Tavistock town council challenges developer over plans to ditch promised school

A request by the developer of a 750-home scheme at Tavistock to remove a new school site from its legal obligations has met with fierce opposition from the town council.

Vistry Homes, which has built around a third of the new homes at The Tors in Callington Road, is arguing that Devon County Council has not formally requested the land transfer for a new school within the 10-year period since planning permission was granted and that it therefore no longer has to form part of the legal agreement.

The county council has also said there is “no immediate need” for additional school provision.

However, the town is facing a barrage of planning proposals for new developments, which would add up to around 1,600 homes.

Tavistock town councillors have accused the developer of wriggling out of its responsibilities.

Vistry is also seeking to remove an education contribution, vary details relating to bus shelters and a footpath link, and transfer railway parking, a convenience store and a community site to Devon County Council.

In a letter to West Devon Borough Council regarding Vistry’s application to modify a Section 106 agreement, the town council says the removal of the school site would need to be justified by “substantial evidence that it was no longer required”, or an alternative site would need to be identified by the county council.

It also highlights that payments totalling £740,000 towards a new school, secured through developments in Tavistock at Embden Grange and Broadleigh Park, would have to be returned to the developers if the school site were removed from the plans.

Tavistock town councillor and former planning consultant Graham Parker said the education contributions from all three developers would provide places for 160 children.

“If this is lost, any future new school site would have to be provided by the county council and that will be a cost to the taxpayer,” he said.

“There is already planning permission for 750 more homes in Tavistock and developers are pushing to build here.

“Government policy dictates that we have more homes, but where will all the children go to school when they are built?

“This is a short-sighted move. It is just too early for Vistry to abandon the school. I think it would be an absolute travesty. The company is trying to wriggle out of providing what it promised.”

Cllr Parker fears that the site will be sold on for more housing.

A Vistry Group spokesperson said: “We are beyond the 10-year trigger to offer the school site to the council, who have not approached us formally to request this land.

“There are no current plans to develop this land outside the obligations of the Section 106 agreement.”

They added that the omission of the bus shelters was at the request of the county highways team, but that they did not actually form part of the current proposals to vary the Section 106 agreement.

They said that the link path between The Tors, local schools and the town centre, which the town council sees as “vital”, would remain in the Section 106 agreement.

However, it would need to be delivered by “whoever develops the land to the east of Vistry’s parcels of land”.

A Devon County Council spokesperson said: “Devon County Council is reviewing the application in line with the current adopted Joint Local Plan and is working strategically with the borough and district council on the emerging Joint Local Plan, which could allocate more housing to Tavistock.

“Local schools currently have spare capacity, so there is no immediate need for additional school provision.”

One resident opposing Vistry’s application said: “Vistry cannot be allowed to alter the need for a school, shop, train station or footpath to town.

“As a resident at The Tors, the only reason we bought a house here was because of the promise of these amenities. They cannot remove the need for bus shelters either.

“This would render the whole development useless and a joke. I hope WDBC refuses the application outright. Vistry should honour its commitments before any more houses are allowed to be built.”

The Tors development was granted planning permission in 2014 and, although the first phases have been built out, work has stalled on the rest of the site.

The Vistry Group recently announced that it had to reduce its operating regions from 25 to 12 and cut its annual housing output to around 12,000 homes to keep the business afloat.

Two years ago, Vistry was a key player in the new Labour Government’s housing programme, with an expectation that it would build 40,000 homes a year, more than double the output of any UK housebuilder in history.

The company reported a loss before tax of £661 million for the first six months of 2026, compared with a profit of £41 million the previous year.

It aims to save £50 million by offering voluntary redundancies, alongside additional job losses, and withdrawing from private home sales across the South East of England.

It will concentrate its efforts on the Midlands, North and West, where its mixed-tenure partnerships model has performed most strongly.

This means pre-selling the majority of plots on developments to housing associations, local authorities and private rented sector investors.

Vistry was awarded a £350 million grant in August to support the delivery of more than 3,000 affordable and social homes.