Category Archives: Feniton/ Talaton
Wainhomes at it again – this time in North Devon
Another example of Wainhomes flouting planning conditions following a successful appeal, again to do with building on green field sites and ignoring pre-commencement conditions to do with drainage. This time its Westward Ho in Devon, and not Feniton.
A lacklustre response from Torridge District Council (Head of Planning, Kate Little, ex-EDDC Head of Planning)
Planning Enforcement: East Devon Watch happy to assist EDDC
Councils given access to £1m Planning Enforcement Fund to secure injunctions
Wainhomes cocks a snook at Feniton – again
Other quick news in brief
Expelled-ex-Tory Councillor Graham Brown (former Chairman of the first Local Plan panel and former Chairman of the East Devon Business Forum) has had his application for a certificate of lawfulness in breach of a restrictive covenant for more than 10 years at his home at Ware Farm refused:
Feniton developers Wainhomes make their buyers agree to a restrictive covenant that says they must not object to adjacent development:
Wainhomes apply for 31 more houses on their Feniton site to “tidy it up”
And all because we have no Local Plan
Could you, too, be a SWIMBY?
Check this link and consider.. http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2014-10/our-month-rethinking-real-estate-why-i-m-proud-be-swimby
Wainhomes and Feniton flooding
Temporary attenuation tanks and a temporary ditch on the Wainhomes site do not appear to have alleviated surface water run off from the site at all.
See (with particularly harrowing pictures)
https://susiebond.wordpress.com/
Recall that Wainhomes excuse for not putting in the permanent attenuation tanks on this site (before 6 the homes which are now occupied and which the planning inspector said must be put in before ANY homes were occupied) was that they are planning to put in different tanks to accommodate other planning applications they will put in at some point in the future and which may or may not get permission.
What a nightmare this small village is suffering still.
Neil Parish MP sends strong letter to Wainhomes in Feniton
Some links that Wainhomes would probably prefer you not to click on!
A few stories gleaned from the last 12 months:
http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Developer-urged-talk-angry-locals/story-20099876-detail/story.html
http://www.broadlaneaction.co.uk/index.php/7-news/281-wainhomes-development-breaks-the-rules
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/will-lorry-talks-end-outcry-1-6627731
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10931459.Bid_to_build_on_eco_area/?ref=rss
and a few entries on their Twitter account that probably were NOT posted by their PR department:
Wain Homes, Feniton: when does “50 houses” become 55? When it’s in Rockbeare – whoops!
Do we recall that the planning inspector gave permission for 50 homes at Winchester Park, Feniton?
According to the marketing blurb, there are 55 (you may need to enlarge this picture, from the front window of an estate agent) to see that there are 55 numbered plots, including the show home and marketing suite. If so, should the attenuation tanks be 10% larger?
Note: a correspondent says this is actually a development in Rockbeare which presumably IS for 55 houses – whoops!
Too much time in warm rooms with closed doors …
In hindsight, might Council Leader have done better than appear on TV in Feniton on a cold, very wet and very windy day dressed in a lightweight suit? And where the BBC presenter had to shelter him under her umbrella.
While other outdoor contributors were dressed in fleeces and wellies and had on sensible rainwear, he must have felt extremely miserable.
He appeared to have just got out of his car without a thought for what the outdoor weather was like.
That’s what comes of running a council from warm offices where most of the time doors are firmly shut because most of the endless meetings are secret!
Feniton and Wain Homes on “The One Show” yesterday
Still available on iPlayer.
Basically, Wain Homes say they have not installed the attenuation tanks that should have bedn installed BEFORE any home was occupied because they want to install different ones. Six houses are now occupied, likely to increase to 15 by Christmas.
Why have the tanks not been installed?
Because Wain Homes intend to extend the site with more houses and to do so will need bigger or more tanks.
Just one problem: they have not submitted further plans for more houses and the Planning Inspector recently ruled that only the current number was sustainable (in part because of the tanks) in the village.
Wain Homes refused to allow the BBC reporter on their site and refused a comment.
A Google search on Wain Homes will show that this is by no means the first time that they have courted controversy … particularly in Cornwall.
