AGAINST IF houses were built on land adjoining Higher Exeter Road and Drake Avenue, Teignmouth, the loss of the grassland, rich in weeds and invertebrates, would be a lethal blow to cirl buntings, the inquiry heard. Retired headteacher Philip Baker, of Frobisher Close, a birdwatcher for 60 years, said if the development went ahead the birds would be written off. 'Of that I am absolutely sure,' he said. He said the cirl bunting, once common in counties from Cumbria to Cornwall, was now restricted to small pockets in a small area of Devon between the rivers Exe and Tamar. Mr Baker said there were approximately 450 breeding pairs in 2002 and numbers were only holding steady thanks to sympathetic farmers supported and advised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 'Cirl buntings are sensitive to intrusions by humans and would avoid nesting near a housing estate. 'The sight and sound of singing males in May suggest that there are still at least two breeding pairs in the field,' said Mr Baker, a volunteer worker for the RSPB. On March 30, 2005 he had seen birds on the site. In 2003 and 2004, going on the proof of singing males, they had nested. Questioned by Nick Engert, representing the appellants, he said a survey carried out by ecologist Dr David Fee showing there was no significant value in the land, had been taken on random days during the winter. 'As an experienced birdwatcher I know there are many aspects of the site which are suitable for cirl buntings and I would not expect to find them on those dates. You are more likely to find them on the other side of the valley in the winter,' he said, adding that the field had never been surveyed by the RSPB or the Devon Wildlife Preservation Society. Further questioned Mr Baker said that until a year ago when a sign, no unauthorised entry, was put up at the entrance to the field, he had visited the site five or six times weekly since 1994. 'I might not have an anorak or a beard but I go out birdwatching and my local patch has been Frobisher Wood, the field and Coombe Valley nature reserve,' he said. Asked by Mr Engert as to whether he would regard Dr Fee's survey as reliable, Mr Baker replied that there was a whole lot of difference between surveying and a keen birdwatcher who knew his patch like the back of his hands. 'I am purely an amateur, keen and enthusiastic,' he added. Dr Fee had found no signs of cirl buntings on his visits and Mr Baker said it would be difficult for him to challenge that because he had not had access to the field for sometime. But he said he found it hard to envisage how a cirl bunting mitigation in which the appellants had agreed to pay £15,000 for new habitat and land management could be carried out by the council. A £5,000 dormouse mitigation had also been agreed. Both were repayable if evidence of land acquisition and/or management could not be provided by a the district authority within five years. Objecting on behalf of Teignmouth Town Council, Cllr Sylvia Russell, a member of the town's flood defence committee, said proposals for a flood defence scheme for Teignmouth could involve putting up 4ft walls around the River Beach. She maintained the development would cause more run-off. 'The water running down Exeter Road is like a river at times. The Coombe Valley is full of watercourses and it ends up down through the town and escaping into the sea. 'There is a possibility of flooding the railway line. We are at the early stages of a new consultation and the issue regarding the walls has still to be resolved with the Environment Agency, but we are concerned it will create a basin,' she warned. Cllr Russell said the town council objected to the development, considering it was premature and that Drake Avenue was unsuitable to accommodate the expected increase in traffic. 'The applicants' transport assessment proposes to widen Drake Avenue to 5.5m by reducing the width of the western footway to 1.2m from its junction with Frobisher Close and as a result the highway authority has withdrawn its objection. 'The town council rejects this U turn and finds it breathtaking that a quiet residential backwater of 24 properties, can, by narrowing the footpath, plus a little traffic calming and a 20mph zone thrown in, absorb the traffic movements from 63 properties with 116 car parking spaces,' she said. Representing the residents of Drake Avenue, Graham Heath, the county council local service officer, who made it clear he had no involvement in the highway authority's consideration of the proposed development, said it would represent an increase in traffic of 263 per cent in Drake Avenue – 487 trips in a 12-hour day. He said residents felt they had not had the opportunity to express their views to the district council or the highway authority. Mr Heath said a proposal to create an emergency/second access to the development had not been clearly thought through and had little chance of being achieved. He also pointed out that the reduction of the footpath width was contrary to the transportation strategy and policies of the Devon Structure Plan and the Devon Local Transport Plan. There were also objections from Teignmouth county councillor Christopher Bray and June Green, chairman of Teignmouth Residents Action Committee for the Environment.
