Category Archives: Local Plan

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25 Mar 2015

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AONB, Environment (local), Local Plan, NPPF

“We’re treating soil like dirt”

… The government’s deregulation bill, which has now almost completed its passage through parliament, will force regulators – including those charged with protecting the fabric of the land – to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth”. But short-term growth at the expense of public protection compromises long-term survival. This “unambiguously pro-business agenda” is deregulating us to death.

There’s no longer even an appetite for studying the problem. Just one university – Aberdeen – now offers a degree in soil science. All the rest have been closed down.

This is what topples civilisations. War and pestilence might kill large numbers of people, but in most cases the population recovers. But lose the soil and everything goes with it.”

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24 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, Local Plan

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East Devon will have one of the highest populations of over 65s/over 85s in the country by 2030

A new report reveals that East Devon will be one of the districts to see an above average increase in pensioners, with 36 per cent of its population over the age of 65 by 2030 and ten per cent of those will be over 85 – currently the percentage over 65 is 18%. At the same time the proportion of under 16’s will fall to only 14%.

Seems like the vast majority of the people living in those little boxes in Cranbrook will be in low-paid, zero hours contracts looking after old people.

And where does this appear in our Local Plan?

Source: Office of National Statistics/Express and Echo (page loading problem for wrb address)

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24 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, East Devon Growth Point, Land Supply, Local Plan, West End: WestClyst BroadClyst/ Pinhoe

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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”

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415116/15-03-20_ML_IR_Pinn_Court_Farm_Devon_2208393.pdf

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24 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, AONB, Development Management Committee, EDDC, Greater Exeter, Local Plan

Claire Wright’s analysis of housing figures – curious, chilling and mysterious – and not in a good way

The disappearing houses

… And something sinister has happened to all the houses built between 2006 and 2013.

They have disappeared!

Before I get on to this I should explain that in the old draft local plan the plan period was between 2006 and 2026.

The new revisions propose a plan period of 2013 to 2031.

So what has happened to all the houses that were in the old draft local plan between 2006 and 2013?

Have they been erased from the towns and villages that they were built in?

No. They simply have not been counted! This means that the figure of 18,000 is a considerable underestimate. I am not sure how many houses are now unaccounted for but I think we can assume it is several thousand. Which does rather increase the true housing hike up to well over 20,000.

I gave the council quite a blast over all this (as did other councillors including Susie Bond and Ian Thomas and a more than a dozen residents) at this morning’s development management committee meeting, which was packed with around 100 members of the public.

I also asked whether the planning inspector had recommended a housing number for the district. The chief executive indicated that he had not.

Then why I asked, does it say on the press release dated 9 March, that the planning inspector had advised on housing growth of 950 a year? This gives a clear (and totally false) impression that the council was implementing the sort of development levels that the planning inspector had told them to. …”

http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/eddc_proposes_highest_housing_levels_possible_for_district

Scorched earth – literally.

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23 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, Clyst St Mary, Democracy, Development Management Committee, East Devon Growth Point, EDDC, Environment (local), General Election, Latest news, Local Plan, Local Plan Inspector, National Planning Policy Framework, Neighbourhood Plans, NPPF, Planning System, West End: WestClyst BroadClyst/ Pinhoe

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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.

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22 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, AONB, Clyst St Mary, Cranbrook, Development Management Committee, East Devon Tories, EDDC, Local Plan, Local Plan Inspector

Local Plan version 2: a layperson’s summary

The Development Management Committee meets this week to nod through the latest draft of our Local Plan, after which it will go out for consultation.

It’s just about a year since the first version was inspected and thrown out straight away – the Inspector saying he expected to re-hear it in October 2014.

That month came and went and the excuse was: we have LOTS more work to do, be patient.

Those dealing with the revised plan were given few extra resources (around £50,000 worth when costs last published), more resources being piled into headquarter PRE-relocation work (£750,000 plus at least £10,000 to keep consultants reports on the project secret after EDDC was taken to court by the Information Commissioner for refusing to publish them).

February 2015: and we are told consultants reports are “imminent” but must not be published before local elections (May 2015) as they are deemed to be “too politically sensitive”. However, Mid Devon (relying on the very same consultants reports) decided to put their Local Plan out for consultation, eventually publishing the reports for the public with no qualms about their sensitivity.

Our Inspector would have no truck with this “political sensitivity” excuse and said he expected our new draft Local Plan to be out for public consultation by April 2015, election or no election.

Out of the mist came the consultants report – short, based on widely available figures and with no explanation as to why they had taken so long and soon after what appears to be a new draft Local Plan hurridly changed to reflect the new numbers and with an extra addendum of vastly more housing for Cranbrook and Clyst St Mary.

The Local Plan still appears to be (possibly fatally) flawed. Whereas it fixes on a number (18,000 plus houses including windfalls) IT DOES NOT MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR WHERE EXACTLY THEY WILL GO except for Cranbrook and Clyst St Mary.

