Barnstaple rejected homes plan “missed opportunity”

North Devon’s largest provider of social housing says it’s “disappointed and disheartened” by a decision to reject plans for 450 homes on the outskirts of Barnstaple.

The scheme by Wessex Strategic Ltd included around 100 affordable homes, 75 percent of which would be for social rent.

North Devon planners agreed with officers’ advice to refuse the application for land to the south of the A39 at Brynsworthy which was outside the development boundary and not allocated in the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan.

They said it was too far away from existing services and facilities and so would represent an “unjustified and unsustainable” development in the countryside.

It would also result in the loss of an “attractive woodland” and ecosystem in order to create the access and was within a flood zone.

The council has already established a five year land supply which means there are sufficient sites with planning permission in North Devon to provide a minimum of five years of housing.

There were nearly 200 objections to the scheme raising concerns about the loss of greenbelt, natural habitat and lack of infrastructure. Twenty nine people had written in support.

At the planning meeting at Barnstaple Rugby Club, representatives from North Devon Homes, which has worked with Wessex Strategic Ltd for ten years to provide local housing, and the North Devon and Torridge Housing Crisis Group voiced their support for the plans.

Mark Johnson from the crisis group said there were more than 70 families in the district living in temporary accommodation and more than 2,000 on the housing waiting list. Thousands more were living with the constant threat of eviction from private rentals.

He said the homes were “desperately needed”.

“Every week I listen to working families in crisis because of the rental situation in North Devon, suffering fear, anxiety and depression at the thought of not being able to provide their kids with a secure home.

“Social housing should be their safety net, but it’s simply not available.”

Officers said “substantial weight” had been given to the positive attributes of the plan given the identified housing need and the declaration of a housing crisis in the area but it didn’t outweigh the harm the development would cause.

They said it would have a social impact on occupiers through isolation and they would be primarily reliant on private cars to get to the local school and other services. A bus service offered by Wessex would only be in place for three years, they said.

Contributions of more than £4 million towards education including money towards a new primary school, expansion of the secondary school and SEN provision and £1 million pounds towards parks, sports and recreation from the developer would be sought from the developers if planning consent was approved for the site, they added.

Cllr Paul Crabb (Con, Ilfracombe East Ward)) said within a couple of years there would be a new local plan where there was every possibility that the south of the A39 could be included in the development boundary.

“It was a difficult decision and I was torn but I proposed we accepted it because we need those social homes. In the end members voted with the officers because it was so far from policy.”

Group development manager for North Devon Homes Tim Hamilton-Miller said the decision was “hugely disappointing” and “a missed opportunity” for local families, key workers, young and the elderly who needed an affordable home that adequately met their needs.

He said there may well be numerous sites planning grants in the pipeline but they weren’t seeing delivery of those schemes due to the highest construction costs ever seen locally,  the high borrowing costs for the developers and mortgage rates going up again in the last week for the buyers.

“Couple these factors to house prices falling for the second month in a row reported this week. None of this encourages a developer to put a spade in the ground so schemes either stall or just aren’t progressed. If the private homes don’t get built neither do the affordable ones.

“It’s the profit from the private sales that funds the affordable homes as affordable homes are more expensive to build than the social rent can support. Alternatively the developer goes back to planning on viability grounds and removes the affordable, which clearly doesn’t help those in need of affordable.

“It’s very disheartening.”