Outcry over potential huge Exmouth housing development

Site could accommodate around 700 homes

Exmouth residents have spoken out plans for land where up to 700 homes could be built on the edge of town.

A district-wide plan aimed at identifying development sites has been approved by East Devon District Council.

Several residents and town and parish councillors voiced their opposition to an area known as St John’s being allocated for construction.

The council’s strategic planning committee has been working on its draft local plan, a document that identifies locations where it believes development would be acceptable.

It has not approved any specific scheme, and even though the St John’s land in Exmouth has been earmarked as being acceptable for development, a planning application would still need to be submitted and approved before  spades hit the ground.

Planning officers didn’t recommend the site for allocation, but last year the strategic planning committee agreed it could form part of the draft local plan. A report about the site says a smaller part of it could be allocated rather than the entire perimeter.

Resident Chrissie Howick said the name the council had given the site, Exmo_20, is “misleading” given she believed it is nearer Budleigh than Exmouth.

“It went through this committee against officer advice, and the B3179 is already a busy road with at least five treacherous turnings on it,” she said.

“Last year, there were a number of accidents and with no other roads out of Budleigh, the roads became gridlocked.”

She added that the proximity of any potential development would be extremely close to Woodbury Common heath, something she felt had been “totally ignored”.

“There will be immense noise and light pollution and that has not been mentioned or considered, so I ask the committee to reconsider this site,” she added.

Cllr Melanie Martin (Independent, Budleigh and Raleigh) had “grave concerns” about how the site would have to be accessed, adding any development there could impact the residents of Knowle and Dalditch in particular.

“The B3179 is a rural, dark and winding road with a 60mph speed limit, and it has one of the sharpest 90-degree bends in East Devon,” she said.

“And with blinding halogen car lights, it makes this stretch of road extremely dangerous and there are no paths and no safe place to cross to the common.”

She added: “I cannot understand why having an access on to this dangerous road is even being considered, and I’m concerned about the affect on the [East Devon Pebblebed Heath Site of Special Scientific Interest] SSSI which just a mere road’s width away.

“These habitats would be significantly disturbed if street lighting was installed and I can’t see how you could protect the dark landscape of the SSSI and have a safe vehicular access to this site, but I will watch with interest to see how this progresses.”

Resident Thomas Shillitoe said the site was “bad when it was first considered” but now it was “awful”.

“It is no longer an Emouth site when it’s a couple of miles drive just to get to the outskirts of Exmouth, it is a Budleigh site and so sits at odds with your settlement hierarchy [which dictates the size of potential development sites,” he said.

He felt there is “no mitigation strategy for pollution” in relation to the pebblebed heath, and urged the committee to make changes now before the draft local plan was moved onto the next stage, known as Regulation 19.

Other objectors also raised fears about access to the site, and felt any potential development would have a greater impact on Budleigh than Exmouth.

Ed Freeman, assistant director for planning strategy and development management, said the strategic planning committee was not sitting to reconsider sites that had already been agreed, but rather to make any minor factual adjustments before submitting it.

He added that the government had given councils more time to work on draft local plans this year than had been envisaged, but that the timeline remained relatively tight.

Mr Freeman has previously stated that the council has existing policies about developments that would have to be abided by if Exmo_20 is developed.

The committee approved the draft local plan, which will now undergo a six-week consultation, expected to begin on Monday.