A SCHEME to build 12 ‘genuinely affordable’ homes for local people in Brentor is still on the table despite West Devon Borough Council pulling out of its sister scheme in Lamerton.

A planning application to Dartmoor National Park Authority is expected in the next few weeks.

The two community housing proposals were promoted by WDBC as the first council housing in a generation when the council decided to invest £4.5 million in them back in the summer of 2019.

The scheme in Lamerton was for 17 homes while 12 are to be built in Brentor, with a sizeable proportion of the money to come from the council itself, borrowed from the Public Works Loan Board.

Cllr Terry Pearce, who represents Brentor as part of the Mary Tavy ward on the borough council, confirmed this week that the Brentor scheme was still in the pipeline.

‘What I understand is the intention is still to go ahead with the Brentor scheme and there will be a planning application which is expected in the next few weeks,’ he said.

WDBC issued a statement earlier this month to say that it was pulling out of the Lamerton scheme, citing technical reasons, after considerable investment in design and planning work. This has been funded by a Government grant of £250,000 for both this and the Brentor scheme.

This decision comes after fierce opposition from some to the proposed site on a greenfield site at Green Hill, which has divided the village and led to three councillors resigning from the parish council, citing verbal attacks after the parish council voted to back the scheme.

Cllr Pearce, who is also chairman of Brentor Parish Council, said the situation was different in Brentor, where housing is proposed for a greenfield site to the north of the village. He said: ‘We have had two public consultations and there was support from the community for the scheme because there is a shortage of affordable housing. There are so many second homes and holiday homes in Brentor that the smaller cottages that were there for people when I was a youngster aren’t there any more. They are priced out, so it is a very difficult stituation.’

The scheme will provide affordable housing to rent or part-rent part-buy — shared ownership — for people with a genuine connection to the parish, on the proviso that it is never resold on the open market. The proposal goes back a decade, when Dartmoor National Park Authority first assessed sites for affordable housing on an ‘exception site’ in the village. This is a site where development would not normally be permitted for the purposes of providing affordable housing.

As Brentor is in Dartmoor National Park and West Devon borough, both authorities are involved. Planning decisions are taken by the national park authority while WDBC as the housing authority would decide who lives in the homes.