Beach Management Plan: businesses oppose seawall and stakeholders demand clarity

There is still no consensus about how to protect Sidmouth's coastline - and still not enough cash to pay for whatever solution is finally decided on:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: still a funding gap of £3.3million

The latest Herald carried a piece which will have emanated from the District Council - and which sought to give the impression that a clear direction has been decided on:
Sidmouth sea defences could cost double the £9m expected as part of the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Scheme | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

However, the last press release from the District Council was in September last year:
21st September 2017 - 'Council’s new coastal erosion and flooding consultants introduced to Sidmouth BMP steering group'

Although the link is actually dead: 

Press releases about the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Plan - East Devon

The last piece of news from the District Council was a year ago, when that figure of £3.3 million appeared - to be paid by "Sidmouth businesses who profit from tourism in the town, or residents who would be better protected from flood or erosion":

East Devon has allocated a further £300,000 towards the future scheme costs, however it would put an unacceptable burden on Council tax payers across the district to provide the remainder of the £3.3 million funding alone. Sidmouth BMP’s £300,000 is included in the Capital programme draft budget...

So in order to help the scheme move beyond summer 2018, when the Outline Business Case (OBC) is expected to be completed, East Devon will shortly be writing to all the residents, businesses and infrastructure owners who will benefit from the scheme. For example, this could be Sidmouth businesses who profit from tourism in the town, or residents who would be better protected from flood or erosion.

15 January 2018 - Sidmouth BMP steering group receives progress update from East Devon’s consultants Royal HaskoningDHV - East Devon

However, things have moved on since then - with the only remaining members of the Steering Group who are not statutory bodies being:  Cliff Road Action Group, Vision Group for Sidmouth, Sid Vale Association, Sidmouth Sailing Club, Local Fishermen and Sidmouth Lifeboat:
Steering Group - East Devon

Meanwhile, most of these feel their perspectives and concerns have not been taken into consideration - to the extent that the Chamber of Commerce and ward District Councillors have resigned:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: "There is widespread scepticism of the process and little regard shown to the local understanding of what the real issues might be."

There are two specific proposals which cause concern:

RAISING THE SEAWALL:

The District Council is pushing for a very obtrusive seawall:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: a 'preferred option' is an extra half-a-metre high wall along Sidmouth's promenade

Whilst sea levels are indeed rising due to climate change:
Futures Forum: Waves are getting higher, threatening coastal residents

... local businesses have made it very clear that they do not see the solution in raising the seawall:

Do you believe that a seawall along the Esplanade would be positive or detrimental to the town?

Positive – 4 (8.9%)
Detrimental – 37 (82.2%)
Unsure – 4 (8.9%)

Futures Forum: How to revive the health of Sidmouth's high street >>> East Devon MP's survey results

BREAKWATERS VS GROYNES:

According to the latest Herald: 

At a recent steering group committee, additional offshore breakwaters were discussed and it was explained again that although the breakwaters may present a more robust solution technically, they would come at almost double the cost.

The cost has been re-examined recently by consultants Royal HaskoningDHV and they have confirmed that the previous costings as part of the Beach Management Plan were correct.

Sidmouth sea defences could cost double the £9m expected as part of the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Scheme | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

It is not clear exactly which scheme for additional breakwaters was re-examined by consultants Royal HaskoningDHV.

Either the over-engineered option 4 of groynes (from Halcrow and the District Council's 'preferred option'): 

Or option 4b of rock islands (preferred by the non-statutory bodies):

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: breakwaters rather than groins/groynes

In particular, it is not clear if the new estimate included the re-use of the rocks from the existing rock groynes:

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: "In the long-term, we need to build more offshore breakwaters across the front and these could be semi-submerged so that they would not be visible for most of the time."

At a Steering Group meeting last year, a report was presented detailing possibly significant errors in engineers Halcrow's measurements of the erosion rate at Pennington Point - with the consultants Royal HaskoningDHV committing to check the impact of any such errors on the project.

Watch this space...

