District councillor
Cllr Ben Ingham
Strategic Planning Committee member (2024–26); Councillor for Woodbury and Lympstone (Independent)
Independent councillor for Woodbury and Lympstone on East Devon District Council (council records list service since 2015). Listed as a Strategic Planning Committee member in the meeting attendance records.
Where they stand
✓For EXMO20Proposed allocating EXMO20 (Exmo_20a, against the officer recommendation) and the adjoining Exmo_20b at SPC on 3 September 2024; he later criticised the plan-making process as a whole but did not call for EXMO20 to be removed.
I'm quite happy to propose that we recognise this site for consideration as for developmentStrategic Planning Committee, 3 September 2024 (afternoon) · 00:08:48 ▶ · meeting page · Proposed allocating Exmo_20a, which officers had recommended not to allocate.
Inclusion for allocation, against officer recommendation, was proposed by Cllr Ingham and seconded by Cllr Jung.Official minutes, SPC 3 September 2024 (afternoon) · minutes (PDF) · play the moment ▶
the opportunity for development and eczema to involve infrastructure and coherent development over a few years is just so refreshingStrategic Planning Committee, 3 September 2024 (afternoon) · 00:20:59 ▶ · meeting page · Supported adding Exmo_20b for coherent growth ('eczema' = Exmouth as transcribed).
Everything they said about EXMO20 at the meetings
17 passages from the council recordings, in date order. Each time stamp plays the recording at that moment.
Strategic Planning Committee, 3 September 2024 – afternoon session (4)
But I'm fascinated when Councillor Hall speaks and tells us of the great opportunity as a triangle that expands further than what you're looking at. And this is why I suggested earlier, Chair, I think we should have been looking at this one first because it's not the first time when we were going through the workshop that was the first time I heard this one has been a coherent option to all the controversy around courtman's lane summer lane holland road on what's acceptable and what isn't00:08:09 ▶ · B. Site selection: HELAA, officer advice and why EXMO20 was included (“justified”) (93)
Chair, I think I certainly instinctively agree with that. But because of the debate we had on 20A and the adoption of that, it makes sense to add to that with 20B.00:20:44 ▶ · B. Site selection: HELAA, officer advice and why EXMO20 was included (“justified”) (93)
so it all fits in and the opportunity for development and eczema to involve infrastructure and coherent development over a few years is just so refreshing00:20:59 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
In generic terms for looking at Expo, if EXMO20 were to go ahead and Expo 18 were to go ahead, looking at 24, I would suggest there's so many houses, there has to be jobs on offer as well.00:30:01 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 3 September 2024 – morning session (3)
I do think there's some other ones which Exmouth councillors have identified during our workshop and I agree with them. So it's a shame that we're not dealing with those first so we can agree with the numbers and then go back to these02:18:22 ▶ · C. Reasonable alternatives (27)
we shouldn't be allocating in this site it's it we can do better and we haven't come to all of the sites which I suggested we debated first02:33:40 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
it was interesting what [member of the public] said to us wasn't it best of the worst quoting Ed Freeman back at himself that's quite funny but it's accurate02:44:19 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 29 October 2024 – morning session (2)
we've already allocated more than enough sites for Exxon. We had a target which we've already exceeded by about two, three, yes it is true because we considered on the 3rd of September we considered about 1,400 but we wanted to go forward and we exceeded that by 140 I think it was02:44:28 ▶ · B. Site selection: HELAA, officer advice and why EXMO20 was included (“justified”) (93)
and I mean it because I don't think what you're doing not you personally but this council is doing is coherent because when you take the biggest settlement within a district that is just about coherent in its sustainability and you add 1,500 to 2,000 houses to you, you wipe that out.03:11:21 ▶ · H. Heritage and other (51)
Strategic Planning Committee, 29 October 2024 – afternoon session (1)
yet they were saying there's choice number one for Exmouth which will be for commuters the new commuter belt that we've just created this morning but this one officers say no … it's this hypocrite hypocrisy and strategic inadequacy that people take exception to05:28:45 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 11 December 2024 – afternoon session (2)
Build as many houses as you can and hope some of them are affordable. And if the developer refuses to meet that target and comes up with some excuse that they can't afford it, then we'll go along with it.00:34:17 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Councillor Jung and myself have said that extending the green wedge would be appropriate um up along um north of Hulham road you can see that straight line that It goes from the corner of the Exmouth Green Wedge up towards the common. We've said that for a number of years, but you've always politely, totally ignored that. … But I realise that not all the officers on this council want that to happen, as you can see by the allocations on that map.01:15:08 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 11 December 2024 – morning session (2)
of 70 percent mixed tenure right that would mean uh we would hit uh our affordable housing needs a lot earlier so in actual fact you could then argue well we don't need to supply say a thousand houses we can reduce that by 2002:17:01 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
because we've already delivered or over delivered which we've done for most of this period02:47:42 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 2 September 2025 – morning session (3)
We hit the number that was the desired number to be able to deliver to the emerging Local Plan. It was only then that you looked at, I think there was four really large sites that could deliver, say, up to 2,000 houses.00:39:46 ▶ · C. Reasonable alternatives (27)
I just minded that some people may feel that was almost predetermined because we didn't debate it we didn't consider it we had made a decision then we dismissed something uh after it was no longer required as you know part of achieving a target I think that was wrong00:42:43 ▶ · 3. The second consultation – anything that could be classed as predeterminative (104)
I'm really disappointed because I do believe that we've got a prescribed outcome that was determined somewhere about 2021-2022. And this has been followed all the way through this process. … I still see it as flawed, and I don't see it as acceptable.01:49:01 ▶ · 3. The second consultation – anything that could be classed as predeterminative (104)
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