Outline go-ahead for 130-home development next to M5

Outline plans for a huge development of up to 130 homes right next to the M5 motorway has been given the go-ahead by planners.

The scheme, on Silver Street, in Willand, was approved in the face of objections from local parishes including suggestions the site was essentially open countryside and that there was no need for more houses in the area.

Mid Devon District Council’s planning committee, however, approved the plans with conditions. That being said, the plans were only outline, meaning the principle of development has been approved, but a further application will be required before building starts.

The plans, submitted by London-based Obsidian Strategic Asset Management, aim to put up to 130 homes on the site located to the south west of Willand, immediately to the south west of the current development site known as Fox Mill Gardens, and west of existing residential development at Rowan Lea. 

Obsidian has said the site would include affordable housing – roughly 39 homes with a mix of affordable ownership and social rental, and open space, and that it “presents an opportunity to deliver high-quality, sensitively designed housing that compliments the setting of the village while addressing the local housing needs of Willand”.

But Halberton Parish Council stated in its objection to the scheme that there was “no need for the proposed development”.

“The Willand property market is flooded, albeit many are not affordable to first time buyers,” it said.

“There has been extensive development in recent years, well in excess of the 42 homes allocated in the [Mid Devon] local plan.

“Furthermore, the Willand neighbourhood plan recognises that there is no further need for housing in the village.

“A previous application for 259 homes, covering the application site and the adjoining Foxmill Gardens site, was refused and dismissed at appeal, with the Planning Inspectorate concluding that the combined development would unbalance the village and harm social cohesion.”

The parish claimed the latest proposal “replicates that scheme, with the original issues not addressed”.

It added it believed highways problems would be “exacerbated”, with only one access to the site being deemed “insufficient”.

Willand Parish Council echoed that the site was not in Mid Devon’s local plan and so should not be developed.

It added that Willand had been identified as being able to accommodate “small scale housing” and contended this scheme was “not a small scale housing project particularly when linked to the cumulative impact of the growth which has already taken place”.

It also disputed a statement made in the planning documents that certain characteristics about Willand – including that it was ‘significantly larger and more favourably located’ to take more development – meant it could take such a large scheme.

“This statement is disputed in that Willand parish is probably geographically one of the smallest, if not the smallest, area in Mid Devon,” the parish council said.

“It does, however, have the fourth largest population after the three main towns. That does not make it sustainable for further development.”

While only eight letters of objection from individual residents were noted by Mid Devon, they raised various issues, including flooding concerns, fears about the impacts on wildlife, and that the Willand property market was already “flooded”.

Obsidian will now need to submit a full planning application that will confirm details such as the design and layout of the development.