This Petition was promoted by;-

• The Sid Vale Association
• The Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce
• The Sidmouth Hospitality Association,
• The Vision Group for Sidmouth.

SUBJECT OF PETITION
We, the undersigned, wish to register our strong objection to the EDDC Local Development Plan proposals for Sidmouth, which, in particular;-

• Promotes building within the AONB and specifically the creation of 12 acres of Employment land at Sidford.
• Omits mention of EDDC’s intentions to relocate from the Knowle and its subsequent use, but allocates 50 new dwellings there.

The Local Development Plan provides no evidence for the need for these proposals. We urge the EDDC to engage with the residents of the Sid Valley and to reconsider their overall strategy for the economy of the area.

PETITION DATES
The Petition collected signatures in a variety of locations in Sidmouth, Sidford and Sidbury, from May 5th 2012, until May 29th 2012 .

NUMBER OF PETITIONERS
3850 people signed the Petition, of which 2387 were from within the EX10 postal area and 1463 from outside it.

EFFECT OF PETITION
We hope that the number of signatures, when assessed against the total population of the Sid Vale Area, (c 14000) will encourage East Devon District Council to reconsider their plans for promoting building within the AONB, to incorporate in the Local Plan the effect of their intentions to move from the Knowle, to provide more information about planned developments at the East End of the town, and to provide robust qualitative and quantitative evidence for any proposals contained in the Local Plan.

Collecting petition signatures was just as busy as the previous week.

Locals who last week were not sure about all the issues, this week just signed straight away. The surprise was how many tourists wanted to sign up as they come to Sidmouth every year and did not want it spoiled by further development.

There were people who had come as toddlers and were now bringing their own grand children! One man had first ridden on the ‘Toast Rack’ sixty years ago and had been coming every year since. Visitors think of it as their Sidmouth just as much as the people who live here do.