The report says some towns will have their built-up boundary respected (e.g. Sidmouth) whereas no such promise is made in other places (e.g. Budleigh Salterton). Some towns and villages have little idea of what their allocations will be or where they are to go. That makes Neighbourhood Plans very difficult.

What are the chances of this draft Local Plan being passed by the Inspector? Layperson’s opinion: very slim.

Whatever happens it will be a THIRD council that carries the can – the previous two having failed to get to grips with an out-of-date plan. Let us hope the new council will do a better job than the first two (big Conservative majority) councils did.

A vote for Independents is a vote for a new Local Plan to protect the district from free-for-all development. Heaven knows what a vote for Conservatives would bring on past and present performance!

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22 Mar 2015

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Clyst St Mary, Hugo Swire, Local Plan

How does our current MP choose who to assist with direct Ministerial correspondence?

Anyone else got examples of Hugo going direct to other Ministers to sort out their personal planning problems? We have this old example and one of him getting an EDDC decision reversed for a shed company to set up its premises in Whimple so far.

Curiously, he seems not to have used this option very often and never, to our knowledge, about the Local Plan and its effect on individuals and small communities such as those in Clyst St George, Clyst St Mary and Broadclyst.

Anyone there got something similar they could show us (prior to the General Election canvassing period, of course)?

Click to access cor003-mrandmrscameronandrthonhugoswiremp.pdf

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21 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), Development Management Committee, EDDC, Land Supply, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework

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Questions for the Local Plan

When maximum, minimum and average figures were compiled why was maximum chosen, as maximums can be skewed.

Why was the final figure designated as the MINIMUM number to be built if maximum numbers were chosen?

Where are these houses to be built: sites for such numbers are not identified nor the number of houses per site. This will encourage very large initial developments with no ability to refuse (aaah). Only Clyst St Mary seems to have designated (large) numbers.

Where is the Community Infrastructure Levy document which specifies the cost per square metre of development to support local and district-wide infrastructure for these massive increases?

What is our current 5/6 year land supply?

With the future of the inter-modal freight terminal uncertain why is this not designated as extra employment land?

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17 Mar 2015

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Democracy, Development Management Committee, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, General Election, Latest news, Local Plan, Neighbourhood Plans, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Another Green Wedge for East Devon? Don’t miss DMC next Monday, 23 March.

See http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/03/17/employment-land-for-sid-valley-should-eddcs-local-plan-be-amended-dmc-to-consider-next-monday-morning-23-march/

Some points DMC may keep in mind are pictured here:

:Slide15

and here (Sidford-Sidbury road):

Slide23

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/

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16 Mar 2015

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AONB, Democracy, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, Environment (local), Flooding, General Election, Latest news, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework, Planning System, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury, Transparency

Can EDDC be serious, with revised Local Plan?

One example here: http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/03/16/what-eddcs-revised-local-plan-specifies-for-the-sid-valley/

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15 Mar 2015

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Budleigh Salterton, Clinton Devon Estates, Democracy, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, Environment (local), General Election, Latest news, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework, NPPF

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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 ”

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15 Mar 2015

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Clyst St Mary, Democracy, Development Management Committee, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, Environment (local), General Election, Land Supply, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework, Neighbourhood Plans

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EDDC Revised Plan- directly affects CLYST ST MARY

Gaeron Kayley, leading the Save Clyst St Mary campaign, urges you to read his message:

There has been a significant development regarding the Clyst St Mary planning applications of which you need to be aware.

We have been advised that East Devon District Council, in its amended Local Plan, has now stated that our village is to take an additional 200 new homes (on top of the 95 that we have already agreed to.) Moreover, the Friends Provident and Plymouth Brethren sites are the proposed locations of these new homes.

It is important to note that this news concerns East Devon’s Local Plan – it is not a result of the specific hearings for which we have all battled so hard to object to (these planning applications are still to be heard). This announcement is part of a totally separate decision where, for reasons we are not party to, our village seems to have become the exception to the apparent aim of preserving East Devon villages’ identity; it is believed it is due to our ‘proximity to Exeter’.

As you can imagine, having devoted a large part of our spare time to this campaign for several months, we feel, as you probably do, utterly devastated to hear this shocking news. There remain many questions unanswered and we would, in the longer term, be keen to hear your views regarding the group’s response and possible actions. In the first instance, we desperately need speakers at the meeting at the Council’s headquarters on Monday 23rd March at 10am. It is crucial our voice is heard. Would you be prepared to speak? If so, please respond to this email – or call 01392 969100 – as soon as possible. Anyone that is prepared to speak must have a booking made by mid day with EDDC. We are hoping to arrange a short get together for anyone prepared to speak on Tuesday evening.

