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TONIGHT! Town Council considers latest amendments to Knowle plans. 6.30pm, Sidford Social Hall.

Public are welcome to the Sidmouth Town Council meeting at 6.30pm, Sidford Social Hall this evening, (Weds 16 November), where a strong debate about Knowle plans, and penetrating comments at Public Speaking time, are predicted.
The Town Council planning committee will be considering revised drainage and bat mitigation reports together with amendments to the design and footprint of building E and the associated landscaping at the Knowle.

As consultees,the Town Council will send its conclusions to EDDC (the planning authority) for consideration on December 6th, when the Development Management Committee (DMC) will make the final decision.

Public comments are overwhelmingly against the Pegasus Life Planning Application, ref. 16/0872/MFUL.
Objections are based on a long list of planning considerations. A sample is given here:

‘There are several reasons for rejecting the above application:
1 Local Needs – Assisted living homes fail to address balanced community as per Local Plan.
2 Overdevelopment – The Pegasus proposal far exceeds the 50 homes in the Local Plan.
3 Imposing Bulk – excessive volumes and heights tower over parkland and neighbouring houses.
4 Impact on Knowle Park – the outstanding vistas and terraced landscape will be eradicated.
5 English Heritage (EH) Listed Building – the setting and space around the monument will be totally destroyed.’

See also our recent posts; the Knowle archives here and on the futuresforumvgs blogspot; and of course the planning portal on the eddc website.


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Overdevelopment of Knowle could cause problems for town’s drains

Pegasus Life’s latest batch of amendments to their planning application, has provoked the following letter, sent to the local press:

‘Sir
Residents and businesses downhill from the Knowle should be alerted to one of the 28 documents that PegasusLife has added to their planning application for the Knowle site. The letter that heads their 215 page ‘On Site Attenuation Report’ (document 2464318 on the EDDC Planning pages) discusses arrangements to deal with potential flash floods in episodes of heavy rain. With heavy rain incidents likely to increase in number and intensity in the coming years, it becomes more likely that the lower parts of town are at risk of flash floods as the town centre drains are overwhelmed. This could be made worse by the over-development of the Knowle. In their original application PegasusLife planned to reduce the amount of rainwater going into the town’s drains by diverting excess water into soakaways. However, their latest ground survey has shown that the types of soil and their distribution means this is ‘not technically feasible’. An alternative solution was to install attenuation tanks (basically large holding tanks that drain slowly) near the existing car park and under the EDDC depot at the SW corner of the site. It turns out that these tanks would have to be so large to cope with predicted flows they would be difficult and expensive to build. PegasusLife make it clear in their letter they do not want to deal with this problem, partly because “it is not viable in terms of cost for the project”. Bearing in mind the huge profit the company stands to make by trying to cram more than one hundred apartments onto the site and trying to avoid contributing anything to affordable housing in the town by claiming their apartment blocks are care homes, this does not wash. Let us hope that EDDC is not so desperate to complete the sale that they let PegasusLife get away with this.
Ed Dolphin, Sidmouth ‘

REMINDER: Deadline for your comments on the 28 latest documents, is this FRIDAY 11th NOVEMBER. See our previous post for details.


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URGENT! Just two more days left for comment on latest revisions to Knowle plans. DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY (11/11/2016).

Please comment on latest changes to Pegasus Life planning application (quote ref. 16/0872/MFUL), not later than this FRIDAY 11 November by emailing planningcentral@eastdevon.gov.uk or writing to the Central Team at EDDC Knowle, Sidmouth.

Please send a copy to Heloise at Town Council on planningclerk@sidmouth.gov.uk .

Revised drainage and bat mitigation reports and changes to Building E are available on the EDDC website and can be viewed at the Council Offices at Knowle.

NOTE: Objections should be in your own words, and must be based on planning grounds, as in the submission below, provided as an example:

‘Amendments to the design and footprint of Building E and associated landscaping:

EDDC’s Chief Planning Officer’s concerns about the “bulk, scale and massing” * of Buildings D and E resulting from their forward projection as well as their impact on the listed summerhouse and his recommendation that “Building E be set back “ to the existing office footprint “to remove the harm to the setting of the listed building” have received only a token response from PegasusLife, with minor and mainly cosmetic changes that do little to address the issues. Although Building E has been set back a few metres it will be on higher ground and the equivalent of at least 60 feet high, dwarfing the listed folly. Its impact will be at least as serious as was the previous proposal, especially as ground levels will be raised as well. The two buildings D & E will dominate the park and in no way “tastefully ornament” the listed building. (The recent growth of vegetation near the folly is a direct result of neglect on the part of the Council. Until recently the listed building has enjoyed a spacious green setting and this should have been and should be maintained.)

Drainage:
The excessive number of apartments and the bulk and massing of the buildings, particularly those on the lawn terraces, together with the steep slope of the internal road leading to the car park and raised ground levels will exacerbate the flood/drainage problems referred to in the latest drainage report. Planting a few small trees will in no way compensate for the large ones chopped down .

It would be hard to find a more obvious example of overdevelopment and unsustainable development than this.

(* see letter from Tibbalds 4 August 2016, in Consultee Comments)’