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The East Devon councillors’ resolve to the withdrawal of the Grand Exeter’s strategic plan cast doubt on the progression plan.
Last week, the board’s strategic plans committee voted overwhelmingly to present to the General Board that East Devon is withdrawing from the GESP process.
The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan was designed to provide the overall spatial strategy and level of housing and employment land required across Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon and Teignbridge in the period to 2040.
The GESP document defined policies on how progression deserves, as well as 39 sites where significant housing or employment sites can be assigned, not all sites were transferred to the latest edition of the GESP.
But with East Devon about to retire, the Local Democracy Reporting Service is on what happens next.
What happened?
Subject to the approval of the 4 tips, an eight-week consultation on the draft policy and the site’s feature document scheduled for this fall. Comments on this would be aggregated with revised policies and reduced site features to produce a final plan, which would have been submitted for review in 2022.
WHY DOES THE DEVON WANT TO SHOOT?
Cllr Eleanor Rylance stated that the plan has no support for consultation now or at any time.
She said: “They say a camel is a horse designed through a committee and that’s what it is. We are asked to send a camel for consultation, and instead of highlighting this dead camel monstrosity, we withdraw from the GESP. This plan is not an appropriate plan and there is nothing about us going to consultations at this level or at any time.
“This has contradictory policies, obviously written through other people and it is not moderate to put this before anyone else. We live in another global from where it was written and our global has replaced and I am speechless. are resolutely attached to a timetable set last year.
“It doesn’t defy the unusual sense, it doesn’t matter for East Devon, and we’ll be members of the GESP in the future. This document considers the structure of houses in volume, is dangerously imperfect and contradictory.”
Clergyman Paul Arnott, leader of the council, supported his advice and said that the promises of the plan were an illusion, researching economic expansion, a harmful fiction and twice the realistic, and that if the board voted for it, it would legitimize everything. that had happened before.
Cllr Jack Rowland added that so many assumptions in the plan that don’t stand up with what will be happening with the world and said: “It is time to hit the pause button on this,” while Cllr John Loudoun added: “It is foolhardy to ask residents to look at something that isn’t a final document, and it is way off. This will cause concerns and confusion, so why waste money, time and energy on proposals that you don’t agree with?”
IS THE GESP DEAD THEN?
Since the initial resolution to enroll in the GESP procedure was a full resolution of the board, it will have to be a full resolution of the board for the East Devon District Council to withdraw and, therefore, the strategic elaboration plan committee can only make a board-wide council.
A date has not yet been set for the Plenary Council Meeting, an assembly on Thursday, August 20, has been added to the assembly calendar that was not on the list approved by the cabinet last week.
When the full board meets, they will ratify the resolution of the Strategic Plans Committee and withdraw, or they may oppose the council and agree to participate in the consultation process.
WHAT DOES THE OTHER ADVICE SAY?
Cllr Rachel Sutton, principal councilor of Exeter’s city council for gesP, said: “It’s disappointing given the super paintings that have been invested in the plan across the government to get EDDC out of gesp now.
“We are entering an era of great uncertainty due to Covid-19, Brexit and the worst recession in human memory, and uncertainty in plan-making policy is not useful to anyone, especially in the sector of progression and structure.”
“Now we will have to think about what this resolution means to the city and our neighbors. ECC will advance our new local plan.”
Teignbridge District Council chief Cllr Gordon Hook said: “We want to take an inventory of the existing scenario and dwell on the implications of the East Devon Council resolution when it is done.
“Based on this result, members will have the characteristics they must have, that are more productive to satisfy the wishes of all our citizens and comply with our legal obligations. We’ll take a look at the features to perceive the pros and cons so we can make a sensible, informed and pragmatic decision.
“In the meantime, we will continue to paint with our partners on the neighboring district council to plan and deliver social and economic benefits to all of our residents, such as housing and infrastructure.
However, Cllr Richard Daws of Newton says no to the Teignbridge District Council welcomed the decision. He said: “Last week we raised precisely the same considerations about GESP in the Teignbridge Council, but we were solitary voices. This is a pre-COVID plan that is no longer suitable for a post-COVID world. At the same time, we’re linked by overvalued housing figures in Teignbridge are even more important: the goals that even Liberal Democrats have identified are too high, but seem unable to challenge (beyond writing a letter to number 10).
“We salute the Democratic Alliance in East Devon for appearing to be ethical leadership and denouncing this reckless plan for what it is. We need paintings on a new local plan, aimed at sustainable housing in sustainable locations, in large and beloved houses in pristine sites that have pampered us over the past decade.
What about MID DEVON?
The Mid Devon District Council has not yet discussed the GESP, with its assembly to determine whether they are in the consultation procedure scheduled for August 6, with the advice of leaders to participate.
But Mid Devon’s liberal Democratic councillors will ask members of the ruling cabinet to suspend their participation in Greater Exeter’s existing strategic plan at the cupboard meeting. August 2020.
