General Discussion
The tone of the article, the quotes and the readers' views show how people interpret matters according the their own ideas and perspectives.
Yep! From what I can gather it seems that Teignbridge District Council issued a press release and the result was that article.
I wonder how many of us in Dawlish have actually been consulted about this figure of 900? So how was this figure arrived at and who agreed it? Some people in Dawlish might want more than 900 new homes, some might want less. Who knows? Have we been asked?
It would seem this figure has been arrived at by the Steering Group made up of representatives from various Dawlish organisations but that is not the same, far from it, as all of us being consulted. The only time that will happen is when the referendum takes place.
And getting away from different opinions on this whole issue, and despite what the article says, as a matter of fact the referendum in Dawlish isn't binding.
PS Just to be clear. The 900 new homes are in addition to the 375 homes presently with planning permission to be built (124 at Swan's Rise and 251 on Mr G's ex cornfield - see those separate threads I've recently started).
So, 900 + 375 and we are looking at circa 1300 new homes being built over the next 20 years.
Just a reminder - the original figure in the draft plan was around 2000 homes (including those already granted planning permission).
The figure of 1300 is about right based purely on estimated population projections. I assume this was agreed by the Steering Group after the comments made on the original draft plan.
I think the article from insidehousing.co.uk suggests that there has always been unanimity between Dawlish local community and TDC on these figures which there obviously hasn't been, which is presumably why TDC changed their estimates. (Earlier threads from last year have all the calculations, boring as they were to many at the time!!)
As some readers of this website will be aware, the draft Dawlish plan will be examined by a Professor of Geography, whom I believe specialises in town planning, on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
I understand he has been given loads of paperwork to look at including all the submissions made earlier this month by those who had previously commented on the first version of the plan when it went out for consultation last September and/or who commented on the Teignbridge wide core strategy document that was out for comment earlier this year and which included slightly different proposals for Dawlish than that proposed in the plan put out in September and the plan to be examined next week.
Apologies to those whom I may have bored and/or confused thus far. But if you are interested in this matter - please bear with me.
The comments sent in earlier this month are now online.
Here they are:
DPNP LD71 Written statements on Housing Growth [9Mb]
DPNP LD72 Written statements on Balance Between Housing and Jobs [3Mb]
DPNP LD73 Written statements on Protecting the Environment [4Mb]
If you have a look at any of this (you may need to allow some time to do so) you will see that some of the submissions are from professional organisations concerned with planning/development. You may also note that some of them are arguing that there should be more houses than the 900 being put forward because of this planning policy or that planning policy.
I thought to myself when I read their submissions - here we go again.
I really do wonder sometimes why we get consulted about anything when, bottom line, what happens is determined by planning policies. Localism or no localism I really don't think anything has basically changed when it comes to deciding what gets built and where.
Please, someone, tell me I'm wrong.