THANK you to the three local architects who expressed their concerns about the detail of the plans for Pedlarspool estate (Creedy Bridge), (“Courier”, April 21).

As a lay person, this is how it looks to me.

A large development company, based in Newcastle, has been granted planning permission to build 257 dwellings just outside Crediton.

Are any of these homes going to be “affordable”?  Will they have heat pumps installed? Are the south facing ones going to have solar panels?

Even if the answer to these questions is “yes”, the majority of the hundreds of new residents are going to discover that they have very little choice but to contribute substantially to carbon emissions.

Living on a bus route that is so unfit for purpose that it is virtually non existent, the only way to commute to Tiverton will be by car. Aspiring train users will have to walk or cycle over a mile along busy roads with no consistent cycle lane, to use the railway station.

The station car park, while adequate for current demand, will struggle to accommodate a large increase of people using the park and ride to Exeter.

The new residents, who all deserve better, are also going to find that the current NHS primary healthcare services in Crediton are already struggling, even though the staff are working their socks off. 7

They will find that there is no convenience store, no pub, no cafe and no community hall in their new “village”.

What will the young ones do in the evening? Will they get blamed when they get into mischief because there is nothing for them to do?

Selling these homes is inevitably going to generate nice big profits for the developers (Bellway) to add to their £479 million profit before taxation in 2021.

So they and their shareholders will be all right then.

What a pity that the planning laws don’t put a statutory duty on large developers to take financial responsibility for the specific long-term consequences of their building projects on the local environment and on their customers, the new community.

And how unfortunate that it is very easy for a lay person like me to wonder whether there is a connection between the comparatively easy ride that these companies enjoy under current legislation and the fact that many of them are big donors to the Conservative party.

Penny King

Lapford