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12 Oct 2015

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Development Management Committee, EDDC, Planning System, Regeneration, Transparency

What is EDDC’s “Members Advisory Panel”? We had to go to Torbay to find out!

Reference is made in the post on Exmouth below to a “Members Advisory Panel”. Efforts to find this on East Devon District Council’s website came to nought, but Owl didn’t stop there – Owl traced a copy to Torbay Council’s website where it appears it may have been used as an illustrative document.

The whole 4 page document is actually titled “EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL PLANNING SERVICE – PRE APPLICATION ADVICE
CUSTOMER CHARTER” and gives very helpful advice to developers (the customers, of course) about how much help the council can give them (and charge for in some cases).

Page 4 gives details of how helpful the “Members advisory Panel” can be. Here is what they say:

“The Council also offers a Members Advisory Panel for major applications. This is a group of senior officers and Councillors and other interested parties who can listen to a presentation from the agent and then through its officers respond in writing. The Council has a protocol for dealing with requests from agents to put a proposal before the MAP. Officers can advise if a particular scheme warrants a submission to the MAP.

The Member’s Planning Advisory Group is comprised of:-

The Chairman of the Development Management Committee.
The Chairman of a possible Policy sub-committee or Policy Champion.
Strategic Planning Portfolio Holder.
Environment Portfolio Holder.
Economy Portfolio Holder – as appropriate
Communities Portfolio Holder as appropriate.
Ward Members.

The system for running this group would be as follows:

(i) Developers to make presentation to Member’s Planning Advisory Group with Officers present.

(ii) Members to have previously acquainted themselves with the site in question by a site visit with Officers.

(iii) Members to ask questions of the Developers, seek clarification, test arguments but not to give any form of view in support or against the proposals.

(iv) Advice on the way forward or changes to be made to the proposal would be provided by the Officers to the Developers in writing following advice from Members in a debate once the developers have left the meeting.

(v) Any Member of the Planning Advisory Group who has a personal or prejudicial interesting the proposal should not form part of the group for that particular site.

E Freeman Development Manager January 2011

Click to access Generating%20Income%20from%20Planning%20Pre-Application%20Advice%20final%20App2.pdf

Seems like a good time for some Freedom of Information requests here – perhaps going back several years …..

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12 Oct 2015

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EDDC, Exmouth, Regeneration

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EDDC Exmouth Regeneration Board interferes in choice of bus depot site by M and S and wants it on EDDC land outside main town centre

Exmouth Town Council this week voted to support the principle of an M and S food store on the site of the bus depot on Royal Avenue.

But town councillors were then concerned to hear that a letter from a ‘members’ advisory panel’ at East Devon District Council – which has long-intended for a supermarket to be built on the nearby Exmouth Rugby Club site, which it owns – had criticised the M and S proposal, which is for a site owned by Devon County Council.

Councillor Bill Nash told the town council’s regeneration and general purposes committee: “The panel has written to the [district] councillors of town ward and it is a little disturbing.

“The report at the moment is saying that they don’t think it’s the right site, and they’d prefer to see Marks and Spencer on the rugby ground or the London Inn site. Well, that ain’t on – M&S don’t want that.”

Cllr Nash said EDDC had also criticised the building’s design, and a lack of electric car charging points in the proposed car park, and said it may be off-putting for people arriving by train to catch buses.

In response, town mayor Councillor Maddie Chapman said: “I think they’ve got a damn cheek, because it’s county council land that they’ve [M and S] put forward, and the county council want to build on it.

“It’s not up to East Devon saying ‘You can’t build on county council land, you can build on ours’, without saying anything to the town council.

“They need to be told ‘push off’ – so they will be.”

Town councillors were also concerned that no Exmouth councillors were at the EDDC advisory panel meeting, with Councillor Pat Graham saying she and other town ward district councillors had been invited, but at very short notice.

An EDDC spokesman said: “East Devon District Council very much welcomes Marks and Spencer’s interest in Exmouth.

“The comments of the council’s members’ advisory panel that were raised at the town council meeting were draft comments sent to the ward members who, though invited to the panel meeting, were unable to attend.

“We look forward to receiving their views so that these can inform the final comments of the panel that will then be sent to the developer. In any event, these comments will not tie the council to any decision on this matter in future.

“It’s unhelpful to suggest that the district council is promoting its own land. The council has done a lot of work in consultation with the community on plans to develop key sites in the town, including developing a supermarket and improved transport facilities.

“The council is simply seeking to implement these plans and enable the best development possible that accords with planning policy and meets the needs of the town.”

