal services and makes them available to other public bodies in south west

The contract will be let in six lots: property, planning and highways; commercial (excluding PFI); criminal and civil litigation; social welfare; employment, equalities and pensions; governance, parliamentary agency and electoral law.

Does this include tracing 6,000 missing voters under “Parliamentary Agency and Electoral Law” – and “criminal litigation” is interesting!

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19589:cornwall-to-set-up-p15-3m-external-legal-panel-for-south-west-public-bodies&catid=51:management-articles&q=

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12 Aug 2014

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Democracy, EDDC

Filming of council meetings is “major advance”

Here’s today’s press release from EDA:

EAST DEVON ALLIANCE WELCOMES RIGHT OF PUBLIC TO FILM COUNCIL MEETINGS

“Transparency and openness should be the fundamental principle behind everything councils and other local government bodies do.” That, according to EDA chairman Paul Arnott, has been one of the fundamental objectives of the organisation. However, these words come not from EDA but the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Journalists and members of the public are now allowed to use “modern technology and communications methods such as filming, audio recording, blogs and tweeting, to record the proceedings of the meetings of the councils and other local government bodies”.

There are no restrictions and the right to record such meetings is already in effect.

The EDA is delighted with this major advance. “This means that East Devon District Council’s inadequate and even hostile replies to questions raised legitimately can be exposed to wider public scrutiny by council tax payers. Similarly, as open debates will be recorded by the public, councillors may decide to adopt a mature and courteous approach to each other and to the public. We hope that this overdue reform will serve to encourage democracy at district, town and parish councils across the district. ”

12.8.14

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11 Aug 2014

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EDDC, Local Plan

But the plans were on display …

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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11 Aug 2014

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Environment (local), Local Plan, NPPF, Tourism

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Green field housing estates in the South West – CPRE notes dismay

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Minister-want-fields-houses/story-22300866-detail/story.html

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11 Aug 2014

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Environment (local), NPPF

Green belt planning approvals double under coalition

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11022911/PIC-PLEASE-Doubling-in-new-homes-built-on-the-Greenbelt-since-Coalition-was-formed.html

However, Brandon Lewis, new planning minister says: …n“Local Plans are now at the heart of the planning system, so councils decide where development should go.

“There is enough brownfield land to deliver up to 200,000 new homes, and councils should be using their powers and the support that’s available from the Government to prioritise development on these sites, and defend our valuable countryside against urban sprawl.”

Er, perhaps he hasn’t yet been briefed on what happens when you haven’t got a Local Plan or a 5 or 6 year land supply.

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11 Aug 2014

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EDDC

EDDC has been digging a hole for itself!

Thanks to Matt Cobley for illustrating the point!
EDDC digs itself a large hole

More sketches needed for EDA website, on our hot topics (see blogpost headlines..e.g. from Aug 6th 2014, public can film & record all open Council meetings).
Please send your cartoons, pics, etc, to EDA via Contact Us.

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11 Aug 2014

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Newton Poppleford

Newton Poppleford – kindest village

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Newton-Poppleford-Twitter-hit-Jeremy-Vine/story-22294793-detail/story.html

Wonder if he knows the unkind things happening to the village?

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10 Aug 2014

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Environment (local), Local Plan, NPPF

More on those proposed planning changes

Warehouses to houses, nightclubs to houses, click and collect extensions – can we keep up!

http://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19550:warehouse-to-new-house-further-planning-reforms&catid=63&Itemid=31

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10 Aug 2014

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EDDC, Environment (local), Skypark

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The “Exeter and East Devon Growth Point”

Anyone who wants a lesson in the triumph of hype over reality should see this “fly over the Exeter and East Devon Growth Point” video here:

http://www.iviewer3d.co.uk/eed/flythrough.htm

and note:

how many times the commentary includes the word “sustainable”

and

how many times the benefits of the area mention Exeter rather than East Devon.

Oh, and someone needs to edit out the section on the ” inter modal freight terminal” as that has just been ditched by Sainsbury’s.

And maybe tone down the bit about how improvements to junctions 29 and 30 of the M5 will “improve traffic flow”!