Thank heavens the district councillor for Feniton is hard-working Susie Bond and not its former incumbent disgraced ex-councillor Graham Brown, under whose watch huge numbers of houses were planned for the village with no apparent discouragement from him – indeed he was often absent from crucial meetings and did not speak up for residents at council meetings where they were discussed.
At the time he was Chairman of the East Devon Business Forum and had been Chairman of the first Local Plan Panel (2007-2011) whose work was thrown out by the incoming council in 2011 only to see their plan similarly thrown out earlier this year by the Planning Inspectorate.
Had we had a Local Plan in place it is unlikely that the current situation would have happened at all.
And in other news …
Whilst we await our Chief Executive’s appearance at tonight’s council meeting, here is some other news that has been happening over the last few days:
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Supermarkets – the new charity shops?
EDDC’s flagship regeneration policy of putting a supermarket in all seaside towns as close to the seaside as possible already looks to be a busted flush.
Tesco has just announced it will abandon its plan to build a superstore on the seafront in Margate to which Pickles had given a green light!
In an article in the business section of the Guardian we read:
“Pickles was criticised for backing the Tesco Margate scheme by the self-styled Queen of Shops Mary Portas, who said it showed the government was only paying “lip service” to the idea of reviving Britain’s high streets as the store would have a “catastrophic” impact on the town.
Margate was among the “Portas Pilot” towns which won £100,000 in funding to back new ideas to boost trade and refill empty shops on some of the UK’s most battered high streets.
Louise Oldfield, a local hotel owner who pushed for the judicial review, said she was shocked that Tesco had pulled out but it was good news for Margate. “We hope we can now move forward towards a more sustainable proposal for Margate. This proposal would have had a massive impact on the seafront,” she said.”
But what irrevocable damage has now been done to our seaside towns in East Devon? Certainly too late for Seaton.
Cranbrook to double in size
In addition to the 6,000 homes already planned, developers are to submit plans for a further 1,500 homes. They also say they will build infrastructure but with still no Community Infrastructure Levy in place there is almost nothing in place to ensure that it happens.
DIY repairs to Devon roads
Brush up those tarmacking skills – you are going to need them. Can’t wait to see DCC Councillor for Highways, Stuart Hughes, in a blue boiler suit:
At a time when the news tells us that Devon has some of the most dangerous country roads which have ten times more fatalities than motorways comes a call for local people to voluntarily maintain their own bits of road and fill in their own potholes.
Feniton developers issued with breach of conditions notice by EDDC
Finally developers Wain Homes are put under pressure to do what they were supposed to do: build attenuation tanks for surface water run off which should have been done BEFORE homes were occupied. At least six are now in occupation with no sign of the tanks
Feniton hits the (flooding) headlines yet again thanks to Wain Homes
Feniton: another test of EDDC enforcement
Wain Homes appears not to care.
Planning for “sewage plume” ?
Read and view the unsavoury details revealed at Feniton in this report http://susiebond.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/conditions-what-conditions/
Government agrees flood drainage rules – but postpones them indefinitely
EDA Chairman 1 – Leader of East Devon District Council own goal – and a STUNNING revelation!!!!
This morning the Chairman of East Devon Alliance, Paul Arnott, once again went head-to-head with a top EDDC councillor – this time EDDC Council Leader Paul Diviani on the lack of a Local Plan. The EDA Chairman said that he was not surprised but still disappointed that, having been dealing with this project since 2007, EDDC still is not in a position to put a (third) draft Local Plan forward to the Planning Inspectorate and leaving the district vulnerable to speculative development. And he comes up with a STUNNING REVELATION why he thinks current research for the Local Plan is wrong and the reason why it is being held up. Read on …
Councillor Diviani trod the well-worn track of saying that there really is nothing to worry about – EDDC has so far won more than 70% of its appeals and (occasionally) says no to developers. The EDA Chairman noted that it is NOT EDDC alone that champions these appeals – particularly in the case of Feniton and Seaton, where it was local people who raised funds and made their case to inspectors, so implying that EDDC alone does this is somewhat disingenuous.
