RESIDENTS in Bere Alston have mounted opposition to the second draft of West Devon's Local Plan, despite a reduction in the number of proposed new houses in the village.

The latest draft of the plan reduced the proposed number of houses to be built from 60 to 25 in response to objections about the potential access problems caused by new housing developments in the village.

Objectiors say the changes are no improvement because the existing traffic management system is ill-suited to cope with 25 new homes for Bere Alston.

Initially, two sites had been planned for Bere Alston, but both the Pentillie Road and Long Orchard sites have been withdrawn with one new site on land off Woolacombe Road with fewer houses proposed.

The 0.7-hectares site is at land at the top of the village, with a required density of not less than 30 dwellings per hectare, with around 40 per cent of this allocated as affordable housing.

Residents attended the Bere Alston parish council meeting on Tuesday to outline their objections to the proposals.

At a previous public meeting at Bere Alston community centre on Wednesday, April 17, more than 60 residents gathered to hear further details about the council's latest proposals.

A petition to the borough council was signed by those at the meeting, and individual objection forms have been sent to the borough forward planning office by many of the residents. The petition now has 100 signatures, and a second petition of people who do not live in the village but who use Denham Bridge has also been well-supported.

A copy of the residents' petition has been sent to West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett.

Bere Alston resident Wendy Kingwell feels the new site is no improvement on the previous proposals.

'People are still going to need to use their cars and use Denham Bridge, which is a minor road really, not suited to lots of traffic,' she said.

Another reason the sites were changed was due to concern about the visual impact of housing in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but Mrs Kingwell said the new development is little better as it would still be visible from Dartmoor National Park and the Tamar.

Residents felt the borough council did not appear to take into account existing plans for development on sites within Bere Alston, when drawing up the level of new housing for the

village .

Objectors say the new site is not close to the railway station despite the rail-link to Plymouth being identified as a key benefit to Bere Alston in the second draft report.

Head of forward planning for the borough Chris Denford said the changes at Bere Alston in the second draft were made in light of objections received about proposals in the first draft.

'There were concerns about the level of traffic going in and out of the village and the prominence of those two sites within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.'

He said the new site was less prominent within the AONB and would not require traffic to travel through the heart of the village.

Mr Dunford said the borough had received some comments of support on the change of sites as well as objections.