Tonight’s Full Council meeting is at Knowle Council Chamber , starting at 6.30pm.

Will the Council take measures to ensure that members of its Development Management Committee, charged with planning decisions, are properly informed, and trained?

During the last DMC meeting, one of its members showed that he had not read crucial information about a major and very sensitive planning application  (by PegasusLife, for Knowle) . Astonishingly, he had no idea of the scale of the development (asking what area it covered) nor who it was for (he had only a vague idea that it was for ‘old people’..How old is old, he asked?) . With  this hazy knowledge, he voted in favour of the development, which was rejected by others who were clearly very well-informed not only about the minutiae of the planning application but also about its multiple infringements of East Devon District Council’s Local Plan policies.

Two other DMC members, including the Vice-Chair for the evening, wandered off into arguing why relocation was a good thing. The Chair made no attempt to check them, nor to  keep them focussed on planning considerations for this individual case.

More comment related to tonight’s meeting, and topical issues,  here: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/knowle-relocation-project-modern.html