RESIDENTS in Bere Alston are up in arms over plans to develop up to 80 new houses in the village in the next ten years.

Sites adjacent to Pentillie Road and at Long Orchard have been earmarked for the development under the borough council's draft Local Plan.

Now an action group has been formed to try and halt any further development in the village, after a public meeting was held and objections lodged to the proposals.

Residents are worried about increased traffic on inadequate roads, negative environmental impact on an area of outstanding natural beauty and lack of infrastructure to support increased population.

Helen Donnellan, a parish and borough councillor, is a member of the action group.

She said: 'We are not against development per se, we have had a lot of development in Bere Alston in the last couple of years.

'Our feeling is we've done our bit. We know businesses in the village may want development but I think if it is to take place we need a proper traffic and environmental impact survey done before anything else.'

Cllr Donnellan did not like the idea of an extra 100 cars 'hurtling' round narrow Bere peninsula lanes — she also stressed the lack of facilities and public transport for teenagers living in the area.

Group member Mike Benson had conducted a straw poll of villagers in the Cornwall Street area to gauge public opinion. He said: 'I organised a petition and something like 400 people have objected, only one person was in favour of it.

'We found out that Bere Alston was allocated all of the houses for this area of West Devon. Nowhere else like Bere Ferrers, Yelverton or Buckland has received any allocation, which seems very unfair.'

Cyril Plackett, of the action group, said: 'Feeling in the village is very strong indeed. It's a nice village and all in all we feel we've had enough development.'

The group met West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett this week to voice their concerns.

Mr Burnett said he had 'significant sympathy' with their points of view. 'The highway structure in the Bere peninsula is exceptionally poor, there are huge highway constraints on development,' said Mr Burnett.

'The second point is development is being imposed on us without sufficient infrastructure, not just schools, but drainage, social facilities, public transport etc. It's undemocratic.'

Mr Burnett is to arrange to meet the planning chief at West Devon Council.

'I shall ensure they are made fully aware of the objections of the residents of Bere Alston,' he said.

Chris Dunsford, principal planning officer, said the local plan is still at an early stage.

'We are in the process of getting government office views clarified. Once we have got that we will go back and re-visit where there are objections,' he said.

The second version of the draft local plan will be published in the summer which is also subject to change — a public enquiry will be held early next year to decide unresolved objections, said Mr Dunsford.