Futures Forum: East Devon draft Local Plan is rejected: more reports
today's Herald carried the response from the Save Our Sidmouth campaign:
Home - Sidmouth Herald
Here is the full press release from SOS:
THE LOCAL
PLAN AND EDDC'S
A Government
requirement is that each Planning Authority must have a Local Plan in place; if
they do not all developments in that Authorities area are determined by the Government's
own "National Planning Policy Framework", (NPPF), which is heavily
biased towards development.
EDDC has
been preparing the Local Plan for East Devon over the last five years, and it
was submitted to a Planning Inspector in August last year. After errors in it
were corrected at the Inspector's request, the actual inquiry into it started
in February and finished in March. The Inspector has rejected it entirely and
has demanded that EDDC do much more work to substantiate their proposals for development.
Some
readers may have seen a Press release put out by EDDC which says that rejection
of LPs is not unusual, that EDDC expected it and that "the Inspector has
given EDDC more time to produce the LP".
This is a
considerable glossing over of the truth, as outlined below
The
criticism (put politely by Mr A Thickett, the Inspector,) is scathing.
He said
"Unfortunately I do not consider
that the Local Plan is sound nor at this stage can it be made so by main
modifications", He criticised particularly;-
> The
lack of robust justification for the number of houses proposed
> The "unreliability"
of support documents.
> The failure
to comply with the requirements of the NPPF
> That
evidence was not appropriate and not up to date
> The failure
to co-operate with neighbouring authorities
> The failure
to assess the necessary 5 years supply of housing land
> The
Plan was only valid for 12 years instead of the 15 years laid down by
Government.
He will
not comment on other issues, such as Sidford development, until EDDC resubmits
their Housing proposals.
Thus the Local
Plan has been rejected in its entirety.
All in
all, a shambles. Given that the housing figures underpin so many of the other
strategic policies, especially of employment land, all of those will need to be
revisited in the light of new assessment of housing figures. So effectively
EDDC must go back to the drawing board, and carry out an up to date Strategic
Housing Market Assessment.
EDDC have
not yet issued a timetable for the production of the revised figures, but they will
have to do so, since the Inspector has requested it. He says he is aware
that" this may take some time".
Thus the
District is dangerously exposed for the next year or so to the depredations of
Developers, since we don't have a plan in place.
The Local
Plan preparation demonstrates EDDC's shambolic and woeful performance. They
have had 5 years to produce their plan, and now they are back to square one.
EDDC must
now be considered to be seriously incompetent, rather than just incompetent as
we thought before.. This has been demonstrated by their involvement and support
of the biased Business Forum, by the disgraced former Councillor Brown's
presence on the planning scene, by EDDC's error strewn attempt to get Planning
for the Knowle, and by EDDC's original assertion that the 53 changes to the LP at submission stage were only
"minor", an statement which was comprehensively rejected by the
Inspector.
All of
these incompetances (and many more I suspect if we only knew the truth), cost
us, the taxpayers, a great deal of money
We need a
root and branch reform of EDDC; the dominant Cabinet must be voted out, as must
supine Councillors. The CEO should get a reprimand for permitting such
incompetence on his watch, as should his Deputy and the responsible technical staff;
otherwise we will continue to pay the price for their failures.
Save Our Sidmouth
.
.
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