Go-ahead for Newton Abbot homes despite ‘ugly’ jibe

Developers have been given the go-ahead to build on green fields on the outskirts of Newton Abbot despite having their plans described as ‘ugly’.

Cllr Jane Taylor (Ind, Kerswell with Coombe) said the plan from Persimmon Homes for Langford Bridge Farm should be turned down.
“It’s very unattractive,” she told a Teignbridge Council planning committee meeting. “In my view it’s ugly. We need to be pushing Persimmon for more attractive houses.”
And, she said, there was no safe way for pedestrians to get in and out of the site, making it ‘unsustainable’. 
However, Cllr Taylor’s move to reject the scheme did not get a seconder, and the committee gave the plans the green light.
Outline permission for the development was given as long ago as May 2020, and the latest application covered details of appearance, landscaping, layout and scale.
Eighteen of the homes in the latest stage of the project will be ‘affordable’. Buildings could be up to three storeys high on some parts of the site, but planning officers say designers have tackled earlier concerns that some of the buildings could be ‘overbearing’.
Robert Clark of Persimmon said the homes could be available to purchase in 2026, and would help tackle local housing needs. Local people will get first refusal on the homes for the first two months.
Cllr Phil Bullivant (Con, Bradley) reminded Persimmon of its responsibility to maintain sites once they have been built.
He said: “There are other Persimmon sites where management companies have a terrible reputation for their failure to look after them in an appropriate way.”
He also urged the developer not to set the prices of the ‘self-build’ section of the site too high for prospective local home-builders to afford.
The committee voted by seven to one, with one abstention, to pass the plans.