Coastal erosion exposes ancient peat beds on south Devon beach
The article goes on to say that nearby homes have started vibrating in bad storms.
And still all we are doing in East Devon is talk, talk more, report, talk more … upbeat press release … talk …
Push-me, pull you – what happens when a council says one thing and does another
A correspondent writes:
A report in this week’s View From Colyton reveals that while EDDC Leader Paul Diviani and their local district councillor Helen Parr claim proudly that places like are Colyton are secure from development beyond Built Up Area Boundaries because the Local Plan is nearly there, that is not what the Planning Inspector thinks.
“I can give no weight to the fact that the appeal site is outside the built-up area boundary, as the housing policies of the adopted Local Plan (including such boundaries) must, in the absence of a five-year supply of housing land, be considered out of date,” he states.
Doubtless encouraged by this, another developer just up the road has just announced an appeal to th e Inspector for 16 homes next to the Playing Fields APP/U1105/W/15/3137990. The Parish Council, somewhat muddily greased the wheels for this site by including it as developable in the last Strategic Housing Assessment process, and although they officially oppose the development for public consumption, at Monday’s Parish Council meeting they chose to do nothing at all to object further to the Inspector.
Meanwhile, the vast elephant in the room in Colyton, the huge disused Ceramtec site, seems to be of little interest to the Parish Council’s leading lights. Which is just as well for the landowners and holders of key strategic tenancies amongst them, and their associates, because the brownfield site has the obvious potential to meet the parish of Colyton’s housing land need for a generation. These same people are doggedly gripping the controls of Colyton’s tardy Neighbourhood Plan process.
Ring out the old, ring in the new, but when it comes to transparency there can be few places in Britain as deliberately opaque as Colyton Parish Council.
Has President Obama visited East Devon?
It sounds like it in his final “State of the Union” address where he pleads for an end to devisive party politics where political grandstanding and backstabbing just for the sake of it causes so many problems:
… “Obama warned that “public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention”
… As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background,” he said. “We can’t afford to go down that path. It won’t deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world. …
… The future we want – opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids – all that is within our reach,” he said. “But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics.
… A better politics does not mean agreeing on everything, he continued, “but democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens. It doesn’t work if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents are unpatriotic. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise, or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen only to those who agree with us.
“Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.”
To Democratic cheers and applause, he called for change to the electoral system, including an end to the practice of drawing US congressional districts “so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around”, reducing the influence of money in politics, “so that a handful of families and hidden interests can’t bankroll our elections”, and making voting easier, not harder.”
Conservative MPs say government has got rural funding wrong
“The Government “has got it wrong” on rural funding, Conservative MPs have admitted, as they continue their call for a fairer settlement for the South West.
MPs from across Devon and Cornwall have lambasted cuts to local authority budgets, warning that reforms to council funding could aggravate the urban-rural divide.
And they have urged ministers to “put it right” by increasing support and funding for rural communities while they have the Westcountry’s support.
The comments were made during Monday’s cross-party debate on local government funding, led by the Yorkshire MP Graham Stuart. The discussion follows last month’s funding settlements, during which Devon and Cornwall councils saw their budgets slashed. …”
Cranbrook Railway station – plenty of parking
Cranbrook railway station boasts a 150-space parking area. At lunchtime today there was a grand total of 13 cars and three people waiting on a windswept platform.
An off-peak return journey to Exeter is only £3.50 so it might well be worth using the station for park and ride.
The station is surrounded by sad, boggy ground, part of which appears to be some kind of park but is mostly very big puddles as several very large storm drains under the approach road to the station discharge their muddy water on it.
Still, it might be better in summer, if summer isn’t too wet or windy.
West Dorset: referendum triggered to change from cabinet to committee system
“A REFERENDUM on the future of governance at West Dorset District Council is set to cost the authority an estimated £95,000, councillors have been told.
