A public art installation proposed for a housing development on the edge of Teignmouth will reflect the town’s fishing heritage.

Stantec UK Plc, acting on behalf of Harrington Homes, has submitted Discharge of Condition 22 application to Teignbridge planners, which provides details of the first of five installations they intend to place on its Teignbrook site on Higher Exeter Road.

One of the conditions of the original planning approval for the 255-house development required the developer to provide Teignbridge with full details of public art installations before each phase of housing is occupied to ensure the works contribute to ‘creating a high quality, attractive and vibrant place’. Each public art installation will be located at s prominent junction on the estate to encourage public interaction and access.

The first public artwork is a concept developed by Devon-based stonemason Paul Ellis which highlights the Teignmouth’s historic connections to the fishing industry.

The 381cm x 305xm installation includes a bench that provides residents and visitors an opportunity ‘to rest and contemplate’ and an information plaque about the numerous fishing boats that sailed from the town in the 18th and 19th centuries to fish for cod off Newfoundland in Canada.

Sculptures of a fisherman’s hat and boots will tell of his presence and visitors will be able to follow his footprints carved into sandstone slabs to an information plaque telling the fisherman’s story.

The bench will be set among reclaimed sandstone boulders that will provide ‘a permanent reminder of the local geology’.

Future public art installations on the site will also focus on Teignmouth’s identity and are likely to reference landmarks such as the lighthouse near the Point, the historic railway, geographic features such as the Ness, and local ecology.

The Discharge of Conditions application comes just weeks after the developer submitted an application to remove the affordable housing and community funding obligations included in the original planning approval. The developer said rising costs linked to the technical challenges on site had made the site financially unviable. The firm threatened to halt all work on the development in December unless Teignbridge planners agreed to its request to waive the Section 106 requirements. However, work on the road outside the site started in January.