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WATCHET EAST WHARF PROPOSALS
WITHDRAWN NOVEMBER 23rd 2007
Urban Splash have withdrawn the CURRENT application for planning consent, over
issues to do with Health and Safety along with car parking and road access.
This does NOT mean that the scheme is finished. ALL it means is that Urban
Splash will RESUBMIT a REVISED APPLICATION at a later date.
What this DOES mean is that ALL OBJECTIONS AND SUBMISSIONS to both Planning
and the Government Office of the South West ARE NULL AND VOID - the application
they refer to has been WITHDRAWN.
When the NEW or REVISED application is submitted, all objections and submissions
previously submitted will HAVE TO BE SENT IN AGAIN, AS IN PLANNING RULES IT WILL BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT
PLANNING APPLICATION!
A new planning application for Watchet's East Wharf has been submitted in the
summer of 2007, following the withdrawal of the completely unworkable first application.
For full information on previous application please click Here
Unfortunately, the new design is generally thought to be totally unacceptable as well,
being overbearing and an abominable blot on a beautiful landscape of an ancient harbour
town.
Whilst everyone agrees that the East Wharf needs urgent redevelopment, sadly
West Somerset Council appear to be more interested in obtaining money and "credence"
for themselves, rather than really improving the town of Watchet by planning a
sympathetic and in-keeping development. It is of interest that West Somerset
Council also planned a "enhancement" of Watchet Esplanade, assuming, with complete
contempt of all the rules that they could just do it without Planning and Conservation
Area consent! Luckily a High Court challenge has stopped the most disturbing
part of this project, showing it is possible to stop the headlong rush that
West Somerset Council are in to do just what they want without consideration
of the town and its residents.
DETAILS OF THE ESPLANADE SCHEME AND HIGH COURT DOCUMENTS
can be viewed
HERE.
The proposals detailed below will completely sterilise the focal point of the town,
with a giant building of 7 floors facing the sea, fronting two visually blunt,
block type of buildings of 5 floors facing the Marina.
The views from the amenity area on Watchet's headland towards the harbour and
town will be lost - all that will be visible are the top floors of the new building,
whilst from the harbour front and Esplanade, the headland and cliff face will be
completely obscured. Below is a composite picture showing the height of the main
building. This was based on the older plans, so please note that the building
shown on the right of the picture are ANOTHER floor higher!
Below you will find various documents and reports - or at least links to them
- regarding both the planning application for the East Wharf and the policies
that the Local Authority will rely on to determine the planning application.
Clicking on the links will open the relevant document in a new page, whilst
right clicking and selecting "save as" will save a copy onto your computer
for printing or whatever.
If you find any inconsistencies in the WSC planning documents, both factual
or conceptual, these can be valid planning objections. However, time is SHORT,
so please act quickly.
Be warned, some documents are quite long and some are copyright of the
owners - which means private use only, for submitting a planning objection
and not for re-distributing. At the end of the list of documents is a
detailed report from a professional planning consultant. This is very
technical and is laid out in the rather abrupt fashion for legal reasons.
Should the Planning Committee decide to ignore the issues it contains,
it will provide a basis for an appeal to the Government Office of the
South West to "call in" the planning decision should guidelines and
rules have been broken.
This document has been developed over several months and has cost a concerned
group of individuals several thousand pounds already - and they are sharing
it with Watchet residents for free. However, should these documents be of use,
a contribution towards these costs would be very gratefully accepted!
Please call 01984 634565 or make a donation at the Post Office towards
the cause.
Please, if you are going to object, pick just one or two of the issues
and write in detail, quoting any of the references that are relevant -
it would be much better than loads of very similar letters.
However, if you do not feel up to this, please feel free to email me,
and I will do my best to help.
What would appear to be the most critical issues are:-
1) All developments of 5 or more dwellings in Watchet must enter
into a "Section 106" agreement with West Somerset Council to
make a contribution to affordable housing as defined in a document called
"SPG1". This can either be a percentage of the development as
affordable homes, or, a cash contribution towards affordable housing in
the local area. A rough calculation on the proposed development would
indicate 21 dwellings or a contribution of about £1,200,000.00 (!)
towards affordable housing. in exceptional circumstances, fully detailed,
this can be negotiated. It would appear that WSC has, without public knowledge,
negotiated with Urban Splash to negate any requirement for affordable
housing or a cash payment. The Environmental Statement includes the full,
gory details!
2) Consistency and fairness of implementing the Conservation Area
Guidelines. The fact that the WHOLE CONSERVATION AREA must be considered,
not just the East Wharf. When local properties can not add a small building
(see refusals for Yacht Club on headland and cottage at Highbank) because
it would be ''Visual Intrusive", how can such a large building be
acceptable. This smacks of double-standards. Please read, however difficult,
the Conservation Area Guidelines below and use these in your objections.
3) Over development of site with too high a density (also see above)
and contravention of the Local Plan (viewable in both Town and District
Council offices) in terms of housing and tourism.
4) The lack of transparency in the manner that West Somerset Council
(and to some extent our Councillors) are handling the whole project. There
seems to be many secret deals, lack of listening to local people and what
seems to be total ignorance of their own planning guidelines. Perhaps
WSC is not a fit body to determine a such a complex and significant development
which will change the whole character of the area. Simply as land owners,
this would appear to be a prejudicial conflict of interests. I personally
believe they do not have the necessary experience of dealing with very
clued up developers - see the mess up on Minehead developments. I also
believe that they do not have the resources to investigate all the facets
of this application in the required thorough manner. Therefore, perhaps
if the application could be determined by Central Government on an independent
basis, we would get a fair consideration
The way forward may well be to initially write to the Government Office
of the South West detailing carefully all the planning mistakes made so
far by WSC and expressing WHY it is felt that WSC will not follow their
own rules and guideline, nor act in a fair way. This will require as many
letters as possible to, with a request for the Planning Application to
be "Called In" to:-
David Brown,
Planning Inspectorate,
Government Office of the South West,
2 Rivergate,
Temple Quay,
Bristol,
BS1 6EH.
