FOR a number of reasons Crediton Town Council on Tuesday put in an objection to the outline planning application from Gleeson Developments Ltd to develop a corner of land to include up to 257 homes at Creedy Bridge, otherwise known as the Pedlarspool plan.

It includes 8.6 ha made available for the relocation of Crediton Rugby Club and up to 1.1 ha safeguarded for a primary school. The land is in Sandford Parish but Crediton Town Council was consulted as a neighbouring authority.

Cllr Letch said that one of the big issues surrounding this application was traffic although it was a designated site for development.

Cllr Liz Brookes-Hocking said it would "massively impact" on Crediton, density was higher than recommended in the Mid Devon District Council’s Local Plan and she doubted whether it would meet national criteria as regards respecting local heritage.

Nor could it possibly help the value of the landscape and it was difficult to find some of the documents about the application.

"As you come down the hill from Tiverton into Crediton the view will be high density housing," she said.

She queried the statement there was high quality public transport for the site. It did not link with the local character and Cllr Liz Brookes-Hocking also queried it being visually attractive.

Nor could she find anything about dealing with light pollution which, she said, would impact on the landscape.

Cllr Brookes-Hocking said this development would massively affect the town. She would have liked to see better public rights of way provided.

Cllr Nick Way, also a county and district councillor as well as town councillor, said he was concerned that children living in the new homes would go to the existing schools until (or if) a new one was built.

"There is the road safety implication because a lot of the children would be driven to the schools and I do not see that what has been put forward in terms of paths meets this need," he said.

He warned the town council that it would "have to think hard" about the future town boundary.

Cllr Mike Szabo remarked that the CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) was considering challenging the Government advice on the amount of new homes Devon was thought to need.

Councillors agreed to support Sandford Parish Council in its objections to the application.

Also to object on grounds that included this would adversely affect the natural environment, density of building, number proposed, not in keeping with local area, not visually attractive, light pollution.

GARDEN CENTRE