Save Our Sidmouth


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Architecture competition launched for Sidmouth’s eastern town

An independent initiative by a young architect who went to school in Sidmouth, is described below. It will be of interest to Save Our Sidmouth supporters, as it may create a consultation culture which will assist in the re-shaping of our town, thus facilitating both the Neighbourhood Plan now being prepared by Sidmouth Town Council, and consequently, the Local Plan.

‘An international architecture competition is being launched as a way to expand thinking around the redevelopment of the eastern town and raise awareness of public opinion of how the area should be developed. This novel idea could raise the profile of the town and spark debate.

The competition will be organised and independently co-ordinated by Henry Beech Mole, Associate Director of local practice RBM Architects. He will be supported by local residents and representatives of key groups coming together to form the Eastern Town Partnership. Cathy Gardner and Marianne Rixson are pleased to give support to the project and will help put the group together, to advise on and guide the gathering of information and the development of the competition brief. “If you are approached by someone brandishing a clip board in the Port Royal or Mill Street area, please don’t turn away! We’d like as many people as possible to give their views and get involved in this project” said Cathy Gardner, “It’s also important that this project is seen as complementary to any work done for the Neighbourhood Plan, which will start early in 2016.”

“We hope to engage residents with proposals that we would not have come up with on our own”, said Marianne Rixson, “The opportunity to work with award-winning architects does not come along very often; it’s a great opportunity for Sidmouth”. Cathy and Marianne are two of the ward members representing Sidmouth on East Devon District Council.

This first phase of the project will be to gather data and opinions from local residents, community groups and businesses in order to develop a coherent and community-driven vision for the area. This will inform the development of the brief for an open international architecture competition, where architects, designers, and artists can propose a new vision for the eastern side of town.

The information-gathering exercise will start immediately and continue into the New Year. The first consultation is now open online and closes on 31st January. To get involved please visit http://www.easterntownpartnership.com/

 


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Jan 6th 2016, Knowle…Cabinet will hear report on Eastern Town Scoping Study for Sidmouth.

Public are welcome to attend this important Cabinet meeting, at 5.30pm on Wednesday 6th January.
Richard Cohen, EDDC Deputy Chief Executive , will report on the Eastern Town Scoping Study, which is to be jointly funded by Sidmouth Town Council (£2,000) and East Devon District Council (£8,000).

EDDC website gives details as follows:

‘Purpose of report:
The Port Royal vicinity at the eastern end of Sidmouth seafront is an area that does not meet the high standards of visual or amenity quality of the rest of the town. There is general acknowledgement that the area requires development and renewal. In partnership with Sidmouth Town Council and as principal landowner, EDDC is proposing to undertake a scoping exercise to investigate ways forward that can bring about investment and development to renew the area and create a high quality mix of uses.

Recommendation:Cabinet recommendations as follows:
1.EDDC will work with Sidmouth Town Council to prepare a brief and commission appropriate professional consultancy to scope out the detailed work required and options to fully plan the tasks and process required to achieve the regeneration of Port Royal
2.To add to the offer of £2,000 from Sidmouth Town Council a sum of up to £8,000 from EDDC’s existing towns regeneration fund
3.To delegate responsibility to take forward this project to the Deputy Chief Executive in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Development and Partnerships
Reason for recommendation:
To respond to a request from Sidmouth Town Council to work in partnership on the renewal of a key location on and behind the town’s seafront.
Financial implications:
The financial details of this initial stage are included within the report. Reserves are held to accommodate this spend as indicated (£8,000).
Legal implications: There are no legal implications arising at this time. However it is advised that legal input is obtained at an early stage if regeneration proposals are progressed.
Equalities impact Low Impact
This is a scoping exercise and, as such, will mainly precede detailed planning work and consultation that should address equalities impact issues. This exercise will include consultation with local organisations.
Risk Low Risk
Links to background information:
Link to Council Plan:
This is very much a first stage investigation but with a desire to lead on to a successful renewal of the eastern end of Sidmouth’s seafront. As such the longer term objective will link to all the Council Plan priorities in relation to living in, working in and enjoying East Devon and Sidmouth in particular. A regenerated Port Royal will be a benefit to our residents, visitors, businesses and local work force.Report in full
EDDC will work in partnership with Sidmouth Town Council to commission and manage a scoping exercise for the renewal of the Port Royal area of Sidmouth. It is expected that the work will take no more than two or three months to start and finish. This will not be a major planning exercise at this point in time but a precursor to identify key information such as land ownerships, boundary options and reflect on any previous plans and investigations into the area. Without going into too much detail at this stage (a detailed plan would need to follow) the scoping exercise will want to reflect on technical and sensitivity issues related to the location of Port Royal including design, engineering, environment, flood management and World Heritage Coast concerns.
The consultants will be expected to propose a forward plan of action to achieve the best quality development outcome. This will include recommendations toward boundary definition, ideas about what Sidmouth would benefit from, a range of options possible for development, market intelligence, the approach to a development plan eg a Masterplan process. We would also expect a timeline and action plan for next steps. Lastly, the consultants would be expected to advise, potentially on a confidential basis, on financial aspects of a renewal scheme for Port Royal. This would include the spend required to take forward a development plan and what would be a potential capital receipt outcome. Whilst the question of a boundary will be considered within the scoping exercise it should be reflected that there are a number of existing buildings and uses that will need to be considered:
•Lifeboat station
•Sailing club
•Boat park
•Drill Hall
•Public toilets
•Fish sheds
•Highways and turning circle
•Public realm and green space
•Car parking
•Leisure centre
Some uses will wish to remain and need to be close to the sea and others are not so important. For example maritime uses such as the lifeboat station and sailing club are important assets to the
town and part of the attraction of the seafront. Sidmouth Town Council has approved £2,000 toward a scoping exercise. EDDC has existing budget previously approved under town regeneration budget and this report proposes a sum of up to £8,000 bringing a total of £10,000. The District Council is the major landowner in this partnership. Until we have secured bids for the work it is difficult to be exact about the cost of 85 proposals but £10,000 seems a reasonable ceiling to set and with the expectation that a competitive bidding process will secure the best value proposal. Subject to Cabinet agreement to EDDC responding favourably to Sidmouth Town Council’s approach, the agreement of Cabinet will give authority to the Deputy Chief Executive in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Strategic Development and Partnerships to commence discussions with Sidmouth Town Council and take forward the detailing and delivery of a scoping exercise. The findings of that exercise will be reported back to the two Councils with a view to
determining what happens next. ‘


