A FORMER soldier is preparing to do battle over a planning decision for up to 130 homes in a Mid Devon village that he says “nobody is asking for”.

Paul ‘Toby’ Fernbank has started a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to fight the outline approval on land at Silver Street in Willand, near Cullompton.

The Willand resident, who has lived in the village for around 20 years, said he had taken out a loan to fund a prospective judicial review to contest the decision, and is now urging fellow residents to make financial pledges to help him bankroll the action.

But the pressure is on, with the deadline fast approaching by which a challenge must be issued.

On the Crowd Justice platform, the Project Willand: Fighting the irrational approval of Silver Street 130 had secured £325 of its £5,000 target, at the time of writing. And a petition on the issue on the Change.org website had garnered 559 signatures in support of his plight.

Mr Fernbank, who works in technology, said he would be canvassing the village to help galvanise extra backing for his cause, which largely rests on his feeling that a lack of infrastructure to accompany new homes is a chronic issue.

“Willand is classed as a village but it is being treated like a town,” he said.

“Larger housing allocations for Cullompton and Tiverton, both bigger towns, make sense, but our neighbourhood plan doesn’t call for such large developments.”

The Willand neighbourhood plan, which outlines a community’s aspirations for housing, noted that it believed 42 homes on land east of the M5 and south of the village should be built, but 125 were actually approved in that location, now known as Fox Mill Gardens.

Mid Devon District Council did refuse that outline application, but the applicants took it to the Planning Inspectorate, and it was approved at appeal.

But, because those homes are now there, Mr Fernbank doesn’t believe another large development is required, and thinks the infrastructure in the village simply cannot cope.

“I asked one of the district councillors why we want to build on green fields in Devon, when we should be using that land to grow crops,” he said.

“We’re a farming community, but I was told that now there is a housing estate next door to this application site, the field is now considered a ‘grey’ field, meaning it is easier to apply to build on it.

“Nobody is asking for it.”

The prospective judicial review is predicated on three factors: that the site was not allocated in Willand’s neighbourhood plan, the site’s location in a so-called “pollution sandwich” between the M5 motorway and a nearby food factory, and under-pressure local infrastructure.

Mr Fernbank acknowledged Willand needed housing and that he was not against development, but strongly believed it needed to be the right type that is genuinely affordable for local people.

Mid Devon District Council declined to comment at this time.