The awards were presented at the Devon Communities Together Annual Futures Conference held at the Westpoint Centre, Exeter on Thursday, September 28.
The award for Outstanding Community Contribution, given to a particularly committed individual or community group that have worked hard to overcome many challenges to bring affordable housing to their community, was awarded to Chagford Community Trust.
The trust has been working hard to provide affordable housing in Chagford parish for several years.
It has been involved in a large, mixed tenure scheme with a private developer which is a first for a Community Land Trust in this area.
The scheme includes a new Fire Station and older persons’ housing. Planning permission has recently been granted for a total of 93 homes with 28 affordable homes included in the mix.
Roger Stokes, the chairman of the trust, said: “The Board of Chagford Community Trust is very proud to have been the recipients of this prestigious Rural Housing Award.
“We appreciate public recognition of the considerable effort and commitment put in by a number of individuals to achieve the original goals of community ownership of the freeholds of 28 affordable houses and of full ownership of four small business units on the soon-to-be-built Bellacouch site in Chagford.
“We are grateful to Dartmoor National Park Authority, the developers, C G Fry Ltd, Chagford Parish Council and, especially the Wessex CLT Project for their support over the past four years.”
They will be awarded a cash prize to spend on a community project of their choice.
The award for Best Rural Development went to the best rural development completed in Devon in the 12 months up to April 2017. The judges take the standard of design, consideration for the local vernacular and engagement with the local community into account.
This year’s winners were Teign Housing for their development at Layne Fields, Christow.
The judges found this development to be attractive with well-appointed homes built to a high standard of sustainability. The homes are built to passivhaus standards and incorporate many energy saving and ecologically innovative elements which means they have very low energy bills and are highly sustainable.
The development was a partnership between the Community Land Trust, Teign Housing and Teignbridge District Council.
Cllr Humphrey Clemens, Teignbridge’s Executive Member for Housing and Planning, said: "Teignbridge is proud to have been part of this pioneering development, contributing £250,000 through a mix of land and grant.
“Helping local people live in their own homes which they can afford is a priority for Teignbridge. This groundbreaking Passivhaus development led by Christow CLT does exactly that. Not only is this project driven by the local community to fulfil their needs, it provides affordable housing and affordable energy."
Tony Sharland, Head of Asset and Development Management for Teign Housing said: “Teign Housing is proud of the quality of this rural housing scheme and considers it an excellent example of how effectively housing providers can work collaboratively with the local community to deliver high quality sustainable homes for local people where it is most needed.”
Judges were Cllr Roger Croad, Devon County Council, Matt Dodd, the SW Rural and Communities Manager for the Homes and Communities Agency and Dr Richard Yarwood, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Plymouth who judged the Outstanding Community Contribution award and Dr Matt Lobley, Senior Research Fellow at Exeter University and Co-Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research and Ken Browse, Chairman of Halberton Parish Council and Chairman of the National Association of Local Councils who judged the Best Rural Development award.
The standard of nominees was extremely high this year and the judges were very impressed with the quality of the finished developments and the commitment and hard work that was undertaken by all of the community groups and nominated individuals.
Alan Quick