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Councillors still waiting for release of Knowle relocation papers

A question at this week’s Full Council (16/12/2015) revealed that some Knowle sale documents have still not been made available to Councillors,despite the Tribunal ruling earlier this year.

Here is the question put to EDDC Leader, Paul Diviani, by Councillor Marianne Rixson (East Devon Alliance Independent, Sidmouth-Sidford Ward), with the answer received.

“Since 26th May 2015, more than 35 emails have been exchanged regarding release of all documents relating to the sale of the Knowle.
The last release of documents on the Members’ secure site was up to and including July 2015. An undertaking was made on 27th November to release documents to the end of October. We are still waiting. When will all documents finally be made available to all Members?”
Answer:
“The Council has committed to the public availability of documents wherever possible and that includes relocation papers. We receive many requests externally and from councillors for information and make best use of officer time to manage those requests.
In the case of relocation papers these have collectively and individually required detailed scrutiny by a number of officers to check confidentiality and completeness.
We have published many documents relating to our relocation plans going back as far as 2008. The first set of documents was published in early September 2015 and the remainder bringing us up to date will be published before Christmas. In other words, in the space of only 4 months officers have been able to collate, review and publish nearly eight years worth of documents on top of their other responsibilities.”

Cllr Rixson’s supplementary question to the Leader
“Your response that the Council receives ‘many requests externally and from councillors for information’ is disingenuous. Members are entitled to see these documents and, if they were routinely uploaded after each meeting, they would be immediately available. This should take no time at all as redaction is not necessary for Members. Your claims that these documents have ‘collectively and individually required detailed scrutiny by a number of officers to check confidentiality and completeness’ before publication are spurious.
Mr Cohen’s response dated 8th September to me stated, ‘Following the creation of this record of past documents, I am looking to publish key relocation documents on a more ‘real time’ basis .’ Why, despite this promise, is this still not happening? Will you fulfil this undertaking in future?
Finally, what does the Council Leader think that these continued long delays in releasing information that should be in the public domain do for his claims to be ‘open and transparent’?”

The gist of the Leader’s reply to the supplementary question, was that Cllr Rixson was criticising officers. This doesn’t seem to be the case.

Some background, from EDDC website:

Council prepares to release documents that sparked tribunal

6 May 2015

Council prepares to release documents that sparked tribunal

‘Lessons will be learned from conduct of appeal after chairman’s criticism

East Devon District Council has started making preparations to release documents containing background information about the proposed move of the council’s offices away from Knowle.

This follows a ruling by an appeal tribunal, calling on the council to divulge the information, but recognising the council’s case that some sensitive words or passages should be blocked out – or ‘redacted’.

Whilst welcoming the tribunal’s recognition that there was some justification for withholding certain types of information, the council will, as instructed, now move to make public all six documents – with those redactions.

A council spokesman said:

> We respect the tribunal’s decision and will of course abide by their verdict. We are sorry that the tribunal chairman found our conduct of the appeal to be unhelpful.

> It’s quite clear that lessons need to be taken away from this experience. These lessons can and will be learned and steps will be taken at the very earliest opportunity to look at the conduct of our appeal.

> In any form of partnership working, each partner has to respect the commercial sensitivity of certain information. This can be a difficult balancing act and we have to reflect on the fact that in this case we may not have got that balance right. We will therefore be reviewing our approach to protecting confidential information and we will be introducing new steps to improve transparency.

EDDC is currently reviewing all relevant documents with a view to publishing those that the tribunal has called for, plus any others that are no longer commercially sensitive.’

Finally, a further reminder of the Tribunal findings here: https://saveoursidmouth.com/2015/05/05/tribunal-qc-makes-special-mention-of-discourteous-and-unhelpful-conduct-of-the-appellant-eddc/