I AM grateful to your anonymous correspondent (Letter June 13) for explaining the Department of the Environment's traffic-related grounds for rejection of a planning application for infill development in Chollacott Lane.
I am apparently not alone in being unaware of this, as the matter was not raised when Tavistock Town Council debated, then decided to oppose the borough's policy of restricting infill development in the Down Road/Chollacott Lane area.
The rationale for this policy given in the borough's Local Plan Review was to protect 'residential amenity' and 'mature landscape character', not specific concern over traffic.
Without knowing the details of the particular planning application it is difficult to comment, but I do find the DOE ruling surprising as infill development has already occurred in Chollacott Lane, as it has at other locations with poor access onto Whitchurch Road.
The lane itself is certainly no worse from a road safety point of view than access roads to other housing in the town, and many houses in Chollacott Lane have sufficient grounds to permit the turning of cars within their boundaries.
Clearly each case needs to be looked at with care, but I feel sure there is scope within the current planning guidelines for limited infill in the Chollacott Lane area without serious environmental harm.
Cllr. Peter Donkin
9 Chestnut Close,
Bishopsmead,
Tavistock