Information on public speaking is available online
Minutes:
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 of Cranbrook. There were no national comparison trends, assumptions in the study were incorrect, and a reference to the completion of Exmouth works was not correct, as those would not be completed until 2030 at the earliest. He asked the committee to pause and consider further work on this information.
Peter Williams, representing the OVA, outlined the exceeding capacity of sewage works at both Feniton and Honiton, with waste discharge going into the River Otter, exceeding capacity by 40%; Honiton was in breach of phosphate limits in discharge too, as proved by the condition of the river. With the housing increase in Honiton and Feniton areas, there was a need for an increase in capacity of 73% just to maintain adequate levels for Honiton, and 25% for Feniton. He asked the committee to require South West Water to bring forward their plans for improvement works to rectify the current situation.
The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Services responded, covering:
· Open and transparent reporting to the Committee, and public consultation;
· All comments considered and taken into consideration and acted on where appropriate as documented in previous reporting to the committee;
· Reminding the committee on the Exmo20 site and previous decision by the committee to retain it in the plan whereby no residential development was to be included within 400m of the Pebblebed Heaths in order to prevent wildlife predation by pets, which would not arise from employment development; and the further work needed for mitigation under the Habitat Regulations but that the impact on the Pebblebed Heaths had been identified at an early stage;
· Reminding the committee on site Exmo18 and the concern on the impact on the setting of the National Landscape, the significant level differences on site and the concern of the visual impact on the entrance to the town;
· Water Cycle Study focus to look at baseline now and look forward for the impact when planned development happens, and the recommendation in the report for further work in this area.
Cllr Roy Collins spoke on statistics relating to diminishing farmland, quoting 25% of farmland would be gone by 2050. He related a recent review he made of a planning application for solar panels, and spoke about world shortages of beef, rainforests being destroyed for the production of avocados, and weather patterns impacting food production worldwide.