See also:

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: Local stakeholders welcome project consultant's report >>> Options S4 and S4b "technically preferred"
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: 'technically favoured' option or 'preferred' option - and 'preferred' by whom?
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1819: Peterloo... and Sidmouth

The 'Peterloo Massacre' happened in Manchester two hundred years ago:

Peterloo Massacre - Wikipedia

Mike Leigh's film 
Peterloo review: Mike Leigh’s cudgel for a massacre | Sight & Sound | BFI

... will be showing in Sidmouth this Tuesday:
https://sidmouth.scottcinemas.co.uk/film/peterloo 

Should it be seen as 'a key turning point in British history'?
The bloody clash that changed Britain | News | The Guardian
The left’s romantic view of Peterloo is wrong | Comment | The Times

The poet Shelley certainly thought so at the time:
The Peterloo Massacre and Shelley’s Great Poem The Mask of Anarchy - LawNow Magazine

... and referenced the Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth more than once:

The Masque of Anarchy

The first nine stanzas annotated

As I lay asleep in Italy

There came a voice from over the Sea,

And with great power it forth led me

To walk in the visions of Poesy.

The poem is a dream, like the dream visions in Chaucer or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Yet in the first verse we also have the sense of Shelley being woken from the unreality of his life in Italy.

I met Murder on the way -

He had a mask like Castlereagh -

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven blood-hounds followed him:

Viscount Castlereagh, leader of the Tories in the Commons, was a spokesman for the harsh measures of political repression that followed the Peterloo massacre. Note that "Murder" is like Castlereagh, not the other way round: individual politicians are reduced to personifications of eternal vices.

All were fat; and well they might

Be in admirable plight,

For one by one, and two by two,

He tossed the human hearts to chew

Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Shelley's friend Leigh Hunt praised his "union of ludicrousness with terror" – as in this blending of apocalyptic vision with pantomime.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,

Like Eldon, an ermined gown;

His big tears, for he wept well,

Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

Lord Eldon was lord chancellor. He decided the fate of Shelley's children by his first wife, Harriet, after her suicide – refusing Shelley custody because of his "immoral and vicious" principles. Eldon was renowned for weeping even as he pronounced the harshest of sentences.

And the little children, who

Round his feet played to and fro,

Thinking every tear a gem,

Had their brains knocked out by them.

A stanza echoed in WH Auden's Epitaph on a Tyrant: "when he cried the little children died in the streets".

Clothed with the Bible, as with light,

And the shadows of the night,

Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

On a crocodile rode by.

Viscount Sidmouth was home secretary and defended the Peterloo massacre. He evokes shadows because he was in charge of the government's secret service, and is "clothed with the Bible" because of his apparent piety: he was an advocate of church building.

And many more Destructions played

In this ghastly masquerade,

All disguised, even to the eyes,

Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.

A typical Shelley list, the "spies" recalling Sidmouth's network of informers.

Last came Anarchy: he rode

On a white horse, splashed with blood;

He was pale even to the lips,

Like Death in the Apocalypse.

Shelley explicitly evokes the Book of Revelation: the three British lords and Anarchy are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kingly crown;

And in his grasp a sceptre shone;

On his brow this mark I saw -

'I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!'

Like the Mark of the Beast in Revelation on the one who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Anarchy in Peterloo: Shelley's poem unmasked | Culture | The Guardian

Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, had his seat at Upottery:
Landed families of Britain and Ireland: (44) Addington of Up Ottery and Erleigh Court, Viscounts Sidmouth

The man is somewhat villified today - but his correspondence is preserved here as part of the South West Heritage Trust:
The Sidmouth Collection – South West Heritage Trust

The story will be coming to the Sidmouth Folk Week later this year:

In its bicentennial year, The Road To Peterloo tells the story of one of the most notorious incidents in British labour history – the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ in Manchester in 1819 – through some of the many broadside ballads that were printed around the time of the event. 

Three singers and musicians from North West England – Pete Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth – trace the story from its roots in the poverty and hunger suffered by handloom weavers in the early 19th century. With songs describing the terrible events of the day itself, and the later political developments inspired by the carnage.

