Category Archives: Latest news
Relocation rolls on…
..and the money rolls out, thanks to a District Council which (as Seaton Cllr Peter Burrows put it) “may not be in existence when the loan expires.”
Yet no-one knows whether Pegasus Life Ltd will offer EDDC for the Knowle a figure nearer £7million or nearer £8million (the rough price-range agreed). But with no Heads of Terms yet fixed, councillors’ vote tonight to go ahead with relocation nonetheless, puts the ball firmly in Pegasus Life’s court.
As usual, questions from the public went unanswered.
Extracts from the meeting will be available on YouTube soon. The link, and more on tonight’s Extra Ordinary meeting, will be posted on EDWatch in due course.
District Councillors may be left wondering what happened to “cost neutral?”
Rush, rush, rush! Councillors will have barely had time to read through and fully digest the minutes of the Special Development Management Committee meeting (on Monday 23 March), which have just been sent to them, before they are required to make a ‘final decision’ on relocation at this evening’s 6.30pm meeting.
Will all have opened their e-mails straightaway? And how many will have been able to collect well in time, the paper copy of the minutes available from their pigeon holes from 4pm today?
In a whirlwind week of Extra Ordinary meetings, some Councillors might be hardpressed to sufficiently absorb the latest information on a whole raft of extremely important decisions with long-term consequences. They are being inexplicably and unreasonably squeezed into a decision on the sale of Knowle, AND proposed changes to the revised Local Plan, in the same short period of time.
The links received (hopefully) by Councillors are:
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/1002849/260315-extra-ordinary-council-ag
> enda-local-plan.pdf
The previously circulated Special Development Management Committee
> agenda papers:
> Agenda –
> http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990985/230315-special-combined-dmc-agend
> a.pdf
> Draft schedule of proposed changes –
> http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990982/230315-sp-dmc-table-of-changes-to
> -local-plan-v3-march-15.pdf
Addendum report with proposed changes –
> http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/1018372/230315-sp-dmc-addendum-report-it
> em-5.pdf
Revised Draft New East Devon Local Plan with tracked changes:
> http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990979/230315-sp-dmc-local-plan-with-cha
> nges-for-post-hearing-consultation-ver-04-march-2015.pdf
Councillors have a lot on their shoulders. The public speaking this evening would clearly like to share the load.
Knowle Relocation …Will tonight’s ‘final decision’ leave poison chalice for East Devon?
What’s at stake tonight’s Extra Ordinary Council meeting? No less than our big money (a 20 year Council debt is proposed), and the re-shaping of one of East Devon’s loveliest towns.
So,once again, the public gallery will be full. Once again, Councillors may be seen to be pulled by the nose into making a huge decision, with possibly incomplete information at their disposal. EDDC may be obliged to release further ‘sensitive’ documents in just a few days’ time.
The meeting starts at 6.30pm this evening, at Knowle Council Chamber. Agenda on EDDC website, under ‘ Councillors and Democracy’.
Come early to get a seat..and enjoy a stroll in the whole park, while you still can!
East Devon’s MP in Channel 4 sting
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.
Councillors “like puppets on a string” over Knowle sale
Mike Temple’s letter in today’s Sidmouth Herald blasts the “cracking good deal” myth put about by Honiton Cllr and Tory Whip,Phil Twiss.
Here’s the letter:
‘Popping up like puppets on cue, Cllr Diviani’s obedient cabinet, aided and abetted by Sidmouth’s own Tory District councillors, nodded through the sale of Knowle last night (March 11) in the latest stage of the long-running farce that is the office-relocation.
According to the puppets, Sidmouth will never have had it so good. It’s getting “a cracking good deal,” piped Cllr Twiss (he who’d rather stick “hot pins in his eyes” than engage in a public debate with an Independent candidate – a serious case of “frit” perhaps). After all, Sidmouth is gaining a retirement community and we all know we need more of them, especially the expensive second-homes we so desperately lack.
No matter about the loss of community assets like the fine chambers used for concerts, religious services, talks and wedding receptions. No matter about the loss of 150 parking places for weekend visitors to a tourist town. No matter about the loss of the best of its unique woodland park, namely its magnificent prospect, the loss of which will trash the rest of the gardens – which no doubt can be built on later.
What’s more, it was all the fault of a vocal Sidmouth minority (like the 4,000 on the march) who , according to Cllr Diviani, prevented the Council from getting £10 million for the Knowle when its own plan to build all over the park was refused.
Yes, it’s all Sidmouth’s fault and all Sidmouth’s “gain”. And what goodies are we next promised? Well, look forward to Sidford Business and Industrial Park and then a superstore at the Alexandria Road estate and even more empty shops in town to let…’
Another Green Wedge for East Devon? Don’t miss DMC next Monday, 23 March.
Some points DMC may keep in mind are pictured here:
:
and here (Sidford-Sidbury road):
and more (as recently referred to on EDW) here: http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/03/16/what-eddcs-revised-local-plan-specifies-for-the-sid-valley/
Can EDDC be serious, with revised Local Plan?
