Response to letter(s) Hugo Swire/Karime Hassan

Dear Mr Swire,

Thank you for your letter of 16 January 2007 (received this morning) and
the copy of the letter from Karime Hassan. I am afraid that this letter
makes me even more worried for the future of Seaton. I will take Mr
Hassan’s letter point by point:

*Community Facilities*

A SUSTRANS cycle terminus is NOT a community facility.

It is not enough that the Visitor Centre should be 1,500 sq m – its
footprint on the ground is 480 sq m so it would need to be three storeys
high. It is well documented in tourism literature that a building such
as this – squeezed between a 5,000 sq m supermarket and a main road -
cannot function as a world-class venue, simply by virtue of its design.

I find it insulting for Mr Hassan to suggest that a community of more
than 7,000 people (more than 8,000 if this planning application is
successful) should be satisfied with 278 sq m of community space which
“could be” either a gym OR a “community room” when the developer (and
EDDC, through its land sale to the developer) walk away with fat profits.

It is interesting to note that Mr Hassan does not develop this section
any further – he does not mention how the OFSTED Day Nursery, gym,
swimming pool, meeting rooms, activities centre will be replaced. Bear
in mind that in order to satisfy the requirements of planning obligation
gains these have to be replaced (or enhanced) in the same phase as the
loss to the community. The Visitor Centre and Wetlands Centre are
conceptual projects at the moment with no hope of realisation for 4-8
years and cannot be considered as appropriate planning gains. There is
also the matter of whether a local authority should buy 250 acres of
land to develop as a tourist attraction without any public consultation.

*Economic Impact*

The 274 chalets is NOT 274 people. They include 2, 3 and even 6 person
units. Therefore the total number of people staying on any one night is
more than 400 = 2,800 bed nights per week 0ver ,say, 50 weeks = 140,000
bed nights. Government figures say that each bed night has to be
replaced by 3 day tourists. 140,000 x 3 = 420,000 day tourists. Number
expected: 230,000 (Visitor Centre) 30,000 (Wetlands Centre) = 260,000.
Shortfall: 160,000 day tourists.

Mr Martyn Harrison says that the holiday village is a dying industry and
yet he has just recently bought another holiday village (from the owners
of Liatris – Renowned Holiday Villages) on Hayling Island. A strange
thing to do if it is a dying business. Also, Hollybush Hotels owns 83%
of Weymouth Football Club which recently asked for planning permission
for its ground to be sold to a supermarket chain (Asda). The local
planning authority refused planning permission and immediately after
this Mr Harrison sacked all Weymouth Football Club’s management and put
all its team up for sale. He cites “financial problems”. Yet, in an
interview on radio (I can provide it) he says categorically that neither
Hollybush Hotels nor Weymouth Football Club is in debt.

Mr Harrison seems to have an unfortunate ability to move into areas
which are on prime development land, then finding that his businesses
fail and then finding himself forced to sell out to developers. No
wonder he is finding life difficult at Lyme Bay Holiday Village.
However, he will no doubt be cheered that he still owns several hotels
in Weymouth which will have a boom time for the Olympic Games in 2012.

I have urged East Devon District Council to be extremely vigilant in its
“due diligence” with the developer and with Hollybush Hotels – I do hope
that they are up to the task.

South West Tourism (Malcolm Bell, Chief Executive) says that the south
west is crying out for high quality tourist holiday villages. We have
never said that we want a hotel on the site – what we want is for the
majority of the site to be developed as an “eco-tourism” destination – a
growing market. This would require none of the infilling and somewhat
less retain space whilst maintaining the required number of homes
(affordable and unaffordable) on this site – which for Seaton to 2011 is
approximately 170, our total to that date being 300 of which some
130-150 have already been built in small developments around the town.

It comes down to who you believe – Mr Harrison, Mr Bell or Mr Hassan -
when it comes to matters of what sort of tourism is needed in the south
west and what is successful and what is not.

It is completely pointless to pursue the rural Renaissance Programme for
a market destination strategy if (a) there is going to be no tourism in
Seaton for 5 years whilst this development takes place (2) using the
assumption that planning permission will be given for this development
since no decision has been taken about it and (3) noting that it is
planned to be a strategy for “Seaton and the surrounding area” and not
Seaton alone.

The 496 car parking spaces available to tourists will be available for
up to 3 hours; after that a fine will be payable. They will be shared
with shoppers to the 7,600 sq m of retail space and with some residents
of homes over shops.

I am afraid that Mr Hassan’s letter goes no way at all towards answering
any questions in terms of the current application; in fact, it raises
more, and more serious, questions.

I note that Mr Hassan does not address the economic and social costs of
what he sees as his vision for Seaton: the 65-90 lorries per day, 6 days
per week, 10 hours per day for 3-4 years (developers own figures) to
build a 2m high island; the impact on nearby residents both in terms of
amenity and flood risk, the loss of community facilities, the lack of
employment opportunity for more than 1,200 extra adults in the town (not
the displacement employment referred to by the developers), the flawed
transport assessment (e.g. no calculations of weekend or bank holiday
traffic done) and the lack of public open space (a hard-paved access to
shops is NOT a public square).

Finally, find below the number of people who have attended meetings on
this matter in Seaton since last September. Not one person has spoken up
in any of these meetings for the development:


26 September 2006 - Winstons
Stand Up for Seaton
More than 300


01 November 2006 - Town Hall
Seaton Development Trust
Between 500 – 600


15 November 2006- The Knowle
Stand Up for Seaton
More than 120


9/10 January 2007 – Town Hall
Stand Up For Seaton
724


15 January 2007 – Town Hall
Seaton Development Trust
150 approx


15 January 2007 – Town Hall
Town Meeting
320

17 January 2007 – Holiday Village
Stand Up For Seaton
300 approx demonstrators

What it really comes down to is: who are you representing? The people of
Seaton or the officers of East Devon District Council? I do hope that
the need to keep the people of Sidmouth and Exmouth on-side for the next
General Election whereas the people of Seaton and Axminster will be part
of the Honiton constituency will not influence you in your decision.

Like it or not, if this development is a disaster, your name will be
forever associated with it as the MP who was there and did not make his
views clear.

Yours faithfully