Full Council, 15 April 2026

00:00:00Settle down. Thank you. Thank you. I think Andrew is about to start the live feed. He'll give a sign when it's going. Good evening everybody and welcome to full council on this evening of Wednesday the 15th of April 2026. I am your chair uh ladies and gentlemen please thank you little decorum. Thank you very much. I am your chair, Councillor Eleanor Rylance, and I'd like to welcome everybody in the chamber who is here present and also everybody who is watching this live feed and people who may watch it at a later date. Thank you very much. Few health and safety notices. Um we in the in the event of a fire alarm sounding, there isn't one planned. So please would you leave the building by the nearest running man sign which may be behind you. They are each end of the room and make your way down to the rear of the car park over there.

00:01:04If anyone needs assistance leaving the building in the event of an emergency, would you please make that known to the organizer of the meeting who is Andrew Melhush at the end of the table here. Uh the meeting can be viewed live online on the council's YouTube page and is being recorded and will be made available on YouTube at the end of this meeting. The agenda and the papers have been published on the um in the in advance of the meeting and circulated to members.

00:01:26Could I please request to members and officers who are referring to documents in the account in the pack, the agenda pack, that you also please cite the page and and item number so that everybody else can find their way. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, meeting good practice, please only speak when the chair asks you to speak. Please only speak through the chair. Do not speak to each other, not through the chair. Um, please switch on the microphone on your desk when you're invited to speak. And by the way, please make sure that you're logged into your microphones and speak directly into the microphone and then turn off your microphone after you have spoken because otherwise nobody else can intervene. Um, please turn right now all mobile devices to silent or off. Thank you. If you've not Yes, I've already said that one, but we won't say that one again. Um, if you're having any issues logging into your microphone, can you please just um wave at Andrew? He'll come and help you.

00:02:17Um, please ensure that if I ask you to stop speaking, you stop speaking. In fact, um right, we are now going to start this meeting by doing roll call and declarations of interest because as previously stated, uh unless we do the declaration of interest at the same time, um the camera does not pick us up if we're just answering present or not. Well, we wouldn't be answering not present because we wouldn't be here. Um we're just answering present. It doesn't have time to pick up the um the video, right? If you have any um ad legal advice to seek on declarations, please ask Mel, who's sitting just to my right.

00:02:50Um, I'm now going to hand over to Andrew who's going to square off AP um the roll call and the declarations of interest and hopefully this time I will not miss out the apologies which is number one in my script. Over to you Andrew. Thank you.

00:03:07Thank you very much chair. Good evening councilors. Uh the roll call and declarations of interest for the council meeting please. Councillor Arnot. Uh present. No interest. Thank you. Councillor Brian Bailey. President, no declarations. Tech issue here. Hold. Bear with bear with bear with. Oh, Brian, do you still have any mic? Uh, Councillor Jess Bailey present. No declarations. Councillor Barlow. Present. No declarations I'm aware of. Councillor Blakey.

00:03:57Present. No declarations. Councillor Bloxham. Present and no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Banetta. Councillor Colin Brown. President. No declarations. Councillor Jenny Brown present. No declarations I'm aware of. Councillor Bruce present. No declarations. Councillor Burhop present. No declarations. Thank you. Councillor Chamberlain present. No declarations. Thank you. Councillor Chapman present. No declaration. Councillor Bethany Collins. Present. Thank you. And no declarations. Councillor Roy Collins. No declarations. Present. Councillor Davey. Present. No declarations. Councillor Dumper.

00:05:10Present and no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Faithfull present. No declarations. Councillor Fernley, she sends her apologies. Uh, Councillor Fitzgerald present and no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Gazzard, present, no declarations. Councillor Goodman, present. No declaration of interest. Councillor Hartnell, present, no declarations. Councillor Hawkins, present, no declarations. Councillor Hayward, present, no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Heath, present, no declarations. Councillor Hookway, present, no declarations. Councillor How? Present, no declarations.

00:06:11Councillor Hughes, present, no declarations. Councillor Hunt, present, no declarations. Councillor Ingham, present, no declarations. Councillor Jackson, present, no declarations. Councillor Jeff, present, no declarations. Councillor John's, present, no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Jung, present, no declarations. Councillor King, present, no declarations. Councillor Vine, present, no declarations. Thank you. Councillor Lden, present. No declarations. Thank you, Andrew.

00:07:03Thank you. Councillor Mackinder, present, no declarations. Councillor Martin present. No declarations. Thank you. Councillor McClo present. No declarations. Councillor McCullum. Present. No decorations. Thank you. Council Liry present. No declarations. Councillor Parr present. No declarations. Councillor Ryland present. No declarations. Councillor Westerman present. No declarations.

