Mark Pearson, executive director, Design Action (Architecture Centre, Devon and cornwall) writes:

I refer to your story of two weeks ago that I believe was based upon a press release from some members of the community and as the leader of the six-strong independent team that facilitated the events my perspective is this:

My colleagues and I were asked to work with the invited participants to test the existing 'concept plans' that illustrate the likely extent and form of the potential new neighbourhoods. 

Should the sites in question be allocated for development in the Local Plan then these drawings are one of the crucial ways of influencing the fundamental layout, design quality and sustainability of what might eventually be proposed and built by private sector developers. The 'concept plans' would be adopted as policy at the same time as the quantities of development are confirmed, therefore it is in everyone's interest to ensure that these draft diagrams are improved at this juncture so that they might point more clearly towards some tried and tested 'good practice' in terms of urban design and place-making. 

The skills and expertise within our team included urban design, landscape, sustainability, architecture and planning.  I think that Teignbridge should be applauded for inviting what appeared to be a good range of local community members to be openly involved in this exercise (some other local authorities might have commissioned this as a closed technical assessment) and we regret that early in the second workshop some individuals decided to withdraw.

I would venture that those that stayed and took part learnt a lot (as indeed we all did) about both the potential negative and positive attributes of future development in these locations and we were all much better informed by the end of each session. 

We did, of course, have to have 'something to test' and that's why we began from the current assumptions in the draft Local Plan but each workshop group was free to challenge these later in the process and explore alternative options, which they certainly did.  

I can confirm that we were not encouraged by Teignbridge officers to aim for any particular conclusions or outcomes and I would expect that the majority of those attending would agree that final discussions were well-balanced and helpful to everyone's further understanding of these important and challenging issues.THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION