Public meeting - Core Strategy - 18th Jan 2012
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:55
Minutes from the Public meeting on the 18th January held at the Village Hall and attended by over 200 parishoners.
MINUTES OF THE VILLAGE MEETING HELD - AT ABBOTSKERSWELL VILLAGE HALL
18th January 2012 @ 7.30PM
PRESENT – Cllr K Eales (Parish Council – Chairman), Cllr R Whiffin, Cllr B Chambers, Cllr Mrs W Grierson, Cllr Mrs M Colclough, Cllr Mrs J Arrow, Cllr Mrs J Kniveton, Cllr D McNee (Parish Council Vice-Chairman).
ATTENDED BY - Neil Blaney - TDC - Principal Planner, Daniel Summerfield – TDC - Principal Planner, Cllr P Vogel - TDC, Cllr K Shantry - Wolborough Residents Association and TDC Cllr, 226 members of the Parish.
Chairman – Cllr K Eales - welcome - glad to see so many people present, the TDC Core Strategy is the main topic of discussion tonight, it is a 20 year development plan which will affect the Parish of Abbotskerswell and it is imperative that Parishioners understand how it would affect them. Pictures and maps have been distributed for the plans for the South of Newton Abbot covering development between Ogwell, Abbotskerswell, Wolborough and Aller. Concerns I have are - Newton Abbot will become significantly larger, making neighbouring villages more isolated, forcing schools to close and making Newton Abbot a traffic bottleneck.
Speakers
Cllr Phillip Vogel – TDC - the process of the Core Strategy Consultation, which can be found online at TDC and is available in full at Forde House; the consultation runs from the 9th January 2012 to the 2nd March 2012. What we are asking for are views on what is proposed. There will then be a second document which goes out for 6 weeks after this initial consultation and this will be based on the comments received. This 2nd document will then be sent to the Secretary of State together with any comments received and also comments from the 1st document will go forward, this will be around November 2012, and will undergo an inspector’s examination which will be in the form of a couple of day’s hearing. This may go through as a whole document after this time or there may be parts of the document that the inspector questions. Some of the figures regards inward migration will be checked again due to the downturn in the economy since the figures were calculated and this may be added at a later date but currently the figures stand as in the current consultation document.
Chairman – Cllr K Eales - would like everyone in the village to respond as individuals and not households, i.e. - 4 people in a household - 4 letters of responses are required.
QUESTION: Views and objections – do there have to be valid reasons for objecting clearly stated, not just an overriding “I object”. ANSWER: Mr N Blaney - all reasons and objections are taken on board whether they offer alternatives sites for development or not.
QUESTION: Do all comments go to the secretary of state. ANSWER: Mr N Blaney - all comments get sent to the secretary of state and the document will be available for public viewing.
QUESTION: Teignbridge Plan - DCC Structure Plan - neither of these documents support the scale of developments proposed. ANSWER: Mr N Blaney - Strategic Housing Market Assessment is set out on the TDC website which supports the figures of housing proposed.
QUESTION: Amount of houses proposed in the south proposal - 3 times the number of homes in Abbotskerswell - threatens urbanisation and where will the jobs come from? ANSWER: Mr N Blaney - the Core Strategy is the central planning document that TDC use to determine planning - it plans the developments over the next 20 years and is derived from the best available evidence and the effect on the environment and other areas are all being looked at in the plan. All District Councils are required to do this throughout the Country. The document needs to be flexible and it is monitored each year to review forecasts and developments and other documents will be developed as it changes. Changes happen so this is why a plan needs to be in place. The current plan is 15 years old and time has moved on and the policies have changed. A strategic plan will give TDC a much greater say in what will happen - roads, developments, schools. Localism - governments are moving away from centralisation and allowing Local Authorities to set their own guides using the national policy framework as a guide. The strategy is based around the Towns of Teignbridge and also allowing the villages to have their say. The last strategy in 2007, which looked at growth in Kingsteignton, was deemed unsound by Inspectors and unable to go ahead, so the process has started again with work done on housing, jobs, employment land, retail and leisure, environmental - flood risks, current and future, drainage capacity and surface water management, renewable energy opportunities to be maximised, carbon footprint reduction, conservation, biodiversity. Neighbouring Councils and DCC have been consulted on many points as also have NHS, SWWA, Dentists, Doctors & Bus Companies and any other relevant associations. This has all been brought together to make the draft strategy which is being presented. Housing - shortage at present and more opportunities need to be made available for people to get onto the housing ladder; younger people will move away if there are not job opportunities and housing for them. Part of the policy is to improve Teignbridge economy and attract better paid jobs.
