East Devon District Council, (EDDC),  have once again deferred the decision to be made by their Development Management Committee, on their own application to build on the Knowle Parkland in Sidmouth, Devon. It will therefore NOT be discussed, as had been expected, at next Tuesday’s DMC meeting(2pm, 4th December at Knowle). 

The original application  to  demolish the existing HQ for EDDC and build 50 houses and a 60 bed Care home was made in August 2012, with a date of 9^th September for objections to the proposals to be submitted.

This Outline Planning Application was amended and re published on October 16^th, with a date of 16^th November for objections to the proposals. This was a very unusual event: Outline Planning Applications are amended only rarely. The cause was errors and deficiencies in the information supplied by the Applicant, (EDDC).. A new set of application documents was issued. 

The EDDC Officer’s Report recommended that the proposal be approved.

The Save Our Sidmouth Campaign, comprising the Sid Vale Association, the Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce  and the Futures Forum, examined these documents and again found numerous errors relating to the legal need for  additional environmental surveys and in the calculation of job losses. (As an example, EDDC stated that 33 jobs would be lost, but this used erroneous data and the figure is much higher). 

Because of these errors, once again the Application is to be re-advertised, a new Report is to be prepared and the Development Management Committee is to meet on the 8^th January  2013 to review the Application.

From Tuesday 4^th December, the revised report will be available at the Council’s website at www.eastdevon.gov.uk/publicaccess/ and at the Council Offices, Knowle, Sidmouth or Sidmouth Town Council Offices between 8.30am and 5.00pm. Comments on the revised report can be made through the website or in writing to the Council Offices (see address mentioned above). Deadline for comments:  Monday 17^th December. Mention the reference: HN3/12/1847/MOUT.

SOS has always opposed the application and said that additionally the support documentation and evidence base is flawed.

The fact that the OPA has now been advertised three times reinforces our views.