Campaigners from the Public First group triggered the referendum after attracting more than 6,000 signatures calling for the vote to consider introducing a committee system as opposed to the existing cabinet style system. …”
http://m.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/14189628.West_Dorset_set_for_referendum_on_democratic_change_on_May_5/?ref=fbshr
Unfortunately, the council does not have to abide by the result of the referendum which makes one wonder why they were ever touted by this government as a vehicle for change. Especially, as it would be the cabinet which decided on what happens next. But good luck West Dorset – at least a start.
Sell everything before crash, says bank economist
“In a note to its clients the bank said: “Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small.” It said the current situation was reminiscent of 2008, when the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank led to the global financial crisis. This time China could be the crisis point.”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/12/sell-everything-ahead-of-stock-market-crash-say-rbs-economists
And still EDDC plumps for high growth and massive housing development.
Parishes offered up to £2000 each by DCC to spend on “flood resiliance”
Sandbags, tools, equipment, protective clothing, road signs … it won’t go far but better than nothing:
“For advice about applying for the grant, contact David Kinross at Devon Community Together, or visit the Devon Community Resilience Forum pages:
https://www.devoncommunities.org.uk/emergency-flood-resilience-grant.”
Heseltine (just put in charge of council estate regeneration by Cameron) thought that all council tower blocks had lift attendants …
“Sometime in the dim and distant 1970s I attended a housing conference chaired by the then Labour Environment chief Peter Shore.
Having listened to various speakers making promises they would soon break, a tenant rose up to complain that on his high-rise estate the lifts were out of order more often than not, which was a serious problem for mums with prams and the disabled.
From the back of the room then rose the unmistakable figure of Michael “Tarzan” Heseltine. “WHY”, he thundered, “did not the lift attendants do something about it?”
There was a stunned silence, as half the room were unable to digest what this tall golden-maned toff was saying, while the rest were too embarrassed to correct him.
… So now, at the tender age of 82, Lord Heseltine is to be in charge of Cameron’s latest conjuring trick: the transformation of leaden council estates into golden private housing. On Sunday morning the PM tweeted: “I’ll be talking to Andrew Marr about ensuring everyone has a chance to get on in life in the next few minutes on BBC1.”
… He may look, as a shining example, to the Heygate Estate in Southwark which Labour leader Peter John sold (at a loss of around £20 million) to Australian developer Lend Lease. Around 3,000 people lived in its large and light flats, although the council’s failure to maintain in properly resulted in it looking the worse for wear. The sale to Lend Lease will result in over 2,000 private homes – which are already selling well in Singapore – but fewer than 100 will be for social renting. Mr John has just received an OBE for his services to, er, ahem.
… As with Heseltine’s lift attendants, Cameron has no idea that most tenants who rent substandard homes on poorly maintained estates do so because they can afford nothing else. Most of them are on benefits, squeezed by the Bedroom Tax, benefit caps and “sanctions” – thanks to the efforts of Iain Duncan Smith – and often one payment away from the street.
How Mr Cameron intends to give them “a chance to get on in life” by destroying their homes remains to be seen.”
Environment Agency head resigns because he didn’t expect to be called on in an emergency if he was on holiday in Barbados
“Sir Philip Dilley has resigned as chairman of the Environment Agency following criticism of his decision to go on holiday to Barbados as parts of Britain battled severe flooding.
In his resignation letter, Sir Philip claimed he was stepping down because “expectations” of his role have changed to mean he has to be “available at short notice throughout the year”. …”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12093502/Sir-Philip-Dilley-quits-as-Environment-Agency-chairman.html
Wonder what globe-trotting Minister Hugo Swire thinks of this? Anyone seen him in the constituency recently?
Dinan Way, Exmouth: DCC enthusiastic
Coastal erosion at Sidmouth
Housing market collapse?
“House prices have broken free from reality and defied gravity for far too long, but they are an asset like anything else, and there are six clear reasons a nasty correction looms in the coming year.
