Site for 8,000-home new town in Devon approved

A resident of Farringdon says the village will be "devastated"

Plans for a new town of 8,000 homes in Devon have taken a major step forward.

East Devon District Council has come up with a project to build the new town on the edge of Exeter to meet housing needs.

Councillors heard it would be the only district council in England to have two new towns in development - with Cranbrook already in place nearby.

A resident of a village at the centre of the new development said the project was not wanted and would be a "mega suburb" of Exeter.

The plans for a new town involve building about 8,000 houses

The council's Strategic Planning Committee considered three different sites and voted in favour of pushing ahead with plans for a 500-hectare site.

The new development will be on land between the A3052 and A30, to the west of Farringdon village and east of Westpoint.

Jerry Bird, a member of Farringdon Parish Council, spoke against the plans at the meeting.

He said: "This is the biggest planning decision for this council since Cranbrook and the ramifications will be immense."

The original new town of Cranbrook was created in 2011 and is continuing to be expanded.

After the meeting Mr Bird said the impact of the decision would be "devastating".

He said: "What we're going to have is another new town within metres of the first new town at Cranbrook and it will be effectively a mega-suburb of Exeter."

A resident of Farringdon said the community would be devastated by the decision to build a new town nearby

Jess Bailey, Independent member for West Hill and Aylesbeare, tried unsuccessfully to get a decision postponed.

She said: "My concerns are about the erosion of our countryside and communities that have been in existence for hundreds if not thousands of years.

"I feel there hasn't been full consideration for the impact on those communities - we haven't even done a site visit.

"I'm also really concerned about the transport impact of the 8,000 new houses on our road network which is already buckling."

'Growth required'

The chairman of the strategic planning committee, Olly Davey, Green Party, said it had been a very difficult decision to take but the council needed to find new sites for houses.

He said: "The only way we can see to fit the number of houses that we are required to build by the government into East Devon is to build a new town to accommodate some of the growth that will be required.

"Otherwise we'd be stretching our towns even more than we are already with perhaps some small developments in villages, none of which have the infrastructure to cope with it.

"This way we get a town that will have its own infrastructure, its own facilities, its own transport links and so on."

The next stage of consultation is planned to take place towards the end of 2024.