Just how many Science Parks can Devon sustain?
Category Archives: East Devon Growth Point
The crowded diary of an East Devon councillor
Oh dear, the scent of desperation pervades East Devon District Council this week. It seems that councillors are in dire need some training (aka brainwashing?) about exactly how wonderful East Devon really is and how wonderful officers of East Devon are.
To that end, councillors are being bussed around the area, here, there and everywhere (as long as it is close to Exeter) where, no doubt, various developers and consultants will attempt to sell them snake oil. They are also being encouraged to attend meetings (or perhaps rallies?) to make them to understand just what the district is all about and to have some sympathy for the poor officers who have to deal with the snake oil salesmen on a daily basis.
Here is the crowded schedule:
30th September – all councillors requested to visit the “Growth Point” (you know, the one that doesn’t seem to be growing very much – if at all).
2nd October – all councillors again requested to join the “Exmouth and Cranbrook Countryside Service tour”, with the added perk of a free lunch AND a coach trip from Knowle!
6th October – a Development Management Committee training session open to all councillors on Highways (though lunch will be provided ONLY for committee members).
8th October – “Meet the Building Control Team” (the one having such a problem in Feniton and Cranbrook where developers are just not interested in talking to them).
9th October – WWorking together for the future of East Devon” “event”. The word “event” conjouring up to Owl the spectre of Powerpoint presentations and flip charts …
Click to access 250915-knowledge-issue-20.pdf
When do councillors get any time to WORK!
Cranbrook: is the current town centre actually one of its projected suburbs?
intriguing post on a Cranbrook forum:
” … have been through phase 3 a couple of times lately and am getting very confused about where the “town centre” and “high street” are going to be. As we are going to be the size of Honiton I was anticipating that number of shops, restaurants, pubs and other services. Am going to chat to the growth point people next week, but in the meantime, I checked out the Growth Point’s website. Should I be worried that the page for the town centre no longer exists?!….. http://www.exeterandeastdevon.gov.uk/cranbrook-town-centre/ “
Did Claire Wright have a crystal ball when speaking about Cranbrook and the ‘Growth Point’ in 2012?
Here are a few comments she made at that time when she and other councillors visited the Growth Point on 11 May 2012l:
“I asked how many companies had bought space at Skypark.
Answer: None.
And Skypark has been marketed for well over a year.
I remembered the stark warning given by consultants, Roger Tym, who state on page 75 of their Housing and Employment Study 2011, that marketing for a 1.4m sq ft scheme at Langage Business Park in Plymouth has progressed over the last five years without success of obtaining a single occupier.
It is the challenge of dealing with large strategic allocations, they say.
Hopefully, Skypark will achieve full occupation in time. But it does rather put the challenge of filling the many and large industrial allocations for the rest of East Devon, into perspective.
If Skypark, in a hugely convenient location is not proving a goer (so far), what hope is there for almost 50 acres of industrial land allocated for Honiton?”
Recall that Asda pulled out of Heathpark and now EDDC is plugging the gap by moving there itself at enormous cost. Skypark is still mostly empty with its owners having gone on record to say it could take many, many years to rent it all out.
And, having just returned from a visit to Cranbrook on the same day, she wrote:
“When I got home I couldn’t help wondering whether:
– the Skypark would ever get off the ground, or instead would mirror the non-progress of Langage Business Park in Plymouth
– the Science Park would ever consist of any more than Exeter University’s Innovation Centre
– If the inhabitants of Rockbeare would be swallowed up by Cranbrook, following a highly dubious decision, backed by the majority of the Local Plan Panel (not me) and Development Management Committee, to allocate south of the A30 for future expansion, despite a promise that this would not happen
– the public would ever consider the millions of pounds of public money ploughed into ‘growth point’ and Cranbrook, as money well spent.
– What sort of town Cranbrook would become. How big would it grow? Would I enjoy visiting it?
I have no answers to these questions yet. No one does. Only time will tell.
I have to say I am already rather tired of the pictures in local papers of grinning councillor and developer faces at turf cuts, of the continual talk of ‘great excitement’ and the oft heard promises of thousands of jobs and creation of wealth, none of which has materialised yet… and may not ever do so.
That said, I genuinely hope that ‘growth point’ and Cranbrook are huge successes.