Global asset price crash
Asset prices around the world soared as central bankers embarked on the greatest money printing experiment in history. While much of that money flowed into the stock market, a great deal also found its way into house prices. What we are now witnessing on trading screens around the world is the unwinding of the era of monetary excess, and house prices will not escape the fallout.
… There is a delayed effect on property prices because the market is so inefficient.
Transactions can take up to three months to complete and the property itself may have to languish on the market for even longer. The prices are also dictated by estate agents, who have an interest in inflating them to raise fees. The number of transactions is also still about 40pc below that of 2006 and 2007, which allows prices to stray from the fundamentals for a longer period.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/house-prices/12087971/UK-house-price-to-crash-as-global-asset-prices-unravel.html
The article goes on to cite other factors which could lead to a price crash: changes to the buy to let market, fewer international buyers, possible interest rate rises and a massive increase in household debt
Clyst St Mary Update
From the Save Clyst St Mary campaign
Firstly, on behalf of the Save Clyst St. Mary campaign, I would like to wish everyone a ‘Happy New Year’ and thank you all for your invaluable support during 2015. Believe it or not, it has been twelve month since we first got together and formed the group. During the year we have had many ups and downs, but so the balance has been in favour of the former; let’s hope that remains the case for 2016!
Local Plan
You may have read that the Local Plan (covering all of East Devon) has been inspected in great detail by HM Planning Inspectorate and is now deemed to be sound. It will now move to the Adoption phase which should protect the village from the onslaught of large scale, inappropriate planning applications on the extremities of of our village.
Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbour Plan which will protect the village itself is now in its final pre-submission Consultation phase (16 Jan – 1 March 2016). A copy of the draft Plan can be found on the Bishops Clyst Planning website at:
http://www.planning.bishopsclyst.co.uk
or you can go along to one of the open sessions as listed below:
– Clyst St Mary Village Hall Saturday 6th February 1pm-6pm
– Sowton Village Hall Saturday 13th February 1pm-6pm
– Cat and Fiddle Inn Wednesday 10th February 10am – 1pm
Fibre-optic broadband
Our village has taken all of the capacity that has been provided so there are no fibre lines free at the moment. I have been in contact with Openreach and they are in the process of arranging for a second green cabinet to provide an additional one hundred lines. Apparently this is not as straightforward as it may seem, so there will be some delay before they are able to offer fibre-optic broadband to residents requesting an upgrade.
Flooding at Winslade Manor
Thank you to all the residents who got in contact to tell us about the water cascading out of the grounds of Winslade Manor (Friends Provident). We alerted the Authorities and action was taken by both the Police and the Environment Agency to resolve the problem. We have since submitted photographic evidence to East Devon District Council as obviously we would not want the proposed new houses to flood!
The following Planning applications have all either been withdrawn or refused:
Cat and Fiddle Retirement Village/ Cat and Fiddle housing development/ application by Plymouth Brethren for 40 houses/ Solar Farm off Oil Mill Lane
6 Applications for 296 houses on Friends Provident Site:
This continues to be assessed by East Devon District Council and we still await the outcome. We have worked hard with Charlie Hopkins to ensure we present as strong a case as possible.
Thank you, once again, for your continued support (and patience when it comes to signing letters); we desperately hope that 2016 is just as successful. Please remember: as an individual, it really difficult to win a battle, but as a united community we can be a powerful force for good.
An Australian view on our new flood insurance system
It does not address one issue: why have developers of homes on flood plains developed before 2009 escaped responsibility for their mistakes (houses built after 2009 are not covered by this insurance, nor are business premises).
“In April [2016] the UK government will enforce a new fee on all home insurance customers that will require them to subsidise the insurance bills of people who continue to live in flood-risk areas.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the new levy — which functions like a tax on home insurance sales — is that poorer people, or those who choose to live in more modest houses on drier land, will subsidise the insurance for the largest mansions in the riskiest areas near lakes and rivers.
