PEOPLE have been glad to see that their comments have been taken into account when the latest draft of Mid Devon District Council’s Local Plan was published at the beginning of this year.

It all began 10 years ago with the core strategy and will replace the Mid Devon Adopted Local Plan. Then four years ago the district council invited landowners to submit sites with potential for development.

A lot never went any further, what is now being looked at is what was left in terms of land for housing and employment, plus other parts of the district council’s remit such as parking and recreation.

One of the changes reflecting government guidance is adding Local Green Space designation at Millennium Green, Sandford and at Bampton as well as reclassifying Bampton as a village.

This document gives more detail about how the numbers of new homes and commercial space have been calculated for the district in the next 16 years, that is, up to 2033.

It sees Cullompton develop as a market town with about half of the district’s growth and become the main focus of development for the district with six sites proposed for housing plus the allocation to the east by Junction 28 on the M5.

Tiverton has nine sites proposed for housing giving about 30 per cent of the growth while Crediton also has nine sites put forward representing about 10 per cent of the growth.

At an exhibition in the Boniface Centre at Crediton on January 25 people were able to see what changes had been made to the Plan and to talk to district council planners.

The last of the six exhibitions was on February 1. These have been at Willand, Tiverton, Crediton, Uffculme, Cullompton and Sampford Peverell.

People can check the plan on the district council’s website and when making submissions people must include their name and full postal address otherwise their comments cannot be registered.

This consultation is only on the proposed modifications and not the wider unchanged context of the Local Plan Review.

Responses can be submitted through an online survey at: www.middevon.gov.uk/localplanreview, emailed to: [email protected] or posted or delivered to: Local Plan Review, Forward Planning, Mid Devon District Council, Phoenix House, Phoenix Lane, Tiverton EX16 6PP also where a copy can be looked at or bought.

One of the officers at the Crediton exhibition was Adrian Welsh of the district council forward planning. He said the changes were more of the technical with everything being listed in the document.

“We have had people come in quite pleased to see changes have been made after comments in the past,” he said. He also said that as well as people from the town, visitors had included many from the surrounding villages.

He added that there had been more references this time to pedestrian and cycle routes being needed in the town.

By Sue Read