The EDDC official programme is now on the web site and is:

Provisional relocation/Knowle sale timetable
This overall timetable is for guidance only as it may be subject to delay, depending on planning related matters.
• June 2015 – East Devon is due to exchange contracts with Pegasus Life Ltd – the developer which has been selected to purchase and develop Knowle. Pegasus specialises in providing retirement homes and extra care facilities, for which there is huge demand in Sidmouth.
• July 2015 – design team due to be appointed.
• September 2015 –construction contractor due to be appointed.
• May 2016 – Heathpark and Exmouth (if necessary) planning applications to be considered.
• June 2016 – Pegasus planning application to be considered.
• July 2016 – Council will review planning decisions.
• August 2016 – Work due to begin on Heathpark and Exmouth town hall.
• October 2017 – Council due to move offices

Note from SOS: This means a 15 month construction and move programme for the new offices at Heathpark; quite a commitment.

Is the ‘huge demand’ for Pegasus-Life style housing and faclities evidence-based, or speculative? A neighbourhood plan for Sidmouth is urgently needed, if a well-balanced future community is to be built.

The old guard of EDDC Councillors (with a few new faces) have this week refused the new Independent Councillors’ call to delay relocation for six months to enable proper consideration of what MP Hugo Swire has called “more intelligent ways” of using the Knowle site.

But could EDDC, literally, profit from ‘intelligent’ options from Opposition Councillors and from the public , such as two cited here, summarily dismissed at the June 3rd meeting?

1. Cllr John Dyson’s suggestion that twin sites at Exmouth and Sidmouth (newer offices only) could be a more cost-effective way forward. The increasing real estate asset of the Knowle site, and mature parkland, would not be damaged.
2. SOS member Richard Eley’s suggestion that there is a strong economic case for excluding the main car parks from the sale to Pegasus, arguing that the car parks would provide a lucrative income stream for EDDC, and offer a huge boost to Sidmouth’s economy. He compared the car parks, a low maintenance high income asset, with the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton which he described as ‘haemorrhaging cash to the tune of £150,000 per annum’ and being an expensive old building to maintain. He recommended that the Gallery be sold and the Knowle car parks retained, estimating that EDDC would be better off by at least £200,000 per annum. He then used EDDC’s own statistics to demonstrate that retaining the car parks would bring 30 jobs to Sidmouth’s economy and boost town centre income by £1.6 million per annum.

Are our majority Party representatives wise to put their trust wholly in unelected officers, to the exclusion of public expertise?