A PLANNING inspector has overruled South Hams Council and granted permission for a housing development that has already been built in Malborough – even though it is in the wrong place.

The new development at Alston Gate on the northern edge of the village is almost complete, having been granted planning permission in January 2013.

But when work started on the eight 'affordable' and nine open market houses, C G Fry, the builder contracted by developer DCH built the homes in the wrong place – up to two metres different to approved plans.

An application was made for 'retrospective' permission, to alter the position of the houses, but was refused by South Hams councillors last December.

But in a decision announced on Friday, May 29, inspector Elizabeth Jones allowed an appeal against the refusal, following a hearing and site visit in April.

She said the main issue was the effect on the character and appearance of the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. While South Hams Council was concerned that the closer proximity of the houses to the A381 made the development too prominent, the inspector judged them to sit 'just as comfortably within the site and the street scene' in the new positions.

For more on this story, see this week's Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette