A MEETING of residents of Crofts at Sandford, and some other Sandford residents, was held at The Lamb Inn, Sandford, on Sunday, March 12.

The meeting was held to discuss their reaction to the recent news that Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) is planning to demolish the 11 garages at Crofts and install five affordable, social units, known as ZedPods on the site.

Suggestions for alternatives to the planned development were also discussed. 

The meeting started with unanimous agreement that Mid Devon, and in particular, rural villages like Sandford, are in great need of more affordable, social housing.

Those that had seen the developer’s plans were satisfied that ZedPods met the standard for sustainable development - incorporating solar panels, considerable insulation and air-source heat pumps.

However, as Cllr Elizabeth Lloyd stated in her article in the "Crediton Courier", dated, March 9: “(…) we need houses, especially affordable houses – but development needs to contribute to good placemaking”.

There was strong opposition to the location of the new units, in the very centre of this small housing estate.

The main objection was that Crofts has been in dire need of more parking for many years, and, despite residents attempts to engage MDDC and Devon County Council in discussions to agree measures to ease this deteriorating problem, nothing has been done.

Several suggestions were made at the meeting, like utilising the under-used grassed areas on the estate and painting white lines on the existing car park so folks don’t take up more than one parking space.

There was also enthusiastic support for the suggestion that instead of installing ZedPods on the land where the garages stood, extra parking could be made available. 

Alternative locations for new affordable properties (not necessarily ZedPods) were: 

a) Meadowside at the bottom of Sandford village

b) St Saviour’s Way car park, Crediton

c) Part of the recently agreed development at Libbetts Grange (formerly know as “Pedlarspool”)

d) Convert the Sandford Congregational Church, its adjacent hall and garage. 

Other objections to the proposed development were: 

a) Risk of flooding

b) Privacy of the residents living close by will be compromised

c) Development not in keeping with current housing

d) No indication of a contribution toward the upkeep of Crofts road (home owners living on the estate are required to make a contribution to the upkeep)   

e) A two-storey development would be overbearing/out of scale with surrounding houses.

f) Why are there plans to install CCTV cameras around the ZedPods? (could this compromise the privacy of Crofts residents?) 

For those interested, the full list of objections is available on the planning portal of the MDDC website.

In conclusion, it was agreed that more affordable housing is very much needed, but, as the aforementioned objections demonstrate, locating it on Crofts would be highly inappropriate.

It was suggested that a further meeting was organised for those who couldn’t attend on March 12.

In conclusion, quoting again from Cllr Elizabeth Lloyd’s article in the "Crediton Courier": “I and others often feel powerless in the face of developers that do things to a place rather than work with a place.”