A CONTROVERSIAL road through the picturesque Crowndale Valley may be scrapped from West Devon's development blueprint for the next 20 years — but 750 new homes are still planned for the edge of town.

The proposed road linking Callington Road and Plymouth Road, once seen as an essential part of the plan, has now been reduced to a 'desirable' objective and may never happen, despite fears of traffic gridlock through the middle of Tavistock.

In the West Devon Core Strategy document, finally approved this week after months of debate, improvements to the Drake's statue and Callington Road roundabouts are now considered adequate to accommodate the new 750-home development off Callington Road, which will be built in conjunction with a new rail link to Bere Alston.

The U-turn comes after uproar from residents in the Crowndale Valley, who said the road would decimate the environment — part of the World Heritage Mining Landscape and next door to the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Dartmoor National Park.

But there has also been much opposition to other aspects of the plan including the 750 homes which many residents claim would 'urbanise' the town.

More than 90% of people who voted in a parish poll in the town declared the core strategy to be unacceptable, but those in favour of the blueprint have questioned the poll's weight, given that only 12.8% of the population turned out to vote.

At the council's future planning and housing committee this week Cllr Ted Sherrell, who represents Tavistock South, urged members to vote against the strategy.

He complimented the council's officers for the 'prodigious' amount of work that had gone into the core strategy, but said the vast majority of comments from among the general public in Tavistock were negative towards it.

Cllr Sherrell said: 'This development of 750 homes will create a satellite town.

'I remember when Bishopsmead was built and it took quite a while for it to be assimilated into Tavistock — and that was half the size of what is being proposed.'

He said there was a demand for housing for local people but the reality was that the majority of people who would come to live on this estate would be from outside the area, retired and semi-retired, creating a burden on social services.

'This is not a good idea, I cannot support the core strategy. I implore members of the committee to vote against it,' he said.

The council's head of housing and strategic planning, Marion Playle, said the draft core strategy had been to full council twice for consideration and both times members had approved it.

On the last occasion it was agreed to bring it back to committee with some minor amendments following a consultation with the public last year.

At the committee meeting on Monday, councillors voted by six votes to four to accept the strategy which will now go to the secretary of state for examination.

The core strategy has been five years in the making and was necessary to give the borough council control over the future development of the borough, councillors were told.

This was a strategic plan and the master planning would come in the detail, in which everyone would be involved.

Mrs Playle said: 'I would not be here today selling you something that I did not believe in.

'In this core strategy we are providing a lower development rate than we have now and links to the main centres encouraging people to walk and cycle.

'We believe this is the right strategy not only for the main towns but the whole of West Devon.'

Included on the high priority or critical list for Tavistock is the rail link, junction improvements, provision of employment land, expansion to Whitchurch Primary School and Tavistock College, affordable housing and enhancements to the town centre.

The borough will be striving towards 40% of homes on new estates to be affordable, but this will be flexible depending on the market.

Improved bus services, housing for the elderly, youth and community facilities, relocation and expansion of Tavistock Primary School are also planned but lower priority.

Cllr Roy Connelly said at present the level of traffic along Plymouth Road, through Bedford Square and the 'very very small' Dolvin Road was high and this would increase with the new development.

Improvements to roads and bus services were paramount to prevent congestion, he said.

Other councillors called for a relief road to the east of the town, but this was not included in the plan.

In light of requests from parish councils to see small scale developments in West Devon villages, the borough council said it had developed a 'more robust approach' to development in rural areas, devising a 'Toolkit' to identify the need and sustainability of housing in rural communities and working alongside local people.

More than 400 homes will be built in the smaller locations of the borough.