00:07:54Thank you. And Councillor Rag present. No declarations. Now listen very much. Were you asked if you were present, Councillor Hunt? Okay. Okay. I missed that. Sorry. I just um didn't hear you and I thought maybe you'd been missed off. Okay. Thank you very much everybody. If you do become aware in the course of the meeting that you ought to have made a decoration on something, it's better to do it late than never. So, please do do it. Um Andrew, do we have any apologies in the in the bank? I remember this time.

00:08:25Thank you very much. Yes, we do. This evening we have apologies from Councillor Aurora Bailey, Ian Chub, an and Matt Hall, Dan Ledger, Cherry Nicholas, Todd Olive, Sophie Richards, Henry Redell, Marian Rickson, Simon Smith, Joe Wibli, and Dan Wilson. Happy to take any others from the floor. Are there any more? Councillor Martin, Violet Bonetta, she sends hers. Did you say that?

00:08:57Thank you. No, but Council Betta, are there any more apologies from the floor? No, I don't see any. Okay. All right. Thank you. Moving on then. Um, agenda item three, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anybody have any comments or additions or modifications they wish to make to these minutes or are you happy to adopt them? I don't see anybody indicating they wish to intervene. So, if you are in favor of accepting these minutes, would you please raise your hand now?

00:09:27And if you're against them. Nope. I think that's unanimous. In fact, I think I saw most hands. Thank you very much. Um, right. Agenda item four, public speaking. We have three members of the public registered to speak tonight. Um, would you please um I don't I'm just going to call you in the order in which you are in the agenda. Um, we have [member of the public] first and then [member of the public] and then [member of the public].

00:09:52So, [member of the public], if you would make your way to the um hot lecton, please. Uh if you press the the the right hand button now, you will have three minutes, as you may remember, to make your um representation. Um and the counter is going to be on the screen when you've pressed the button. So, when you are ready, please. Oh, well, we we've all been in your shoes speaking for for for the first few times here.

00:10:36I asked to speak to you today because at some point in the next 58 days, you will be asked to sign off the Local Plan 2020 to 42. Even though there is no scheduled meeting before the deadline, you will be called back here to approve the plan. After four and a half years work, it comes down to 42 working days and an extraordinary council meeting. So, how has it come to this? The minutes of the SPC meeting on the 3rd of March tell us that both the councilors and the officials are fully aware this plan is still not ready. The report tells you that further technical work needs to be undertaken. This is fundamental work, not technical work. For example, one of the outstanding items is the transport assessment to consider growth impacts around Marlcombe, the M5 and the A30. Now, I'm not a planner, but the question, can the roads cope, would seem to be a starting point, not a particular technical point, particularly when we're planning to build an extra 10,000 houses in that area. A further example of technical work is an assessment of the air quality impacts at the pebble bed

00:11:42Heats an SSSI one of only three such sites in Europe. This work is required to ensure a satisfactory Habitats Regulation assessment which is a legal requirement before submission of any plan. I'm still not a planning expert, but the pollution caused from 700 proposed houses, 2536 extra vehicle journeys a day at EXMO20, which is the biggest allocated site outside Marlcombe is surely something that should have been completed before the site was adopted. All the report pack tells us is that no definitive mitigation strategy in place, but potentially you could encourage the uptake of electric vehicles. You can live here if you drive an EV perhaps or by exchange exploring changes to farming practices. Well, good luck with changing farmers. In the pack, there is no assurance this work will be completed by the deadline. Even the chair of the committee who's not here tonight was asking what happens if there is no satisfactory mitigation strategy and the answer is the whole schedule will have to be revised. For me, the greatest concern is what happens if this so-called technical work is produced now at the last minute. who will be able to read it, who will be able to understand

00:12:53It, and who will be able to challenge it. It won't be the huge number of constituents who've responded to the regulation 19 consultations. It won't be you, our elected counselors, because at the moment there is no extraordinary meeting, and there are no reports for you to consider and discuss. It may be the SPC, but I am sure they were fed up with being told, "Don't change anything because we'll miss the deadline." So it seems likely to me the first person able to give proper considered thought to this will be the inspector. And the Minister of State tells us LPA should not submit deficient plans believing inspectors will fix them. Tonight I'm trying to raise awareness that this is coming in your direction. I urge you not to endorse a plan at any cost. Three lines. Consider our countryside.

00:13:38Consider our cons communities. Consider our environment and demand that our plan should be fit for purpose. Thank you for 10 seconds.

00:13:47Thank you very much, [member of the public]. Um, brilliant. Fantastic. Thank you. Now, next on the list, I have [member of the public]. Now, I I believe that you may have had a response to your original statement, but please come up to the lectern anyway and make your statement when you're ready. Oh, okay. Good evening. Oh, okay. Sorry. This council will be asked very soon to approve the new draft Local Plan. I would like to highlight that for over six months now I have been asking the SPC to prove that they were actively seeking to engage with and listening to the public. Unfortunately, no success. So who do they listen to?

00:14:31Obviously the planning officers and the developers as no changes can be made to the draft Local Plan in case they are classed as significant. but they do not even know what would be classed as significant. We still do not have an agreed HR or an air air quality mitigation report. But we can continue on the premise that these will be produced soon and will provide the required results. What if they do not? They have not been satisfactory so far.

00:14:58So why should they be in a few weeks or months? Will the public be even given a chance to look at these documents? Developers say that they can overcome any obstacles. Everyone will walk and cycle. Access is not an issue. Proximity to protected natural landscapes is not a problem. They have their own reports to prove it, etc. Why listen to them, but not us? Time is limited. So, a few examples.

00:15:25The plan includes sites that failed HELAA, which should not have been in Reg 18 or even included in Reg 19. This is according to your own site selection methodology, processes, procedures and documentation. The fact that these sites failed HELAA was not even mentioned whilst these sites were being allocated nor any justification provided. 34 new sites were created 6 days before the regian consultation. Yet these sites were never discussed or agreed by the SPC and are not even mentioned in the key evidence documents in reg. The spatial strategy is unrealistic.

00:16:05Exmouth may be the largest town in East Devon, but why must it take the highest level of growth? We should be asking, can it take the highest level of growth instead of just assuming that it can? Exmouth's unique location and the fact that there are only two access routes in and out of the area which are already running at, if not beyond capacity, cannot and should not be ignored. With regards to site EXMO20 itself, over 2,600 objections to EXMO20 from the public, which accounts for approximately 40% of the total Reg 19 comments effectively being ignored. The development identified as EXMO20 was rejected for inclusion in the current Local Plan as it was not suitable, sustainable or viable. And nothing has improved over the last 10 years or so except that more issues have been identified.

00:16:59Finally, we have been told to have our say. We've had our say. This full council has the opportunity to prove that you're listening to us. Seriously reconsider the plan in EXMO20 before it is too late. Please do not let the public down. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your timing. Thank you. And thank you for those words. Um I believe that we have a response that Councillor Fitzgerald is going to read out. That's what I got confused about.

00:17:28She's now going to read it. Thank you. This is a response um to the uh public speaker who submitted their uh their their script in advance on behalf of the council. The council has proactively engaged with the community over the production of the Local Plan. We have undertaken a total of five major public consultations on the Local Plan since the start of 2021, culminating in the second Reg 19 consultation which ended in January.

00:18:02Each of these consultations has been well publicized and in total generated tens of thousands of comments which have informed production of the plan. All decisions on the Local Plan have been made in public sessions of our Strategic Planning Committee which has considered the Local Plan and its supporting evidence at more than 60 public meetings including by public speaking. All reasonable options for site allocation have been openly considered by the committee and government guidance on plan production has been followed.

00:18:36The issue of whether to allocate EXMO20 has been considered by the committee on several occasions and on each the views expressed through consultation and by the public speakers at the meetings have been fully considered. But the committee has resolved to allocate the site. That is not because views have been ignored, nor that the committee were not sympathetic with the views expressed, but simply that having carefully considered the plan as a whole, it was decided that EXMO20 should be allocated.

00:19:10Strategic Planning Committee will receive a further update on Local Plan work, including the Habitat Regulations assessment and air quality mitigation work when they next meet on the 5th of May, where the work program for the plan will be reviewed. Ultimately, the plan will be examined in public by a government appointed inspector and those who maintain an objection to the plan will have an opportunity to be heard at that stage. Also, thank you, Councillor Fitzgerald. Um, next on the list of public speakers, we have [member of the public], if you could make your way to the hot election, please. Thank you.

00:19:49Um, same same rules. Um, if you as soon as you press the button, the three minute timer starts when you're ready. Thank you, counselors. I entered the Local Plan process because there was no sound justified way the site allocation EXMO20 could be included in the plan. Yet it currently is. So I tried to understand how this came to be. What I uncovered I found shocking and in February 25 I submitted my findings to the complaints process to be told that the complaints process was not for Local Plan matters and to raise my concerns in the regulation 19 process. I did this in March 25 and waited patiently. Nothing.

