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Category Archives: EDDC


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Knowle: comments deadline extended to 7th February.

Good news received today from a correspondent:

‘I’ve just called EDDC and spoken to someone in planning who pointed me to this:
That is, under ‘Important Dates’ then ‘Expiry Date’ it says that we’ve got until next Thurs 7th to comment on the Knowle OPA, which might be very useful.’


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Knowle: Are the documents in order for EDDC’s Outline Planning Application?

SOS has grave doubts, as expressed in this latest message (30 Jan 2013)  to EDDC’s planning office:

Dear Mr Freeman,
Thanks for your reply.. You have not convinced me;
  • The Davis Langdon report was prepared by a very competent firm; I know them well having worked with them. They would not have underestimated the costs of refurbishment. They could not take the risk.
  • DL have already assumed that the costs of refurbing the old building will be higher than the new building.
  • There is no evidence that Thom Lister carried out a more thorough survey and analysis than DL;
  • I do not agree with you that the costs of refurbing the old and the new buildings are in proportion to their floor area. The old building is far more difficult to refurb and convert than to take the shell of the new building and update it. It was after all built in 1974.
You think that the costed figures presented in the OPA are not compatible and so do, I whatever they are (either the DL report or the TL report). Therefore they should be made so before the application is considered.
I think that the public are being led astray by inadequate and poorly presented data. Instead of approaching the issue in a planned sensible way, the applicant has prepared some estimates which bear little or no relation to the requirements. What is needed is ;
  1. A good estimate of the costs of refurbing the old building to either apartments or offices, (only the latter has been cursorily examined by TL
  2. A good estimate of the costs of refurbing the new offices to a modern standard, if indeed they are not already
  3. A good estimate of the costs of building a new additional office block if the size of 2 above is not sufficient.
  4. The costs of maintaining the building, (s), and the equivalent lower costs in the new building in Honiton
  5. The equivalent costs of the annual operating costs
We would all be reassured then that EDDC was not confusing all the figures, purposefully or otherwise. As it is we are all very suspicious of the “intentions” to move to Honiton, which appears to be the driving force.
Thanks for your time
regards
Richard THurlow
Chair SOS


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Knowle: IT hitch at HQ, with documents for public consultation

This problem, encountered by SOS members yesterday, prompted a second e-mail to Anna Herbert at EDDC (8.40 this morning), and the immediate response (8.45). They are copied below, with permission, for your information:

Dear Anna,

This morning I have tried to open doc 1068552 which you say has 15 pages but with no success.
However I can open the December Impact Assessment Doc 1053230 which has 45pages.
I am not attempting to download this file simply to open it on the EDDC planning website.
It appears to me there is a fault with the EDDC system here.
I am copying to others to see if they are having similar difficulties

Regards

Graham Cooper

 

Dear Mr Cooper

I have again reported this to our IT department and asked them to let me know the outcome.

Regards
Anna

Postscript from SOS: a)Most people who are working will not have the chance to go to the Knowle offices to look at the documents, which is the alternative offered

b) Are the documents on view at Sidmouth library? (This particular outline planning application concerns major changes at  the town’s biggest employment site)