The spokesman also said town ward councillors had been given six weeks’ notice of the meeting date.

M and S will hold a public consultation event about its plans at the town hall on October 16, between 11am and 7pm.

http://www.devon24.co.uk/news/m_s_store_eddc_told_to_push_off_1_4262916

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9 Oct 2015

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EDDC, Regeneration, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

Promises, promises, promises … warnings, warnings, warnings …

Owl was much engaged with the Guardian article in 2010 on Seaton’s regeneration referred to below. And many, many thanks to Councillor Twiss for ensuring that we revisited this important topic and took stock of the last five years.

For example, a day before the General Election in that year, a Tory spokesperson said:

“The Conservatives have voiced unease about Tesco Towns. Bob Neill, shadow minister for local government and planning, says: “I am concerned that the rise of so-called supermarket towns will lead to developments where small retailers have no place or face uncompetitive rents. Planning rules must be amended to allow councils to take into account the benefits of greater competition and the need to protect small business.”

The party has pledged to introduce greater local participation in planning through its “open source” proposals if it wins tomorrow’s general election.”

and

“A spokesman for the company says Tesco has been providing much-needed mixed use development since 1997 in deprived areas. “These are urban areas which have not received investment for a number of years. We are willing to invest, and that kind of investment has to be applauded and welcomed. We’re looking at providing more than 2,000 jobs in these areas that can benefit the community for years to come. He adds: “Councils are very welcoming because we are bringing in jobs and investment.”

Anyone seen many of those 2,000 jobs anywhere! Excluding zero hours, of course.

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9 Oct 2015

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EDDC, Regeneration, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

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A correspondent writes on “regeneration” East Devon style

This is a comment to the previous post which we have published as a post, from Sandra Semple, Mayor of Seaton during the major part of its regeneration process:

“Can we knock several of Councillor Twiss’s naive misconceptions about Seaton “regeneration” on the head. I know, I was there as Mayor at the time.

First, we got nothing but a massive Tesco and a housing estate with no affordable housing. No hotel, no leisure facilities, no community facilities. The town’s yourh club, day nursery, swimming pool and gym were demolished along with a thriving 500 bed holiday camp. The nursery was re-located (with a Devon County Council grant) on land meant to be for a re-located youth centre – which could not be built anyway as it was during the recession, the land was not adequate after the nursery was completed, grants were hard to come by and we were given only a paltry £80,000 towards a new facility (Colyton’s Reece Strawbridge Centre built at that time cost £500,000).

Ah, people will say, you got a wonderful new Visitor Centre (due to open next year, 6 years after the Tesco). Wrong: EDDC was paid £2 million by Tesco for a right of way across land OUTSIDE the regeneration area (where the youth club stood) as otherwise they would have been classed as an out-of-town store. This would have given the edge to Sainsburys which was what the town wanted, smaller, closer and would have included a completed Visitor Centre on the first floor (fully accessible to disabled people and overlooking the Wetlands) on the day the store opened.

The current Visitor Centre could not have been built without a hefty injection of lottery funding and an agreement that it would be run by Devon Wildlife Trust. The centre had been meant to include a terminus for the Minehead-Seaton national cycle route (lockers, showers etc) but these were cut out due to the extra cost involved. As to whether it will (continually, not just in its first year) attract 50,000 visitors remains to be seen, especially now Lyme Regis is extending its town museum and there is talk of a Jurrasic Eden-Centre type project on Portland.

We lost half our main car park to the Visitor Centre (an overflow carpark has been built on former public open space) and without the 500 beds at the holiday camp (85% occupied 50 weeks a year) we lost the main accommodation base for the annual Grizzly Run. Our biggest hotel is 10 beds and tourists visiting the Wetlands are unlikely to find accommodation in Seaton easily. But never mind, they can go to Premier Inns in Honiton and Exmouth.

Each and every desire of the local population – most of which could have been achieved – was ignored or ignominiously dismissed. If it did not come from Tesco or a small coterie of officers and councillors – forget it. Though mostly from Tesco. Even our “Regeneration Board” was a fantasy (a Twiss word) as it was just a talking shop which rubber stamped decisions already made. I was asked to leave it because I criticised Tesco (privately) and I did leave because it was achieving precisely nothing.

Regeneration? In your dreams. As I said in a national newspaper article at the time: “My town was sold to Tesco”:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/may/05/urban-development-tesco-towns

and I see no reason to change my mind almost exactly five years since Tesco opened.”