00:20:27Again the second regulation 19 consultation. Nothing. So I mentioned points at the 3rd of March meeting. I got told by the chair that my actions were inappropriate and that I should use the complaints process. Wow. Then the video evidence of the meeting was edited, deleting my comments and misrepresenting me. The minutes also misrepresent what I said yet are approved by cabinet as truthful and accurate. There is now no record of what I said. I've been silenced by East Devon Democracy.

00:20:59[Passage not reproduced here. It contains allegations or strong criticism of named people or the council, made at the meeting. We don't repeat allegations; you can hear the passage in the council's own recording by playing it from this point.]

00:21:33[Passage not reproduced here. It contains allegations or strong criticism of named people or the council, made at the meeting. We don't repeat allegations; you can hear the passage in the council's own recording by playing it from this point.]

00:22:07[Passage not reproduced here. It contains allegations or strong criticism of named people or the council, made at the meeting. We don't repeat allegations; you can hear the passage in the council's own recording by playing it from this point.]

00:22:44You will soon all be the accountable decision makers. If something is evidently flawed, you need to understand to be able to vote with integrity.

00:22:55Thank you very much for your time today. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you very much for your timings. Now, I believe that our monitoring officer has uh Have you switched off? Yeah, you have. Sorry, I can't see against the um light. Thank you. Please.

00:23:10Thank you. Um ah wonderful. Thank you so much. Um I believe our monitoring officer has a statement prepared to respond to what you say. Um thank you. It it there was a question that was posed originally so it addresses that question. It doesn't necessarily go into all the issues that you've just raised because obviously they were wider than the question. So first of all, thank you for the question. Um may I reassure you that the minutes and recordings still include concerns raised about the steps taken by the council. The redactions were to prevent reputational harm to individuals and to protect the legal interests of this council. The director of place became aware of comments made during the public seek um speaking session of the Strategic Planning Committee meeting on the afternoon of the 3rd of March.

00:23:53Subsequently, the director highlighted his concerns about the nature of some of the comments that were made into relation to officers with myself as monitoring officer. The footage was therefore removed from YouTube to enable me to to review it. I subsequently refu reviewed the footage and authorized making redactions in line with our duty of care to staff and to protect the legal interests of this council. The recording was re-uploaded on the evening of the 13th of March. Subsequently, a statement was added to the description section on the 17th of March to explain that the recording had been edited highlighting the relevant sections and the reason for why this was necessary.

00:24:33We also encouraged those raising the concerns during the meeting to do so through our complaints procedures and where a complaint was not forthcoming, we took it upon ourselves to treat um the comments during the meeting as a formal complaint so that the matters raised could be investigated. The council is permitted in UK law to protect its staff from from reputational harm and the council from liel claims.

00:24:56The council has not sought to prevent any public speakers from criticizing the authority itself and indeed the council welcomes feedback from the public um provided obviously that those comments do not make personal um attacks on individuals. Thank you.

00:25:12Thank you very much for your remarks and and your timeliness, [member of the public]. Thank you for attending to all three of the of the public speakers. Um okay, moving on

00:34:07Item nine, reports from cabinet and council's committees, which uh there were, I think, nine sets of minutes. 10 10 sets of minutes. Uh you've all had the sets of minutes. Does anybody Oh, Councillor Burough has a question for us.

00:34:24Thank you, chair. Um we are being asked to uh um approve the SPC meetings uh meet minutes of the 3rd of March. Given that we've what we've just heard from our public speakers, can we just confirm and what written what answers we've just had as well uh which have been read out um in response to those public speakers. Can we just confirm that the next SPC is due to meet on the 5th of May and that technical reports which are stated in the minutes are um not to be not expected to be completed until the 12th of June. What is the plan for the uh point out Councillor Bock that we're actually not these are only for noting minutes. They are indeed for noting but you know these are the content of a very important minute you know that's uh that's being that's been questioned.

00:35:20I think I'll pass this one over to the monitoring officer actually. Yeah. Yes. It's the only the only um committee that can approve those minutes is Strategic Planning Committee. So um this council cannot those minutes are obviously the minutes that will be agreed in due course or not as the case may be by by the Strategic Planning Committee. So um this is only questions or for comments. It's not for for the the council to make a decision on minutes of another committee.

00:35:49I appreciate the opportunity to make a comment then. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Bar.