A £440,000 CARROT has been dangled by Millwood Homes (Devon) limited over its application to Dartmoor National Park Authority for the redevelopment of Thompson and Sons (Transport) Ltd haulage yard in Moretonhampstead.

The developer wants to provide employment units, 51 homes, community facilities and a cycle/walking path on the brownfield site in Station Road.

The £440,000 contribution would be towards the cost of a proposed community building adjacent to the existing swimming pool at Betton Way.

But the carrot could be eaten up, for the level of contribution is on a sliding scale, dropping in the region of £44,000 for each affordable unit built – the £440,000 would be for no social housing within the development.

Last week at a public meeting, residents voiced concerns about more homes in the town but also heard that if the plans were refused the haulage firm could scuttle its yard in Okehampton and return all operations to Moretonhampstead.

On Tuesday, a special Moretonhampstead Parish Council Planning Committee, called to discuss the application, agreed to recommend to the DNPA that it was inappropriate at the moment for the development to go ahead.

Council chairman, Cllr John Laflin, who is also a member of the town's development trust, said after the meeting that it was a fairly tricky planning application.

'The planning committee was not against it but thought it was not appropriate at the moment for the development to go ahead.

'We have a fairly large development by Millwood Homes at Betton Way involving 50 houses. We thought it would better for the town to assimilate those extra people in what would be a fairly large influx.

'Along with 50 houses being built down the road as well it would be a substantial increase which the infrastructure would not be capable of withstanding,' he said.

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Cllr Laflin said the offer by the developer sounded very generous on the face of it, but it was tied up with social housing and the numbers would depend on the DNPA and Teignbridge Council.

John Willis, of the Moretonhampstead Association for Youth, said he did not know how the DNPA could make a decision because there seemed to be no national rules about what the percentage of affordable housing should be.

He was fearful that not only would the DNPA turn down the application, depending on its interpretation of all the different factors, and there would be no housing for a long time to come, but it would not get the community benefits as well.

'At the end of the day I hope we get some industrial unit facilities and if they are going to build houses this would be the best place to put them,' said Mr Willis.