I HAVE read with interest the comments on various housing developments for Crediton and the outlying villages recently and over many years.

Newton St Cyres parish councillors (“Crediton Courier”, September 15) have it right – the A377 is already wholly inadequate to cope with the weight of traffic, most notably through Newton St Cyres village.

During the last 30 years the population of Crediton and the villages of Bow, Lapford, and Copplestone have more than doubled, with very few local jobs being created for these new residents.

New employment has been created in Exeter, and therefore most of these new residents commute daily to Exeter.

Thirty years ago the road had a few regular daily commuters. Now it is a steady stream of nose-to-tail traffic from well before 7am, and becomes a slow-moving queue from Half Moon to Cowley Bridge, with the reverse in the afternoon.

Already we face further vehicles driving daily to Exeter from Wellparks and, inevitably, Threshers/Westernlea.

Many of these new householders would prefer to live near to or in Exeter, but are forced out to live in Mid Devon by the fact that house prices and rent are cheaper here.

The bus service is reasonably well-used but is too expensive and too slow to be a realistic choice for many people unless they work near one of the Exeter stops.

They will not accept the length of journey required to catch a second Exeter bus to a workplace.

Mid Devon District Council has to stop granting permission to further large scale planning developments until more local employment is created or a way to improve the traffic problem is found.

It won’t be easy, but other towns and countries have faced similar problems and must have created innovative solutions.

When one looks at an aerial view of Crediton town, there is now very little green space which hasn’t been infilled already, but based on past experience they will continue to authorise out of/edge of town developments.

We all want young families to be able to live in a local community, have decent and affordable housing, and have excellent local services.

What we are creating and MDDC is authorising now are fringe of town houses selected by their residents solely because of the relative affordability, from which they commute to work in Exeter, shop in Exeter, or, if we’re lucky, Tesco’s Crediton on the drive home – not a local community of which they feel proud and of which we together all feel part. 

Keith Simpson

Crediton

by email