The Manor Pavilion – The Sidmouth Folk Festival
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Beach Management Plan: still a funding gap of £3.3million

There is not much faith in the Beach Management Plan process:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: "There is widespread scepticism of the process and little regard shown to the local understanding of what the real issues might be."
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: and the consistency of the frustrations faced by the volunteer stakeholders >>> steering group to meet tomorrow, Thursday 10th May

The District Council declared last year its 'preferred option' for a Beach Management Plan at Sidmouth's eastern end:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: 'technically favoured' option or 'preferred' option - and 'preferred' by whom?

This was not the 'preferred option' of the local stakeholders:

Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: breakwaters rather than groins/groynes

The point being that these would not be so obtrusive - and actually not so expensive:
Futures Forum: Beach Management Plan: "In the long-term, we need to build more offshore breakwaters across the front and these could be semi-submerged so that they would not be visible for most of the time."

And so the consultants for the BMP were asked to cost this scheme - although they didn't actually cost the scheme with the less obtrusive offshore breakwaters: 

Sidmouth sea defences could cost double the £9m expected

PUBLISHED: 10:34 01 February 2019

Daniel Clark

The preferred option to protect Sidmouth from erosion. Picture: LDRS

Offshore breakwaters to protect Sidmouth beach from erosion would be more robust, but cost double the predicted £9million for the preferred scheme.

The Sidmouth and East Beach Management Scheme will add a new rock groyne on East Beach, import new shingle onto the beach, and raise the existing splash wall along the rear of Sidmouth promenade by 50cm (approximately 19 inches).

The current estimated cost of the project is around £9milion over its entire lifespan - around £5.7million is expected to be funded by central government, leaving a funding gap of around £3.3million.

At a recent steering group committee, additional offshore breakwaters were discussed and it was explained again that although the breakwaters may present a more robust solution technically, they would come at almost double the cost.

The cost has been re-examined recently by consultants Royal HaskoningDHV and they have confirmed that the previous costings as part of the Beach Management Plan were correct.

Royal HaskoningDHV also presented some of the more detailed outline design drawings they are now working on, which have been developed with the use of 3D models to help ensure that costs for the volumes of rock and shingle are estimated accurately.

Additional surveys are being carried out along the seafront to help inform the outline design of the splash wall.

The proposals also include improving maintenance access onto East Beach for future recycling and replenishment.

Royal HaskoningDHV’s thorough tests and methodical approach has resulted in a proposal to recharge the beach with a 10 metre flat section at the top, and a suggested increase in the height of the splash wall of up to 0.5 metres from its existing level, with sections of lower height where the beach is less exposed.

Cllr Tom Wright, stakeholder group chairman and portfolio holder for the environment, said: “It was good to meet with the group following the successful public exhibition event and to continue to hear their views and to keep the community updated as the scheme moves forward.”

Alex Lee, technical director from Royal HaskoningDHV, said: “We enjoyed having the opportunity to update the statutory bodies and local community on our progress so far, and to explain the work that has gone on behind the scenes.”

A council spokesman added: “Raising the height of the splash wall is a proposal that will continue to be considered very carefully as the outline design progresses. In addition, East Devon will ensure that adequate allowance is made for enhancements to the wall in the forward funding case.”

The scheme’s aim is to maintain the 1990’s Sidmouth Coastal Defence Scheme Standard of Service, as well as to reduce the rate of beach and cliff erosion to the east of the River Sid (East Beach) in an integrated, justifiable and sustainable way.

The next steps of the project are to finalise the ‘preferred option’ and obtain approval for the ‘outline business case’ that is required to obtain funding for the ‘detailed design stages’. It is expected to be submitted to the Government by the summer and if approved, work could begin in 2019.

Sidmouth sea defences could cost double the £9m expected as part of the Sidmouth and East Beach Management Scheme | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
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Strategic planning and the Axminster Masterplan >>> >>> "Is this how the wrong sort of housing so often gets built in the wrong place?"

At this week's Strategic Planning Committee meeting, the grand finale was the consideration of the GESP:
Futures Forum: How to sell the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and its 2,661 new homes a year > offer a 20,000-capacity sports stadium
Futures Forum: What's wrong with the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan > "Huge housing growth does not appear to correlate with very modest job growth."

