Agenda and draft minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 September 2025 were confirmed as a true record.

Guidance is available online to Councillors and co-opted members on making declarations of interest

Minute 33 East Devon Local Plan – Second stage of Regulation 19 Consultation

In accordance with the Code of Good Practice for Councillors and Officers dealing with planning matters as set out in the Constitution, Councillors B Bailey, O Davey, P Fernley, C Fitzgerald, and G Jung advised of lobbying in respect of this item.

Information on public speaking is available online

Nigel Humphrey spoke in relation to the Regulation 19 process credibility and the Local Plan.  He challenged why only statutory bodies comments from the February round of consultation had been considered, and why no responses had been provided to comments from the public.  If such public comments were not taken into account, then why should the public comment again on this next round of consultation.  He asked the Council to provide the evidence of comments made by the public on the consultation, and to also regularly inform the public about the consultation.  He advised the committee that the Local Plan statements were ambiguous or unclarified.  He asked that the wording relating to Exmo20 buffer zone should explicitly state that no development should take place, in order to protect and preserve the habitat of the area and that he had corresponded repeatedly on this issue.

John Hamill spoke about the work involved in revising the plan, and that he could see some adjustments in line with previous concerns raised, including for Exmo20 but also asked that for paragraph 9 relating to this buffer zone that the wording be amended to state that no development of any kind should take place in that zone.

Thomas Shillitoe advised the committee that the Water Cycle Study took no account of Sandy Bay Town, or normalises the dumping of sewage in the sea.  He asked the committee to reject the study as he considered it was flawed. He also spoke of the plan being non- compliant, which he had repeatedly warned the committee about, and asked that the committee address many of the issues in the plan with a few “non-significant” tweaks now and therefore have greater confidence in the submission to the Planning Inspector. He reminded the committee that there was spare, above headroom, allocation of 563 houses in this draft plan which could be utilised. He also spoke on Exmo20, which he felt part of the allocation could be removed from the plan, and believes a further consultation period on the plan will be required, as in its current form it had many issues to be resolved.

Iestyn John spoke on behalf of his clients Clinton Devon Estates in relation to Exmo 18 and spoke of the potential of the development of the business park, but of the added journey for users of the park with the access as planned. He asked for consideration to be given, as on previous occasions, to including access via Salterton Road to avoid the additional 1.4mile round trip.

Andrew Tyerman, representing Escape Exmouth, outlined a number of issues with the Water Cycle Study including gaps and mistakes.  He felt that the poor performance of South West Water was not correctly reflected in the study, reminding the committee that the current network was not coping with demand.  The storm overflow information views were not accurate, there was no mention of the OFWAT settlement, nor the high pollution rate, nor the increase in demand due to the build  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

Information on matters of urgency is available online

There were no matters of urgency to discuss.

To agree any items to be dealt with after the public (including the Press) have been excluded. Thereare no itemswhich officersrecommendshould be dealtwithin thisway.

There were no confidential or exempt items to discuss.

This report seeks Committee approval for the second stage of consultation on the East Devon Local Plan, under plan making Regulation 19.

The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Services presented a report that sought approval for the second stage of consultation on the East Devon Local Plan, under plan making Regulation 19.  It was suggested that the consultation would run for 8 weeks starting on Friday, 28 November 2025 and ending at midday on Monday, 26 January 2026.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the redrafted Local Plan text showing tracked changes from the first consultation stage appended to the report noting that the consultation would invite comments on the revised plan and accompanying policies map. 

The report also referenced new technical studies used to refine the plan and updates to the evidence base.  It includes details on the Infrastructure Delivery Plan, Statements of Common Ground, consultation arrangements and examination and adoption processes.

A revised Statement of Community Involvement was also presented to Committee for approval which outlined the policy for consulting the community on planning policy documents and planning applications in East Devon.  In line with the Statement of Community Involvement it was proposed to run an online workshop for Town and Parish Council’s to set out the proposed second Regulation 19 Consultation to help encourage people to respond in the most productive way possible.

