Factory Future Meeting Minutes

Factory Future Working Group

Meeting on 28/04/08 at Normandy House

Minutes

Present: Clare Brewster, Helen Collinson, Peter Faithfull, Phil Foggitt (chair), Nick Graham, Diana Jones (minutes), Yvonne Salmon, Jan Thatcher, Toby Thatcher.

Apologies: Anna Roderick

1. Churchill meeting report.

Already circulated.

Jeremy Sharpe had said Churchill had spent hundreds of thousands on the building so far. He also had said the site had been their most difficult site to date, this for a company that specialises in difficult sites.

If a supermarket had been interested in the site, would they not have bought it by now? Property prices are going down. Churchill may be wanting to get the site off their hands.

Jan said her recollection of the presentation/consultation exercise that Churchill did 2 years ago was that people were not that in favour of a supermarket. She said also that a Kings School A level student had done a survey about supermarkets in Ottery re the Hind Street site, and had found that people generally were anti- supermarkets.

2. Wessex Reinvestment Trust (WRT).

Phil reported a telephone conversation he had had with Steve Bendle (SB), a WRT consultant. SB specialises in big mixed use sites. SB had said that EDDC cannot resist other designations for a site, if the existing designation – here, employment – is shown to be unprofitable by the owner. SB advises that we can pre-empt this possibility by putting in an application ourselves for employment use of just one part of the site – i.e. bottom floor of the mill. Our application will have to be a costed exercise, which SB says he will do for us. But he says he needs us to provide measurements and plans.

Peter said he had the Land Registry details. He reckoned the whole site comprises about 4 acres, and the big factory building 140,000 square feet.

SB advises that we concentrate on pursuing the S.106 obligations as much as possible instead of buying the site, which may prove a millstone round our necks! (S.106 factors in community benefit into development, often used as a swopping exercise for community-detriment development!) We may then acquire the mill ground floor free, and rents from employment units would help us lever in a loan.

We need to be careful of compromising ourselves if we are part of Churchill's development on the site. To avoid this, we could stipulate no supermarket in return for our involvement.

Our options were considered.Buy the whole site. What is the likely value? Stags and Fulfords have specialist commercial departments. Peter will ask them for a price. ACTION Peter.Ground floor mill only.Ground floor both buildings.S.106 wherever on site. Who owns the leat? Nick will ask Town Council. ACTION Nick.

Clare reported that her source in the EDDC planning department had said there was a possibility of a rival application for a supermarket on the Hind Street site. (Noted that other people had heard of this possibility.) Planners would prefer the Hind Street site to the Factory site for a supermarket. Kate Little (Head of Planning), and the EDDC Environment Director are both pro supermarkets. EDDC talks of a supermarket in every town. (None in Ottery or Seaton.) They will use in support the recent findingsof the GVA Retail Market Assessment. However it is easy for us to marshall arguments against.

Phil said EDDC do not have a design brief for the factory site. (A design brief is concerned with thematic visual aspect of development, which should blend in with the local character, e.g. Architecture.) We should write to EDDC requesting a design brief, and copy our letter to the Town Council asking them to request a design brief too. If EDDC does not produce one, then we should go to the press.

Clare said she would talk to her Planning Department source for any more info on this, and feed back the response to Helen, who said she would write the letters. ACTION Clare and Helen.

We should approach the Environmental Agency for their view on the factory site. Yvonne said she would do this. ACTION Yvonne.

We should approach English Heritage re their requirements for the listed buildings on the factory site. Jan said she would do this. ACTION Jan.

Yvonne said she had been making enquiries of Devon County Council, as to how they might help us. She had been talking to Steve Smith, and had been referred to Andrew Lightfoot. Diana said Andrew is the teamleader of of the Devon Reinvestment Service, and she had heard that Ottery was not one of their targeted areas, but they would nevertheless provide help with identifying possible funders for us. Yvonne said she would investigate this. ACTION Yvonne.

Clare said she would contact Jenny Archer of Blackdown Community Enterprise. ACTION Clare.

Anna has said she will spearhead liaison with WRT. Diana said she would feed in our discussion to Anna, and ask her to make it clear to SB we are unequivocally against a supermarket, or any development on the site that works against Ottery's sustainability. Also Anna should make it clear to SB that we still want to investigate the option of buying the whole site. ACTION Diana and Anna.

Agreed that survey of Ottery residents re factory site should wait until we have more information about the site and its possibilities. Helen said that Hilary Bird had expressed an interest in helping with the survey.

4. Sustainable Ottery launch event, 15th May.

Phil said that all Working Groups have been asked to have a stall at this event. Please would as many of the Group members attend the stall as possible. We need some kind of display like a banner. Helen said she would contact Sara for the artwork used on the new Sustainable Ottery leaflet, and just add Factory Future to it. ACTION Helen.

5. Next meeting.

Wednesday, 21st May, 7.30pm at Normandy House.