BIMBY, not NIMBY: and development in the Sid Valley

Hugely controversial planning applications have been rejected by the Town Council:
Futures Forum: Sidford business park >>> Town Council planning committee unanimously rejects Fords planning application >>> 16/0669/MOUT >>> more reports
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project >>> Town Council planning committee unanimously rejects application 16/0872/MFUL >>> more reports

It seems that most people would like something 'beautiful' to be built instead:
Futures Forum: BIBMY >>> build something beautiful in my back yard

Yesterday's Herald carried a very pertinent letter on the subject - printed with permission:

BIMBY, not NIMBY

Sir

As Sidmouth confronts two face-changing planning applications, one for a business park on a floodplain,  the other for blocks of unaffordable homes at Knowle,  some of your readers would agree that “the identity” of our town, and the Sid Valley, is at risk. They might also agree with Roger Scruton (BBC Radio’s  ‘A Point of View’ this week), that “existing residents have greater investment in their own area, than any developers”.  His call for more BIMBY ... Beauty In My BackYard ... echoes what Save Our Sidmouth (SOS) and the Sid Vale Association (SVA) have been fighting for, for years.

Now the SVA’s Chair of Conservation and Planning, Richard Thurlow, has formally challenged the Environment Agency (EA)’s support for the Fords’ planning application at Sidford (Two Bridges Road,  ref. 16/0669/MOUT).  In a letter sent on SVA’s behalf,  Mr Thurlow asks the EA Regional Director to reconsider the decision, which he claims does not properly take into account the EA’s own advice on its revised figures  for future flood risk, nor the implications of those figures.  Factoring in climate change, the EA statistics for the southwest (published March 2016)  now show an alarming increase by 2080  in both river flow (by four times the volume ) and by surface water (double the previously predicted amount), after heavy rainfall. The SVA takes this so seriously, that legal action against the Environment Agency could be an eventual possibility.

The SVA letter cites Councillor Marianne Rixson’s consultee comment  on the planning application, which is in her Sidford Ward.  She points out that Flooding (who pays?)  and Beauty (who benefits?), can be measured in economic terms ... particularly where tourism is involved. 

Such a pity that Fords’ planning application, which includes  warehousing and general industry in the Sidford  Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), has scant regard for the BIMBY principles, too.

Jacqueline Green

Sidmouth 

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