District councillor
Cllr Paul Hayward
Strategic Planning Committee member; Cabinet member; Councillor for Axminster (Independent)
Independent councillor for Axminster on East Devon District Council (council records list service since 2019). Listed as a Strategic Planning Committee member in the meeting attendance records.
Where they stand
✓For EXMO20Argued at SPC on 8 July and 2 September 2025 against removing EXMO20, saying 'taking 700 out means we've got to find 700 somewhere else' and that removing sites risked losing the transitional arrangements.
taking 700 out means we've got to find 700 somewhere elseStrategic Planning Committee, 2 September 2025 (morning) · 01:42:25 ▶ · meeting page · Argued against removing EXMO20 in the 2 September 2025 debate.
we'll take a gamble that it isn't a significant change and it is a gambleStrategic Planning Committee, 2 September 2025 (morning) · 01:40:16 ▶ · meeting page · Warned that removing sites risked the transitional arrangements.
But if you take out EXMO20 and 1,100 people think we should, then I'll attest, take all of Axminster's 1,500 out tooStrategic Planning Committee, 8 July 2025 · 02:47:49 ▶ · meeting page · On 8 July 2025 argued against taking EXMO20 out because of objections.
Everything they said about EXMO20 at the meetings
28 passages from the council recordings, in date order. Each time stamp plays the recording at that moment.
Strategic Planning Committee, 3 September 2024 – morning session (2)
if East Devon fails to provide these sites it will be open season for development01:14:07 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
This committee has tried for the past four years to argue to national government, previous government, this government, that we have some uniqueness that our landscape our layout doesn't allow for this level of housing it's fallen on deaf ears we've received legal advice from our offices that we do not have any argument to put forward that will just be thrown back in our face02:02:16 ▶ · E. Housing numbers: need, headroom and buffers (59)
Strategic Planning Committee, 11 September 2024 – afternoon session (1)
all we're doing is allocating sites, it has to go through the planning process, that's a rigid process everyone has their say, highways has their say, the environment agency has their say planners had their say you have to do flood risk assessments so this is simply an allocation00:29:01 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
Strategic Planning Committee, 11 September 2024 – morning session (2)
it comes back to this issue of our role as strategic planning do we allocate a site simply to make up numbers, almost knowing in the future that planning won't be able to deliver it because it's not safe to do so. That's a challenge for us.01:57:40 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
a single line of we have no objection isn't particularly helpful, that perhaps there's something more meaningful we can ask them … simply oh in principle it's possible isn't particularly helpful for us whatsoever because everything imprinting is in principle is possible if you have the plant machinery to do it02:08:51 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 20 September 2024 – afternoon session (2)
it was just clarity for the members of the public here that the numbers are national numbers that there are no quotas for towns effectively that's for the committee to decide00:14:53 ▶ · C. Reasonable alternatives (27)
agendas for Exmouth, for Limston for Honington, for Sidmouth, for Seton that if you look at the potential allocation site map for Axminster most of it's green, every other town it was mostly red00:16:16 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 23 September 2024 – morning session (1)
if you don't allocate this then effectively we get to the end of the process and then we have to perhaps revisit o1a because that's the nature of what we're doing in with so if you don't build here on a site that would have probably very good access to that school, you may have to end up building on 018 and other sites, say in Axminster and Sidmouth and Exmouth, that are much further away01:08:29 ▶ · C. Reasonable alternatives (27)
Strategic Planning Committee, 23 September 2024 – afternoon session (1)
a comment was made earlier about why sometimes we agree this and then 10 minutes later we agree something else and there's some inconsistence and I suppose it's a reflection from my point that over six strategic planning meetings with thousands of pages of data and and applications or allocations in front of us it's not possible to be entirely consistent01:18:51 ▶ · B. Site selection: HELAA, officer advice and why EXMO20 was included (“justified”) (93)
Strategic Planning Committee, 29 October 2024 – afternoon session (4)
I suppose the first thing I would say is that there might be an element of predisposition, certainly not predetermination.00:15:15 ▶ · 3. The second consultation – anything that could be classed as predeterminative (104)
3.5 within the report that starts off this debate says, total quantum of housing currently proposed in Axminster may be in excess of what the market would realistically deliver and this issue requires further investigation.00:15:22 ▶ · 2. Outstanding pieces of work (HRA, Air Quality Mitigation report, etc.) – especially dates and promises (257)
