THE mayor of Tavistock has warned that the scale of housing development given the green light could ‘destroy what is special about the town’.

Cllr Paul Ward said there was ‘a lot of social media anxiety’ over the amount of new housing being imposed on Tavistock, with more than 1,000 houses in the pipeline.

This is set to rise even higher with an application for 250 houses opposite Plymouth Road currently being considered by planners at West Devon Borough Council.

Cllr Ward said: ‘There is a lot of social media anxiety about the scale of the development, given that we have got developers sniffing around Anderton Lane and Violet Lane, and a planning application has gone in for 250 houses off Plymouth Road.

‘People are becoming increasingly concerned about the infrastructure implications.

‘We’re talking about the best part of 1,000 houses being built at the moment. That’s a lot of houses in a relatively small town.

‘I’m not totally against development,’ he added. ‘I think the town does need to grow if it is to remain thriving and viable but it is a question of finding a balance if we are not to destroy what is special about the town.

‘I am not sure that dumping 650 houses here, 250 there and 150 on the edge of town is the best way to do it, although I don’t have a magical way of solving the problem.’

David Wilson Homes has started work on 110 houses on the outskirts of the town off Butcher Park Hill, which was opposed by Tavistock Town Council and West Devon Borough Council but granted on appeal by a government planning inspector.

Butcher Park Hill, a busy main road leading out of Tavistock, will be closed for three months from February 11 for the pipelines for gas, sewerage and broadband to be installed to the new development (see story below).

And Bovis Homes obtained outline planning permission to build 750 houses off Callington Road back in 2015, and has now submitted detailed plans for 157 of them.

Meanwhile Cavanna Homes has planning consent to build 148 houses off New Launceston Road.

Most recently, Linden Homes South West has lodged a planning application to build 250 houses on land opposite Bishopsmead and Tiddy Brook on the A386.

The public are invited to give their views about the development at www.westdevon.gov.uk by January 24.

And parcels of land have been bought by a property speculator off Violet Lane, where there are proposals to build another 110 houses, although planning permission has yet to be submitted.

Tavistock town councillors recently held a meeting with the property speculators who have bought the land, at which they unveiled their plans.

Cllr Ward told them: ‘The town has no appetite for any further development at this time. It will be seriously unpopular.’