Save Our Sidmouth

Category Archives: EDDC


by Leave a comment

SOS update

SOS Committee, (Richard Thurlow, (Sid Vale Association),Chair; Alan Darrant (SVA); Steven Kendall-Torry; (Chamber of Commerce) ; Richard Eley, (CoC); Barry Curwen, (CoC) , Robert Crick, (Futures Forum); Jeremy Woodward, (FF); James Sharp, (Sidmouth Hospitality Association) HA), Kelvin Dent, (Knowle Residents’ Association), Matt Booth, (Drill Hall Campaign), Marianne Rixon, (Sidford Womens’ Institute), and Jackie Green,(Publicity) meet at irregular but frequent intervals to discuss issues affecting the Sid Vale.

Our two main concerns are the Knowle and the Local Plan.

The Knowle.

Following the rejection of the Outline Planning Application  for the Knowle at the Development management Committee, an open letter from SOS to East Devon District Council  was published in the Sidmouth Herald. This contained many questions to EDDC on the Knowle situation. It was sent also to each EDDC councillor.

EDDC replied to the members of SOS committee, (attached), and EDDC also published a letter supposedly answering SOS questions in the Herald.  The response was typically spin, neither directly answering or explaining their intentions in any detail.

SOS resolved to respond to EDDC by asking for further clarification.

EDDC are now in a quandary of their own making. The Knowle allocation of 50 houses is also contained in the draft Local Plan (LP). What do they do? Leave the Knowle in the LP and wait for the Inspector to decide? Resubmit a revised OPA at considerable extra cost? Relinquish any attempt to redevelop the Knowle?

If only EDDC had, at the beginning of this sorry and expensive saga, made clear the problems they say they are experiencing at their HQ, and invited groups of interested organisations to discuss options with them to seek a mutually satisfactory way forward, then much cost, anguish, and embarrassment might have been saved.

But EDDC in their usual, “we know what is best”, secretive, arrogant way,  decided to go ahead without any public involvement.

The Local Plan

Following the end of the Consultation/Representation period on the 14th January 2013, we understand that EDDC are compiling the Representations and expect to have completed this by the end of May 2013.

A report will then be prepared which will be sent to the Development Management Committee. This presumably will explain any changes to the Draft LP that the Planning Policy Team have made.

The CEO has said, (Scrutiny Committee meeting on the 28th March), that he expects only minor, (ie grammatical), changes. We have asked him to clarify this statement.

The LP is then sent to the Secretary of State, for him to appoint an Inspector to examine the Local Plan publicly.  The original intention was for this to happen in mid summer, with the LP, (amended or as drafted), made in early 2014. However the current progress clearly prevents this, and we believe that the Public Examination will not occur until early next year, 2014.

This clearly has implications for East Devon, since the current LP expired on March 27th 2013, and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)  now has precedence, This has been called a “Developer’s Charter” and we expect a number of housing applications over the next few months for Sidmouth.

We are writing to EDDC asking them to revise the LP before it is sent, to change the Knowle and to omit the Sidford Employment Land for the following reasons:

  • We believe that since EDDC itself has rejected the OPA for the Knowle, that it should be changed or removed.
  • We consider that there is absolutely no justification for including Sidford Employment Land. Extensive flooding is prevalent and traffic congestion will be severe. Moreover the size (5 Hectares = approx. 13 acres)  has been determined by erroneous calculations. We believe that we have a very strong case against it.

Meanwhile we continue to put pressure on EDDC, by asking pertinent questions wherever we feel that there is obfuscation.

If anybody needs any further explanation then please contact SOS Chair,  Richard Thurlow, at this SOS website.


by Leave a comment

Port Royal Developments

Part of SOS, the Vision Group for Sidmouth, has long been advocating community engagement for shaping the future of the eastern end of Sidmouth seafront. The aim would not be redevelopment (it is Environment Agency- rated Flood Zone 3)  ), but regeneration of this run-down area as a marine-focussed contribution to the life of the town. 

The latest report from the Port Royal Steering Group (PRSG), opens as follows:

‘At a brief positive meeting on Monday 25 March between STC Chair , Stuart Hughes, STC  Chair-elect, John Hollick, Town Cler, Chris Holland, and PRSG Secretary, Robert Crick, it was agreed that:

Sidmouth Town Council  will take the lead in engaging EDDC to develop positive plans on Port Royal using the PRSG document as a starting point’
The full report and the PRSG document can be found at http://www.visionforsidmouth.org


by Leave a comment

The Chief Executive, the Business Forum, and the LGO

This letter was sent to the Sidmouth Herald but was not published. As it contains information which may be of interest to SOS readers, it is reproduced here, with Tony Green’s permission. 

Dear Editor,
Your story “Call for Council’s Chief Executive to Resign” which appeared on page 7 of the Sidmouth Herald on 22nd March 2013, referred to me, and I would appreciate a fair opportunity to reply to some inaccuracies in the report.
It reported an EDDC spokesman as saying that the council did not intend to answer my call for the chief executive to resign because “We are not prepared to engage in a trial by hearsay conducted through the media”. He added that my complaints against Mr Williams “have been fully answered”. If a complainant was dissatisfied by the council’s own complaints procedure they could ultimately secure an ”independent review” of the complaint, a clear reference to the Local Government Ombudsman.
These statements are inaccurate and misleading:
The use of the term “hearsay” suggests my criticisms of the chief executive are based on rumour and therefore unfounded. In fact, my criticisms were the result of detailed research, and they alleged specifically that:
Mr Williams failed to respond to concerns, expressed by councillors and members of the public over several years, about the controversial influence of the East Devon Business Forum under the chairmanship of former councillor Graham Brown. Instead he described such concerns as politically-motivated.
The independence of the Council’s TAFF committee, set up to look “in depth” at the council’s relationship with the EDBF, has been compromised by Mr Williams’ interference in ways which I specified. These include giving dubious ‘legal’ advice that removed planning from their scope, and taking control of the agenda from chairman and committee.
My criticisms have not been “conducted through the media”.  I addressed them to the TAFF committee at their meeting of 12th March where Mr Williams was present. He chose not to answer them, and failed to respond to media requests for an interview.
It is untrue to say that my questions have been fully answered by the Chief Executive. He has not contacted me, nor has he addressed publicly my specific criticisms.
It is disingenuous of Mr Williams to suggest that an independent body will look at complaints if a complainant is dissatisfied with the council’s own complaints procedure. He knows perfectly well that the Local Government Ombudsman is prevented by law from considering the vast majority of complaints of maladministration against a council. The LGO can only consider cases where the complainant can prove a “personal injustice” and cannot look at matters which affect “all or most of the people in a council’s area.”
Tony Green, Sidmouth, 25.03.13