Devon council challenges 143-home Tavistock development over road safety

After Devon County Council raised objections to a controversial plan for 143 homes on the edge of Tavistock over highway safety concerns, fresh doubts have been cast over the scheme.

Hundreds of people have already opposed the proposal for Violet Lane by Land Value Alliances, which includes 43 affordable homes.

It is one of a number of housing plans for Tavistock which could see the town increase in size by 30 per cent over the next few years.

Local people, councillors and MPs are concerned about the cumulative impact of new edge-of-town development on the road network and increasing traffic gridlock.

Devon County Council, which is a statutory consultee on all planning applications, said the Violet Lane proposal "fails to demonstrate safe and suitable access", particularly for pedestrians.

It highlighted that the proposed walking route to the town centre exceeded 1,000 metres and included sections where pedestrians would be required to walk within the carriageway due to the absence of dedicated footways.

It also pointed to "substandard junction visibility" and the absence of crossing facilities.

Together, these gave rise to "significant highway safety concerns", it said.

The county council has asked West Devon Borough Council to pause any decision until additional information on flood risk has been submitted and agreed.

If the plan is approved, the county council has asked for a £30,000 contribution towards improving a footpath across fields and multiple steps that leads towards the town centre, saying it was "likely the use of the path would increase".

However, it made it clear that this was "not an effective or inclusive pedestrian link to the town centre and would not be well suited to extensive works aimed at significantly improving accessibility".

Letters of objection submitted to the planning authority say the site is unsuitable because it will add traffic to narrow roads and difficult junctions where visibility is poor.

Plans for 65 homes at nearby Green Lane have also received opposition.

There is concern about traffic congestion through the town if all new developments, totalling more than 1,500 homes, including those with planning consent and speculative proposals, are built.

Leader of West Devon Borough Council Mandy Ewings (Ind, Tavistock South West), who, along with Conservative MP for Tavistock and Torridge Geoffrey Cox, has pushed for a traffic assessment to be carried out by the county council, said it needed to be done "at pace".

She said Tavistock was like a "pudding bowl", where all traffic from edge-of-town sites converged in one place, Plymouth Road, the town's main entrance and exit route.

"Why would you want to come and live somewhere that you know is going to be totally gridlocked the whole time?" she said.

"It should be a five-minute drive from Morrisons to the other side of Plymouth Road, but it can take an hour... every time we get a set of traffic lights.

"I know that a traffic assessment is not a five-minute job and can take up to a year, but Tavistock cannot wait that long, so we are asking the county for it to be a top priority."

New housing targets set by the Government mean that West Devon has only half the land it needs to build homes over the next five years.

Developers are therefore making a beeline for Tavistock, proposing new sites that are not currently included in the local plan but will have to be considered if they are close to services, shops and bus stops.

At the end of October, planning rules will change, with planning officers making more decisions under delegated powers and fewer applications being decided by a planning committee of councillors.