Dismissed plan resurfaces as council needs more sites for homes

A council that doesn’t have enough land allocated to meet new housing targets is being asked to reconsider a plan for 39 homes at Northam, which it turned down three years ago.

James Tizzard of Northam LVA has resubmitted his application to Torridge District Council (TDC) for Bloody Corner, which includes 11 affordable properties, of which about eight would be for social rent.

The site is outside the development boundary but is close to other estates in the town.

Both TDC and a planning inspector, who later dismissed an appeal over the plan, were concerned that the location would impact the coastline and estuary zone.

The council recently admitted that it may need to look more favourably on planning applications for housing that might not have otherwise been considered appropriate. This is because it doesn’t have enough sites for the next five years to meet the government’s housing targets.

Torridge shares a blueprint for development, called the local plan, with North Devon Council and must deliver more than 1,300 new homes across the area each year, a “significant increase” on its previous targets.

Mr Tizzard will be asking the council to review his proposal as a “sustainable development,” given that it immediately adjoins Northam and is within walking distance of a range of facilities.

His planning agents argue that it meets the council’s policy due to the lack of a five-year land supply.

He has revised the layout to help soften visual impacts and “provide a scheme that satisfies the appropriate landscape-related policies.”

Bloody Corner is thought to be the spot at which either King Alfred the Great or an Earl of Devon slayed Hubba the Dane, a Viking, in the ninth century. A grade II stone tablet commemorates the battle.

Four letters of objection to the plans have been submitted to the council, with comments about the area being at “saturation point” for housing, and the loss of wildlife habitat and green space.

Torridge District Council will consider the plans later.