Some comments on this blog seem to imply that the failure of the Local Plan is because local NIMBYs influenced the housing numbers in the submitted plan.
Rubbish: if that were so then our councillorss and officers should resign en-masse for being such lily-livers! We paid officers and consultants thousands and thousands of pounds to come up with these numbers. And bear in mind that they went up from an original 12,000 to 15,000 in this time. Doubt the NIMBYs had much to do with that!
Show us your evidence commentators, show us your evidence.
Sidmouth Independent News 
My recollection of the meeting at which Ms Little proposed 15,000 houses was because the officers had proposed something like 18,000 (I cannot remember the basis for that figure) and local pressure groups (I remember Mr Ely speaking about it but there were several others) wanted something closer to 12,000. Ms Little proposed the 15,000 as a compromise and it was accepted by the working party that was tasked with preparing the plan.
Exactly! The 17/18k was the figure supported by evidence from the RSS. The 15k was co promise to the pressure groups as you rightly explain.