Call for more than one option in council shake-up

A meeting will be held to thrash out ideas

A decision by East Devon planners that led to a major proposed development in Seaton being narrowly approved has been put under review.

East Devon District Council’s planning committee debated the scheme, submitted by Baker Estates, for two hours following which a vote led to a six-six split between members wishing to approve it and those wanting to reject it.

One of the councillors voted against it was committee chair Cllr Olly Davey (Green, Exmouth Town), but he subsequently changed his vote after planning officers queried the strength of his objections.

Cllr Davey’s switch meant the proposed development was passed by the committee with seven votes in favour and five against.

The council’s planning solicitor, Damian Hunter, was present at the meeting and appeared to endorse Cllr Davey’s actions.

While the chair does have the casting vote, the council is now investigating whether the change of vote has been done correctly.

“East Devon District Council is aware that concerns have been raised regarding a decision made at [the] planning committee on 25 February,” a spokesperson for the council said.

“The monitoring officer is reviewing the decision-making process. The council cannot make further comment until that review has taken place.”

Cllr Davey was contacted, but said he can’t comment while the review is under way.

The Seaton plans are at outline stage, meaning even if the approval holds, a more detailed application would still need to be submitted and passed before any homes are built. It also means the number of homes could be lower than 130, but not more.

But residents attending the meeting (Tuesday 27 February) were vocal in oppositing the plans, while Seaton Town Council noted that three previous proposals for the site had been refused in the past decade, with one appeal dismissed by the planning inspectorate.

A total of 264 objections have been lodged against the plans, with concerns including the proposed access, the potential impact on nearby Beer Quarry Caves and Seaton Wetlands, flood risk, pressure on public services and misgivings about the amount of affordable housing pledged, which will be 25 per cent of the development.

Cllr Davey had cited various reasons for his initial decision to vote for refusal, but planning officer Wendy Ormsby analysed all of them and questioned whether they were strong enough or valid.

Ms Ormsby said that while some of Cllr Davey’s reasons made sense, the council’s emerging local plan contradicted them.

“You would struggle to argue against this scheme based on the loss of the green wedge [which separates Seaton from neighbouring Colyford] because the emerging local plan proposes moving the boundary of the green wedge to the northern boundary of this [proposed] development,” she said.

Ms Ormsby acknowledged one policy in the emerging local plan with which the scheme was not fully Councillors in North Devon are to thrash out ideas on how they see local government in the future, with calls for more than one option for how the county is carved up.

A general consensus has developed among district council leaders in the county for an arrangement known as 1-5-4,which would split Devon into three unitary authorities.

The ‘1’ would be a ‘Plymouth Plus’ council which would see the city expand its boundaries into part of the South Hams.

The ‘5’ would be Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon and Torridge.

The ‘4’ would be an amalgamation of Teignbridge, Torbay, South Hams and West Devon.

But a full district council meeting Cllr Malcolm Prowse (Ind, Bratton Fleming) wanted reassurance that councillors would look at more than just the one option so they had “a real choice”.

“Some of us keep changing our minds and are not quite sure. I want to make sure we have the right options that allow people of all political persuasions to get behind one of them after a proper debate.”

Council leader David Clayton (Lib Dem, Barnstaple with Westacott) said: “It’s not an easy one, at the moment we are going with, in very loose terms, the 1-5-4 idea. That one has a consensus amongst district leaders.

“The deadline is 21 March to submit initial ideas to the government but we don’t have to just put one forward.”

All councillors have been urged to attend an informal discussion on Monday (3 March).

At an extraordinary meeting of the council on 19 March councillors wil vote on options for North Devon.

Cllr Clayton said it is important for the district to stay with Torridge as it shares a local plan and works together on issues including crime prevention and regeneration.

“But nothing is firm, we hope to have a larger discussion on Monday. It is hoped that we can have some kind of consensus among the districts because the government says it will look at initiatives that have consensus.”

Plans to shake up local government will means the abolishment of district and county councils into larger unitary authorities covering areas of 500,000 people.

Exeter has previously indicated that it would like to become a unitary authority, but would need to expand its boundaries as it only has around 129,000 residents.

Plymouth is more than twice that size but still too small to be unitary unless the government allows it some wriggle room.

Cllr Peter Jones (Ind, Witheridge) said:“The challenge that we have is we are a small voice around a big table, so we need to make sure that voice is really heard. It’s really easy to sit in those discussions and be driven by the larger communities

“We have a talented group of councillors, leaders and officers here but a small amount of time to get this right.”

Cllr Robin Milton (Ind, Bishops Nympton) agreed: “We need to stand up for North Devon or we will become one of the rural backwaters to the much more populated southern parts of Devon.”

Chief executive of the council Ken Miles said it is important to present a range of options to the extraordinary meeting so members had a choice to vote on.