the town can realistically sustain with its infrastructure, but we're not allowed to talk about infrastructure and southwest water and transport because they are the domains of other authorities.00:17:59 ▶ · D. Deliverability: access, sewage, water, infrastructure, viability (“effective”) (125)
You know, we talked earlier that matters of drainage are not an issue for this committee. That's a matter for the planning consideration when we get to that stage.04:47:22 ▶ · D. Deliverability: access, sewage, water, infrastructure, viability (“effective”) (125)
Strategic Planning Committee, 29 October 2024 – morning session (2)
These are allocations, effectively in principle. We rely on our colleagues on the planning committee as and when these applications come forward to protect our green space, to provide buffers, to provide landscape, to provide drainage solutions, transport solutions, look to our colleagues in Devon to determine the best and safest way to get access to sites … our hands are tied somewhat um so again I say that these are allocations only the planning process will allow this authority to apply rules and conditions and caveats01:52:17 ▶ · G. Consultation and procedure (Regulation 19, AI, objections, generic answers, advice, future decisions) (85)
that if we do not deliver housing numbers as unpalatable as they are then there is a risk that we will have another 200 per year. So over 24, that's another 5,000 houses.02:50:59 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 4 February 2025 (3)
representation so that no one feels excluded I don't believe anyone has been I think our process has been thorough all the way through that we've given ample opportunity and advertising and promotion every ward member has known what's going on00:53:38 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
I'm very very sympathetic with the people of Budleigh Salterton who and I've received those emails about EXMO20 but I'm a clerk my own council has been aware of this local pan process for the last year.01:31:41 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
but I think we need to press ahead with this and the knowledge that it is a consultation that's exactly the word, it's a consultation if we get a wholesale response back that people don't believe it's the right thing from councils, from third parties from stakeholders, from members of the public then we will readjust it we'll have to, that's why we consult it's not a given, for anyone who says it's a done deal01:33:58 ▶ · 3. The second consultation – anything that could be classed as predeterminative (104)
Strategic Planning Committee, 8 July 2025 (3)
Now, 1,100 comments on EXMO20. And to be fair, I don't see anyone of those comments commenting about 11 or 1500 homes in Axminster. It's always parochial.02:46:13 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Now, at the moment, we have this transitionary benefit, advantage. But if we don't take advantage of that, as Councillor Levine says, we have an extra 5,200 houses to find. So EXMO20, you were going to get 800. well congratulations you've now got to find 1,000 … But if you take out EXMO20 and 1,100 people think we should, then I'll attest, take all of Axminster's 1,500 out too, and then find where we're going to put another 2,300.02:47:37 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
So EXMO20, you were going to get 800. well congratulations you've now got to find 1,000 … But if you take out EXMO20 and 1,100 people think we should, then I'll attest, take all of Axminster's 1,500 out too, and then find where we're going to put another 2,300.02:47:49 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
Strategic Planning Committee, 2 September 2025 – morning session (4)
a gentleman speaker earlier said about the fear yeah I fear having to find another 5 000 extra houses um because it would come back to EXMO20 you would had here potentially 70001:38:02 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
there is a slight query I have on the column uh the table of numbers within this on page 42 of the report just for officers benefit the numbers in the homes total don't add up to 848 they're 88101:38:17 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
don't add up to 848 they're 881 but effectively you have 700 848 add 20% to that and you're over a thousand that exponentially goes up01:38:35 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
we'll take all these things out we'll take a gamble that it isn't a significant change and it is a gamble and then when we find actually it was significant so all the regulation 19 consultation falls apart it's a new plan by the way you've lost your transitional arrangements01:40:16 ▶ · 3. The second consultation – anything that could be classed as predeterminative (104)
Strategic Planning Committee, 14 July 2026 (3)
Now, Axminster is likely to have, in this Local Plan, 1,300 extra hounds, or thereabouts. that's far in excess of the burden proportionally in percentage terms being placed on Exmouth.01:40:55 ▶ · The council’s answers (rebuttals) – what officers and councillors said in EXMO20’s defence
We've already seen in the last few weeks the government taking away the powers of this planning committee01:43:58 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
So should we just take all of the housing being proposed, all of Malcom, all of Cranbrook Extension, all of Axminster's EXMO20 and say, I'm sorry, Stockland, you draw the short straw, we're going to put it all there.01:47:03 ▶ · I. Admissions (24)
How we decide where someone stands: our method. Anything wrong? Tell us and we'll correct it.