On its face, this sounds completely bonkers. People should be incentivised to move out of flood zones, not given insurance protection to stay there.
Britain has just been through the wettest December in recorded history, and at least 16,000 homes have been flooded. More than 100 bridges in Yorkshire alone now require constant monitoring because of the recent floods, and five bridges have been lost or damaged in Invercauld, Elland, Tadcaster, Copley, and Linton.
…
The Conservative government has been criticised by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for not spending enough money on flood defences.
Yet in April, a new insurance law will go into effect that launches “Flood Re,” a reinsurance company that will act as an insurer of last resort for consumer insurance companies that want to spread the risk of continuing to offer insurance to people in flood-risk areas. Those people would not be able to get insurance, or the insurance would be much more expensive, without Flood Re.
Flood Re will help cover the 1-2% of homes — about 350,000 houses — that are at greatest risk of flooding, according to the Association of British Insurers. The extra coverage will be paid for through a Flood Re levy on all home flood insurance policies, which will cost policyholders about £10.50 each, according to The Telegraph.
Initially, homeowners with houses in Band H and Band I of the council tax (i.e. the very largest houses at the high-end of the annual council tax charge), were not going to be covered by Flood Re. It was felt that rich people are rich enough to take their own risks. But that decision was reversed and now mansions near rivers will be covered by the universal levy on all homeowners with insurance. Flood Re says on its website:
The decision to exclude Band H homes was originally taken by Ministers who felt it unfair that lower-income flood risk households should subsidise higher income households. However, of course, the impact of a flood can be no less devastating for Band H and I homes and we welcome their inclusion in Flood Re.
The initial intent of Flood Re was a good one. It was supposed to provide temporary coverage for people while the market — and local government — figures out how to discourage people from living in houses near volatile bodies of water. To that end, the Flood Re plan will only last 25 years and it will not cover new houses, or houses built after 2009.
But the vast, vast majority of houses in the UK were built before 2009 and Flood Re will do nothing to stop people buying and selling property way too close the water for the next two decades.
Flood Re was criticised in 2015, when it was first making its way through Parliament, by the Committee for Climate Change, because it rewards people with insurance payouts if they stay in flood zones and suffer water damage:
Flood Re is set to provide too much subsidy to too many people, largely removing the financial incentive for flood damage to be avoided by high risk households. The decision to extend subsidies to the most expensive 1% of homes was a retrograde step, increasing costs and reducing further the scheme’s already poor value for money.
The chairman of Flood Re is former Conservative minister Mark Hoban.”
What happpens after Cameron bulldozes sink estates?
Sink estate demolished.
No council or housing association houses so people left homeless or dispersed into private rented accommodation.
Developers puts in plans for expensive houses where “affordable starter homes” means £400,000 (London) or £250,000 (rest of the UK).
Sorted.
Got to hand it to the man …
As explained in mote detail here:
” … These are not “affordable’”homes. They are worth up to 17 times the national average wage. For the government claiming “there is no money left” then to find billions to hand over to developers to knock up such expensive homes is an outrage. At a stroke, ministers have redefined affordable so that in the capital it now means nearly half a million quid. As the Highbury Group of housing specialists points out, that will enable big building firms to ride roughshod over the needs of local communities and the demands of local councils, and just throw up the most expensive flats they can get away with.
This is terrible policy and stupid politics. Come the 2020 general election, Mr Cameron may be able to claim he has encouraged the mass building of affordable homes – but voters, even Tory diehards, will not be able to afford the things. Some victory.”
Beware developer promises in East Devon: Donald Trump shows us why
Here in East Devon we have had our fair share of promises from developers – particularly promises about employment. The ” promised” jobs get built into ” economic growth” forecasts that fuel housing need predictions and then suddenly fail to materialise – though the housing figures never get adjusted to reflect the cuts.
