Letter published in Herald Express

The following letter was published in the Herald Express on Saturday October 10 2009
under the headline : COUNCIL MUST STAND UP AGAINST 15,000 NEW HOMES FOR BAY AREA.

WE WELCOME the pledge regarding the proposed imposition of 15,000 homes on Torbay by the Labour Government from Torbay Conservative Parliamentary spokesman Marcus Wood.
Mr Wood stated in his letter (HE, October 6) that it is his party's policy to abolish binding homebuilding targets for councils as soon as possible should they win the General Election.
Because of a legal challenge elsewhere in the country, the Labour Government has now delayed confirmation of the figures for the South West and Torbay until at least the New Year. Torbay Council and the regional assembly both rejected the figure for Torbay as far too high and damaging for the resort.
Torbay Council is currently going through the consultation process on its new planning blueprint on the basis of 15,000 homes and many potential greenfield housing sites have been identified in Paignton and Torquay in the five options being suggested.
These include 230 homes at Scotts Meadows off Riviera Way, Torquay, and 750 in the valley above Edginswell alongside Hamelin Way. Scotts Meadows feature in four of the five options.
A meeting of Shiphay with the Willows Ward partnership this week resoundingly rejected the designation of those meadows for housing and residents argued forcefully for Torbay Council to stand up to the current Government on the 15,000 figure.
Residents were concerned about further traffic congestion caused by 980 new homes, on top of the new Edginswell Business Park and expansion at Torbay Hospital. They asked where the jobs and community facilities were going to be created.
Our members are campaigning for Torbay Council to withdraw the housing proposals for Scotts Meadow in the new planning blueprint and to retain the landscape protection area status it has in the current local plan, which the council defended in a High Court hearing in 2005.
Perhaps Torbay Council could also give residents longer to understand and react to these radical and Bay changing proposals than Friday, October 23.
Anyone interested in supporting our Save Scotts Meadow campaign to preserve these prominent meadows at the gateway to Torquay for future generations can contact me on 01803 615922 or email savescottsmeadow@yahoo.co.uk
JIM PROWSE
Chairman, Scotts Meadow Protection Group