A DEVELOPER with plans to build 31 homes in Bere Alston has put in a fresh application for planning permission without budging on the thorny question of access.

Burrington Estates is sticking to its guns with a proposal for an access road from the housing estate onto Woolacombe Road, arguing that it is still ‘not feasible’ to have the entrance onto Bedford Street, the B3257.

The latest application, 2435/23/FUL, will be discussed West Devon Borough Council’s development management and licensing committee on Tuesday, at the request of Bere Ferrers ward borough councillor Isobel Saxby. Bere Ferrers Parish Council has strong reservations about the application.

The original proposal, for a field beside Bere Alston Bowling Club, was rejected by a planning inspector in September 2022 and was previously turned down for planning permission by West Devon Borough Council, over the question of access.

The developer wants to put the main access onto Woolacombe Road but Bere Ferrers Parish Council objected, saying this would push more traffic on to the road’s already dangerous junctions at either end with The Down and the Bere Ferrers road.

The site is earmarked for housing in the Bere Ferrers Neighbourhood Plan, but the plan stipulates that access road should be onto Bedford Street, the B3257, unless it is ‘not feasible to do so’.

The developer had previously argued that it was ’not feasible’ as it would have to work with neighbours to the site to acquire land to build splays on either side of the entrance to make it safe.

However this was argument was rejected by the planning inspector in 2022.

Also currently being considered by planners is a proposal for a new Co-op store on the other side of Bedford Street, opposite the housing site.

Bere Ferrers parish council is calling for the speed limit on Bedford Street to be extended up beyond the store on the road to make it safer for pedestrians to walk up to the store from the centre of the village. There is also a call for a pavement.