TEIGNMOUTH'S desperate need for affordable housing went under the microscope at a public inquiry in Newton Abbot last week, which heard that between 2001-2005 only four affordable units were completed in the town. But Teignbridge Council and objectors argued that land adjoining Higher Exeter Road and Drake Avenue, was not the place for 63 units, 31 of them affordable. Nick Engert, representing Midas Homes and Devon and Cornwall Housing Association, maintained it was in line with policy and in 2001 at the First Deposit Stage of the Local Development Plan, the land was removed from its designation as an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV) and Coastal Preservation Area (CPA). Midas Homes and the association were appealing against the decision of the district authority to refuse outline permission for the residential development. It had been refused on three counts – the site was outside the urban residential development boundary defined by the Adopted Teignbridge Local Plan, in an area of AGLV and CPA, and would be prejudicial to the emerging Local Development Framework. That, it considered, would pre-determine decisions about the location and phasing of the new development. Mr Engert said the other two reasons for refusal – 1) Drake Avenue was unsuitable to accommodate the increase in traffic, and 2) it would result in damage to the habitat of cirl buntings and dormice – had been overcome. Area planning officer Nick Davies said the council had resolved not to defend the highway element of the refusal, while the council and the appellants had agreed a scheme of mitigation for potential harm to the habitats of the cirl buntings and dormice. Mr Davies told the three- day inquiry at Forde House that the Devon Structure Plan required 7,500 dwellings in Teignbridge between 2001-2016 at an annual average of 500. There was no requirement to provide allocations for residential development in Teignmouth. In September 2001, the council approved the initial deposit version of the Teignbridge Local Plan First Review for public consultation. It included the appeal site as proposed housing development, along with the amendment of the AGLV and CPA boundaries. Mr Davies said there were 148 objections to the development and 135 to the boundary amendment. There were also 148 objections to the proposed housing allocation at the appeal site, and the council had refused planning permission. He added that 1,483 dwellings were completed in Teignbridge from April 1, 2001, to March 31, 2005, and at March 31 that same year 484 dwellings were under construction with permission for a further 1,011. Mr Davies said the shortfall in 2001-2010 would be 1,542 dwellings, which would need to be provided in the remaining Structure Plan period 2010-2016. In Teignmouth, in the four years up to March 2005, 147 dwellings were built and 111 were under construction, with permission for a further 246. This left a shortfall of 72 up to 2010. 'The appeal proposals would provide for approximately nine per cent of the shortfall of affordable housing in Teignmouth. 'The conflicting issues of affordable housing provision and the need to protect the landscape quality of Teignmouth should be addressed through the Local Development Framework,' said Mr Davies.
