BREAKING NEWS: Seaton Town Council to take legal action over Tesco plan
SEATON Town Council is taking legal action to halt work by Tesco and wants a public enquiry into the supermarket s application.
SEATON Town Council is taking legal action to halt work by Tesco and wants a public enquiry into the supermarket's application.
The move was decided today (Friday, September 25) in response to East Devon District Council's approval of the supermarket's plan last week.
Following an extraordinary meeting, the council agreed to push and for independent scrutiny by a government-appointed inspector.
The council has decided to instruct its solicitors to petition the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to issue a holding direction on the supermarket's two planning applications.
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The solicitors are to also ask for more information on the environmental impact, particularly the import of 320,000 cubic metres of infill material.
Town clerk David Mears said: "It is in Seaton Town Council's opinion that the decision notice, which would allow work to commence on the site owned by Tesco, should be suspended until the Secretary of State has had the opportunity to examine the planning applications."
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He added the Secretary of State should decide whether the applications were 'called in' and if the matter of infill needed to be decided before work started.
He said: "The Town Council is aware that the planning application for the store and petrol station does not specifically say how infill will be brought in and, in theory, the store and petrol station could be constructed using the 25 per cent of infill be be brought in by land.
"If then it is not possible to bring infill by sea, it is not known what decision EDDC might make regarding alternatives."
He explained that the criteria for call-in includes whether the planning applications have matters of national or regional importance that would require a planning inquiry to take place before a decision on the on the applications is decided.
Tesco's applications are for a store and redevelopment of land -including housing, a hotel and petrol filling station, was approved by East Devon District Council's development committee last Tuesday (September 15).