Mainly because any other outcome would be a staggering waste of public funding, not to mention an irreplaceable loss of beautiful countryside.”
http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/an_honest_look_at_cranbrook_and_growth_point
Sainsbury’s Growth Point site to be sold to Lidl?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-33804365
With what implications for the “inter-modal freight depot” one wonders?
Skypark delivery company will add only 127 new jobs
The rest are relocating from the current Sowton depot:
Not quite the thousands of jobs Skypark was expected to attract. The ambulance centre also relocated which just leaves the E.ON energy centre as the only new employment on the site.
One can see why EDDC were so keen to help the developers of the part-EDDC owned site by moving there. Indeed if the supermarket at Honiton had not been cancelled no doubt they would have been making their plans for a move to the edge of Exeter. So convenient for the Rugby World Cup!
East Devon in UKs top ten for over-70s population
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alasdair-rae/the-generations-of-the-uk_b_7856198.html
It’s all well and good attracting highly-paid, high-tech jobs to this area but who is going to care for these people as they age further? And where are those people going to live?
Anyone notice something about this press release for Exeter Science Park?
Answer: it is a non-story! At no point in the puff job is a potential tenant named!
EDDC us a partner in this project, along with Skypark, once touted as a suitable place for its new HQ and still with the majority of its space empty.
It seems all is not well at these so-called high-tech industrial areas on the outskirts of Exeter and Cranbrook. Yet thousands of houses are already being built for people supposed to be working in them. Recipe for disaster?
But still, a good exercise in making no news good news!
Perhaps our councillors should be scrutinising these projects and how much it is costing us to keep these sites ticking over and publicised.
Exeter Science Park was “topped out” in August 2014:
Skypark was supposed to provide 7,000 new jobs. Only three companies currently operate on the site: the E.ON energy centre for Cranbrook, ampn ambulance call centre and a locally-relocated parcel delivery service. It has proved impossible to find on the net just how many NEW jobs these three organisations have provided at Skypark.
Devon urban sprawl
The region saw just over 5,000 acres consumed by urban growth in six years, according to a the survey, which shows the loss of an area almost the size of the Quantock Hills or Windsor Great Park, in the outskirts of London.
Almost 4.5% of the arable land in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset saw was turned into bricks and mortar between 2006 and 2012, the new map shows.
This represents around a seventh of the 35,000 acres of agricultural land lost to the spread of towns and cities across the whole UK.
Who shapes our future?
Anyone who’s been to the new town of Cranbrook lately, will be interested in this link: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/where-we-live-now-new-town-home-town.html
Was it Churchill who once said, we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us…
Cranbrook to swallow Rockbeare?
Local Plans: with the same figures, Mid-Devon opts for low growth in housing numbers East Devon opts for high growth
AFTER FOUR YEARS OF BATTLING THE SIDFORD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE IS STRUCK FROM LOCAL PLAN
The hugely controversial industrial estate, proposed at Sidford was today struck from EDDC’s Local Plan, following a proposal by Cllrs Stuart Hughes and Graham Troman.
The five hectare site was inserted into the Local Plan at the last minute when I was a member of the panel back in 2011.
It has taken local people four years of campaigning for the council to finally agree to delete it. Many votes of a similar nature have been taken in the past and have failed. Today’s got through.
The move took place at today’s extraordinary full council meeting to discuss revisions to the local plan.
I blasted the council for opting YET AGAIN for unevidenced and huge levels of growth that are contrary to consultants recommendations.
How many consultants have to tell EDDC that the right way forward is low growth before they actually listen? The answer is they never will listen. They (who I am not entirely sure) wants big big levels of development in East Devon – and so shall it be.
That is, until the planning inspector takes a look at it and wonders what on earth is going on.
A press release was issued by EDDC earlier this month which contained a grossly untrue statement about the planning inspector recommending the levels of growth that EDDC have opted for.
The planning inspector made no such recommendation. This was a disgraceful attempt to try and fool the public into believing that EDDC is doing the will of the planning inspector, who threw out the draft local plan last year.
See here for my blog earlier this week on what EDDC has done …. http://www.claire-wright.org/…/eddc_proposes_highest_housin…
Frankly, the council has sold the western end of the district off to the highest bidder. Villages like Clyst Honiton, Rockbeare and Blackhorse are set to be absolutely swamped in urban sprawl.
