A TEIGNBRIDGE councillor has warned that developers and council planners must learn from past mistakes if dwindling public resources of green field space are to be saved.

The councillor for the Haytor ward, Jeremy Christophers, says that decades of unchecked development in the Liverton, Cold East area, have left children with just 'the tiniest speck' of space to play on – and the Local Plan shows no signs of addressing the problem.

'I am actually amazed at how much new development has gone on in Liverton, but there is very little that can be done to rectify the problem, which is a source of much frustration,' he said. 'Those who have already developed the area naturally do not want to be accountable and there are no plans to address the problem in the near future.

'Fortunately, we are a lot better at Teignbridge now. When an application is considered today, you will always find five or six councillors asking where the playing area will be.'

Cllr Christophers has actively liaised with children and residents in the Shapley Way area, where he says, tensions are amassing. Teenagers with nowhere else to go are reportedly playing football on a small patch of ground marked with a 'No Ball Games' sign, causing problems with some of the residents.

'The majority of the kids are amazing. I went down down to speak to some of them last week and they were very understanding. I know that when the World Cup starts proper, the kids will be rightly inspired. They just need to know there is a need for them to relax a little.

'Another difficulty is that the young children cannot travel too far. It is all very well saying they should go to Liverton Football Club, but they cannot be too far away from their parents. In the current climate, we cannot advocate that.'

One of the problems, believes Cllr Christophers, is that Liverton has no representative on the Ilsington Parish Council. He hopes that someone will be able to step forward in the near future to work as an advocate for the village's needs.

Lack of adequate play facilities has been linked to increased levels of crime among young people, but Cllr Christophers does not think this has manifested itself in his ward yet. 'I would agree that widely this is the case, but I can't say that it has happened here yet,' he said. 'However, if something is not done about this soon, that could be one of the consequences.'

An area of land behind Shapley Way has been identified as a possible location for a play area and Cllr Christophers has also raised the possibility of implementing traffic calming measures, with an area of the street dedicated as a play area.

Attempts to encourage local land-owners to put forward land as green field play areas have been successful, with a number of offers, Unfortunately applications to have the land considered for suitable development under the Local Plan has failed.