Looking at the picture below, you will see the bulk of the
new building as viewed from the slipway - this is quite a way from the
proposed development and the building will look more bulkier the nearer
you get to it (REMEMBER there is another floor now on the right hand building!
The jib (top) of the crane is at 20 metres from ground level which is few
centimetres less than the proposed height. Actual spot heights can be see on
the elevation plans which you can download from the list below. Please note
heights are from sea level, so deduct 8.3 metres from each measurement.
If you wish to download the full images in higher resolution, then please go the
"Other Useful Documents" section below and click on the links to download.
Anyone has full permission to use these images in any publication or media.
Prepared by:-
John Richards,
Watchet.net web-hosting.
01984 634565
7th October 2007
REFERENCE
DOCUMENTS FROM WSC WEBSITE
All documents are pdf files
1) Environmental Impact Statement - Introduction (3.5mb)
2) Environmental Impact Statement - Noise (2.1mb)
3) Environmental Impact Statement - Water (9.7mb)
4) Environmental Impact Statement - Cultural (3.5mb)
5) Environmental Impact Statement - Framework (3.7mb)
6) Environmental Impact Statement - Human Effects (3.1mb)
7) Environmental Impact Statement - Conclusions (1.8mb)
8) Existing Site Plans - 1 (600kb)
9) Existing Site Plans - 2 (600kb)
10) Existing Site Sections - 1 (160kb)
11) Existing Site Sections - 2 (160kb)
12) Site Elevations 1 (300kb)
13) Site Elevations 2 (390kb)
14) Site Elevations 3 (380kb)
15) Wharf Building - Ground Floor (387kb)
16) Wharf Building - Second Floor (510kb)
17) Wharf Building - Third Floor (485kb)
18) Wharf Building - Fourth Floor (455kb)
19) Wharf Building - 5th Floor (475kb)
20) Wharf Building - Elevations (275kb)
21) Single Storey Building (192kb)
22) Boat Building Elevations (265kb)
23) Boat Museum Alternative Design (540kb)
24) B and C Building Elevations (340kb)
25) Planning Application Documents (2.5mb)
26) Proposed Location Plans (965kb)
27) Planning Application Documents (750kb)
28) Site Demolition Plans (620kb)
29) Archeological Assessment (1.2mb)
30) Flood Risk Assessment (1.0mb)
31) Landscape Report (860kb)
32) Traffic and Transport Assessment (358kb)
33) Water Quality Data (99kb)
34) Ground Quality Data (1.6mb)
OTHER
USEFUL DOCUMENTS
1)
Conservation Area Rules and Regulations - Planning Policy Guidance 15
(266kb)
2)
Suplementary Planning Obligations (932kb)
3)
Download of full size image showing superimposed building from slipway (250kb)
4)
The Fisher Report (200kb)
Changes made:-
PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS BEING CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED
PLEASE EMAIL
WITH ANY BROKEN LINKS, EXTRA INFORMATION OR COMMENTS.
HIGH COURT DOCUMENTS AND PLANS FOR WATCHET ESPLANADE
In 2006 West Somerset Council proposed various "enhancements" to Watchet Esplanade and
secured a small amount of European Funding for the project. Unfortunately, the designs
proposed were totally out of keeping with the Conservation Area and the inspiration of
one officer who has publicly stated that he does not like Watchet!
Planning Permission was applied for, but when it was realised that this permission
could never be granted (even by their own planning officers) the plans were withdrawn.
Subsequently, West Somerset Council planned to go ahead, without any planning permission,
to build the scheme. Part of this included a large, modern structure as a "performance
platform" some 9m in diameter and 6m high with a "Butlins type" roof. This included a
3m brick wall outside a residential property and sterilising the whole Esplanade.
The local resident, outside whose windows and entrance this monstrosity was to be built
took legal advise and entered into detailed correspondence with the Council. The Council
willfully ignored these representation and all planning rules, so the High Court were
asked for leave to hear a Judicial Review on the lawfulness of the Council's decision
to proceed without consent.
The High Court took the view there was a case to answer and granted the hearing to be
heard as soon as possible. The Council decided that whatever the outcome, it would
build the platform anyway and if the High Court decision went against it, would just
apply for retrospective Planning Permission........
In view of this the resident asked the High Court to issue an interim order (often
called restraining injunction) to stop any work until the trial as once built, the
platform would be a "fete accompli".
The High Court reviewed the evidence and decided there was stil a case to answer by
the Council and granted this interim order until the trial.
This order, reproduced below, forbids the Council from doing any building or preparatory
work at all on the Performance Platform, but does not affect any of the other parts
of the enhancement.
Much has been made by certain people that this would halt the whole project and lose
the European Funding. This is not true as documents submitted to Court show.
Below are all the High Court documents and make interesting reading!
DOCUMENTS FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW AND INTERIM ORDER
All documents are pdf or Word files
1) Detailed View of Scheme (750kb)
2) Layout of Performance Platform (500kb)
3) Grounds for Judicial Review (90kb)
4) Statement of Facts for Judicial Review (32kb)
5) Witness Statement 1 (49kb)
6) Witness Statement 2 (50kb)
7) Exhibit List for Judicial Review (22kb)
8) Representations to Planners (9kb)
9) Grant of Judicial Review (260kb)
10) Statement of Claim for Injunction (95kb)
11) WSC Evidence and Statements to Court (large file) (8.3mb)
12) The temporary restraining injunction! (95kb)
13) The FINAL restraining injunction! (95kb)
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