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9 Oct 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, East Devon Tories, Exmouth, Phil Twiss, Regeneration, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

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Councillor Twiss gets his knickers in a twiss yet again – and it’s personal – yet again

The most extraordinary rant has appeared in the Sidmouth Herald under the authorship of (“I am not and never have been the Whip for the East Devon Conservative Party”) Councillor Phil Twiss, which is reproduced in its entirety below (with comments added). It puts us in mind of the early days of the sterling work of Councillor Claire Wright, when she was also attacked for attempting to change the much-derided status quo.

I have quoted the full press release provided by a local newspaper, not the shorter version in the Sidmouth Herald

WE WANT SIDMOUTH TO MOVE FORWARD, NOT BE HELD BACK’ (HELD BACK FROM WHAT?)

The Conservative Group on East Devon District Council (EDDC) have hit back at comments made by an East Devon Alliance councillor for her naïve and misleading rant in last week’s Sidmouth Herald. (So, here follows a naive and misleading rant from Councillor Twiss)

In the report, EDA Councillor Cathy Gardner, who represents Sidmouth Town Ward, claimed that a proposal to build social housing on the site of a car park in Mill Street was part of a wider plan for Eastern Town and spoke of the town being at risk of ‘fighting a battle but losing a war’.

Cllr Gardner is guilty of muddled thinking and of embarking on a naïve and misleading rant aimed at making political capital out of the vital issue of providing homes for Sidmouth’s young families. (You be the judge of who is out to make political capital here)

A consultation proposed by the EDA councillor would muddy the waters if and when the district council came to conduct its own public survey – which would take place as part of the normal democratic process. (So, what we always knew – early consultations muddy the waters and council surveys late in the day are the way forward)

ROUTINE

No firm plans had yet been drawn up for Mill Street and if and when such proposals were formed, a public consultation would follow as a matter of routine. (How much more firm could you be when you hike car park prices 300%, reduce ability to rent spaces and then put out a hasty press release saying you intend to turn it into social housing?)

It’s all very well for ward representatives to genuinely stand up for what they see as the rights of their constituents. It’s quite another to say things that will mislead people into forming the wrong conclusions, especially when this is based on a poor understanding of how the planning process works. (Still not sure what the “wrong conclusions” are here)

There is a lot of incorrect information in Councillor Gardner’s reported remarks and this displays either a naïve ignorance of the facts or a desire to stir up a political storm in a teacup – or both. (Not that he does not specifically say at any point what this incorrect information might be)

Councillor Gardner appears to be linking a possible plan for affordable homes in Mill Street with a wider redevelopment scheme for Eastern Town and even the project to create a Beach Management Plan for Sidmouth. Her suggestion that the Beach Management Plan lacked progress is mischievous and untrue. (But surely the proper thing to do in this situation IS to link plans for Mill Street to wider Port Royal and beach management? This is the joined-up thinking that Councillor Twiss and his colleagues say needs to be done)

Derogatory comments about EDDC’s ongoing and successful regeneration projects in Seaton and Exmouth take conspiracy theories to a whole new level of fantasy. (Oh wow – ask the residents of Exmouth and Seaton what they think of their so-called regeneration plans, Councillor Twiss. A big Tesco and non-affordable housing for Seaton. Exmouth – where a protest group is going from strength to strength as initial plans turn into luxury flats)

Building homes on the Mill Street site, if this did go ahead, would be part of the district council’s ongoing commitment to providing jobs and affordable housing for Sidmouth’s upcoming generation of school-leavers and young families and was entirely in line with the Government’s wish to see an end to a nationwide housing drought. (Er, no it isn’t – the Government just announced that it is dropping affordable housing from the requirements for developers – and as affordable rent is still considered 80% of the cost of non-affordable housing still well out of reach of Sidmouth’s young people).

MOVE FORWARD (er, not sure about that)

The Conservatives on EDDC want to see the district and its communities move forward, not stay stuck in the present or the past. They are following very carefully developed regeneration strategies in Seaton and Exmouth and these are based on years of careful study and prior consultation with the community. (See above – when consulted, both towns rejected EDDC’s plans – which went ahead anyway)

Ask fair-minded councillors in Seaton and Exmouth whether regeneration projects in their towns have been beneficial and you might get a different view from the jaundiced judgement of Ms Gardner. (Ah, fair-minded councillors – these seem to be anyone who agrees with Councillor Twiss!)

Sidmouth must not be left behind. We want to see a number of improvements to help the town move forward and we will resist any attempt by people like Ms Gardner to hold Sidmouth back. (Did you notice here that none of the so-called improvements are named? That’s because there aren’t any apparently!)