To say that we are shocked at this development is an understatement; now, more than ever, we have to stay strong and united as a group and really hope that, despite how recent events appear to have manifested themselves, ultimately justice, transparency and equality shall still prevail.

Gaeron

Relevant links:

The agenda for the Special Development Management Committee to be held on Monday, 23 March at 10amcan now be viewed at: http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990985/230315-special-combined-dmc-agenda.pdf

The revised draft New East Devon Local Plan can be viewed here: http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990979/230315-sp-dmc-local-plan-with-changes-for-post-hearing-consultation-ver-04-march-2015.pdf

The draft schedule of proposed changes to the East Devon Local Plan can be viewed here:http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/990982/230315-sp-dmc-table-of-changes-to-local-plan-v3-march-15.pdf

Paper copies of the agenda, revised draft Local Plan and schedule of proposed changes have been posted to those committee members that would normally receive a paper copy of the DMC agenda.

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15 Mar 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, East Devon Growth Point, Land Supply, Local Plan, NPPF

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”?

Read more: http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Work-starts-main-road-210million-Skypark/story-26175539-detail/story.html

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13 Mar 2015

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Democracy, Development Management Committee, East Devon Alliance, East Devon Tories, EDDC, EDDC HQ, Environment (local), General Election, Grant Thornton, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Latest news, Local Plan, Local Plan Inspector

Cautions for Councillors voting on relocation

From SOS: http://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/03/13/auditors-reports-highly-dependent-on-quality-and-sufficiency-of-data-used/

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/

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13 Mar 2015

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COVOP, Democracy, East Devon Alliance, Environment (local), Flooding, General Election, Latest news, Local Plan, National Planning Policy Framework, Neighbourhood Plans

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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’

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11 Mar 2015

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Democracy, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, EDDC HQ, General Election, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Latest news, Local Plan, Mark Williams CEO EDDC

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 ‘

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11 Mar 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Local Plan, NPPF

Community Voice on Planning adds its plea for planning reform

The planning system is in urgent need of reform

SIR – How many communities across the country have fought hard and continue to fight against inappropriate development only to be swept aside by a planning system that is now so heavily weighted in favour of developers and development? The Government’s complacent response to the Communities and Local Government Committee’s (CLG) recent report on the operation of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) seems to reject the suggestion that there are problems.

One particular concern of ours is the over-harsh application of the presumption in favour of development, when according to the Government many councils do not yet have an up-to-date local plan in place and are deemed not to have a five-year land supply. The Government believes that this will force all councils to accelerate their local plans and to a certain extent this is true, but at the same time they badly misunderstand local party politics. Councils do not suffer from rampant opportunistic exploitation by developers; it is local people and communities who suffer, but little is currently being done to protect them or the environment, pending the adoption of a new local plan.

The CLG supported our concerns, saying that “the NPPF is not preventing unsustainable development in some places” and that “inappropriate housing is being imposed upon some communities as a result of speculative planning applications”.

A key recommendation was that “the same weight is given to the environmental and social (dimensions) as to the economic dimension”. Whilst not agreeing with every aspect of the CLG committee report, we can at least see that it did understand the need to reform the operation of the NPPF. The Department for Communities and Local Government completely disregarded the point and clearly thinks that everything is going well.

In the run-up to the general election we are asking all political parties to publish their manifesto position on planning and, in particular, to state their position on the CLG recommendations. We also invite them to say whether, and how, they will protect people and communities from inappropriate development.

Above all we urge voters to vote only for party candidates who support proposals to rebalance the planning system.

Signed by COVOP members
covop.org

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10 Mar 2015

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Cranbrook, Honiton/ Gittisham, Local Plan, Ottery St Mary

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Greater Exeter ..Cranbrook … Ottery … Honiton?

A first reading of the local housing figures report appears to make it clear that they expect much of the housing expansion in East Devon to be at Cranbrook.

Surely it isn’t far in the distant future that Cranbrook will be just another Exeter suburb that will expand even further east, west, nort and south?

Could we soon see Ottery and Honiton as minor parts of “Greater Exeter” and losing their identity as rural towns in favour of urban/suburban Exeter – without the supporting infrastructure?

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9 Mar 2015

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DCC, EDDC, Local Infrastructure and CIL, Local Plan

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Oversubscribed schools in East Devon

Woodbury C of E (large development planned)
Exeter Road Primary and Brixingham Primary Exmouth (large developments planned)
West Hill Primary (large development in Ottery, development in West Hill)
Stockland Primary (no development there)
Lady Seward at Clyst St George (large developments planned)
Mrs Ethelstone’s Primary in Uplyme (large developments planned in Axminster nearby)

95% subscribed schools:
Ottery St Mary
Bassetts Farm Primary, Exmouth
Sidbury C of E (near where large industrial estate planned)
The Beacon and St Joseph’s in Exmouth
Feniton C of E (Wainhomes want to extend development)

Source:today’s Express and Echo newspaper