Yesterday evening I attended the Loddiswell Parish Council meeting to give them a WAL update and reiterate our aspirations for the old school field and our opposition to more housing, especially in the knowledge that a pre-planning application for 10 houses had recently been submitted. You can imagine my dismay to have the rug pulled from under me when Cllr Rufus Gilbert (Devon County Council) announced that the old school field has been sold to a developer! I think the Loddiswell Parish Council members were shocked by this news too. Cllr Gilbert would not, or could not answer questions posed, but according to him it was a done deal. I came away, reeling from this news but feeling that we should continue the fight, which we can still do by opposing any planning applications, but we would be up against the developer now rather than DCC.
This morning however I was contacted by Cllr Julian Brazil who has been doing some digging and has been given the following information by a member of DCC
“We obtained a Planning Pre App before Christmas and this was based on us putting forward the site for 10 houses to be developed which were a mix of Open Market, Self Build & Affordable. The Pre App Submission also including an area of Public Open Space.
It was considered it would involve a lot of time & resource to obtain an Outline Planning Application and on balance it was decided to market the site with a supporting Pre App & Indicative Design.
We are currently waiting for Legal to complete a Contract to go out with the Informal Tender Pack – we hope this will be available in the next couple of weeks.
The hedges were recently cut back and the grass was cut in the last two weeks under the supervision of one of the DCC Ecology Team.”
So the field has NOT been sold yet. The pre-planning application apparently received a positive response from SHDC but this is not any form of permission, not even outline.
If we are to stand any chance of keeping this as a green space for the village and protecting the wildlife we need to act very swiftly. The WAL committee are going to set up a petition for anyone opposed to houses on the old school field to sign, it will be available online and a paper copy in the shop too. We will let you know as soon as it is set up.
We need to make as much noise as possible about this so will be contacting the Gazette, South Hams.com, Radio Devon, BBC Spotlight etc., we need to make this a hot potato – hopefully if any potential developers are aware of local opposition it will make them fearful they may not get planning permission and so will not buy. We also need to contact local and district councillors to let them know our feelings – we will be providing contact details and example letters for this.
People should also not be hoodwinked by the proposal that some of the houses would be “affordable and self build” or the area of “public open space”. I doubt whether such a development would be a viable proposition to a developer. A development of 10 houses or fewer is exempt from the requirement for affordable housing and how many so called “affordable” houses built in the area have been truly affordable for local people? The developer could easily submit this application, possibly getting some local support, be granted permission and then at a later date amend it so it no longer has the affordable housing or self build option. This happened at Sherford where the original proposal of 45% affordable homes was reduced down to 20%. 10 houses may not take up the whole site, but in the course of construction the whole field would be trashed, destroying the valuable wildlife habitats. There is already too much pressure on the village road infrastructure and sewage system. Having had the recent additions of Beechwood Park and Redwood Park does the village really need more housing?
Devon County Council may well argue that when the new school was built on land kindly gifted by Paul Harvey, in order to fund the building of the new school the old school was sold and there was an unwritten agreement that the old school field would be sold for “houses for the village”. However, this agreement is not legally binding and the fact that DCC has not done anything with it for five years indicates that they don’t really need the money. Things have moved on and there is no longer the need for more housing in the village.
I think you would all agree that this field should not be developed, but kept as the last remaining green space in the heart of the village, it’s rare and endangered wildlife protected, a community orchard planted there and for it to be a peaceful place, accessible to all including the elderly and less able. Connecting with nature is essential for people’s health and well-being and this would be an important amenity for the village.
Please sign the petition, write or email your local and district councillors and spread the word.
We’ll let you know when the petition is up and running.
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