Knowle relocation project: of Tribunals, moving to Skypark and granting oneself planning permission

FROM THE ARCHIVE

It is very difficult to separate the issues around the District Council's relocation project.

Looking through the archives, we come to the issues of going to Tribunal over the transparency of the whole process - and the parallel desire of the District Council to move to... Skypark:

This is from September 2014:

Questions were raised this week at the tribunal in Exeter considering reports on relocation as to whether or not the District Council has indeed 'decided to move to Skypark' or not:
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: FOI request goes to tribunal: latest report... AND District Council puts Knowle on the market

These are from the District Council's own website:

Moving and Improving

Office move takes another step forward

Further research into the viability of the council's office relocation to SkyPark was given the go ahead by full council last night (26 February).

Council officers will now enter a further evaluation and negotiation phase with the preferred option of SkyPark. A report outlining whether the council should commit funding to the new headquarters is expected to be presented to cabinet and full council in July.

Councillor Paul Diviani, leader of East Devon District Council, said:

"Now we have full council's approval to enter further negotiations with the preferred option of SkyPark we can focus our attention solely on this site,

"SkyPark is firmly on East Devon soil and the location exemplifies the council's commitment to the Growth Point - this is an exciting emerging employment and commercial development location on the district which will help East Devon keep its promise to deliver a thriving, competitive local economy with quality jobs.

"As part of the office relocation we will be engaging with customers and stakeholders to ask then what particular services they would like to see provided elsewhere - to a greater degree than they already are if we press the button and decide to move to SkyPark."

A marketing exercise for Knowle and Manstone will now also get underway, as well as an investigation into options on re-provision of business space to succeed East Devon Business Centre. This follows full council's decision to offer the council's Heathpark site for redevelopment.

Capital receipts from Knowle, Manstone and Heathpark will be invested in the new headquarters so that the council keeps its commitment not to place any extra burden on Council Tax payers.

Back in November, cabinet shortlisted five out of 15 possible sites for new office accommodation. These were Cranbrook town centre, SkyPark, two sites in Heathpark in Honiton and Clyst House at Winslade Park. Apart from the two sites in Honiton, all other options were to the west of the district. Cabinet asked for further evaluation of these locations, including site visits, further work with developers and agents, an equality analysis, expert spatial analysis and additional intelligence. In January the Office Accommodation Member Executive Group considered the options - along with the option to stay at Knowle - and the top two scoring location were presented to cabinet. these were SkyPark and Clyst House, Winslade Park

Cabinet took the decision on 5 February to go with SkyPark.

If cabinet and full council commit funding to the new headquarters in the summer it is likely that the council would relocated towards the end of 2016

The latest edition of  East Devon Extra (180KB Portable Document Format - 27 February 2014 - PDF Help) gives further details.

Page last updated on 31 July 2014

East Devon District Council - Moving and Improving

This is from November 2015:

Over the question of whether or not the District Council could give itself planning permission - there were changes made to the Constitution:

On page 75 of the 2015 document, the change is:

NOTE - Where the Cabinet proposes carrying out development on the Council’s own land which requires planning permission the Cabinet shall submit its proposals to the Development Management Committee for decision.

The Development Management Committee having carried out the appropriate consultation through the Head of Economy shall then, if it is so minded, grant permission unconditionally or subject to such conditions as may be thought fit.

If after due consideration the Development Management Committee is not minded to grant planning permission then the matter shall be referred to Council for the Council itself to make a final decision.

Electoral-Review-submission-August-16.pdf

So, it’s the Honiton application which Cabinet will wave through. They can’t do that with the Knowle application, though... 

Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: planning application to be considered by District Council: Tuesday 6th December >>> “What is the point of a Local Plan?”

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