Teignbridge councillors have stuck to their guns and will slog it out with WBB Minerals about the number of affordable homes to be built if the Belgian-owned firm is allowed to develop Jetty Marsh, Newton Abbot.
In addition to new offices, link road and facilities for Newton Abbot Rugby Club, the minerals firm wants to build 73 flats on the former clay mine and a further 116 at Whitehill Cross. In total, it has submitted five planning applications, but has now appealed to the planning inspectorate after Teignbridge failed to make decisions within the permitted time span.
The council has argued that it wants 60 per cent of the new homes to be affordable, but WBB has said that commercial viability restricts that to 30 per cent. It has also said it is not obliged to produce the 'financial appraisal' relating to the project requested by Teignbridge and will not do so for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
On Monday, Geoff Gardener, from the company, offered to withdraw the appeals if Teignbridge agreed to the 30 per cent figure. 'If this level of affordable housing can be agreed then 56 affordable homes will be delivered very soon, in part fulfilling the council's corporate plan,' he told members of the development control committee at Forde House.
He argued the price of developing brownfield land was high, incurring 'up front costs' of £2.35m over and above the price of the second phase of the link road. Ken Tuckett, for the 639 members of Kingsteignton Residents' Environmental Awareness Group, KREAG, said Jetty Marsh could not be assessed in isolation but only as part of WBB's 1,700 home northern option for Kingsteignton. He said WBB was close to being given a 'virtual monopoly' on development in the Newton Abbot and Kingsteignton areas and said: 'The losers would once again be Kingsteignton.' He claimed the village would become a 'concrete jungle'. 'Teignbridge should not sell Kingsteignton to WBB,' he said. Several councillors voiced concerns, including Cllr Keith Smith, who thanked the officers for their work. 'We must be guided by our officers and these recommendations,' he said. Chief planning officer John Collier-Marsh said of the council's position: 'We start at 60 per cent and negotiate downwards.' The planning inspector is due to consider the case in October