Any assumption by recently elected councillors that nothing happened before they arrived on the scene is both naïve and arrogant. A lot of good things are happening. These new councillors should make the effort to find out how hard members and officers have worked in the past and resist the temptation to be new brooms sweeping away good ideas just for the sake of scoring cheap political points. (Oh, Councillor Twiss – it is precisely because such a lot DID happen before they were elected that they got elected in the first place. Just why should new councillors be tied to the past and why should they not be new brooms – and just who is trying to score cheap political points here?)

Well done, Councillor Gardner – you must be doing something right if you have brought out the attack dogs so early in your councillorship! Keep up the good work for the citizens of Sidmouth! They needed someone like you and the district needs someone like you to hold power to account.

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24 Sep 2015

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Cranbrook, EDDC, Regeneration

EDDC advertises for a “Development Enabling and Monitoring Officer”

Oddly, this was found in a Plymouth newspaper and not an Exeter/East Devon one! When you get towards the end when the ad describes EDDC’s “vision” be careful you don’t have anything in your mouth as you might gag or choke … And isn’t this mostly what Mr Cohen – or his Development Manager Mr Rose – have been supposed to be doing?

Here is the text of the advert – the job pays circa “£30,000 – £34,000:

About the role Exciting things are happening here in East Devon, making it a very rewarding time to work at East Devon District Council. It’s also an incredibly busy time for the Council, with not only around 18,000 new homes planned for development by 2031, but also some major regeneration projects in place in Exmouth and Seaton.

In this brand new and unique role within our Major Projects team, you’ll play an integral part in the delivery of new housing developments across the East Devon district. As the sole Development Enabling and Monitoring Officer for East Devon District Council, you’ll be at the heart of managing and monitoring the progress of all major new housing developments, particularly the Cranbrook community.

Splitting your time between the office and each development site, you’ll be a vital line of communication between the Council and developers. You’ll build strong working relationships with the developers at each site, as you conduct regular visits to ensure that new housing is progressing in line with all planning permissions and agreements. And where any issues arise, we’ll look to you to investigate and liaise with the developer and colleagues to resolve issues that are holding back the delivery of the site or are likely to cause future problems or delays.

In this impactful and highly varied role, you’ll have the chance to really shape your role within the team, and make a lasting difference to the progression of new housing across East Devon.

About you

A driven and proactive individual, you’ve a solid background in building, surveying or planning, and a degree in any of these or another related subject. Confident and capable, you’ve exceptional people skills and while not afraid to be assertive, you’re able to build successful working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and developers.

You’ll also have a strong understanding of development viability modelling software, and a robust working knowledge of development economics and the planning system. Right now you might be working in a similar area of planning, looking to add a new, and more challenging dimension to this type of role. Fixed-term contract, two years.

About us East Devon District Council is ambitious for our district and our residents. We live in a beautiful part of the world, with much of our landscape falling into an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Nationally recognised research shows that East Devon scored top of all 325 districts in its quality of life score. Our appreciation of this quality of life runs through the culture of our council and is reflected in our ambition to keep East Devon an outstanding place to live and work.

As well as delivering great services every day, we plan carefully for a sustainable future by delivering quality jobs and good local homes for local people. Apply For further information and to apply, please visit

http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk For an informal discussion, please contact Chris Rose, Development Manager on 01395 517419, or by email to chroseeastdevon.gov.uk . Closing date: 9 th October 2015. Interview date: 23rd October 2015.

http://jobs.plymouthherald.co.uk/job/502161228/development-enabling-and-monitoring-officer/

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22 Apr 2015

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EDDC, Honiton/ Gittisham, Regeneration, Seaton/ Colyford / Colyton

Tesco losses – what implications for East Devon?

Tesco has announced its biggest annual loss ever – £6 billion, partly due to over-valuing their stores, reducing expansions and plugging a massive black hole in its pension fund.

For many years Tesco was EDDC’s darling – especially when it bought the entire Seaton regeneration site, with its promise of affordable housing (none), leisure facilities (none) and a hotel (none). They did, however, ensure that, with its size, no other supermarket chain would bother to try to open in the town.

In Axminster the company applied for planning permission to extend its edge-of-town store. This did not happen but again effectively blocked other supermarkets (including Aldi and Lidl) as Tesco could say there was more than enough trading space for the town.

In Honiton, they bought the industrial estate and attempted to relocate to a proposed mega-store again on the edge of the town. EDDC fought this one (with its Honiton-centric Cabinet mindful of their electorate) but had that gone ahead then it is doubtful if Lidl AND Aldi would have thought it worth building their stores. It’s large edge-of-town store has since bedn enlarged.