The council promised Rockbeare that it would be protected by a green wedge. If you saw the area that Cranbrook is set to expand now, massively south of the old A30, you would be shocked. Rockbeare is set to be lost amid bricks and concrete.
Whimple was supposed to have a green wedge to protect it from Cranbrook.
Not any more.
Whimple’s green wedge is proposed to have a great chunk eaten out of it as Cranbrook also sprawls to the east.
Given that councillors have never had the chance to question the consultants I moved an amendment that both sets of consultants are invited to the next overview and scrutiny committee meeting.
This amendment was argued against by the chief executive, who for some reason decided to mention my “parliamentary ambitions.”
It was voted down mainly by the conservative group.
My second amendment proposed an extension of the consultation period by two weeks, making a total of an eight week consultation period. This proposal was carried, despite some senior conservatives arguing against it.
Interestingly, I informed the council that Mid Devon District Council (which has been working with EDDC on this) has opted for a low growth scenario for its district. This is because Mid Devon councillors did not wish to concrete over any more of the countryside than they had to.
So why has EDDC opted for such a high growth level?(it is impossible to even match the levels to any figures in the reports!)
The chief executive said it was because East Devon is a “growth area.”
But I replied, the consultants knew this before they drafted their report didn’t they.
Yet they still recommended a preferred approach of significantly lower development, that is also in line with government growth projections.
Why oh why is EDDC doing this?
The Local Plan, with some minor amendments, was voted through by the majority of councillors.
Pickles overturns Pinn Court development and allows its 400 plus houses to go ahead
“430 residential units, local centre comprising retail space of up to 240 m2 and a community centre, care home of up to 60 bedspaces, specialist care home of up to 60 bedspaces and a park and change facility, together with associated areas of open space (formal and informal), cycleways, footpaths and infrastructure, safeguarded vehicular route to Langaton Lane, served off new access from the highway”
Bad day for EDDC’s Local Plan officers. Good day for Clyst St Mary.
A barrage of questions from the public (no less than 17 people had pre-registered to speak) were fired at the DMC who were today considering the revised Local Plan. Several councillors firmly added their own particular concerns.
Seven speakers were from the Save Clyst St Mary Group. Campaign leader Gaeron Kayley has just circulated the news copied below:
As you will be aware, today was the day the Development Management Committee met at EDDC to discuss the Local Plan.
This had great significance for Clyst St Mary, given that it had been proposed that both the Winslade Park area and the green field owned by the Plymouth Brethren would be used for the village’s allocation of an additional 200 houses.
22 members of our group met last Monday and discussed our key arguments against this which were to be delivered at today’s meeting.
We are thrilled to announce that, following today’s Committee meeting, it was unanimously agreed by the 15 councillors present to reject the green field proposal and reduce the housing allocation for Winslade Park to 150 in total.
A massive thank you to everyone who attended last Monday’s meeting, including the seven brave souls who spoke so passionately and articulately today, as well as all those local residents who turned up simply to offer moral support. It really was greatly appreciated.
Whilst this was only a hearing for the Local Plan – not a hearing for the specific applications to which we have all objected – it does give us hope for the future. Things certainly appear now to be less bleak than they did ten days ago!
Rest assured, with your support, we will continue to fight in a dignified, professional and open manner to unite and preserve our village community.
Quart into a pint pot at Growth Point/Cranbrook?
“… The Exeter and East Devon Growth Point is a long term partnership for growth between the public sector – including East Devon District, Exeter City and Devon County councils – and private sectors which was established in 2007. The vision is to build sustainable communities with the aim of providing skilled employment opportunities for residents close to where they live.
In total the £1bn growth programme is expected to deliver around 20,000 new homes and more than 25,000 jobs across the Growth Point area over the next 15 to 20 years.”
So, if East Devon is to build 1,000 houses a year does this mean all of them will be in the “growth area”?
Sainsbury’s negotiating on”intermodal freight” site
Oh, please, no EDDC, not another HQ location!!!
Visions of East Devon
Great news for those who enjoyed the preview launch (Sidmouth, December 2014) of Peter Nasmyth’s new book on ‘East Devon’s Literature and Landcape’, AND for those who missed it. A follow up performance will take place in May, in Coleridge’s home town, Ottery St Mary. Special dispensation has been given for pixies in the church! Here’s the poster, with another of Peter’s stunning photos (Click to enlarge).