Here we highlighted the difference between promised jobs and real jobs at the Exmouth Premier Inn – 50 promised, 25 delivered:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/12/10/jobs-at-premier-inn-exmouth-think-of-a-number-then-half-it/
And here with the relocation of the DPD depot from Sowton to Skypark 147 promised down to 35 delivered:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/12/07/skypark-jobs-now-you-see-them-now-you-dont/
and we note the promise that Lidl “will create 500 jobs” at the recently-sold Sainsbury’s depot site:
A timely reminder not to believe everything you hear comes from no less than US presidential candidate Donald Trump, who promised to inject around £1 billion pounds and 6,000 jobs into the Scottish economy and now threatens to cancel most of that if the UK government causes any trouble after recent racial comments.
Best estimates are that he has so far spent around £30 million and created less than 100 jobs:
“…Councillor Martin Ford was chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee when Trump’s planning application was received in 2006.
After using his casting vote to go against the plans, he was later sacked from the position.
Cllr Ford said: “Mr Trump promised everything under the sun and they were all ludicrous, ridiculous exaggerations which nobody should have believed. He said it was a £1billion investment but it was about £13million in 2011 – including buying the estate.
By the end of 2013, it had gone up to about £25million and, since then, he’s built a clubhouse and a few sheds. It’s pretty safe to say he’s spent under £30million.
“From the point where the plan was first announced, the amount of money and the number of jobs just kept getting bigger.
“Fewer than 100 jobs is a tiny fraction of what was pledged and promised. It is important to note that Trump has not built a golf resort – he’s built a golf course and clubhouse.
“He was going to build a 450-bed five-star hotel. He has instead converted Menie House into a small hotel.
“So you can see the pattern here – £1billion goes down to £30million, 6000 jobs go down to 95 and a 450-bed hotel which has something like six rooms.”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/donald-trumps-700m-blowhard-economist-7150504
Will our little corner of Devon buck world trends?
Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have predicted that 2016 and beyond are expected to see low growth in the world economy:
http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects
Yet EDDC STILL promotes ” high growth” as its template for our district.
Why?
What does Diviani know that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund don’t know?
The myth of “affordable starter homes” and why they don’t help, explained by an American!
This American business publication explains:
“… The starter homes will range on price because market pricing will depend where in the country they are being built and which builder is constructing them. The government will apply a minimum 20% discount to the house sale price for first-time buyers under 40.
The discount will then be applicable to properties worth up to £250,000 outside London, or £450,000 in the capital.
So even if you had 20% the price of a £450,000 home in the capital, people argue that this isn’t exactly “affordable” for the average Briton.
On BBC Radio 5 Live, Bogle [Paul Bogle, National Federation of Builders] pointed out that all the government’s plans to help the housing market is, in fact, making it worse in a lot of ways.
“We have a supply problem and a lot of the measurements that the government has done has focused on stoking demand,” said Bogle. “So whether it is Help to Buy for a new buy, first buy, cheaper mortgage rates and Funding for Lending for the banks that allow them to offer cheaper mortgages those will allow people to move into buying homes.
“So if you’re on the housing ladder that’s easy for you but trying to get on [the ladder], it’s going to be more difficult [because of increased demand] and your earnings aren’t increasing at the pace of house price increases.”
And Bogle has a point.
The government scheme Help to Buy means people can rustle up just a 5% deposit while the government provides up to 20% of the price of a home. This makes buying a house affordable for a whole new group of people and for those who don’t even earn that much. After all the average salary is around £30,000 ($45,360) a year.
Over the last few months, investment banks and housing experts have been warning about the huge gap between the pace of earnings growth in the UK and rate of growth in property prices.
In December last year, Liz Martins and her team at HSBC pointed out the huge gap.
So basically, everything the British government is doing right now, according to the experts, is doing absolutely nothing to help alleviate soaring prices or getting those in rented accommodation onto the housing ladder.”
