AT Mid Devon District Council’s (MDDC) planning meeting on March 1, seven Councillors on the planning committee approved the developer Bellway’s application for 257 houses at Creedy Bridge (formerly Pedlarspool and known as Libbet’s Grange), on the edge of Crediton. 

The applicant already had outline planning permission for the site – the recent decision was just for the "reserved matters" of the application (the parts of an application concerning appearance, access, and other details).

Some residents and Councillors have input to these reserved matters, and as a result, there were some alterations to the original application that were welcome (e.g. the addition of solar panels on houses), and officers worked hard on these.

A LOT TO LEARN

But there have been missed opportunities and a lack of joined up discussion on this application, and on infrastructure planning more generally. There’s a lot to learn.

I share a few thoughts here for awareness, and to encourage more people to find out about and input to future planning applications. (For specific details of the approved application, you can access the Council’s planning portal with the reference 22/00063/MARM.)

Big developers generally don’t live in the places they develop – they are naturally invested financially but not relationally, ecologically, or in the future of the place.

I am not against all development – we need houses, especially affordable houses – but development needs to contribute to good placemaking.

NOT CONNECTED

This development has felt to me like an unimaginative island – not properly connected to Crediton or surrounding villages, with no shops or services, and so journeys by private car will be favoured, rather than on foot, by bike, or by public transport.  And there will be 483 private car park spaces on the site – more spaces than homes, which will further encourage private car use.

I and others spent time back in 2020 getting S106 provision incorporated (money that developers pay to mitigate the impact of development) for a cycle/footpath to Sandford, in which Parish the development will geographically be, to enable for example children to cycle to the school there.

But we were told only recently that physically providing a connection for this wouldn’t be possible.

I’m sure it could have been, had there been more connected thinking between MDDC, Highways and Bellway.

I look forward to conversations that are still to come about how we will make sure the £250,000 allocated for public rights of way is used well, but feel that the process for agreeing and providing for active travel has felt disjointed and hard to influence, despite being involved early in conversations.

It shouldn’t be just down to concerned residents and Councillors to push for active travel and joined up development – it should be a default approach, because any development we approve should be future proof for both people and nature.

NOT SOON ENOUGH

MDDC’s forthcoming Local Plan gives more weight to active travel, as does Crediton’s Neighbourhood Plan, and there are proposed local discussions with Highways / Devon County Council about getting these conversations joined up earlier in the process. It’s a shame it’s not soon enough for this development. 

MDDC’s existing policy shows the allocation at this site was for 200 houses, with a target of 28 per cent of those being affordable homes.

22 PER CENT AFFORDABLE

In reality, the development is for 257 houses, with 22 per cent affordability. It is far too easy for developers to find reasons not to meet the Council’s own targets for affordability. 

Affordability was not part of the reserved matters application, but it needs to be highlighted anyway so that residents are aware and can engage with these issues in future planning applications.

I’m pleased that the need for more native tree and hedge species has been recognised and addressed in the planning conditions.

But there are further “missed opportunities” for biodiversity on the site, as the Devon Wildlife Trust highlighted. For example, there’ll be 100 swift boxes installed on site, but the RSPB has said this is insufficient for the size of the development, and that current best practice is for one box per house.

GAS BOILERS

Another missed opportunity is the provision for gas boilers rather than alternative heating – gas boilers are being phased out from 2025 in new homes.

MDDC currently has little policy to point to when it comes to ensuring low-energy sustainable homes, but the new Local Plan should improve that. In the meantime, the Council has a non-statutory "interim climate planning policy statement".

I initiated and input to the creation of this when I was Cabinet member for Climate Change at MDDC, to help bridge the policy gap between our existing and forthcoming Local Plans.

It gives guidance to developers, and will be incorporated into the new Local Plan, but it does not yet have the "teeth" of being mandatory policy, and was approved too late to influence this application.

Being a Councillor, I’ve learned how slow these processes are, and how long it can take to get ideas turned into meaningful policy. That’s why far-sighted, joined-up, well-communicated thinking is so important (at all levels of government). 

DISSATISFACTION

More broadly, there has been dissatisfaction with the consultation on this application. I appreciate officers’ openness to questions and concerns, and all the work they’ve done and improvements they’ve made on the application, and it was good to finally meet with Bellway in December, but that hour-long meeting felt too little, too late.

The rugby club, local residents, even elected Councillors like me feel it’s been hard to access and be heard throughout the course of this application, the outcome being that the process has felt disjointed, and opportunities missed.

The planning process takes time and can be frustratingly hard to access and understand for many people. It can also seemingly be influenced by whether a refusal might leave the Council exposed to an appeal and having to pay costs (a concern that one committee member voiced at the planning meeting).

Outdated policy, processes, or the size of the developer, shouldn’t be a barrier to what’s best for a community and its place. But it often seems to be.

So we must keep voicing concerns, getting to grips with the planning system, asking questions about planning applications, electing Councillors who will challenge and change unhelpful processes, inputting to MDDC’s forthcoming Local Plan, and helping to live out Crediton’s Neighbourhood Plan.                   

INSPIRED

Placemaking can’t be done overnight – it is a marathon, not a sprint. Or perhaps it’s a relay – all of us offering our skills and interests in service of where we live, now and in the future.

I am inspired by the many people in Mid Devon who already do this, and my time as Councillor has been the more informed and effective because of them.

I’m only frustrated that working within the system we have, I and others often feel powerless in the face of developers that do things to a place rather than work with a place.

Just as placemaking takes time though, so does changing the systems we have.

It’s a relay, and when it comes to the local elections in May, I will be voting for candidates that root in the wisdom of a place but can also think beyond the status quo and reimagine the systems we work within so that they better serve all of us. 

Cllr Elizabeth Lloyd (née Wainwright)

Sandford and Creedy Ward, Mid Devon