The following letter appears on the Opinion page in the current edition of the Sidmouth Herald (16th September 2016) :

“Sir

I have emailed the Chief Planning Officer at East Devon District Council urging him, for the following reasons, either to recommend refusal of the PegasusLife application to build a giant retirement complex at Knowle Park, Sidmouth or to call for the applicant to re-submit with major changes:

1.recently uploaded documents show that PegasusLife have ignored his and the public’s concerns about the close proximity to a listed building of two massive 60-foot high apartment blocks on the park lawns and also about the massing, scale and bulk of the development in relation to the public park and to nearby residential properties.

2.new photomontages from the applicant show that the Design Review Panel’s report (submitted earlier but upon which EDDC is minded to justify approval) is based on false artistic impressions. The attached photomontage, for instance, taken from page 26 of PegasusLife’s new Design Access Statement (document 2391416), shows the height of the proposed buildings on Knowle Drive to be roughly twice that suggested in the artist’s impression.

Michael Temple, Sidmouth’

SOS note: The author,Mike Temple,is a founder member of the East Devon Alliance, EDA, which since the May 2015 elections, has the lion’s share of the Independent Group at EDDC.