The evening opened with consideration of the Masterplan for Axminster:

7 Axminster Masterplan (pages 15 - 87) 

This report seeks member endorsement of a masterplan for the development of an eastern urban extension to the town of Axminster incorporating the delivery of a relief road.

But everything's fine, because the chief beneficiaries of any such development are the very same developers who have been asked to put together the report: 

This report seeks Member endorsement of a masterplan for the development of an eastern urban extension to the town of Axminster incorporating the delivery of a relief road. The masterplan has been produced by a team of consultants who were commissioned by the Council in partnership with Persimmon Homes and The Crown Estate who are the main land owners/developers with interests in the site. The masterplan has been the subject of consultation and engagement with the community which is summarised in the attached report. 

290119 strategic planning combined agenda_opt.pdf

However, many would consider the 'engagement with the community' as somewhat lacking - as covered in both the following report from a correspondent present at the committee meeting - and a speech by an Axminster resident: 

Strategic Planning pitfalls? 

‘At Tuesday’s Strategic Planning Meeting at Knowle (29 /01/2019), chaired by Paul Diviani, the masterplan for increasing Housing in Axminster by a whopping 30% , was voted through almost unanimously (there was one abstention), despite serious cross-Party criticism of the plan.



As the debate ended, the considerable number of Axminster residents in the public gallery were astonished to hear the Chair's quip, to Cllr Jill Elson, “ I felt confident that you would come out with something that would stir things up”.

Cllr Elson (shown on right of the photo, beside Cllr Philip Skinner), had argued firmly that “the problem with plans is that they change” , citing her Ward as an example. "Exmouth ended up with two huge estates with no play space or amenities whatsoever”, she said. Cllr Mike Howe (Con) shared her concerns, saying, (the masterplan) “doesn’t give us much credence or security that we will get the right houses”. But the Deputy Leader of the Council, Philip Skinner (Con ), expressed his view that “Give and take is needed in negotiations with a developer”. Shortly afterwards, when Cllr Geoff Jung (East Devon Alliance, EDA) observed that the plan might not suit young families, it became apparent that Cllr Skinner was not aware that the proposal to include a primary school had been dropped.

Cllr Eleanor Rylance (Lib Dem) had noticed significant typing and other errors in the masterplan document. Cllr Rob Longhurst (Independent) observed there was no mention of the words 'Neighbourhood Plan’ in the document.. although Cllr Moulding had told the meeting that he had designed one for Axminster... and suggested this Strategic Plan Committee would like to see "if the community wants and needs" the masterplan. Cllr Susie Bond (Independent) asked for clarity about the legal implications for the Council if the costs for the relief road "went through the roof” (So far, EDDC has agreed to borrow £7m to ensure the road, estimated cost £16.7m, can be delivered.)

Ian Hall (Con) admitted “this masterplan doesn’t sit easily with the residents of Axminster”, which Alistair Ferguson’s speech in Public Question Time , confirms. The text is reproduced below, with Mr Ferguson's permission.






In support of the objections, other District Councillors, Cathy Gardner and Marianne Rixson (both EDA), also attended the meeting, though not on the Strategic Planning Committee themselves. 

Cllr Gardner pointed out that agreeing to a massive increase in the town’s housing numbers "would not be for the right reasons", if it was done primarily to fund a relief road. The masterplan "was being done to the people of Axminster, not for them", she said. And Cllr Marianne Rixson added that “delivery of affordables does not have a good record” in East Devon.

Having listened to the comments aired, Cllr Geoff Pook (Ind) cautioned the committee not to be "persuaded by the opposition". "There are just as many people in favour”, he opined.

Finally, the fear that the time-limited government funding for the relief road would be missed, therefore putting in jeopardy the 650 homes allocated in the Local Plan, swayed the committee members to approve the masterplan, albeit with caveats based on their misgivings.

Is this how the wrong sort of housing so often gets built in the wrong place?

In Axminster’s case, how much will the masterplan impact on the historic former deer park? As Cllr Mike Howe, Chair of the Development Management Committee (DMC) told yesterday’s meeting, there’s an urgent need to know….'

290119strategicplanningcombinedagenda_opt.pdf
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What's wrong with the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan > "Huge housing growth does not appear to correlate with very modest job growth."

