CONTROVERSIAL plans to develop 30 hectares of land at Whitehill, Newton Abbot – already passed in the adopted Teignbridge Local Plan 2013-2033 – go before Teignbridge Council Planning Committee on Tuesday, March 8, after a public consultation.

Officers are recommending that the NA2 Whitehill, Newton Abbot Development Framework Plan – Supplementary Planning Document, should go to the executive for approval.

Being presented to members in the revised draft are documents containing more than 250 pages.

Planned are 450 homes with two hectares of land set aside for employment development, a community facility, space for recreation, allotments and to improve the road network to allow ease of movement through the site and reduce traffic through Highweek village.

After a Habitat Regulations Assessment the documents state the plan has been modified to incorporate recommended mitigation measures that were identified which includes provision for a substantial bat corridor that bisects the NA2 Whitehill allocation.

It adds that this will reduce the number of houses that may be achieved.

At a district authority planning committee meeting in November it was revealed that the number of homes could be cut by more than half to protect the greater horseshoe bats.

The previous week Linden Homes South West Ltd had applied for 203 homes on part of the site, a drop of 25 on its original application. That had included public open space and associated infrastructure.

Councillors had deferred the matter because the consultation on the draft development framework was still outstanding.

Objectors have repeatedly warned that the area cannot take any more houses and that no building should take place until the road infrastructure is put in. They say that traffic-wise Highweek itself is at breaking point.

Newton Abbot Town Council has called for conditions of greater highways safety in and around the site and on the A382 to be carried out before building starts.

It also asked for safe access for pedestrians, the disabled and cyclists from Whitehill to the town, schools, other amenities and to Highweek village, as well as a robust condition on flood surface water.

Cllr Richard Jenks maintained at the town council’s planning committee that: ‘It is the tail wagging the dog and the developer pushing it through with an awful lot of things unresolved.’