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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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Pegasus Life plans for Knowle..the big picture

As reported in today’s Sidmouth Herald, this week’s helium-balloon test and photos taken from points like Alma Bridge revealed the impact of the PegasusLife development not only on the public park and local residents but also far afield across Sidmouth.  EDDC Ward Member for Sidmouth,  Cllr Cathy Gardner (East Devon Alliance) has argued that the planned Pegasus Life development would be visible from both the areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) flanking Sidmouth to the east and west. And Mike Temple, a Sidmouth resident for over 30 years, emphasises that  “The visual impact from far afield will be worse than you might imagine, because many of the trees screening the existing buildings on the west side of the development will be cut down.” ‘
The following photos were taken on Monday 10 October, when a group of residents flew a (smiley) helium balloon at the height of proposed buildings on the Knowle terraces. dsc01381p1040708

To show the planned building heights and massing in the context of the local scenery, views were also taken looking towards the site from across the valley. They  illustrate how the present Knowle buildings sit low on the landscape.  In contrast, the replacement buildings planned by the developers would be highly intrusive and very visible from those same viewpoints, changing the townscape from several angles.

Knowle now, viewed from  Beatlands Road

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Knowle after planned development

Using the balloons as markers and the streetscene document from the Pegasus Life planning application, below is an approximate view of the proposed development as seen from by Alma Bridge overlaid on the existing building.

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Planned Sidford business park would be “a total disaster” for the Observatory, says NLO Director

At a packed Public Meeting last night in Sidford, past warnings from eminent astrologer, the late Sir Patrick More, and one of his most famous students, Brian May, were loudly echoed by the Director of Sidmouth’s renowned Norman Lockyer Observatory, Alan Green. Brian May and Sir Patrick More had signed the SOS petition four years ago, see https://saveoursidmouth.com/2012/09/21/dr-brian-may-signs-sos-petition/. But with the fuller information now known about the development actually proposed, Mr Green was scathing. Light pollution from a Business Park of the scale of the one planned at Sidford “could destroy the Observatory”, he told the packed Meeting, organised by residents from Sidford, Sidbury and Sidmouth, with the support of the East Devon Alliance. The focus of the meeting, Chaired by Cathy Debenham, was on information, such as the deadline for comments (this Friday 16th September); what counts as ‘planning considerations’; who will decide on the planning application (It’s EDDC’s Development Management Committee, DMC), and where (usually Knowle Council Chamber), and when (possibly at next DMC meeting in October, or November, but not yet confirmed). There was plenty of time before the start of the meeting to study the several information boards on display.
(Report to be continued..)