The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan asks the obvious question then gives its own answer: 

Why do we need to build more houses?

Partly, because the Government says so, but partly, because there is a demand for more housing that needs to be met.

Futures Forum: How to sell the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and its 2,661 new homes a year > offer a 20,000-capacity sports stadium

The East Devon Watch blog has just put together a very convincing counter answer: 

ARE THE WHEELS FALLING OFF THE EAST DEVON GROWTH WAGON?

30 January 2019

This is necessarily a somewhat technical summary of why Owl thinks EDDC has got its recent past and future jobs and housing numbers terribly wrong, and attempts to pinpoint why this is. If the assumptions below are correct East Devon cannot hope to match new jobs to housing number increases and hence to aspirational growth figures.

It has huge implications for the district – not least Cranbrook and Axminster, where huge housing growth does not appear to correlate with very modest job growth.

CURRENT STATISTICAL TREND 258 JOBS/YEAR
EDDC’s 2015 aspiration 950 jobs/year
EDDC’s “Jobs-led policy on scenario” 549 jobs/year
Ash Futures (Experian) “Upper end” 309 jobs/year
Ash Futures “more likely” scenario 200-234 jobs/year

Evidence from the first set of job growth statistics published by EDDC since the adoption of the local Plan are running at less than half the number used to justify the housing development target. This is only one quarter of EDDC’s aspiration to create one job per new household or 950/year.

A “Jobs-led Policy On” aggressive growth strategy lies at the heart of EDDC’s Local Plan for 2013 to 2031.

Consultants were employed to create a number of scenarios forecasting growth in jobs. They ranged from 162-191 jobs/year for forecasts based on past trends to a top estimate for above average “jobs led” growth of 309 jobs/year. This top estimate would justify a housing target of 13,050 for the period.

One of these consultants, Ash Futures, gave cogent arguments as to why this figure, in their opinion, lay at the upper end of likely growth and proposed a more modest, more realistic, set of growth assumptions generating 200-234 jobs/year. This more likely scenario was never converted from a jobs forecast to a housing assessment but it would have been just a bit higher than the 10,512 figure based on past trends. All these forecasts took account of demographic changes, migration into the region and economic growth.

Ignoring this, EDDC decided to add a further 240 jobs/year to the upper end 309 figure in a new “policy on” scenario to provide a total forecast of 549 jobs/year. (Something to do with Cranbrook but the details of this and whether there is any double counting remains a mystery). This 549 job/year figure was ultimately used to justify the final 17,100 minimum housing target for the 18 year period of the Plan adopted in 2016.

The plan requires a minimum average build of 950 houses/year. EDDC’s aspiration is to combine this with the creation of one job for every house built. But this demonstrates a complete failure to understand demographics and household formation. The need for houses and the need for jobs is not a simple equation of one with the other.

Papers attached to EDDC’s Strategic Planning Committee for 29 January 2019 (see footnote) contain data for East Devon employment covering 2009 to 2016. The explanatory text says: “It is recognised that it is an aspiration of Members [surely not every Councillor?] to deliver one job for each new home across the district but since the adopted Local Plan does not set out to deliver this it is not considered appropriate to formally monitor the relationship between the delivery of homes and the delivery of jobs.”

Here’s why – the real evidence, from the data, is of jobs growing at an annual rate of only 258 jobs/year.

This figure confirms the more modest forecasts presented by Ash Futures and, inconveniently for EDDC, is less than half of that used to justify the “Jobs-led Policy On” housing targets. It is only a quarter of the one job per house aspiration of “Members”.

Where does the 258 job/year trend come from? It is the gradient of the best fit linear regression trend line to the data given the Strategic Planning Committee and shown in the graph below. The full data source is referenced in the footnote.



This is a relatively small sample; and the extent of the fluctuations in the recorded number of jobs from year to year can be seen in the graph. For the technically minded the correlation coefficient of the trend line is 0.6, which is quite a strong one.

All the job number quoted above are for “full time equivalent” jobs (FTE).

Owl has been fortunate to find from the same official source as used by EDDC a set of estimates of the total number of jobs in East Devon which extends the time series to 2017. The significance of this is that the total number of jobs in East Devon fell between 2016 and 2017 and so we can expect the same to happen with FTEs. As a result Owl feels even more confident that the trend line shown above, despite the sample size, reflects what is actually happening.

