Residents turned out in force to last night’s West Hill Parish Council meeting to discuss the highly controversial Potters planning application. The main room in the village hall was packed with more than 140 residents. It’s a reflection of just how concerned residents are about the application that so many people attended – a parish council meeting has never been so well attended before.
Also in attendance were Avalon, the planning agents and representatives from Morrisons.
The evening started with Avalon presenting their application and then residents taking turns to comment on the application/ask questions.
Avalon provided responses to residents’ comments and questions raised. However, it seemed to me they that they did not grasp the fundamental flaws in the application that they had submitted.
Avalon advised the meeting the site “could be much better used” than it currently is. It seems in their view slashing the retail space by two thirds, threatening the existence of the post office and shop and covering the site in houses constituted “much better use”.
Residents clearly do not agree.
Residents are incredulous at what is proposed, and many stood up to speak and challenge Avalon, one resident describing the proposal as a “death sentence” for the shop.
When Morrisons representatives spoke, they expressed their desire to remain in West Hill saying they are “incredibly keen to remain in the village as they move into convenience retailing”. When asked whether they could operate from 91 square metres (which is the total combined size of the proposed new shop units) they advised it would be “very very challenging” and said “we don’t operate out of stores that size”.
So there we have the answer. This seems to confirm all our fears that the planning application, if approved, will drive our current shop operator Morrisons who is keen to remain (particularly having just substantially upgraded the shop) out of the village.
Residents raised many issues and concerns about the proposal, including the loss of the post office (with people highlighting the importance of the post office for residents’ banking as well as for their businesses needs). Residents challenged the suggestion made by Avalon about the claimed current “overprovision” of car parking and one resident commented that the removal of the car parking would see the shop “demoted to something that will fail”.
People also raised concerns about the destruction of the trees; the fact that the site will cease being a focal point for the community; that the proposal represents cramped overdevelopment of the site especially around the commercial building in the corner; that the three storey design is completely out of keeping with West Hill; that it will cause a detrimental impact on surrounding properties; that there is a woeful lack of car parking spaces proposed (5 only for the shop including staff) there is a lack of disabled car park spaces (only one space) and issues with disabled access via the steps at the front of the shop; also concerns around sustainability – with no shop or post office people will be forced into their cars to go to Ottery.
As the ward member I am a formal consultee and I will be submitting an objection drawing on the informative comments made by residents in the meeting as well as the many excellent comments that have already been submitted to Eddc.
One of the key points that I made at last night’s meeting is that as far as I am concerned the application simply does not comply with planning policy. There is a golden thread that runs through both our adopted Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan which seeks to protect community assets such as shops yet this application does precisely the opposite.
I was really pleased that all five members of West Hill Parish Council agreed to strongly object to this application. As Chair of the Parish Council Cllr Alison Carr pointed out that the owner hasn’t thought about the community at all with this application and that it would be devastating for the community to lose the shop and the post office.
The deadline for comments was to be 25th February, but I understand that EDDC will now be taking comments until 10th March. Please do submit an objection if you haven’t already done so.
Jess Bailey 