Edge-of-town superstores drain the life out of high streets and our independent shops and have now been shown to be a defective model. Tesco has shown us that, indeed, the Emperor didn’t have any clothes – as many people suspected. And some towns, where Tesco is dominant and based on the edges of the towns, have a failing white elephant on their doorsteps and not much else – and no chance of much else.

Perhaps some of their under-used space could now be released to communities for much-needed facilities such as playgroups or youth clubs or senior citizens clubs … just a thought. We don’t all have a (capital subsidised) Beehive and (subsidised and loss-making) Thelma Hulbert Gallery!

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6 Feb 2015

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EDDC, Regeneration

“Anchor stores”: regeneration or degeneration?

Tesco’s profits crisis means that plans for 49 shiny new stores have been ditched. Where does that leave places such as Kirkby, Bridgwater and Wolverhampton, where regeneration schemes linked to the supermarket chain now lie in ruins?
John Harris wrote a lengthy article in the G2 section of this week’s Guardian about two intertwined stories connected to Tesco’s financial crisis.

The first concerns the demise of what has effectively become Britain’s only viable model of regeneration, staking everything on an “anchor store”. This is the one size fits all policy EDDC uses. Does anyone out there have a clue what might replace it?

Here are some key extracts and below is a link to the full article.

“By the mid-1990s, this regeneration strategy was well established: base your plans on an “anchor store” and attract one of the big four supermarkets. If you were lucky, whichever store had designs on your neighbourhood might extend its proposals to an entire retail development, and perhaps assent to a so-called Section 106 agreement (a reference to part of the 1990 Planning Act), and build not just a big store and a handful of satellite shops, but something for the local community: a new library, say, or a public square.

If you were less fortunate, you would just get a bog-standard supermarket. Throughout the 1990s and all the way up to the crash of 2008 and beyond, this was how whole swaths of Britain were rebuilt, and Tesco led the charge, to the point that it sometimes seemed to be a wing of government, and some people began to fear the dystopia crystallised in the title of Andrew Simms’s best-selling book Tescopoly. Now, though, Tesco is in retreat, and its sudden withdrawal from scores of places has left behind resentment, anger and what feels like a strange state of shock.”

The other side of the story concerns the fate of places that had either pinned all their hopes on Tesco’s arrival, or opposed its plans from the start. Of his three examples of towns now blighted by abandoned Tesco sites (listed above), the one closest to home is Bridgewater.

“On a freezing Tuesday afternoon in Bridgwater, the Somerset town that sits next to the M5, 35 miles south-west of Bristol, I meet some of the people who have spent six years opposing the now-abandoned plans for their town centre. The first thing I see is a vast expanse of grey gravel, extending into the distance: what would have been a cluster of shops surrounding a new Tesco, on a site between the town centre and the old docks, and eating into a much-used park called the Brewery Field.”

“This used to be the site of a big leisure centre, the Sedgemoor Splash, built in 1991 and based around a huge swimming pool with slides and wave machines, which, say some locals, attracted visitors from as far away as South Wales. But in 2009, Sedgemoor district council announced it was to close, claiming it was losing money and in need of repairs. ……..”

“A replacement pool was promised, but it took more than three years to open, on the site of a school a mile and a half out of town, well away from most local bus routes. A facility for people with learning difficulties on Tesco’s intended site – owned by Somerset county council, which, for some reason, donated £20,000 to Tesco’s planning fees – also had to find a new home. Given that Bridgwater already has a Sainsbury’s, an Asda and a Morrisons – as well as eight other supermarkets of various sizes – there was widespread bafflement about why the town needed another. Party politics were also streaked through the story: though Sedgemoor council is Conservative-run, Bridgwater has a long tradition of Labour-voting, and local politicians felt the Tesco plan was yet another example of folly and stupidity being imposed from outside.”

“The borough council finally approved Tesco’s plans in February 2013. Then, at the end of last year, news leaked out that Tesco was not coming after all. For Labour councillors Brian Smedley and Ian Tucker, and Glen Burrows, a local woman who is one of the founders of Bridgwater Forward, there is a mixture of relief and seething frustration at how this story played out.”

““I’m glad; I’m really glad,” says Burrows. “But it was market forces that stopped Tesco, not the fact that we had a massive campaign, and we had all the arguments. The council should have listened to us, and they didn’t. That’s the biggest lesson: the fact that we’ve got a problem with democracy.””

Ring any bells?

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/03/betrayed-by-tesco-kirkby-bridgwater-wolverhampton-let-down-by-supermarket-regeneration
Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters (Paperback – 29 Mar 2007) by Andrew Simms. ISBN: 978-1-84529-511-0

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