However, then came the total shock. You may recall that two sets of consultants employed by EDDC before the last iteration of the Local Plan said that they thought that around 12,000 homes should be built in the district. EDDC (and, it has to be said members of the East Devon Business Forum and developers, sometimes the same thing) said, no, no – this could not be right and at least 15,000 homes were needed – which is what got put in the draft put before the Inspector.
The Inspector threw out the plan, specifically saying that he could see no back-up research that confirmed the 15,000 number that EDDC came up with.
And what does Leader Diviani say to this – if we take his interview at face value believing that he is being topical we could read it as THREE sets of consultants coming to around the same figure but we must assume he is talking about the two reports? He says, no no – they CANNOT be right. The government wants us to build more houses, we NEED more houses so we are going to “look at the figures again” because they must be “realistic”.
HOW MORE REALISTIC CAN YOU GET THAT TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF CONSULTANTS COMING TO THE SAME CONCLUSION THAT WE NEED 11,000 – 12,000 NEW HOMES AND NOT 15,000?
So, here we have it – Councillor Diviani thinks he is more expert than consultants and will not give up until – presumably – another set of consultants comes up with the figure that he and the government want. A figure not based on evidence. As usual – fire the arrow, then draw the bulls-eye around it.
So, we ask ourselves: where did the figure of 15,000 that Councillor Diviani so desperately wants come from? Developers? Out of thin air? from the Government which has told us (via the NPPF) to come up with LOCAL figures backed up with LOCAL evidence?
Some very, very, trenchant questions need to be asked. Not least by our councillors and, particularly, by Councillor Diviani
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p024pn5v
(THE INTERVIEW IS 2 HOURS 6 MIN AT 8.38 AM)
Fighting for Feniton – yet again; Wain Homes continues its onslaught
Rumours that Wainhomes is applying to extend its existing site by a further 31 houses are true: plans for these new houses have been on display at the sales office on site. Wainhomes claims that, as a ‘responsible developer’ it’s just to show prospective buyers what might happen, although it’s hard to read this as anything other than marketing houses for which permission has not even been granted. Fight for Feniton understands that one buyer who purchased one of the 50 houses to be built at Winchester Park, and who was assured solemnly that their countryside view would be protected, only discovered otherwise when Wainhomes cheerfully handed them the keys to their new property and said they’d be building 31 more houses, some of which would be blocking their view!
The history of this site is one of development by stealth. Wainhomes’ initial application in 2011 was for a staggering 170 properties stretching from Station Road across to Green Lane. Wainhomes then supposedly ‘listened’ to local opposition, and reduced its proposal to ‘just’ 50 houses, which were eventually allowed at appeal in 2012, despite massive opposition from the village, Parish and District Councils, owing to Feniton’s inadequate infrastructure, narrow roads, minimal employment opportunities and considerable flooding problems.
Wainhomes’ next attack on the village was for an application for 83 units, which was comprehensively thrown out at a ‘Super Inquiry’ of the Planning Inspectorate in January this year: roughly four months after that result was announced, Wainhomes has now come back with its proposal for 31 houses. Let there be no doubt that Wainhomes has no intention of stopping at 31, 83 or anything else until it has concreted over the entire site and built (at least) the 170 it always intended.
It’s the Wainhomes way: the village of Dobwalls, in Cornwall, is faced with a proposal by the same developer to build 62 houses, the local Parish Council being up in arms since their roads are narrow, the infrastructure can’t cope, and it’d increase the size of the village by 20%. Sound familiar? – see
As of writing Wainhomes has only announced its intention to build these extra houses: a formal application is likely to be made in September. Fight for Feniton will continue the battle against inappropriate development in the village. Keep up to date with the latest news by attending Feniton Parish Council meetings, and checking the following websites:
Fight for Feniton
http://theffff.wordpress.com/
blogs for District Councillor Susie Bond
http://www.susiebond.co.uk) and
County Councillor Claire Wright
http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/site/blog
the East Devon Alliance (http://eastdevonalliance.org/
and of course Feniton Parish Council http://fenitonparishcouncil.wordpress.com/
East Devon Watch 