Potential Exmouth business park expansion could have extra entrance

A potential expansion of an Exmouth business park could have an extra entrance after an intervention by planners.

he prospective addition to Liverton Business Park is included in the draft local plan being developed by East Devon District Council.
That document outlines where new homes and businesses can notionally be created in the district all the way out to 2042, and the latest iteration is set to undergo a second round of consultation, potentially starting at the end of this week.
Members of the strategic planning committee heard that it was being recommended the proposed expansion of Exmouth’s business park – which has been dubbed Liverton Business Park 3 due to the existing two parts – should only be from an existing route into the site.
However, Iestyn John, from landowner Clinton Devon Estates, said while the organisation welcomed the expansion of the business park, it worried about the proposal for only having one access.
“From a commercial perspective, tenants require a strong frontage and ease of access, but only allowing access from within the existing park might sound okay, but it creates a 1.4 mile round-trip to get in and out of the existing Liverton Business Park, which could be a disincentive to would-be occupiers,” Mr John said.
He added that requiring additional traffic to use the existing entrance would “concentrate traffic at an already busy junction”, and suggested that allowing an access from Salterton Road might be useful, as long as it satisfied planning criteria.
The draft local plan had ruled out an access off Salterton Road because the National Landscape – the former name for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – is on the opposite side of the road.
But Councillor Charlotte Fitzgerald (Liberal Democrat, Budleigh & Raleigh) questioned why an entrance off Salterton Road was being “ruled out at this point”.
“Liverton Business Park is, to my knowledge, one of the biggest growth sites in Exmouth and it is the most ideally located of all the industrial areas in Exmouth for expansion,” she said.
“So why would we count out at this stage a way of making it as viable as possible?
“I understand concerns about visual impact, as we don’t want to see three- or four-storey buildings with more burger concessions as you come into Exmouth, as it would spoil the view, however, working backwards, I don’t understand why we’re counting out access from there now.”
Ed Freeman, a senior planning officer at the council, explained the rationale for the caution had been that the location of an entrance on Salterton Road could be quite prominent given its high elevation compared to the rest of the area that will be used for the expanded business park.
“There’s quite a significant difference [in height] between that part of the site and the bottom, so we were concerned about engineering and landworks required to create an access and the visual impact of that,” he said.
“What we wouldn’t want to see is a large frontage to the development, and we would like to protect the openness and character of that area.”
Cllr Fitzgerald suggested a specific proposal for the strategic planning committee to consider that would not rule out an entrance on Salterton Road, but would provide some restrictions about how it could be done.
The motion suggested a secondary access from Salterton Road would have to be “carefully designed and screened to minimise impact on the setting of the National Landscape” and “avoid adverse visual impacts”.
It added that any secondary access – that would still need to secure planning permission – would be for more consumer-facing buildings at the front of the site, but the main access would remain via the existing access road into Liverton Business Park.
The committee voted in favour of the motion with seven members in favour, one against, and five abstaining.