More East Devon AONB under threat
Just heard from an EDWatcher, who says: “Did you know that Clinton Devon Estates are applying for 22 houses in East Budleigh AONB…? 14/2959/MOUT ”
Cautions for Councillors voting on relocation
Incursion into Knowle’s Public Open Space “has never been debated by councillors”
and from more than one senior Honiton Councillor, at various stages of EDDC’s ill-starred (jinxed?) ‘road to relocation’ project. Remember this SIN post, anyone? https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/watchdog-kennelled/
Reminder: National Day of Action event at Knowle (12 April)
Details here: April 21 National Day of Action CoVoP Poster
The Knowle event is being organised by two East Devon Alliance members, Ian McKintosh and Mike Temple, who have joined the National Community Voice On Planning (CoVoP) as trustees.
CoVoP is constantly working for reforms in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), as this latest message shows:
‘Two letters from our members have appeared in the Telegraph this week – both were edited to remove references to CoVoP National Day of Action (12 April), but both expressed the key message that the Government is not listening to communities on planning. References to the 5 year plan supply have also been removed. The full text for both letters is here: letters to the Telegraph
Another member has written to Messers Betts, Pickles and Lewis expressing similar frustration.
“Dear Honourable Members
The NPPF is NOT working for local communities!
Further to the recent press release by the Communities & Local Government Select Committee on the operation of the NPPF I would like to draw your attention to further evidence that the NPPF is not protecting important local landscapes from inappropriate development and that Planning Officers appear to be ignoring sustainable planning principles outlined in the NPPF.
South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) planning officers regularly emphasise the ‘presumption in favour of development’ to their Planning Committee while failing to mention that all planning applications (even those for allocated sites in a Local Plan), must comply with core planning principles in the NPPF. These are outlined the NPPF (219 paragraphs) which also states (several times) that these sustainable planning principles are ‘material considerations’ when assessing planning applications.
At an SLDC Planning Committee meeting last December (attended by six out of 17 members), a planning application for a prime green field site, in the middle of Grange-over-Sands’ Conservation Areas, was granted. Committee members did not bother to discuss major infrastructure problems (drainage and roads), or the likely adverse impact on the town’s tourist economy. These problems had been raised at the meeting by local residents and Town Council representatives who also drew attention to the relevant paragraphs in the NPPF. No wonder people are losing faith in local planning procedures. This feels like a District Council dictatorship; not a local democracy.
We believe that District Councils are being ‘threatened’ with appeal cases by developers that they claim will be resolved in favour of granting planning permission. Also, we have evidence that our planning officers are also being pressurised into putting planning applications before the Planning Committee, due to perceived time constraints, even when the developer has not provided all the evidence needed to support their application such as an adequate flood risk assessment that considers the potential for flooding elsewhere.
We need more homes in areas where there are good employment prospects and good public transport links. We do not need them in areas with poor employment prospects, poor public transport links and inadequate infrastructure or where they will become second homes and have an adverse impact on Conservation Areas that are important to the local tourist economy.
I realise that you cannot do anything about specific issues raised above but I hope that the next Parliament will rectify some of the problems highlighted as a matter of urgency!
At the moment many of us do not know who to vote for at the next election because none of the main political parties have robust proposals for dealing with these serious planning inadequacies.
Yours sincerely”
We need to shout more loudly! Please demonstrate your frustration on 12 April.
Best wishes
Julie
Chairman of CoVoP
admin@covop.org
Community Voice on Planning
A National Alliance to provide communities with an effective voice on planning
http://www.covop.org’
Relocation…the key question
..was asked tonight by Sidmouth Cllr Graham Troman. Speaking at the special combined meeting two Committees ( Overview & Scrutiny, and Audit & Governance), he was bold enough to put the essential question “Could the contract (for sale of the Knowle) be signed before the election?” . “Yes”, said Chair-for-the-occasion, Cllr Tim Wood.
Later in the meeting, it was also confirmed that the sale contract could be signed within the so-called ‘purdah’ pre-election period.
Further report on tonight’s session, which became rather heated at times, to follow soon.
Unseemly haste leads to confusion at EDDC
Frantic rearrangement of EDDC’s schedule (“Nothing to do with the election” , said Cllr Paul Diviani at this evening’s Cabinet meeting) has prompted a correspondent to send us this:
‘I trust that when the next set of EDDC councillors control the army of Knowledge communications officers, the EDDC website will continue to provide as much amusement (and possibly a bit more information) for local residents. See eddc-press-release-manageable-growth ‘
‘Better use of facilities’ at Knowle than making it a retirement community!
EDDC’s announcement in today’s Sidmouth Herald, of its preferred buyer for Knowle, could have massive repercussions, not least at the May District Council election.The plan is to change this prime employment site, and shrink the surrounding historic parkland, to make a residential development exclusively not for young people. The purpose is to relocate the District Council offices, to a much older building (Exmouth Town Hall) requiring major refurbishment, and a not-yet-built office at Honiton.
