The real word on Well Street,,,,continued

You can find out all the up-to-date information about the St James Local Plan at;

www.exeter.gov.uk/neighbourhoodplanning

It's been approved by the City Council, and goes to a referendum vote on 2nd May at the same time as the County Council election.

Regretably neither the Trust nor the Club were represented at the most recent meeting on Thursday at which copies of the letter from the City Council were available, and will be distributed by the Counting Officer to all those entitled to vote ahead of the day itself. The reason that it seems important is that any planning developments in the Ward will be subject to the 'approval' of the Forum, and in the event of a "Yes" vote to the referendum this will be part of the process until at least 2028. The City Council letter specifically mentions amongst its policies under the heading "Sustainable Development" Exeter City/Yeo and Davey site. It would seem that the 4000+ voters in the Ward could play an important part in any redevelopment and yet ther Club/Trust have no formalised input into what is being discussed.

Why weren't the Trust or Club represented?

Leads said:

Why weren't the Trust or Club represented?

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...is a question you ought to be asking representatives of each of those august bodies. The Forum seems well disposed towards the Club (mainly as a result of work that is done by Football in the Community I suspect), so it seems short sighted not to take advantage of that good will and take an active role in what will be only the second such plan in England. It was conspicuous that there were representatives of both the County Council and the City Council (the Head of Planning) who also seem well disposed toward the schemes (cynically I might add because potentially there's money available to implement some of the ideas already put forward, if it goes through).

Sounds like something we should be pushing, would have thought this was exactly the sort of thing Chorlton was brought in for.

Very poor, and a missed opportunity in the circumstances. I remain to be convinced of the value of Neighbourhood planning but regardless the Football Club should have played a key role in the development of the Plan...

Leads said:

Sounds like something we should be pushing, would have thought this was exactly the sort of thing Chorlton was brought in for.

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Chorlton? Now where have I heard that name before? Is it some sort of endangered species?

Further to this the referendum is being held on May 2nd, and question to which voters in the War have to give a "Yes" or "No" is;

Do you want Exeter City Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Exeter St James to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?

The forum have been leafletting the Ward to vote "Yes". It's a precedent setter, as the only other ward in the country to have undertaken such a vote is the Eden Valley in Cumbria, which is very rural and spread out geographically (where the "Yes" vote was over 97% of those taking part). Potentially it has enormous implications for the future development of the area around SJP.

David Treharne said:

Further to this the referendum is being held on May 2nd, and question to which voters in the War have to give a "Yes" or "No" is;

Do you want Exeter City Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Exeter St James to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?

The forum have been leafletting the Ward to vote "Yes". It's a precedent setter, as the only other ward in the country to have undertaken such a vote is the Eden Valley in Cumbria, which is very rural and spread out geographically (where the "Yes" vote was over 97% of those taking part). Potentially it has enormous implications for the future development of the area around SJP.

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Sure it will be voted through, of course it should be borne in mind that since the area is presumably all within the settlement limits, the land allocated in the Plan would be acceptable in principle for development even in the absence of such a plan being produced. I was at a conference in Cambridge recently where the Plan was cited as a good example although there are some concerns as to just how high a standard it sets. This, largely I suspect, is down to the level involvement of Consultants as well as a particularly well-educated demographic which you wouldn't necessarily see replicated across other communities.

As I have said before it borders on ridiculous that the Football Club's imprint goes largely unrecognised in the Neighbourhood Plan given that if ever there was an opportunity to demonstrate its place at the heart of the community this was it...

iscalad said:

Chorlton? Now where have I heard that name before? Is it some sort of endangered species?

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If you're right, then I can't understand at all why we should be protecting it!!!!!!!!!!!

The other important point to add RE: redevelopment is that the Neighbourhood Plan would be (subject to acceptance through the referendum), the perfect opportunity to safeguard the Club's future at SJP. What I mean by this is to get buy in to the kind of enabling scheme required to unlock redevelopment and of a sufficient scale that subject to technical detail would deliver a redeveloped stadium with a capacity of c10-12000.

Had things been pushed a little harder I can't help but think that regardless of that big stumbling block: lack of finance, as to the almost as critical constraint: the planning context things would be comparatively easier. This wouldn't have made the issues of amenity of residents behind the away end or the engineering or transport issues go away, it would however have put the Club in a far stronger position in regards to lease renegotiation as well as discussing outline proposals.

Ps sorry if the grammar and punctuation is a little off, it's early in the morning, I'm tired and on me iPhone!!