A SPOKESMAN for Modbury First said last week’s decision to allow a development of nearly 100 homes meant the town had been ‘sacrificed on the altar of housing targets’.

Martin Ranwell, on behalf of the group, said that South Hams Council’s development management committee had ‘decided that meeting a top-down housing target was more important than protecting the South Hams from overdevelopment’.

Approving the plans by Bloor Homes for 93 houses and a large commercial building on land west of Palm Cross Green, South Hams councillors said they had no reason to refuse the application, which would have stood up to an appeal against the decision.

The site has long been allocated as suitable for housing, although objectors say the assessed housing need in Modbury is for far fewer than 93 homes.

Voting to allow the development by 10 votes to two, councillors did, however, express grave concerns about the proposed site entrance, which is close to a sharp bend and at the brow of a hill on the busy A379.

But Devon County Council highways development management officer Richard Jackson said the proposed priority junction with a right-turn filter lane was the best option for the entrance point. He told the committee that a speed survey had found the average vehicle to be travelling at just 20 miles an hour, and by opening out the corner the forward visibility for drivers turning right would be acceptable.

Councillors also bemoaned the lack of a bus stop at the top of Modbury in the plans, where an informal stop has existed since the 1940s, it was claimed.

But Mr Jackson said there was no safe place where an official bus stop could be put in; he added that one was not required under the guidance, as the site was within 800 metres of the stop in the town centre. Councillors noted that this was ‘a long walk’ up a very steep hill.

Development committee vice-chair Cllr Richard Foss said a safe stop could be created slightly further down the road to Plymouth, but Mr Jackson said that was only true of one side. He also said bus companies did not like ‘layby’-type stops, and in any case there was no land for them.

Mr Ranwell addressed the committee as a local objector. He said the town was ‘a special place, with an important history and unique architecture’.

There was support, he said, for a small number of affordable houses for young people, but not this plan, which would create a dormitory town for Plymouth.

Told by Cllr Julian Brazil that development on the site had ‘already been decided for you’ when it was allocated for housing in 2011, Mr Ranwell said: ‘We don’t accept that.’

Independent planning consultant Stephen Munday, representing Bloor Homes, said the company should be congratulated on the exemplary way it had engaged with the community, and he wanted to ‘enthuse’ about the design of the development.

He said that, after having had lengthy discussions with Modbury Parish Council, it was ‘with puzzlement, confusion and despair’ that Bloor had received the council’s objection.

He said there were ‘opposing factions’ in Modbury, and it had suited them to unite in opposition to the plans. But he was confident that, ‘while objecting voices are loud’, they actually represented only a small number of vested interests.

He spoke of a ‘tension’ in current planning because there is a ‘chronic need’ for new housing, but no one was willing to have development near them. He warned that, unless this ‘negative nimbyism’ changed, more and more decisions would be left to the planning inspectorate and be taken out of local hands.

Modbury parish councillor Martin Lawrence also addressed the committee. He said the council accepted that development would occur, but wanted it to be ‘functional and integrated with the town’.

The council was very concerned, he said, that the design and location of the large employment building on the corner of the A379 and Barrack Road did not ‘enhance the approach to Modbury’ and conflicted with the town centre conservation area. He asked for a planning condition to be included that the building should be redesigned or moved.

He also questioned the lack of a link road from the A379 through to Barrack Road, saying it would be essential for any future development north of Modbury. He said Bloor’s consultants had ‘refused point blank’ to ask the public about a possible link road, even though the council’s consultation had found that 70 per cent of respondents were in favour.

Speaking afterwards, Cllr Lawrence said he was ‘disappointed’ at the outcome, particularly that the employment building would remain as planned.