Here’s just one local conversation on the topic https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/3h3lq15pbi7i/
Photo supplied by https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com
‘Justication’ for office relocation project, on Cabinet agenda
Pity DMC’s concerns aren’t consistent
The agenda for today’s meeting of the Development Management Committee at EDDC includes an officer recommendation for a representation to the Mid Devon Local Plan consultation:
5. That potential commuting patterns, especially for work
purposes, of the future residents of Cullompton are
accurately assessed. This is especially significant noting the
ease of car travel from Cullompton to the strategic
employment sites in the West End of East Devon (e.g. a drive
time of 11 minutes from M5 Junction 28 to the Science Park).
There is quite a lot more including a reference to the A373 Cullompton to Honiton road being ‘narrow in places’.
An EDWatcher comments, “It’s intriguing that EDDC are so concerned about the traffic implications of commuting from Cullompton, and yet no similar concern was expressed for the impact of our 1400 job industrial estate between Sidford and Sidbury, where the road through the village is much narrower than the A373.”
EDWatch says, “We’d burst out laughing, if this were a laughing matter!”
Ottery General Election upset on the cards?
An increasing number of people seem to think so…http://www.heart.co.uk/exeter/news/local/ottery-general-election-upset-on-cards
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)
Progress update on Village Plan and EDDC Plan
From Save Clyst St Mary organiser, Gaeron Kayley:
‘A big thank you to everyone that attended the meeting with Hugo Swire last week. A number of questions came up regarding our neighbourhood plan and our local plan.
Please See the update from Mike Howe regarding our local Plan below*.
Please also see our poster advertising the neighbourhood plan, where you can view and have your say on our Parish. Click here to open Exhibition poster (1) . (Saturday 7th March at Clyst St Mary School 10am- 4pm, 10th March Cat and Fiddle Inn 10am-Noon & Sowton Village Hall 6pm-9pm)’
*email fromMike Howe:
The production of the SHMA has unfortunately been a long and drawn out process. There are 6 key stages to the production of the SHMA. These are:
Definition of the housingmarket area
Understanding household projections
Addressing Market Signals
Addressing Housing Backlog
Measuring Affordable Housing Need
Future Employment and Economic Growth Assumptions and Aspirations
A so-called draft SHMA was sent through from the consultants in August 2014 after they had completed only the first two stages of the process. This information was communicated to Members via a report to Development Management Committee on the 26th August 2014 and an all Members briefing note on the 27th August 2014. This report and briefing note made it clear that the information available so far simply
modelled housing numbers based on historic trends and that without taking account of factors such as the backlog of affordable housing need and projecting future employment and economic growth the information was largely meaningless. No further draft SHMA information has been made available to any Members since that time indeed until the SHMA process is complete and all factors have been taken into account any data would have been misleading. I appreciate that this delay has been highly frustrating for all of us but we have been entirely dependent on consultants to carry out this work. Given the expertise required and the need to consider data from all of the authorities within the housing area there was no other option than to use external consultants on this work. Unfortunately, it has taken them much longer than envisaged.
In advance of receipt of the final SHMA Mid-Devon District Council have proceeded with production and consultation on their Local Plan. It is understood that their work is based on the draft SHMA data that all of the participating authorities received in August 2014 and some subsequent employment projections. Mid-Devon do not have any additional data than we do, however their position is slightly more straight forward as they do not have a growth point and therefore it is easier to predict factors such as future job growth in Mid-Devon than it is here in East Devon. Clearly there are risks associated with Mid-Devon’s approach however this is not our concern as we must focus on delivering our own Local Plan.
I am pleased to say that the SHMA work is now complete and only yesterday a draft report was provided by the consultants to officers of the commissioning authorities. The work now needs to be considered by officers and any queries raised with the consultants before the report can be finalized and published. This will happen in the next week to 10 days. We envisage publishing the SHMA in a co-ordinated way between the authorities and their respective Members with the report being sent to Members slightly in advance of wider publication.
The SHMA was the remaining key piece of evidence that enables us to produce an objectively assessed housing need for the district and move forward with the Local Plan. We had previously envisaged that the upcoming election would prevent progress being made until May however the Inspector has made it clear that he expects to see the proposed changes to the Local Plan by mid-April and we must adhere to the timescale that he has set as the process moving forward is led by the inspector.
Our time line now looks like this:
Early March – Publication of the SHMA
By end of March (pre-purdah) – DMC and full council meeting to consider
revisions to the Local Plan including proposed housing numbers
Submission of revisions to Inspector immediately following incorporation of
any changes following full council
Inspector provides questions upon which to seek views through consultation
Consultation commences (mid-April)
Consultation ends (end May)
Oral examination sessions reconvene (August/September)
Local Plan adoption by end of year
East Devon Watch 