Okehampton and development

We now have the dates for the Examination in Public for West Devon Borough Council's Core Strategy.

November 16 to 25 an inspector will take evidence from many who believe that the strategy is flawed and should be rethought. I will be one of them.

I have fought against over-development in Okehampton for years, arguing that these proposals threaten the creation of an urban extension to the East that is critically dislocated from the centre and will cause dramatically increased congestion, pollution and a significant stress on infrastructure.

A critical point, for me, is not so much the overall level of new development sought for West Devon as a whole but its proposed distribution.

In short, Okehampton is being expected to take a totally disproportionate and wholly unacceptable share. For example, relative to their populations (Okehampton 6,500, Tavistock 11,500) Okehampton is to take twice the level of the new development earmarked for Tavistock.

We need new development within West Devon but the strategy has, in my view, placed insufficient focus upon securing development within smaller communities where it can provide greater demand for key community assets such as schools and surgeries and where vital affordable housing is often absent.

A key component of the mix here should be Community Land Trusts, whereby land within often smaller communities is placed within a trust at low or no cost by local landowners and subject to covenants that ensure that a high proportion of the housing built is both affordable and only ever available for local families.

Many of these new and imaginative approaches are being promoted by our new Government and should in my view have been more fully considered.

Our future now rests in the hands of the inspector – I will be there to fight our corner.