The Committee acknowledged that the Local Plan was based on a large amount of supporting evidence and new evidence documents including:

·       Technical reports in respect of Marlcombe

·       Highway and transport assessment

·       Pebblebed Heaths air quality reporting

·       Water cycle study

·       National Landscape paper

·       The revised flood risk topic paper

·       The self-build topic paper

·       Archaeological assessments

Questions from the committee on the documentation planned for consultation, and responses from the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and DevelopmentServices , included:

·       Confirmation that sustainable travel options were also the ambition for employment sites;

·       Policy CC06 confirmed as requiring justification for demolition;

·       Further discussion could be had with South West Water (SWW) on the Water Cycle Study (WCS) 50% reduction in leakages being a realistic target;

·       Confirmation that conservation designation has extensive guidance, and that due to the uniqueness of each case, a scoring mechanism as used for tree preservation was not practical;

·       Mitigation measures for the Pebblebed Heath would be considered through the Habitat regulations in considering how to manage vehicles travelling through that area;

·       The plan contained reference to rainwater harvesting under Policy AR02 to include measures for harvesting wherever possible;

·       The local authority had no control over water company connection charges to developers; this was not covered by s106 agreements;

·       Parking standards were clarified for both residential and commercial development.

Site Exm20

This site had been debated at a previous meeting of the committee on 2 September 2025 and a decision made to include in the settlement boundary but with no residential development within 400m of the Pebblebed Heaths. It was suggested that employment provision should also be excluded within the 400m zone but members were advised that the current wording while not precluding employment uses does prevent uses that would be harmful to the heaths  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

To agree an updated Heritage Strategy for public consultation to run from 2024 – 2042.

The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Services report sought members’ agreement for the Heritage Strategy for East Devon to go out for public consultation that would run alongside the second Regulation 19 Local Plan consultation. 

The new strategy would retain the original format while offering an overview of East Devon’s historic environment, highlighting its significance and benefits.  It also identifies key heritage issues and sets objectives supported by a detailed action plan. 

The objectives were split into three themes:

• Theme A describes our historic environment and provides information on its designated and undesignated heritage assets and their significance;
• Theme B sets out current policies and programmes relating to development management, conservation areas and heritage assets at risk, including our statutory duties;
• Theme C looks at the value of our heritage as a part of sustainable development, and the social, economic and environmental benefits it provides for East Devon. The impact and influence of other policies are considered as well as how we work with our communities and partners

If agreed, the strategy would go out to public consultation alongside the Local Plan Regulation 19 consultation on the same timeframe.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Services confirmed that the strategy would also cover local lists of heritage value.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Planning Committee agreed the draft Heritage Strategy for public consultation to align with the second Regulation 19 Local Plan consultation.

This report provides a summary of house building monitoring information to the year ending 31 March 2025.

The Assistant Director –  Planning Strategy and Development Services presented the report outlining the latest monitoring figures on housing completions and the calculation of the five-year housing land supply, in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework updated in December 2024. 

Members noted that there were a total of 10,674 net dwelling completions, including 690 completed during the monitoring year.  This figure falls short of the adopted Local Plan target of 950 dwellings per year. 

Officers advised that the Council currently has a housing land supply of 3.50 years.  As this falls short of the required five-year supply, appropriate weight must be given to this shortfall when determining planning applications, including both full and reserved matters.  The Council would be able to demonstrate, through the formulation of the new Local Plan, that the required level of supply could be reached.

The committee discussed:

• The national picture impacting on housing delivery, including cost of materials, skilled trades and lack of surveyors;
• Demonstrating through local plan allocations such as Marlcombe and the Cranbrook extension that increasing the number of dwellings is happening in the District;
• There may be benefit in opening dialogue with developers to get a clearer picture on why existing sites are slow to process, and what options are open to the Council, working with partnership agencies, to help facilitate an increase in growth.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Planning Committee:

1. Noted the residential dwellings completion data and future projections for the district, including comments on future supply risks detailed in section 5 of the Housing Monitoring Update report;
2. Noted the district Five Year Housing Land Supply position and impact on decision making as set out in the report;
3. Noted that the Housing Monitoring Update will be published on the Council’s website.