Save Our Sidmouth

Category Archives: East Devon Alliance


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Councillors’ “fundamental responsibility to be impartial when deciding planning matters” glossed over by CEO?

A suggested New Year’s Resolution for EDDC Leadership is to ensure that DMC members and council officers behave with complete probity, and that Chairs are adequately trained to know what that entails.

The current conduct of some old-school DMC members,  and the attitude of the Chief Executive Officer, Mark Williams, are indicated in the following question from a member of the public.

Question to CEO Council Meeting, 21 December 2016
‘I would like to ask the Chief Executive two questions concerning comments made at the Development Management Committee DMC meeting on December 6th which are clearly audible on the recording.
I attended the meeting, and would congratulate most members of the Committee on a thorough and fair discussion of the issues and on a decision that was clearly justified by the evidence.
But, in my opinion, comments by a veteran member of the committee were unacceptable.
Councillors are expected to be completely impartial in their consideration of a planning application, especially where a council has a vested interest in that application.
As in this case where a refusal might “stymie” the relocation project.
Therefore, the Council’s wish to relocate was not a material planning consideration for the Pegasus Life proposal. Any mention of it should have been completely taboo at this meeting.
So it was shocking that a member of the committee considered it appropriate to declare that the current Knowle buildings were “not fit for purpose,” digressing at some length to tell what he said was a joke about lost souls wandering for years in the labyrinth of the old hotel.
A councillor who spends some minutes rehearsing one of the Council’s main arguments for selling the Knowle, and goes on to vote against refusal, is bound to appear biased!
Does the CEO agree with me that the council’s relocation project was not a material planning consideration in the Pegasus Life Application?

Will he therefore remind committee members that that in any future DMC meeting to determine a proposal to develop the site, reference to the council’s project should be strictly avoided?

Tony Green, East Devon Alliance (EDA) ‘

This and other clearly expressed concerns raised at public question time,  and the CEO’s response to them, can be heard in the recording on the EDDC website, at this link:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/council/council-minutes/

from 06:48 Sally Galsworthy, Exmouth (on £3m+ ‘road to nowhere’)

from 09:15 Laura Freeman, Exmouth (calling for Independent public consultation before further planning applications, and a rethink of the whole project, with genuine public engagement)

from 13:00 Alec Huett, Exmouth (Reviewing 7 years of costly Masterplan changes, and calling for priority of town centre, rather than seafront, development )

from 14:43 Richard Thurlow, Sidmouth (relocation budget a ‘dodgy deal’ )

from 17:15 Tony Green , Sidmouth ( Some DMC members allowed to display bias at planning decision meetings)

from 20:29 to 21:05 CEO Mark Williams responds to (5 x3 = 15 minutes of public question time).


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Turning our backs on 2016. Raising a glass to the New Year!

As the New Year approaches, some seasonal left-overs require some imagination. For SOS they include the turkey of EDDC’s relocation project, and the mincemeat that was made of the relocation budget, for its uncertainty and overspends, by Opposition Councillors and members of the public*, at the final Full Council meeting of 2016. That meeting (21 Dec, at Knowle) is pictured below, viewed  from near the microphone stand used for public question time. (See link  below**, for comments on this seating / speaking/ arrangement.)

fullsizerender

With seasonal irony, Sidmouth Town Ward  Member, Cathy Gardner (Leader of East Devon Alliance), spoke of a revelation by Deputy EDDC Leader, Andrew Moulding as “a miracle”.  She was drawing attention to  Cllr  Moulding’s surprise statement a few days earlier, (rather oddly included in a press release on Sidmouth’s beach management plan), that the District Council’s relocation project is “cost-neutral”.  Cllr Moulding, looking serious and possibly flustered, did not respond, and disappointingly was not asked to do so by the Chair, Stuart Hughes. But councillors and the public alike will presumably want to know what change has brought about this new “cost-neutral” stance.

No doubt all will become clear as 2017 unfolds..

Happy New Year to all who have contributed to the Save Our Sidmouth campaign (There’s a reminder of actions and progress timetabled on the OUR CAMPAIGN page). 2016 has seen curtailed two major developments planned for the Sid Valley : a large Sidford Business Park on a floodplain, with highways problems; and at Knowle, a change from major employment land to restricted (over 60’s) residential use.  The outcome may result in a more appropriate type and scale of development to secure Sidmouth’s  future as a unique, balanced community and tourist town. But SOS is very aware that the Port Royal and seafront ‘regeneration’, in EDDC’s hands, will be key.

So let’s raise a New Year glass to continued active public support for our new EDDC local representatives; to the Neighbourhood Plan Team born of the refreshed Town Council http://www.sidmouth.gov.uk/index.php/neighbourhood-plan ; and to all other Voluntary Groups, notably the  Sid Vale Association http://sidvaleassociation.org.uk and Vision Group for Sidmouth http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk  , and the recently established Sid Valley Residents’  group https://www.facebook.com/sayNOtoSidfordBusinessPark/.  All contribute to ensuring that those responsible for re-shaping the Sid Valley, led by Cllr Andrew Moulding, and Deputy CEO Richard Cohen, will get things right.

*https://saveoursidmouth.com/2016/12/22/eddc-relocation-has-hallmarks-of-a-dodgy-project-full-council-is-advised/

**https://saveoursidmouth.com/2016/12/22/eddc-majority-turn-their-backs-on-the-public-yet-again/


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EDDC majority turn their backs on the public yet again

Despite Christmas obligations, the public gallery at  yesterday’s Full Council meeting  was packed with people from Exmouth, Axminster , Ottery St Mary, and Sidmouth.

Of the six speakers at Public Question Time, four were from Exmouth, where the first speaker, born and bred there, told the Council, “You have succeeded where no other council has done, in motivating the people. I have never seen such public anger.” As she began her speech, appalled by the rows of councillors seated with their backs to her, and the rest of the public, she exclaimed, “Well, this is a first for me!”

One simple improvement for public relations at EDDC, would be to re-arrange the seating.

Another would be to (literally) face up to concerns expressed by the speakers. Instead, Chief Executive, Mark Williams, in his habitual fashion, simply rolled together the 4 separate speeches from Exmouth residents, along with the fifth one, from Richard Thurlow of Sid Vale Association, saying he thought they contained no questions for him to answer.

Which raises some questions….

More on last night’s meeting to follow.