QUESTION: Prime Minister’s comments on housing not more than 30 more new homes in a village. ANSWER: Mr N Blaney - no proposals for villages, most of the planning around Newton Abbot which is the main town in the district, joining up of the villages are not proposed the Wolbrough allocation of homes will be Newton Abbot based.
COMMENT: The corridor proposed is 100 metres away from the Priory which is in the Parish of Abbotskerswell and housing is proposed in the parish.
QUESTION: Why was the Northern Option discounted? ANSWER: some of the proposed development in the consultation document at Kingsteignton is allocated and also some of the land at Seale Hayne.
QUESTION: Why not start a new community ANSWER: Cranbrook and Sherford have taken about 15/20 years to get off the ground so this would be inappropriate.
COMMENT: Concern about facilities in Newton Abbot would not be able to cope, doctors, hospitals, dentists, schools.
COMMENT: Strategic Land Assessment - this has been reached by asking farmers whether their land is available for sale.
COMMENT: New properties cannot and are not needed to replace old dwellings because when they fall down a house can be built on the old ones footprint.
Mr Darren Summerfield - Neighbourhood Planning - Policy S23 which covers villages in the core strategy document. There are no housing proposals within villages but the suggestion that each village creates a Neighbourhood Plan document which will give the Village control of planning in their village.
It would allow a community to develop their own planning policy and must be community lead, the community must be consulted and the community plan agreed by a referendum. It can introduce new planning, design specifications and would protect special green areas which are important to the community. It needs to conform to local and national planning guidelines and cannot block development and must be lawful. Once the core strategy is in place communities will be encouraged to analyse their needs and put a plan in place - TDC will provide financial and officer assistance. If the community does not produce a plan this would not be detrimental, but local housing would be supported if needed and shown by a housing survey.
Chairman – Cllr K Eales confirmed the after 2nd March 2012, when the Core Strategy consultation closes, the Parish Council will be looking to actively progress a Neighbourhood Plan for the Parish.
Mr Kelvin Shantry - Wolborough Residents Association, District and Newton Abbot Councillor - at a TDC meeting 2 months ago questions were asked about the number of houses needed and proposed in the Core Strategy and where they came from was raised and it was confirmed that this was from a 2007 report which was on the TDC website. These numbers are being looked at again with the agreement of the Leader of TDC - Cllr J Christophers. The prediction in TDC’s Core Strategy is about 15,000 homes with 60% around the main towns. The ORS Strategic Housing Assessment report looked at data including new migration, which was done in 2007 but now growth has slowed down which will affect the numbers in 2010. An update in 2010 was looked at and there has been a huge reduction in net migration which should now be taken into account. If there were a 10% fall in migration this would make the number of homes required 12,000 or 600 per year. Currently on the ORS website it has now fallen by 40% and the net migration is currently still falling and the data for 2011 is not yet available. The population amount is also falling as its being affected by migration. The amount of homes built in Teignbridge over the last few years is around 350 homes per year. A TDC review group has been formed: Cllr Fry, Cllr Colclough and myself, and we recommended that the number is reviewed. The review may show around 10,000 needed but there is a possibility that DCC is looking at around ½ the amount, i.e. around 7,000. DCC & TDC need to work together for roads and infrastructure. TDC have yesterday agreed to fund a new ORS survey recalculated on today’s real levels and this will be incorporated into the final core strategy document. The officers create the plan and Cllrs will decide on it in the end and will only vote on a plan which reflects reality.
