WHILST I do not intend to abuse the courtesy of your columns for a baseline rally with Messrs Stowell and Benson, please allow me one further attempt to disentangle their cats? cradle of strategic and operational issues. First, I shall answer the questions they posed (Letters, January 26). I explained the effect of the planning application in the third paragraph of my last letter (January 19); far from wasting public money, it secured valuable benefits for Bere Alston. The consensus lies in the accumulated consultation documents that informed the Local Plan review process for the whole borough of West Devon over seven years. We did not magic a strategy out of thin air, and I concede that Bere Alston had particular issues; these were reflected in the out-turn, as I shall explain presently. Finally, page 16 of my committee?s agenda for December 6 2005 reads, inter alia: ?Bere Ferrers Parish Council: No objections?. The issues Messrs Stowell and Benson have further ventilated in their last three paragraphs are old ones, thoroughly debated in the final stages of the Local Plan review, prior to its adoption, nemine contradicente, by the borough council in March of last year. The strategy was to allocate about 800 houses to Okehampton, 600 to Tavistock and 100 each to the three largest remaining settlements, Bere Alston, Hatherleigh and North Tawton. Bere Alston?s allocation was reduced to 30 (1.2 hectares) because of its particular problems and despite its being the largest of the three settlements. The strategic task (formulating and honing the Local Plan review) fell to the forward planning and housing committee. My committee?s job is to implement it (and to maximise collateral benefits), not to re-open the Local Plan debate, which was firmly closed last year. Cllr Roger W Mathew Chairman West Devon planning and licensing committee