Cllr Luke Taylor, leader of the Liberal Democratic organization on the Council, said: “Due to the very important resolution of the East Devon Councillors to submit the withdrawal of the GESP, it is right that we request without delay to suspend our participation in Mid Devon with the GESP to perceive all the ramifications of this possible East Devon resolution. It would not be fair to continue the procedure when one of the key members of the GESP is about to withdraw from the procedure. affect Mid Devon in the long run and we want to perceive all the implications before moving forward.
Currently Mid Devon Council is controlled by Independent Councillors supported by the Liberal Democrat in a coalition.
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DOES REMOVING THE GESP MEAN THAT FEWER HOMES MUST BE BUILT?
No, whether or not the councils were components of the GESP, they demanded that the number of houses to be built be the same.
The housing delivery target of 53,260 homes (2,663 per year) between 2020-2040 to include affordable homes (numbers to be decided), 5,000 custom and self build homes and 116 for the gypsy and traveller communities remains the same, but rather than being delivered across the four authorities, if councils pull out, then they will have to deliver their allocation solely within their boundary.
East Devon is required to build 900 homes a year, along with Exeter 638, Mid Devon 364 and Teignbridge 760. If the GESP goes ahead, then the numbers could have been distributed in all 4 districts, but if East Devon were to retire, then they have to build 900 games a year in the neighborhood.
Many of the assigned sites will be highlighted through reviewing local council plans, with the East Devon Board to begin without delay reviewing your local plan if they withdraw from the GESP.
WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED IN HOUSING NEEDS NUMBERS?
Each plan-making authority has been informed through the central government of the number of houses to be built, based on the knowledge of the National Office of Birth and Death Statistics and uses the “standard approach” to calculate housing needs. This approach is non-negotiable, is the criterion established for all councils in the country and will replace it each year.
Cllr Hook, head of the Teignbridge Council, has long criticized the figures and sent a letter to the existing Prime Minister, asking for a review of housing wish figures.
He said Teignbridge resulted in exceptional cases, but believes the domain has exceptional cases, as approximately 40% of the district is a component of Dartmoor National Park, there are 1200 hectares of old forests, 22 miles of coastline, 20 parks and nature reserves. , adding a national nature reserve, 28 SSSIs covering 2,758 hectares or 6% of the District Arrange 665 hectares of green domain and 96 square miles of higher landscape price regions – above the component of the district’s general domain.
CPRE Devon has also produced 3 reports examining long-term employment cravings in England, Devon and individual local government, and its reports imply that the government is employing 2014 over-the-counters and projections to force local government to plan more homes than necessary.
A CRPE spokesman Devon said: “The government’s position remains unchanged that it is mandatory to build at least 300,000 houses a year in England. This figure is a number extracted from nowhere in 2014 and, despite the evidence to the contrary, remains the government’s policy
“ONS projections show a long-term need for some 160,000 homes consistent with the year, or just over the government’s 300,000 figure, on which all local plans will have to be based. CPRE Devon largely with these ONS projections. The newest ONS knowledge shows that the Southwest is the region that is expected to have the highest rate of expansion over the next 10 years (9.0% compared to an average for England of 7.1%), with Devon having an even more consistent rate of expansion. 9.5 per cent.
“Looking at the 4 GESP authorities, we can see that East Devon is expected to have an expansion rate of 15.9%, Teignbridge with 14.0%, Mid Devon with 10.1% and Exeter with the lowest expected expansion rate with just 7.8%. It is transparent that the GESP is being used through Exeter to export your housing wishes to the 3 surrounding rural authorities.
“The effect will be a great build-up between the surrounding rural government and Exeter. Mid Devon and East Devon will continue to grow as a suburb of Exeter, leading to more congestion, more pollutants and is not sustainable.”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Fearing that Newton Abbot would be a “suburb of Exeter,” the city council established a task force to investigate the threat.
Until July 23, it was coordinated through district councils in Exeter City, Mid Devon Teignbridge and East Devon, but the latter should now not focus on its own local plan.
Houghton Barton, on the A383 Ashburton Road, is an expansion position that exceeds what was already planned in the Teignbridge Local Plan, with up to 2,000 additional homes that can be built there and more land reserved for employment.
In response, Newton Abbot City Council created a committed 8-member team in a position to review the plan as soon as it was published.
At a virtual assembly on July 22, Cllr Mike Hocking, who is also on the Teignbridge Council, informed members of the possibility of GESP taking over Teignbridge’s plan and Newton Abbot’s neighborhood plan.
He said: “2,000 more houses in Houghton Barton are too much for our city. If we didn’t have Haldon Hill among us, wouldn’t we just be a suburb of Exeter?”
Mayor Cllr Richard Jenks added: “It is imperative that citizens perceive that Newton Abbot City Council is not making one of these proposals for progression and that we will make them thoroughly and challenge them in the most powerful terms if necessary, to ensure that more productive final results for our city. I urge everyone to be aware of what is happening and make their voices heard in September.”
What happens next?
This is the unknown, as two of the councils, Mid Devon and East Devon, have still made their final decision.
The Mid Devon District Council cabinet, when it meets on Thursday, August 6, will determine how it should proceed, while the entire Council of the Eastern Devon District Council will also need to know how it is progressing.
Only then will the resolution be taken on whether or not to consult the document and what the GESP’s prestige will be.