Mr David Boxall –Introduced himself gave his credentials. He has lived in the village for 45 years and was a member of Kerswell PC before Abbotskerswell parish was formed and was also a member of the Rural Council, which was a predecessor for TDC, and also he was a chartered engineer involved infrastructure feasibility, design & construction. Abbotskerswell has been a settlement for over 1000 years and it must not lose it identity; it is mentioned in the Doomsday records. TDC councillors were presented with the core strategy document and were given only one week to look at it. I tabled a question to TDC asking how much time had gone into looking at this plan as I knew how much effort would need to go into researching and evaluating for a new road of the size proposed. Subsequent to his questions to the TDC O&S Committee 2 documents were supplied to him. A reference document where is was stated that the road proposed is would be a 5.5 metre Devon Lane and it is expected to take all the traffic from the housing estate (1800 houses plus industrial units) and traffic trying to bypass Newton Abbot. Because it is required to have bus priority, cycle lanes, 2 footpaths and take extra traffic, it will take it up to a 20 metre wide formation with cuttings of 10 to 18 metres in places, consequently this would make the proposed road a lot more expensive than originally calculated for the extra engineering work needed. The second document referred to is the SCHLAA which was the local Strategic Land Assessment. This clearly shows that not a lot of work gone into investigating the land which is proposed and a lot more surveys etc will need to be done before it can be fully assessed. In 2009 the document was sent to builders and agents and contained all the pieces of land that had been indicated in the core strategy.
All costing should have been looked at and substantiated before they were included in the suggested core strategy.
The cost of the road - at least double the 11 million suggested costs, is severely underestimated. That’s without recognising wherever it joins into another road there will also be major bridge works needed.
The complex geology and topography of the proposed land had not been factored into the core strategy for Wolborough, thus undermining confidence that overall due care and process had been taken. Clearly planning officers have put their views forward tonight, but it is clear that they have not thought about the implications involved and consequently it is an ill-conceived plan.
QUESTION: Significant project in making Newton Abbot twice as big again - were TDC Cllrs consulted by Officers, were Newton Abbot Town Council consulted. ANSWER: Cllr Mrs M Colclough confirmed that there had been no consultation about the plan but it was presented to the Council in October 2011. Abbotskerswell have not been previously consulted in anyway about the local development framework.
QUESTION: Will the consultation date be changed now that the numbers are being looked at. ANSWER: Mr N Blaney confirmed the consultation at present is based on the best evidence and any further comments and review will be contained in the 2nd document, which will then be put out again for consultation. Cllr P Vogel - all views and opinions must be put forward as the consultation process has now begun.
QUESTION: Things are already happening and what if land earmarked is sold in the meantime and put up for development before the strategy is in place. ANSWER: Cllr P Vogel - They would go before the Planners and have a right to appeal like any other development. Mr Kelvin Shantry - make your comments now and when and if the revised figures come through they will be contained in the 2nd consultation document. Mr N Blaney - we do feel the plan is credible based on the evidence presented - every comment put forward from Parishioners will be assessed and will be put forward to the Council.
QUESTION: What about people without internet access? ANSWER: Cllr P Vogel - For people without internet access, paper copies available in the Libraries, also in the mobile libraries which come around Abbotskerswell on the 27th January will have TDC officer in with Plans to answer questions.
COMMENT: Ring road around Newton Abbot and housing is an excuse to put the road in.
Very important that you write in as individuals to TDC, e-mails are accepted also and can be found on the TDC website.
Cllr K Eales - many thanks for TDC in coming to tonight’s meeting, we are not against housing, but wish the figures to be correct to give all Teignbridge residents a right to the quality of life we deserve.
Meeting Closed - 9.38pm