The parish planning team has earmarked 12 acres of farmland at Winsland House, on the edge of Totnes at Follaton, as the best site to put the homes the parish is expected to build for the future of its own communities.
The site is more than a mile from Harberton and more than two miles from Harbertonford, the main centres of population in the large Harberton parish, which stretches from the A385 near Cott to the hamlet of Poulson, north of Halwell.
The neighbourhood plan’s draft proposals have been condemned as “unacceptable”, “ridiculous” and of “considerable concern” by Totnes councillors.
Totnes district councillor John Birch, who highlighted the plan’s proposals on social media, said: “Presumably it’s because they don’t want to take their fair share of houses in their two villages.”
Totnes county councillor Jacqi Hodgson said the neighbourhood plan teams should be talking to their neighbouring parishes, adding that “they can’t just dump on them”.
Cllr Birch said the Harberton Neighbourhood Plan team had been warned at least twice by South Hams District Council planners that the land on both sides of the B3210, just the other side of Jackman’s Lane and the lane to Whiteley Bridge, was not sustainable and did not comply with the district council’s own proposed Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan.
But Harberton Parish Council has revealed that it has already held a public meeting with the owners of the site to “share their early ideas for the development of approximately 70 homes on the site”.
The parish of Harberton first published its draft neighbourhood plan early last month, showing that its preferred location for housing is the site at Follaton, consisting of 28 acres and capable of taking 150 new houses.
Within a day of speaking to the Totnes Times about concerns surrounding the site designation, a new version of the draft plan went online that downsized the Follaton site to 12 acres, capable of taking 73 new homes.
The draft plan declares that “additional housing in Harberton and Harbertonford will help invigorate the local communities and provide support for existing and new services within the villages”.
An independent review in 2013 showed that the parish needs just 28 new affordable homes to meet local demand.
A survey of Harberton parishioners carried out by the neighbourhood plan team revealed that none of the possible sites within Harberton or Harbertonford villages received a majority in support.
Instead, 66 per cent of those taking part wanted to see the new homes go on the Follaton site rather than the eight other sites looked at through the plan process.
Cllr Birch pointed out that Totnes has already seen hundreds of new homes built in and around the town, warning that “Totnes has had more than its fair share of development and the last thing it wants is another large development on the edge of the town near Follaton, where everyone accepts that the condition of the roads wouldn’t be capable of taking such a development. It would be an encroachment into the countryside – it’s not sustainable and it’s a bad idea.”
He added: “I think it’s wrong; the planners say it’s wrong; and it’s unacceptable.”
Cllr Hodgson said district council planning officers had made it clear that they would not support development on this site for at least two years.
“The people of Harberton and Harbertonford may say they need housing, but I doubt that this is where they want it,” she added.
She said it would be building more “suburbia” onto Totnes on a road that would make it “incredibly dangerous”.
She added: “I’d have thought that the main interests of any parish would be to support the main village centres.”
However, Ginny Davidson, chairman of Harberton Parish Council and a member of the Harberton Parish Neighbourhood Steering Group, suggested that the development could be for the good of Totnes, saying: “In light of the issues raised recently regarding sites within the Totnes boundary, we think this site might be able to solve some of the pressures on those areas.
“Our residents have told us that affordable and social housing is a high priority for them. As affordable and social housing can only be delivered by sites of a certain scale, Winsland House is the only site within the parish capable of doing this.
“Sixty three per cent of residents who responded to our questionnaire support development at Winsland House, hence its inclusion in the draft. We’ve discussed this with South Hams officers and are in the process of responding to their comments and advice.
“The joint local plan has yet to be adopted and we disagree that parishioners won’t benefit.
“The Winsland House site is under new ownership. As part of a pre-application process, a new team of consultants attended our public meeting to share their early ideas for the development of approximately 70 homes on the site.
“As work on their planning application moves forward,
the steering group had the opportunity to share what matters to parish residents, without prejudice, just as we’d do with others looking to develop within the parish.”
She went on to point out: “As a large rural parish we serve a community who not only reside in the villages of Harberton and Harbertonford, but also those who live in outlying settlements.
“Please remember that the Harberton Parish Neighbourhood Plan is a draft and has not yet completed its public consultation, and it is therefore premature to give statements as to what is
and what is not going to be included.
“Currently, it is considering nine development sites within the parish boundary, of which Winsland House is one.”