Plans to build homes in green fields on the skyline overlooking Exeter could get short shrift from city council planners.
Objections began as soon as the plans for 65 homes in green fields off Nadder Park Road were submitted in the summer, and now officers are recommending that the planning committee rejects the scheme.
The committee meets next week (December 1).
Developer Waddeton Park Ltd wants outline permission for the houses at Barley Lane, with two access points off Nadder Park Road. The company says it will also provide public open space and land for ‘biodiversity enhancements’.
The site is a sloping green field on the very fringes of Exeter, and planning officers say that the homes would ‘unacceptably erode the green edge of the city’ and see the loss of part of Whitestone Valley Park to urban expansion.
Their report goes on: “It is clear that the proposed development will be visible in a number of key views and that the green ridge that defines the landscape setting of the city will be unacceptably harmed.”
There are also concerns over drainage and flooding.
“The overall harm generated by the proposal is considered to outweigh the benefits,” the report says.
Waddeton Park has pledged high quality homes, with around 20 of them likely to be in the lower-priced bracket. A website dedicated to the development says the project will have ‘well-designed contemporary housing’ that also recognises the importance of the site’s green spaces.
Among the planning ‘constraints’ listed in the report to next week’s meeting is ‘risk of unexploded ordnance’, with bombs recorded as having fallen within the site during the Second World War.
More than 200 objections were received from members of the public citing concerns around the environment and the principle of developing on green fields. One objector complained of potential ‘loss of sunsets across the west of the city’.
The local NHS trust did not object but insisted that the developer should pay more than £40,000 towards local medical services. Devon County Council objected on flooding grounds while the Devon Wildlife Trust and Exeter Civic Society objected.
The Exeter Green Circle walking route runs alongside the site, and the report warns that development will change the character of the path.
WANTED | Luke Down, Exmouth/Exeter
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