FOR THE appeal site was likely to emerge in the Local Development Framework process as one of only two potential greenfield residential sites that was not constrained in landscape policy terms, Paul Matcham told the second day of the inquiry. The chartered town planner said he believed the council was wrong to oppose the release of the land for residential development on grounds of prematurity. He claimed the original Area of Great Landscape Value and Coastal Preservation Area boundaries, though remaining in force in the Adopted Local Development Plan, were not drawn up in accordance with a methodology that was consistent with current landscape character assessment techniques. 'Teignbridge Council has reviewed the AGLV and CPA boundaries, using a criteria-based method of assessment. I consider that considerable weight can be given to the revisions previously proposed in the review of the Teignbridge Local Plan. 'The council's landscape assessment work remains relevant, and there has been no material change in the condition of the site, its landscape setting or visibility since the council's assessment was undertaken,' he said. Mr Matcham said that one or more greenfield sites on the periphery of Teignmouth needed to be identified and brought forward for residential development now. He said a landscape appraisal demonstrated that the site could be developed without causing unacceptable landscape or visual harm, a finding that was not challenged by the council in its reasons for refusal. 'My analysis shows that the site is likely to emerge in the Local Development Framework process as one of only two potential greenfield residential sites that is not constrained in landscape policy terms. 'I believe that the district council is wrong to oppose the release of the site for residential development on the grounds of prematurity,' he continued. Mr Matcham claimed the appraisal demonstrated that the site could be developed without causing unacceptable landscape or visual harm to the landscape setting of Teignmouth. And he believed the development could be permitted, prior to its formal exclusion from the AGLV and CPA, without causing prejudice to the wider operation of the existing development plan policies for protecting the extensive and important landscapes lying within the AGLV and CPA designations. Questioned by Mr Engert, for Midas Homes and Devon and Cornwall Housing Association, he referred to evidence by the council's area planning officer Nick Davies in which he said building on the site would draw the development into the built-up area and 'increase the visual extent of the urban mass of Teignmouth'. 'It is my view it will not lead to an urban mass extension,' he said. Mr Matcham said it was 'tucked in' and because a site was visible it did not mean that any development in it would have an impact. 'Because the site is in a strong framework of woodlands and hedgerows, the landscape impact will be low to moderate. A small development in a small contained cell,' was his description. Mr Engert had told the opening day of the inquiry that the Adopted Local Plan was something of considerable vintage. 'We have a new Structure Plan to take us to 2016. Very sadly from the appellants' point of view the Local Plan was abandoned in December 2003 despite all those years of endeavour. 'The appeal site was allocated for residential development in the Local Plan to 2011,' he said, adding that it was the most sustainable to meet housing needs in Teignmouth. David Nicholson, of Chudleigh, who formerly lived at Buddleford House, said he had retained some of the land when the house was sold, and in 1976 the then planning officer Noel Dann had told him the development potential would be protected. There had been an undertaking on behalf of Teignbridge Council that the land would not become landlocked. 'We would ask for that undertaking to be honoured,' said Mr Nicholson. Teignbridge Council senior planning officer Nick Davies, cross-examined by Mr Engert, said there was a 342 shortfall of affordable units in Teignmouth, and between 2001-2005 four affordable units were completed. Mr Engert said that tended to show the importance of the council's position statement – the prime candidates to meet that need had to come from allocated sites, including greenfield sites. 'There is a substantial social rental element of 20 houses, two and three bedroom, in the scheme. Young families would almost certainly want to live in a house, not a flat,' he said. Mr Engert asked Mr Davies if the provision of affordable housing on the site would be good to meet the demand in Teignmouth – to which he replied: 'All other things aside, it would be.' Mr Davies said that on a district-wide basis housing delivery was some way behind and likely to continue behind, though he believed by 2016 it would have caught up. Mr Engert referred to the appeal site being 'premature' and could not understand why the council did not consider a 26 hectares site for 200 houses, industrial units and a new rugby ground at Whitehills, Newton Abbot, was not premature. It brought the response from Mr Davies that Whitehills was the northern option for Core Strategy, and it was not on land of AGLV or CPA. Attention then turned to the housing officer's report in which he had welcomed the level of affordable houses proposed in the scheme. 'Why was that not reported to the committee. Would it not have been helpful to help everyone understand,' asked Mr Engert. 'It was not reported in the committee report because we did not have it in time. But it was reported verbally later,' answered Mr Davies. Mr Engert replied: 'It looks if it has been left out by you to be particularly damaging'. The inquiry continues.