The developer behind a blocked plan for 65 homes in an East Devon village has lodged an appeal to try and revive the scheme.
The outline plan for 65 properties on land at Abbey Road in Dunkeswell was refused by planners at East Devon District Council last summer, but the developer behind the scheme – named as Mr P Aubery of company Tavistock Green has now lodged an appeal with the government’s Planning Inspectorate.
It’s likely the developer, through their agent EJFP Planning, will stress that East Devon District Council lacks a five-year housing land supply, a government metric that councils have to meet to help Westminster hit its housing targets.
When councils don’t have enough homes planned for the next five years, a mechanism known as the ‘tilted balance’ can be enacted, which essentially means that planners are encouraged to approve schemes unless there would be significant harm from doing so.
East Devon refused the proposal based on 12 reasons, including the loss of an open green field, noting that the development would be occurring in a National Landscape, the new name for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
The council also felt it would “erode, detract and harm the setting of the conservation area”, and noted that the historic airfield and other assets warranted protection more than the need for homes there.
There were also concerns about it being “poorly located” in relation to nearby services and facilities and the “substandard pedestrian and cycle linkage”, as well as concerns about a lack of plans for surface water runoff and the fact the area where the homes are proposed lies in an “area of archaeological potential with regard to the known iron ore extractive industry that operated across the Blackdown Hills from the Iron Age through the medieval period”.
In its statement to the Planning Inspectorate, EJFP, emphasises national planning guidance as focusing on “significantly boosting the supply of homes and applying the presumption robustly where a five-year housing land supply is absent”.
“Since the introduction of the revised National Planning Policy Framework 2024, the council has accepted that it currently cannot demonstrate a five-year land supply,” it said.
“The latest published position on housing land supply from the Council (February 2025) claims a 2.97-year supply of deliverable sites.”
A letter sent by the Planning Inspectorate to East Devon District Council states the hearing will open on Wednesday 20 May and last two days.
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