Meanwhile, this poem, by co-organiser of the event, Mike Temple, has just been published in the Express and Echo. It’s called simply, ‘A Vision’.
(with apologies to Coleridge)
In Honiton E.D.D.C.
Says its new offices shall be –
Far from the town where, as we know,
The office workers like to go.
No longer all Knowle’s greenery
But superstore and factory.
An Exmouth office, too, a place
Where few will find a parking space –
The building looks like an old barn,
Not like the “dome” in “Kubla Khan”.
But, Oh, the waste of public money –
The ratepayers don’t think it funny:
To build a glass and concrete shed
And trash the park and Knowle instead,
For “Our Great Leader” and his crew
Have no care for the public’s view;
Nor badger-setts, nor many a tree;
Nor office blocks, built ’83;
Nor Chambers, used by you and me;
Nor weekend tourist-parking, free;
Nor jobs and trade Sidmouth will lose;
Nor all the lovely parkland views –
All sold to builders for a fee –
And all for what? For vanity?
This Council, with no Local Plan,
Lets builders build where’er they can.
Yet in my crystal ball I see
A new look for E.D.D.C.:
Independents there will be
As councillors for you and me,
Come from every town and shire
With the Wright One to remove Swire,
Who all will cry: Please be aware:
We will not relocate somewhere
Based on false claims that there will be
“Big”(?) savings made in energy.
We come to bring Democracy,
And Probity, Transparency.
You all know there’s a better way –
It’s signposted by E.D.A.* ,
So, all you readers, lend a hand
And save our green and pleasant land.
(*EDA is East Devon Alliance)
Mobile phone 3G coverage in Devon – pathetic
Recall that, not long ago, our EDDC councillors, piggy-backing on the promises of the national Conservative Party, were boasting that, pretty soon, Devon would be covered with whizzily fast broadband coverage. That continued till it transpired that, in fact, it wasn’t going to happen.
In fact it was poor tendering on the part of councils dealing with the project which gave BT a stranglehold and a preference for dealing with the easy connections and not bothering with the, largely rural, infrastructure that cost more to put in.
Now we hear the shocking news that only 15% of Devon can receive 3G phone coverage. This is the coverage that would at least allow users to get their internet and email on their smartphones if they could not get broadband coverage. It isn’t 4G – that allows very, very fast coverage on smartphones and tablets, which is now available in many areas – but the slower, clunkier, now old-fashioned 3G!
Wouldn’t the millions of pounds being spent on flash new offices be better spent ensuring our medium and small businesses (including rural tourism) was in the 21st century?
Or will we operate a two-tier system: the nearer you are to the Science Park and the “Growth Point” the better you will be treated?
T“The most recent data published by the regulator shows that Devon has most limited mobile phone access of any local authority area in the South West. In just 15% of the county’s geographic landmass can a 3G signal be picked up with the “Big 4” networks, namely Vodafone, 02, Three and EE.
The parlous provision continues across the rural areas of the South West. In Cornwall, 3G coverage for all operators is 25% of Cornwall’s geography, 26% in Dorset and 38% in Somerset.
By contrast, in Plymouth, the biggest urban area in the Westcountry, coverage is 99% of the city, as it is with the capital and most built-up areas in the UK.”
Councillor Ian Thomas has taken this post to task in a comment saying the first paragraph is “not truthful” and wants it changed. This is an issue that may be judged subjectively, but this post below does look like boasting and all the people mentionec by name are (or were at the time) Conservatives:
Cameron … Devon … Science Park … no Diviani
Promises … maybes … looking into … might … eventually … possibly … PM here twice in a week … panic … yabber, yabber, yabber, yabber … same old … .
… but no Diviani or other EDDC Tory councillors in the pictures – has Hugo had a quiet word with Dave? And did the words “Claire Wright … threat to my majority” figure?
Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting called tonight at Clyst St Mary (7.30pm in the School Hall)
Yet another East Devon Village could be swallowed up by massive development, which would more than double Clyst St Mary’s size in just a few years. The Express and Echo have taken up the story.
Understandably, local residents want to have their say in the matter. Hence the extraordinary meeting organised for this evening. All welcome. Details on the campaign group’s excellent website http://saveclyststmary.org.uk/2015/01/05/save-clyst-st-mary-story-now-on-express-echo-webiste/
East Devon Watch 