Save Our Sidmouth

Category Archives: East Devon Issues


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‘EDDC is ordered to make Knowle information public’, Sidmouth Herald reports

From today’s Sidmouth Herald:

‘A transparency regulator has given district chiefs one month to reveal details they have tried to keep private on their move away from Sidmouth.
Campaigner Jeremy Woodward submitted Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to East Devon District Council (EDDC) about the decision to sell the site of its Knowle HQ to PegasusLife. When the authority refused to release some documents, he appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO has now ruled that the authority should release ‘full, unredacted’ details of the agreement it entered into with the developer, the price it is prepared to pay,as well as minutes of meetings and correspondence on the decision to award the contract.
Back in 2014, EDDC was ordered to reveal the details of documents it preferred to keep secret – but instead chose to contest the ICO ruling. It lost at a tribunal and was ordered to release a tranche of key documents on its relocation project.
Mr Woodward, whose FoI request led to the 2014 battle, said: “The question now is whether the council will again contest the ICO’s ruling.
“This goes to the heart of how the council operates.
“As the ICO says in its ruling, this is very much an issue of transparency.” The ICO ruled that EDDC should release the conditional price PegasusLife is prepared to pay for Knowle, but not details of the build cost for the authority’s new HQ at Honiton, as this could affect its ability to negotiate with contractors.
It said the case is about the council‘spending public money on its own facilities, for its own purposes’.
The ICO said: “[EDDC] has argued that it needs to change offices as, overall, doing so would save the public money compared to staying in its current offices.
“The public, however, cannot know whether this is true without further information being open for them to scrutinise.”

PegasusLife hopes to build a retirement community of 115 homes at Knowle, with some facilities open to the public. The site is allocated for 50 homes in EDDC’s Local Plan.
The planning application is set to go to its development management committee next month.

An EDDC spokeswoman said: “The council has received the decision from the ICO and is considering the content.” ‘


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Further 28 documents on Knowle submitted by Pegasus Life. Deadline for comments 11th November 2016

The District Council has received more amendments to the Planning Application (ref 16/0872/MFUL) for Knowle. They consist of Pegasus Life’s revised drainage and bat mitigation reports, together with amendments to the design and footprint of building E and the associated landscaping.

DEADLINE for COMMENTS is FRIDAY 11th NOVEMBER, 2016.

The plans and Design Access Statement show (a) that Building E is moved very slightly north with planting around it (not a major change) and (b) Pegasus are arguing that the summerhouse is already shrouded in vegetation (how has this occurred?) and that views from the south will remain largely unaffected. The revised Drainage and Bat statements are lengthy, requiring close attention.

Please note that the 28 new documents are proving slow to download from the EDDC website http://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online- applications/. Alternatives,and instructions for commenting, are given in this extract from the notification e-mail circulated by EDDC on 28 October 2016.(NB.Highlighting in bold added by SOS):

‘Alternatively, they can be seen at the Council Offices, Knowle, Sidmouth between 8.30am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday. If you wish to make any representations about the proposal, you can do so on the website or write to us at East Devon District Council Offices, Knowle, Sidmouth quoting the application no. 16/0872/MFUL by 11 November 2016. Please mark the letter for the attention of the Central Team and copy your letter to the relevant Parish or Town Council. You should be aware that any comments raised will become public knowledge.’

Contact for the planning team : planningcentral@eastdevon.gov.uk Tel: 01395 516551


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Knowle relocation project: BREAKING NEWS >> >>> Information Commissioner tells East Devon District Council to publish documentation

Details just posted on http://www.futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk .

EDDC has of course already clashed with the Information Commissioner. In 2015 EDDC not only lost its Appeal to keep certain Knowle documents secret, but was severely criticised for “at times discourteous and unhelpful” conduct.

The ‘SOS Press Release on Tribunal decision’,  dated 5th May 2015,  puts today’s breaking news into context. Here it is:

In 2013, Jeremy Woodward, (SOS, (Save Our Sidmouth)), asked East Devon District Council, (EDDC), to release reports prepared by their Project Manager relating to the Relocation of their Knowle Offices. The reports contained information about the costs, programme and background to EDDC’s “ambition” to relocate their offices.
EDDC refused our request, , saying that this information was confidential. We appealed to the Information Commissioner, who ruled in our favour, saying that as the reports were prepared by an external consultant they should be released.
EDDC appealed against this decision, and the case went to a legal Tribunal which heard oral evidence in August 2014. After much further correspondence from EDDC , the Judge leading the Tribunal, in a Decision letter dated 5th May has ruled in our favour, saying that the Information Commissioner was correct in his interpretation and that information must be released. He is still waiting though for further information from EDDC so that he may make a judgement on the full extent of the disclosures.
In his judgement the Judge, B Kennedy QC says, “This Tribunal takes the unusual and unfortunate step of commenting on the conduct of the appeal itself. We are unanimous in our view that this appeal has taken much longer than it should have done and the reason for this seems to be the failure on the part of the public authority, the appellant, to address itself with sufficient attention to the details of what information and documents it was supplying to the Commissioner and ultimately also to the Tribunal….Correspondence on behalf of the Council, rather than ensuring the Tribunal was assisted in its function, was at times discourteous and unhelpful…… We believe this appeal could and should have been dealt with completely at the hearing in August 2014 and the decision promulgated six months ago had the Council discharged its responsibilities properly.”
EDDC has spent over £11,000 of public money in fighting this case, money which could have been spent on much more worthwhile and productive activities.
Throughout our campaign against the relocation of the Knowle we have continually been battling against EDDC errors, deliberate obfuscations and a refusal to examine rational options. A decision to confirm the relocation was made by the Council in late March 2015, based on what we still believe are very doubtful foundations.
We fully endorse the Judge’s conclusions on EDDC’s behaviour not only related to this particular event. We believe that EDDC personnel involved should be considering their positions.
Richard Thurlow, Chair, Save our Sidmouth