AN ambitious plan for how West Devon, Plymouth and the South Hams could develop over the next 20 years was agreed by West Devon Borough Council this week.

The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan (JLP) will now be submitted to an independent planning inspector, who will make the final decision following a public consultation on the document starting this month.

The plan, which covers important issues such as health, transport, homes, jobs, the economy, green spaces and infrastructure from 2014 to 2034, was considered by members of the borough council at a meeting on Tuesday.

The JLP is a culmination of months of planning and discussions between local communities, neigh-bouring councils, landowners, businesses and developers interested in shaping the future of the area.

The plan makes provision for 26,000 new homes across the three council areas, of which 6,600 will be affordable homes to rent and buy, with 86% planned for brownfield sites in Plymouth. The plan also proposes 312,653 square metres of new employment floor space to create around 13,200 jobs, with 71% of the planned growth to be focused on the Plymouth policy area, to take the pressure off the other areas. Dartmoor is not included in the plan.

In West Devon, 17 sites have been allocated for housing, most of which already have planning permission for development or have already been built. As the plan is from 2014, any development since then falls within the allocation.

In Tavistock in particular, there is an allocation for 1,143 homes at various sites in the town, a lot of which already have planning permission. The sites are at Callington Road, New Launceston Road, Butcher Park Hill, Brook Lane and Plymouth Road. The plan also identifies the old Mount Kelly Preparatory School as a site for an extra care development — a village for older people which has nurses, doctors and care givers on-site as well as other facilities to allow people to live independently for longer — and the Trendle site owned by Mount Kelly.

The plan also aims to protect important employment land in the town, particularly Pixon Lane, which will be protected for employment use only.

Cllr Graham Parker, lead member for for strategic planning, told the Times: ‘The Callington Road and New Launceston Road sites already have consent, Butcher Park Hill got consent on appeal.

‘The Brook Lane and Plymouth Road sites went in as a joint application and won on appeal. The plan is to maximise the residential employ-ment on the Brook Lane site and maximise the amount of employment on the Plymouth Road site opposite Bishopsmead, but there will still be room for a couple of hundred houses.

‘We’ve also identified the old Mount Kelly Prep site for an extra care development.

‘West Devon probably has one of the highest proportions of older people in the country yet we haven’t got a good stock of housing to help those people. The Mount Kelly location is a brownfield site with buildings on it which would be a bad location for ordinary housing but perfect for something like this.

‘The Trendle site is right next to and owned by Mount Kelly and is a small site for 12 houses which has been on the books for ages.

‘Pixon Lane is under all sorts of pressure from housing developers etc — you name it, they are trying to clear areas of Pixon Lane. It is the most important site in the whole of Tavistock. Businesses grow there, expand and locate there. We’ve identified that as an area to protect for employment only — basically a “hands off” policy.’

Cllr Parker said he believed the work on the housing developments would all mostly start over the next two years or so.

The JLP reinforces the protection for the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the World Heritage Site and Dartmoor National Park. It also promotes the reinstatement of the rail line from Tavistock to Plymouth, promotes the Okehampton to Exeter line and commits all four authorities — Plymouth City Council, West Devon Borough Council, South Hams and Devon County Council — to press for the northern relief line, linking Exeter round to Plymouth.

The local plan also includes significant investment in the A386 from Tavistock to Plymouth, which will see the road from Woolwell to The George made into a dual carriageway to reduce congestion and there is a package of measures the team will be looking at to improve links between Tavistock and Plymouth to alleviate some of the ‘bottlenecks’ that occur along that road.

The plan will now go out for formal consultation from March 15 to April 26, where West Devon Borough Council will host a number of engagement events for the public to learn more and ask questions, details of which will be published in the near future.

Cllr Parker added: ‘This is a historic moment for two reasons — the Joint Local Plan is the most significant co-operation yet between the three authorities and secondly, this plan for the very first time sets out an overall strategy for sustainable development of the Plymouth and South West sub regions. We are not the first Joint Local Plan in the country but I’ve been in this game for 50 years and I am convinced it’s the best I’ve seen’.

Visit www.west devon.gov.uk/jointlocalplan for more information.