The East Devon Local Plan - does it apply to Seaton?
"The East Devon Local Plan to 2011" is supposed to be the “bible” for what is allowed/not allowed, encouraged/not encouraged, wanted/not wanted as regards planning in East Devon. The Local Plan is considered to be a very important document and is often cited in planning inquiries or a judicial reviews, so it carries a lot of weight - or ought to. If you live in Seaton this is a document to make you want to cry or scream and make you wonder if Seaton really does exist in the eyes of the EDDC Planning Department.
The policy on the Seaton Regeneration Area in the East Devon Local Plan says:
Local Policy LSE 1 (Seaton Regeneration Area)
Within the Seaton Regeneration Area, as defined on the Proposals Map, mixed use development proposals will be permitted. Individual proposals will need to accord with the principles established for a comprehensive scheme in the Interim Supplementary Planning Guidance for the Seaton Regeneration Area, to include the following:
1. Enhanced pedestrian and cycle access to and through the Regeneration Area, including linkages between the town centre, Seaton Marshes, sea front, Axe riverside and harbour;
2. Enhancement of community, leisure, tourism and recreation facilities, including the Seaton Tramway and Holiday Village;
3. Promotion of the harbour area as a distinctive gateway to Seaton;
4. Retail and commercial frontage development along Harbour Road and The Underfleet, complementing town centre facilities;
5. Employment floorspace within the mixed-use areas;
6. Residential development, involving a variety of dwelling types and sizes, to accommodate approximately 400 units;
7. Flood management measures for land currently within indicative floodplain;
8. Measures to retain nature conservation interest within the northern area of the regeneration area and to enhance neighbouring areas of conservation importance.
The Local Plan also says, in other parts which refer to the Seaton Regeneration area:
“Planning permission for individual schemes will be granted provided mechanisms are in place that will achieve the delivery of a comprehensive regeneration scheme for this area. Necessary and reasonable developer contributions towards infrastructure, affordable housing, public realm, visitor and community facilities will be a priority for the delivery of regeneration”
and
“The proposals seek to improve linkages between the holiday village and the rest of the town, and to promote greater use of the publicly accessible facilities at this site. A strategy for upgrading the holiday village visitor facilities, accommodation and the associated environment will be prepared in consultation with the operator, which should include improved pedestrian routes through the site.”
and
“Residential development, involving a variety of dwelling types and sizes, to accommodate approximately 400 units”.
Anyone like to comment on any of the above?
For example, that is 400 homes for the WHOLE site - which includes the Racal site as well as the current planning application area. The current area will have at least 500 homes according to the developer, the Racal site probably at least 150 - total 650 - or more.
The Local Plan will be replaced eventually by something called the “Local Development Framework” (LDF). All councils will have to create one of these and they must be unique to their area – they cannot just copy the bits of someone else’s plan that they like the look of. It will set out “how the planning system will shape the local community”.
The LDF MUST contain something called a “Statement of Community Involvement” (SCI). This MUST show how and when planning authorities intend to consult local communities and other stakeholders when preparing documents. A key outcome of the SCI will be to encourage 'front loading' - meaning that consultation must begin at the earliest stages of each document's development so that communities are given the fullest opportunity to participate in plan making and to make a difference. Every Statement of Community Involvement must provide open access to information, actively encourage the contribution of ideas and representations from the community and provide regular and timely feedback on progress.
So, we only have to wait until 2012 and then we can be consulted about Seaton! I can't wait!
posted by Fighting for East Devon's future @ 8:20 pm
5 Comments:
Well, for a kickoff, the number of houses...even at 400, disagrees with the 300 in the guidance for East Devon, and given we've probably had 150 built since that number came into print, the 400 is either off the top of someone's head, or it was written in with prior knowledge that a developer-whom-they-might-have-been-meeting-with would submit a plan with that requirement.
If the latter case were true, it isn't a local plan at all, unless we have to rewrite the dictionary definition of "stitch-up"
What's the point of spending probably hundreds of thousands of pounds and man/woman hours on producing a plan which is just ripped up because the developer doesn't like it?
The East Devon Local Plan was drawn up it seems by people who had a reasonably good idea of what would be appropriate and given a sensitive approach might even work.
But now we are faced with the damning effects of Commercial greed and Local Government complaceny/duplicity. These have skewed the plan to maximise profit for two of the major stakeholders but with a devastating effect on the value to the most important stakeholder, the local community.
I could not agree more. Everyone talks about "stakeholders" but increasingly this seems to mean just the greedy developer and the jobsworth local authority which, as long as it ticks boxes, sees its job as done. The local community? You must be joking.
It doesn't matter that the boxes are wrong, so you shouldn't be ticking them. Any local authority that had people with moral fibre in them would refuse to tick the boxes. A local authority with no moral fibre says: if you want to keep your job as much as I want to keep mine, keep ticking and keep your mouth shut.
It will be interesting to see which group ours belongs to when it puts the officer's report before the Development Control Committee.
I'm speechless and will go away and hit my head against a wall. Maybe then, after a head injury this might make sense.....we can only hope.
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