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Search the Public Notice PortalThe Town Council had its February meeting on February 3, and one topic for discussion was the request by the Sidmouth Town Football Club (Vikings) to make changes to their ground.
They were making the request as they have been having such a fantastic season and are currently leaders of the South West Peninsula League.
They are likely to get promoted to a higher tier of English football next season.
This is great news, but they need to abide by different Football Association (FA) rules in terms of the layout of the pitch and ground if they are to play next season in a higher league.
Sidmouth Town Council are trustees for the Manstone ground, and so we were approached by the Club in that context.
At the meeting, the Club explained what the FA required them to do, and the Town Council, after a number of questions, were happy to agree.
The Club now need to apply for planning permission.
This does raise the whole issue of planning and how it works.
I have not discussed this topic before in my monthly articles, so I thought it was about time that I did.
Sidmouth Town Council has a planning committee which reviews all planning applications related to the Sid Valley.
We are, however, not the Planning Authority; that is, in most cases, East Devon District Council (EDDC).
The Vikings approached us not as the Planning Authority but as trustees for the land.
The Club will also need to apply for planning permission from EDDC.
When EDDC receive a planning application from anyone, they publish it online, after checking it is complete, and members of the public are able to comment.
They also approach a large number of statutory consultees.
These cover a wide range of organisations such as Devon County Council, the Environment Agency, South West Water, Natural England, and many others, including, in our case, Sidmouth Town Council.
These are organisations that by law need to be asked for their opinion.
Sidmouth Town Council will therefore be asked in due course for our opinion on the Vikings’ planning application.
Without wishing to prejudge the committee, I will be surprised if we come to a different conclusion!
This application will join others, such as house extensions, new houses, removal of trees with a preservation order, and changes to a listed building.
All of these come before the STC planning committee.
The committee consists of nine Town Councillors, including me, and we meet every three weeks with typically 10–15 applications to consider.
These meetings take place in Woolcombe House and are open to the public.
We consider the application on its merits and try to take into account comments from neighbours and others.
However, if we don’t like the proposed changes, and wish to recommend rejection, we need to have a specific reason linked to either STC or EDDC planning policy as these ultimately guide the decisions of both the Town and District Councils.
And if anyone, as an individual, also wishes to object, then they too should frame their objection letter in the context of these same policies; otherwise, their feedback will not carry as much weight.
The STC planning policies are described in the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan.
The EDDC sets a time limit on their consultation, and once the deadline has passed, the application will be considered by EDDC Officers or, if locally significant, by District Councillors.
They will take into account the feedback from all the statutory consultees, such as Sidmouth Town Council and interested individuals, and come to their conclusion.
The EDDC will generally agree with the STC, but there are some cases where the District Council has a different view to the Town Council, and in those cases, EDDC’s view prevails as they are the Planning Authority.
If the applicant does not agree with the decision of the Planning Authority, there is a right of appeal.
The case would then go before an independent inspector, as happened recently when the planning application for the Knowle redevelopment was rejected by EDDC.
All this might seem a long-winded process, but planning is one of those areas that often leads to significant differences of opinion, and so both the process and the framework, by which the decisions are made, need to be transparent.
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