LAMERTON Parish Council has agreed to support a pioneering community housing scheme by the borough council on a controversial site in the village.

The site at Greenhill for community housing had been rejected by the parish council in May because members said the homes would result in the loss of an attractive greenfield location.

The council put its neighbourhood plan — a blueprint for development over the next few years — on hold to commission an independent assessment of sites within the parish to find more suitable areas for housing.

But at a meeting this week, councillors decided to support the plan for community housing at Greenhill, with conditions, following completion of the assessment and to include both Greenhill and Court Cottage Farm for consideration in the draft neighbourhood plan.

Earlier this year West Devon Borough Council agreed to invest £4.3-million into two community housing schemes at Lamerton and Brentor — the first delivery of new homes by the council in a generation.

The community housing strategy was put in place to support the development of affordable homes available to people with a local connection on exception sites with a reduced land value.

But although the project was supported in Brentor it had divided the community in Lamerton.

At a highly charged Lamerton Parish Council meeting on Monday (November 18), in the sports and community centre, councillors and residents expressed their views on the housing scheme and developments within the village.

Cllr Roger Geake, parish council chairman, said: ‘I want the best for the village. This village is becoming an OAP village. It is being divided by this and we need to unite, get together and work this out.

‘This scheme can only go ahead on land with a considerably lower cost to keep the house prices down.’

One resident said that the Greenhill development was needed provided there would be a guarantee the site would not be expanded.

‘We want people who grew up in the village to be able to acquire property.’

Another said: ‘It’s the only exception site that was identified for affordable housing. That site comes with a price tag that enables it to be considered for that purpose. Greenhill is one where land value will be cheap enough.’

One woman said: ‘The parish council voted down Greenhill and we are frustrated that it is back on the agenda. I appreciate that we need affordable housing but they are not using what is in the neighbourhood plan.’

Lamerton Primary School urged the parish council to consider the benefits affordable housing would have for the school and its families and young people who wanted to stay in the community.

In a letter to Lamerton Parish Council, Rob Ellis, community housing lead for West Devon Borough Council, said that the borough council would welcome the opportunity to work with the community of Lamerton to progress a high quality, affordable-led scheme of up to 17 units, subject to planning permission.

Mr Ellis said the community housing team had been in discussions with the parish council about a prospective housing scheme at Greenhill for nearly two years.

There had been some original support for the site being allocated but the council changed its mind.

The council was told that the affordable scheme could be achieved through: nominal land value (typically £10,000/plot) provided either through a cash payment or a development plot transfered to the landowner — such consideration was a fraction of the price a developer would pay for an open market development site; West Devon facilitating a development scheme on a not-for-profit basis; drawing on a grant through Homes England and the inclusion of a small number of open market homes.

Mr Ellis said negotiations had already taken place with the owner of the Greenhill site and some work had already been undertaken on the scheme.

He said that it was likely that Homes England would ‘shut the door’ on new grant applications for other sites in the Lamerton area for the time being if the Greenhill development did not procced. ‘The parish council cannot put the Greenhill project on ice for much longer,’ he said.