Council accused of lack of action on homes crisis

AN OUTSPOKEN Devon parish council chairman has fired an angry broadside at South Hams Council over its recent declaration of a ‘housing crisis’ across the region.

South Hams leader Cllr Judy Pearce set out a list of actions including lobbying the Government for permission to double the Council Tax on second homes and holiday homes.

The council also wants to charge developers who are sitting on empty sites among a range of measures.

But Peter Watts, who chairs Modbury Parish Council, said he was ‘speechless’ at the declaration.

The two councils have been locked in a war of words over a scheme to provide homes for local families which fell through at the last minute.

South Hams says ‘heritage constraints’ stopped a planned development at Ayleston Park in the village, which had been earmarked to provide homes for local people.

The Modbury Neighbourhood Plan listed the land as a possible site for 40 homes, half of which would have been ‘affordable’, and would have remained so in the future.

South Hams withdrew its support for the scheme on heritage grounds after two years of planning and £30,000 in development costs. The district council says the village’s need for new homes can be delivered elsewhere.

An angry Cllr Watts said the housing crisis anouncement was not news to anyone but South Hams Council. He went on: “It is just words, and our young people need more than that, they need homes.

“The district council is only now starting to lobby government, yet this problem has not sprung up overnight. It has been created by the actions, or inactions, of the district council, governments and developers over many years.

“We were trying to address that. The parish council was about to deliver genuinely affordable housing for Mod bury with an imaginatively funded scheme, and the district council pulled the rug on that.”

Barry Keel, who chairs the parish council’s planning committee, added: “No-one will be taken in by these empty statements, least of all the people who are looking for homes.

“South Hams recently scuppered a good scheme and I would like to see the council deliver what they are only now deciding to start talking about.

“This statement from them is not about delivery. Statements are not enough and some real leadership is urgently required. The community is only too aware of the problems. We all want to know what will happen, when and who will be accountable for its delivery?”

South Hams deputy leader Hilary Bastone had said he understood the ‘great disappointment’ that the Ayleston Park development had not gone ahead, but said the number of new homes being built in Modbury would not be affected.

Cllr Bastone said of the crisis declaration: “It is so very important for our residents, their families and their future generations that we tackle this problem now and do everything in our power to enable local residents to have a decent home. If people move away because they cannot afford to live here or they cannot find affordable rented properties then our towns and communities will collapse. Now is the time for us to stop talking and take action.”