CAMPAIGNERS against West Devon Borough Council's controversial development blueprint for the next 16 years are to stage a protest next week.

The protest will take place at the borough's Kilworthy Hill offices in Tavistock, when the planning inspector arrives on September 16 ahead of a public inquiry.

The inspector will be holding a pre-hearing meeting which is open to the public at the council offices, but no-one will be allowed to speak until the inquiry in November.

Residents against the development framework or core strategy, which proposes 750 houses for Tavistock and 900 for Okehampton, as well as a number of infrastructure improvements, are being urged to attend the protest with placards stating their objections to the document.

Opponents have said concentrating the development in Tavistock and Okehampton creating 'urban extensions' will have a negative impact on the towns.

There is also scepticism that the infrastructure, like roads, schools and other services, will come on stream alongside the new houses.

The figures for West Devon were based on Government housing targets but in light of a change of policy by the new coalition Government, which now gives local authorities and communities control how many houses should be built in their areas, there have been pleas to West Devon to look again at the housing numbers.

The borough council, however, has remained adamant that its core strategy is the right one for the area and is now leaving it in the hands of the planning inspector to decide on its fate.

Both Okehampton and Tavistock town councils voted against the plan and a parish poll was also held in Tavistock where 91% of people voted against the strategy.

Campaigner Jeremy Davies said: 'The core strategy is meant to reflect the wishes, needs and opinions of the people who live in the area.

'In creating a single huge urban extension on a greenfield site, the planners are going for the easy option.

'The better choice would be wider dispersal of development around the borough.

'They have given inadequate consideration to the effects of the increase in traffic, the devastating environmental consequences, and the idiocy of building around our most important heritage site.'

Tavistock resident Ann Keelan said: 'This area is very dependent on tourism, and yet the council seem to have no appreciation of what it is about Tavistock that attracts people.

'I'm horrified that they are proposing to build a massive housing estate around Sir Francis Drake's birthplace – any idea of developing it as an attraction in the future will be impossible.

'Can you imagine this being allowed to happen in the USA or France?'

Mrs Keelan is urging people to start arriving at the council office car park with placards at 9am, so the inspector can see the strength of feeling when he arrives.

West Devon borough council Alison Clish-Green said: 'Most people do understand the need to have a core strategy and especially to provide affordable homes for local people.

'But what the electorate are telling us is that it should not all be lumped together in one area of the town potentially creating a "suburb".

'I hope the inspector takes seriously the views which have been submitted.'

There is also much opposition to the core strategy in Okehampton, where borough councillor Edna Hicks has claimed that the council leadership showed contempt for the concerns of residents.

'We were elected to represent them, and they have made it abundantly clear that they do not want any more houses foisted upon our towns,' she said.

'Now that the government has axed regional housing targets, we should be producing a plan that reflects local needs.

'Of course we need more affordable housing but not 900 houses in a town this size‚ it's outrageous.'

MP for Central Devon Mel Stride said he would be fighting Okehampton's corner at the public inquiry.

He said:?'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 spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council said the issue was now in the hands of the inspector.

The borough did not wish to make any further comment.

Anyone who has an enquiry relating to the core strategy public examination should write to the programme officer Audrey Henderson at West Devon Borough Council, Kilworthy Park, Tavistock, PL19 OBZ.

She can be contacted on 01822 813556 or by email at [email protected]">[email protected]