PEOPLE in Okehampton and the Hamlets want brownfield sites developed before green space outside the town is built on, a consultation on the neighbourhood plan has revealed.

Residents were asked to comment on sites put forward by landowners for development as part of the drawing up of the Okehampton and Okehampton Hamlets Neighbourhood Plan.

The public opted overwhelmingly to see the areas of land outside the town remain as green spaces. This includes an area of land, south of Exeter Road, which is the subject of a planning application currently before West Devon Borough Council for 50 homes. The town council voted to object to that proposal at its meeting on Monday last week.

Town councillor Tony Leech, from the neighbourhood plan committee, has revealed the results of the consultation of households, held in November, in the form of a colour coded map.

‘There were 15 plots that were put forward for development and we asked the public what they would like, if anything, these pieces of land to be used for.

‘It came out loud and clear that people in the town wanted brownfield sites to go first, before any greenfield sites are built on.

‘Three events were held and information sent out to 1,700 households to get the views of the general public to see what parcels of land have been put forward for development by local landowners should be used for in the future. The four main options were for housing development, employment dev-elopment, sports and recreation and to keep as green field.

‘The highest amount of votes were for keeping sites as green fields, the second highest amount was for housing development, the next was for sport and recreation and the last was for employment land,’ said Cllr Leech.

He added: ‘The reason for this update now is to let people know our progress. All the owners of these pieces of land, which were put forward last summer, have been on tenterhooks wanting to know the results of the consultation.

‘Once the whole neighbourhood plan is finished, we can use this as part of official planning policy. The aim is to try and get development built where it is best suited in the town. It is the first time that residents will have had a say in what does and does not get built in the future.’

He stressed that the neighbourhood plan would have no power to change what had already been agreed in the Core Strategy and the emerging Joint Local Plan, which is currently being examined in detail by a planning inspector.

This includes plans for 775 homes east of Okehampton, plus developments which have already been built, which Councillor Leech described as ‘white boxes’.

The homes were given the go-ahead despite campaigning against them by councillors and the community.

He said the neighbourhood plan, which will also include residents’ views on housing design and an assessment of the infrastructure the town needs, was aimed at getting more control over what is built in the future.

'Previously we have always been in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate and the neighbourhood plan gives us a whip hand, rather than being at the mercy of outside influences. We do need to develop and grow, but I think in this beautiful environment we live in, we need to be more careful about how we allow developers to develop the land.

‘Dartmoor National Park Planning Authority has the right to say “we don’t want to have development where it will ruin Dartmoor” but we have no such rights even though developers can ruin our views of Dartmoor. What we need to do is to have control as to what developments look like so that the white boxes do not continue to ruin the look of our very special natural environment.’

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He said the consultation on the neighbourhood plan included canvassing the views of young people at Okehampton College. It was an interesting exercise as the consultation showed that people of all ages were in agreement that the green fields outside the development boundary should stay as green productive fields, and any future development should be on brownfield sites first. The college students did show a preference for some more sports and recreation areas within the town.