The Local Plan has been in preparation since 2002 and EDDC has been following a growth policy for many years. So, although 2013 marks the formal start of the Local Plan, there is no statistical evidence to consider 2013 a “turning point” for job growth, though it does look to be an outlier.

With EDDC’s plan to build houses running ahead of creating the jobs needed for a sustainable community, just who are we building all these houses for?

Isn’t it time to cool the building programme, not ramp it up as Owl fears is being planned in the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan?

One of the key architects to all this is Councillor Paul Diviani. When asked at a recent council meeting why East Devon is taking all this development replied: “Because we have got the land, and we are good at it”.

Footnote: The combined minutes, agenda and reports of the Strategic Planning Committee with the job data for 2009 to 2016 on page 116 can be found here:
http://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/2744658/290119strategicplanningcombinedagenda_opt.pdf

Are the wheels falling off the East Devon growth wagon? | East Devon Watch
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How to sell the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and its 2,661 new homes a year > offer a 20,000-capacity sports stadium

Forget the East Devon Local Plan:
Futures Forum: A new East Devon local plan will have to implement the strategy set out in the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan by 2023

It's now all about the GESP:

The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan - A development plan for the future of the Greater Exeter area

Here's a handy guide from the press:

What is the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and why does it matter?

Mid Devon, East Devon, Teignbridge and Exeter City Council, in partnership with Devon County Council, are teaming up to create the GESP.

Daniel Clark Local Democracy Reporter
31 JAN 2019

The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP) is the major strategic blueprint for the area around Exeter. Mid Devon, East Devon, Teignbridge and Exeter City Council will all be working in partnership with Devon County Council, teaming up to create the GESP.

It will only look at where housing developments larger than 500 homes could go, with the aim of building 57,000 new properties cross the four council areas. Across the Greater Exeter Area, 2,661 new homes a year will need to be built, with 885 in East Devon, 777 in Teignbridge, 636 in Exeter and 363 in Mid Devon.

There are also ideas to include where an indoor sports stadium and concert arena with a capacity for 20,000 people could be built 

When adopted, it will sit above Local Plans for each area which will continue to be prepared to consider local level issues.

Neighbourhood Plans will also be promoted so communities can continue to be empowered to make the detailed planning decisions for the benefit of their area.

Why do we need to build more houses?

Partly, because the Government says so, but partly, because there is a demand for more housing that needs to be met.

Across the Greater Exeter Area, 2,661 new homes a year will need to be built, with 885 in East Devon, 777 in Teignbridge, 636 in Exeter and 363 in Mid Devon.

The draft GESP will be published in the summer of 2019 and will include the strategic site allocations and district figures.

What is the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and why does it matter? - Devon Live
A plan that could mean thousands of new homes and a sports stadium near you in East Devon through the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan (GESP) | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

Hard to sell? It depends how you see it - with this piece in today's Herald: 

New sports stadium and concert arena for 20,000 people could be coming to Devon

01 February 2019
Daniel Clark

An indoor sports stadium and concert arena with a capacity for 20,000 people could be built in the Greater Exeter area.

It could come as part of the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan, (GESP) which will affect where you live, work, shop, enjoy leisure and get around up until 2040. It is the major strategic blueprint for the areas around Exeter. Mid Devon, East Devon, Teignbridge and Exeter City Council will all be working in partnership with Devon County Council, are teaming up to create the GESP.

No specific location for where any stadium would go has yet been decided, but it would have to be accessible for all four councils.

The idea was initially suggested by East Devon District Council’s deputy leader Councillor Phil Skinner and has been supported by Teignbridge District Council’s leader Cllr Jeremy Christophers.

Cllr Christophers said: “The GESP cannot just be a document about housing, but also about infrastructure and more highlights for the area. We are looking at the evidence of need for a sport zone and a concert venue that could host 10-20,000 in the area. We would need to make sure it stacks up financially, but it is welcomed and we think there is a need for it.

