Letter: TOMORROW, Wednesday, March 1, 12 good people from Crediton are heading to Tiverton to ask questions at Mid Devon District Council’s planning meeting.

This meeting will be live at 2.15pm.

It will decide how the “reserved matters” are finalised for the Bellway/Pedlarspool development.

In other words, the details of the development of 257 homes and the arrangements for Crediton Rugby Club’s move to its new site. However, the large developers, Bellway has simply refused to listen to any of the concerns of our community.

Please listen for yourselves, as there are going to be lots of questions in our last ditch efforts to improve this development.

Speaking for myself, last week MDDC gave me planning permission to build an extension to my house.

My new roof will be covered with solar panels; providing me with more than enough power to run my home without the need to use gas.

The walls will be properly insulated to keep the heat in and to save me money in the long-term. 

The style of the building will be in keeping with the neighbouring buildings.

Bellway can afford to build homes for the future. I hope that it is motivated by the needs to address the climate and ecological crisis.

I hope that it wants to build good homes for our town and provide a secure future for the rugby club.

Giles Fawssett 

Albert Place 

Crediton 

• Editor’s note: This meeting will take place at Phoenix House and members of the Public and Press are able to attend via Zoom. If you are intending to attend in person please contact the committee clerk in advance (Sarah Lees, 01884 234310 or email: [email protected]), in order that numbers of people can be appropriately managed in physical meeting rooms. 

The link to join the Zoom meeting is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87333409163?pwd=clVTOHltNnNwajNEbjBsamFBNjE5UT0 9 

Meeting ID: 873 3340 9163 Passcode: 332184 .

The application details are: 22/00063/MARM - Reserved matter for the erection of 257 dwellings and up to five Gypsy and Traveller pitches; associated works in connection with 8.6ha of land to facilitate future Crediton Rugby Club and up to 1.1ha of land for future primary school; details of landscaping, public open space and other associated infrastructure and engineering operations and access and highway work following outline approval 17/00348/MOUT at Land at NGR 284185 101165 (Creedy Bridge), Crediton, Devon. RECOMMENDATION

The recommendation of the planning officer is to Approve Reserved Matters subject to conditions.

Bellway Homes has been criticised for not providing some information, notably details of the archaeological fieldwork surveys, which the “Crediton Courier” has requested on several occasions and was told would be forthcoming.

Stephen Reed, Senior Historic Environment Officer, Devon County Council commented upon its previous correspondence saying that the Historic Environment Team has no additional comments to those already made, namely: 

“The consent granted for the outline consent is conditional upon a programme of archaeological work being undertaken - Condition 15. To date the archaeological fieldwork has been completed, though the post - excavation tasks - analysis and synthesis of the results of the fieldwork, reporting and archive production and deposition - have yet to be undertaken. As such, I would advise that the following condition is applied to ensure that the required post-excavation works are undertaken and completed to an agreed timeframe: ‘The development shall not be occupied until the post investigation assessment has been completed in accordance with the approved Written Scheme of Investigation. The provision made for analysis, publication and dissemination of results, and archive deposition, shall be confirmed in writing to, and approved by, the Local Planning Authority’.”

RUGBY CLUB

There is some concern about the status of the rugby club in the plan.

Sport England said: “I note that all aspects of the rugby club development are omitted from this application as per drawing 21433/1012A rev A. This is very unhelpful in assessing the current discharge of reserved matters. The new dwellings and the parking areas are at risk from ball strike, thus damage to property and possible injury to residents. Therefore a ball strike assessment is required. Secondly I note in the covering letter from the planning consultants Turley it is proposed to use the existing drainage ditches within the land allocated for the rugby club from the housing. Due to lack of details regarding the rugby pitch layout an agronomist report, Sport England cannot support the use of the ditches to take water from the housing development.”

In details before the committee it states: “The submitted application by Bellway Homes does not include the layout and design of the new Rugby Club (Reserved Matters) as the planning obligation only exists for the developer to provide the land for this new facility, with associated access etc. The design and delivery of the new rugby club facilities (pitches and buildings) will be undertaken by the rugby club and not the applicant, Bellway Homes.”