Futures Forum: CoVoP Day of Action in Sidmouth: Sunday 12th April
This is part of the Community Voice on Planning's campaign
“Listen to the People’s Voice on Planning”:
Community Voice on Planning | A National Alliance to provide communities with an effective voice on planning, enabling them to protect their greenfield and green spaces.
The Express & Echo carries the story:
East Devon demonstration in protest of “the way housing is forced upon us”
By Exeter Express and Echo | Posted: April 07, 2015
A DEMONSTRATION is being staged in East Devon this weekend in protest of “the way housing is forced upon us”.
Statistics compiled by the East Devon branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England reveal that over the last four years across the district, more than 200 homes have been approved within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), more than 2,500 houses have been approved on prime agricultural land, and in excess of 2,600 houses have been approved on greenfield sites.
On Sunday, April 12, at various locations countrywide, members of the Community Voice on Planning – a national consortium which campaigns against disproportionate developments “of the wrong size in the wrong locations” – will demonstrate against the planning system as part of a national Day of Action.
In East Devon, with the tag line, “listen to the people’s voice on planning”, a demonstration will commence at 3pm on the terraces outside the East Devon District Council offices in the parkland at Knowle, Sidmouth and all are welcome to attend.
The event has been organised by two East Devon trustees of the group, Ian McKintosh and Mike Temple, in affiliation with the Vision Group for Sidmouth and support from the East Devon Alliance and Save Our Sidmouth campaign groups.
Kicking off at 3pm, people are invited to join in and find out more about the initiative and hear speeches by parliamentary candidates Andrew Chapman for UKIP, Caroline Kolek for Labour, Stuart Mole for the LibDems, Independent Claire Wright and Paul Edwards for the Green Party.
The group believes that the countryside is suffering as a result of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework, which has an emphasis on sustainable development.
In East Devon, there are concerns that until East Devon District Council’s Local Plan document is in place the countryside is not safe from development.
After years of consultation and meetings, and a Government inspector last year ruling that the document was “unsound with serious evidential failings”, East Devon District Council has finally resubmitted its Local Plan document for approval, which sets out where 17,100 homes could be built between 2013 – 2031.
The document sets out parameters for development including recommended housing numbers and where they should be built, but until passed, development remains unrestricted.
Campaigners are also concerned that the recommended 950 houses a year, instead of the previously predicted 750, is too high.
Mr Temple, said: “Here in East Devon we’re suffering from the effects of a double whammy of issues – the Government’s planning system that’s pro-development and giving licence to rampant development on greenfield sites, and the lack of a Local Plan which is giving the green light to developers in an area of which is two thirds AONB.”
The group has also launched a petition calling for an end to “unrestrained development”, https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/covop2015
East Devon demonstration in protest of “the way housing is forced upon us” | Exeter Express and Echo
Here is the petition at 38 degrees:
LISTEN TO THE PEOPLES VOICE ON PLANNING
TO: HOUSING MINISTER
We, the undersigned, call for an end to unrestrained development; it is undemocratic, unsustainable, unnecessary, and will cause lasting damage to the character of the country.
Why is this important?
We want the Government to amend the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to:
1. ensure that development is preferred and prioritised on brownfield sites.
2. protect green areas of special value to local areas.
3. allow all permissions to be counted as part of the 5 year supply definition.
4. give greater weight to heritage, ecology, and culture
5. ensure that developments are sustainable and that adequate infrastructure (roads, public transport, schools, health facilities and leisure facilities) are built in time to meet the needs of the first resident as well as the last.
6. give communities the same rights of appeal as developers in planning law.
7. accept that the expectations for the production of Local Plans in the allotted time-scale were unrealistic and allow a further period of grace to those local authorities that are still struggling to achieve this.
Listen to the Peoples Voice on Planning | Campaigns by You.
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