“There is nothing this side of Bristol like it that can give a year-round audience in a stadium of about 10-20,000 people. We feel that there is a need for this, but we will have to see whether it is what the people want.

“The proviso of the document is that the GESP area will become a rural city, but it absolutely needs the infrastructure in place, and that has to include all the things that you would expect to find in the city.

“We are seeing what we can provide around an indoor sports facility and a concert arena and to see if it is deliverable to have one in the area. It is too early to be site specific but we are having discussions about it now. Any stadium may need to grow over time and would have to be built so it can expand as it could be something that draws people in from all over the south west.”

Cllr Skinner, speaking at the East Devon Strategic Planning Committee, said: “My own aspiration about talking to people is what we can get out of this for ourselves and looking at an opportunity for young people and them being aspirational through sport and music. Why can’t we be blue-sky thinking about something like this for the region through the GESP process. I want this in our patch and not somewhere else. Making it accessible for all four areas cuts it down to around only four or five sites that can meet all the criteria we are looking at,”

New sports stadium and concert arena for 20,000 people could be coming to Devon as part of Great Exeter Strategic Plan | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald
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Brexit: and uncertainty in the property market putting the brakes on councils' speculative investments

Councils have less and less income from central government, so are playing the commercial property market:
Futures Forum: 'Casino councils' looking for alternative sources of funding and loading up with debt to play the property market

Which includes 'investment' in projects at home:
Futures Forum: Regenerating Exmouth seafront >>> District Council commits to £1.2m costs
Futures Forum: Regenerating Exmouth seafront >>> taking decisions with objectivity, integrity, honesty and accountability
Futures Forum: Regenerating Exmouth seafront: development vs World Heritage Site status

However, Brexit seems to be dampening those investments: 

Brexit fears hit council property investments as contingency funds confirmed

BY COLIN MARRS
— 31 JAN, 2019

Uncertainty over the impact of Brexit on the UK property market has hit two major council investment projects.

Essex County Council this week formally removed £6m from the budget for its £50m property investment fund after pausing further purchases due to worries over Brexit.

Meanwhile, Brighton & Hove City Council has been forced to delay the signing of a development agreement on a regeneration scheme in which it is planning to invest £8m.

The problems emerged in a week that communities secretary James Brokenshire announced allocations for councils under a new £56m fund to help them prepare for Brexit.

In a report to councillors, Margaret Lee, executive director for corporate and customer services, recommended the £6m reduction in Essex’s property investment fund, saying: “Due to the uncertainties caused by Brexit and the potential impact on the property market, the scheme has been paused with no further purchases planned.”

The pause in investment was originally agreed by Essex councillors in November, after advice from its adviser Hymans Robertson not to expand its commercial property programme “due to the current market conditions including the unknown impact of Brexit”.

However, the council has now decided to remove £6m from the investment programme budget as part of a package of measures that will help the authority reach a forecast underspend of £29.6m in its 2018/19 capital spending programme. Before the programme was halted, £44m of the fund had been spent on property, which the council says is already yielding £1m for council services.

Essex is set to review whether to restart commercial property investment through the fund during the summer.

Meanwhile, in Brighton, councillors have been forced to delay a deadline they set for housebuilder Crest Nicholson to sign the development agreement on the King Alfred leisure centre and housing regeneration scheme.

Originally, councillors had proposed to walk away from discussions with the developer unless it signed the deal by 31 January. However, it extended the deadline until 30 March – the day after the UK’s date for leaving the European Union (EU), following a last minute plea from Crest.

In a letter to the council, it cited “challenging economic uncertainties surrounding Brexit and the impact this could yet have on the construction industry workforce and wider confidence and stability of the property market”.

It added that “as soon as we have greater certainty over the nature and form of the Brexit arrangement which we all hope and expect will be achieved shortly, and assuming this does give reasonable certainty over the future trading relations with Europe, then we will enter into the development agreement and commit the team and resources required to promote the scheme, develop the design and seek planning in accordance with the conditions and programme”.

In 2016, the council committed £8m to the project, which comprises a sports centre, swimming pool, underground parking and 565 homes in blocks of up to 18 storeys high.

Brexit fears hit council property investments as contingency funds confirmed | Room 151
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