Western Morning News (Saturday)
Approval for new homes on fields ‘disappointing’
TORBAY Council says it is “extremely disappointed” by a planning inspector’s decision to allow the Inglewood development to go ahead on farmland near Paignton.
The government-appointed inspector allowed an appeal by developers Abacus-Deeley Freed for the scheme including 373 homes, a pub and primary school on land alongside Brixham Road, between White Rock and Galmpton.
The developer appealed after the council failed to meet a deadline to make a decision on the planning application. The planning committee later decided it would have refused the scheme.
It said the development would harm the nearby South Devon Area of Outstanding Beauty and go against the Brixham Peninsula Neighbourhood Plan, which had not designated the land for housing.
After an online hearing in January, planning inspector Andrew Dawe decided that the development would cause limited harm to the landscape.
But a shortage of identified housing sites in Torbay meant planning rules tipped the balance for decision-making in favour of development.
The inspector said the council could not show it had identified enough housing sites to meet its three-year or five-year building targets.
On that basis, he concluded the benefit of the new homes outweighed the harm to the landscape.
Objectors challenged the evidence, saying there was at least a three-year housing supply in Torbay.
That would have given the neighbourhood plan more power to protect the ‘settlement gap’ where the development was planned.
Local councillor Karen Kennedy later said the lack of housing sites was the main reason behind the inspector’s decision to approve the scheme.
The councillor for Churston with Galmpton criticised Torbay Council’s approach to the appeal, because it failed to argue it had a three-year land supply.
That undermined the neighbourhood plan’s protection for the farmland, which would have been given full force under planning law if the council had proved it could meet its three-year target for housing sites.
Cllr Kennedy accused Brixham Town Council of failing to fully support the neighbourhood forum in defending the appeal.
The Independent councillor claimed there had been a lack of support from some at Torbay Council for neighbourhood plans.
A spokesperson for the council said: “We are so very disappointed by this decision.
“It will come as a severe blow to the many volunteers who have worked tirelessly on the preparation of neighbourhood plans over many years.
“Local communities should have the final say in developments in their areas. We share the community’s concern that localism has been ignored in the government’s drive to build homes irrespective of local wishes or landscape harm.
“The council will consider the inspector’s findings in detail before commenting further.”
Torbay Council leader Steve Darling said he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ and said the decision showed a move away from local decisionmaking.
He said the council had a strategy to provide housing in areas including town centres, and added: “It is disappointing that this is a green field development, and another example of the big boys getting their way again.”
Brixham councillor and Cabinet member Mike Morey said: “This goes against the wishes of the community, and of Torbay Council.
“It’s a kick in the teeth. We are very disappointed. A lot of our green spaces are now being eroded for development.”
Sally Lord, secretary of the Brixham Community Partnership, said: “I am very disappointed that the wishes of our community, clearly laid out in our neighbourhood plan, have been ignored.”
It’s a kick in the teeth. A lot of our green spaces are now being eroded for development CLLR MIKE MOREY