Dawlish Discussion

900 homes proposed to be built in Dawlish 2013-2033.

Though you if you add in the 124 dwellings Strongvox development at Secmaton Rise and the 251 Cavanna/Bovis development at Secmaton Lane both of which are presently being built, the figure comes to 1,275. Add on various odds & sods developments here and there (I believe the technical term for them is windfall developments) over that period of time and let's say the figure will be 1,300 minimum. 

(Since posting the above I've now read some more of these latest proposals re Dawlish and housing and it seems that the figure is more like 1,500. This is what TDC says:

"The planned allocation of 900 new homes plus about 640 new homes through existing planning commitments will provide a total of about 1500 new homes at Dawlish.")

Over the same period of time (2013-2033) TDC planners propose that Teignmouth should have a total of 340 new dwellings. 

My humble opinion has always been that Teignbridge DC consider Dawlish to be their new 'dumping ground' for all the problem families that lie under their jurisdiction. Once upon a time they used Paignton but that went with the creation of the unitary authority.

It has been seen in Dawlish already with social housing developments here being 'allocated' to people from Teignbridge but not from Dawish and the re-grading of some sheltered and older peoples housing to general needs housing with the associated problems of some younger people involved in drugs and antisocial behaviour being moved into them.

Teignbridge also terms Teignmouth 'The Gem' whereas Dawlish is merely the 'Home of the Black Swan'.

Ask those involved in planning the full scale Gun Run here some years ago. Ground anchors were needed to be placed in the Lawn to support the structures and planning applied for. The response was apparently along the lines of: "We have no problem with the idea but would rather you did it on the Den in Teignmouth".

However, I feel that Teignbridge and Teignmouth have shot themselves in the foot by building the new Morrisons store. If left as it is the road system will gridlock. No doubt about that; it's already a nightmare! They will therefore have to build the new link road from the area at the bottom of Breakneck Hill to the rear of Broadmeadow at a cost of something like £20million. The only way to offset that cost will be for housing to be built along the route (similar to The Willows in Torquay). This will mean the creation of 000's of dwellings and not just the 340 planned. 

If that is the case it follows that not so many will be required in Dawlish...but I'd put money on it that they will still be built as Teignbridge will need ever more homes for those wishing to move into the area on social housing 'swaps' and those from outside the area placing themselves on the Devon Home Choice Register. Having seen the renovations to the large blocks of flats in Teignmouth (now all with balconys many overlooking the estuary) it appears that Teign Housing (the company that took over the entire Teignbridge Council stock for the meagre sum of a couple of years maintenance costs - our assets paid for by our council tax) are actively encouraging such migrations into the area. This will of course mean larger 'surpluses' (not profits - HAs don't make profits) which can be used to increase wages and other remuneration not least to the heirarchy of the organisation!

You may now call me a cynic!....but let's see what happens.

Thank you for posting your opinion, it made interesting reading.

It is now proposed that the target 'affordable' homes for all these new developments in Dawlish should be 25%. It used to be 30% for Dawlish and Teignmouth (although that 30% wasn't always met for various reasons. Thus it is 25% affordable on the Strongvox Secmaton Rise development and 12% affordable on the 251 Cavanna/Bovis Secmaton Lane development).

This 25% target though isn't written in stone and for various reasons I suspect that the actual amount per large development will be less than that. 

But maybe that's me being cynical.            

Dawlish Post has just arrived. Check out page 5.  
 

we dont get it Lynne

For info: here's the text of a letter published in the Dawlish Gazette last September concerning the allocation of affordable rented housing in Dawlish.

 "TDC talks of the affordable homes being for local people. Can I ask TDC what it means by ‘local’? Does it mean only families already living in Dawlish or who live elsewhere but who have a strong connection to Dawlish or will the definition be a little wider and include those with housing needs who live in the more rural, but adjoining, parishes of Starcross, Kenton, Powderham, Ashcombe and Mamhead? Could ‘local’ mean families living within the wider district of Teignbridge or perhaps even the county of Devon as a whole? 

I raise this matter just in case there are those in Dawlish who may be under the impression that ‘local’ refers only to those already living here. Whilst a totally understandable assumption I suspect it will be erroneous when it comes to the allocation of affordable housing.  Perhaps TDC would be good enough to tell us if such people are right or wrong in this assumption.

I am not being unnecessarily pedantic on this point as how ‘local’ is defined will be very important in deciding which families get allocated the new homes. I say this because I understand the present system used for allocating any vacant affordable homes in the town means that such homes are available for anyone within Teignbridge deemed to have the highest level of housing need.  Will this be the same in the future? If the answer is yes, and I suspect it will be, then the knock on effect is one of reducing the number of affordable homes available for Dawlish families which in turn lessens the likelihood of Dawlish’s own housing need problem being resolved.  Would such a scenario be an excuse for even more house building I wonder?

I have already heard people in the town, some of whom I understand to be on TDC’s housing needs register, say that the new affordable homes should be allocated to Dawlish people first and foremost. If that will not be the case then we need to be aware of that NOW otherwise some townsfolk may well have hopes of being re-housed sometime in the future when in reality that may not be the case at all. We need to recognise and accept that there is potential for a lot of resentment if people with housing needs, who are already living here, do not get re-housed when others from outside the parish do.

Finally,  as it’s not unknown for developers to find problems with meeting the 30% affordable quota how can TDC ensure that any future housing developments really do conform to this seemingly elusive requirement?"

@ B'nut - on page of 5 of this week's Dawlish Post there is an article about the proposals for how the Teignbridge District will be developed 2013-2033. It is too long to reproduce all of it  but here are some snippets.

Dawlish; 900 new homes, 7 acres of employment land, Coastal protection

Teignmouth: New homes down from 1,100 to 340. Town centre regeneration. Green space maintained between town and Holcombe. 

Apparently the number of new homes in Teignmouth was reduced because of "the prohibitive cost of a new road and worries about wild-life habitat" 

Apparently the developers of the new houses off Drake's Avenue in Teignmouth 'underestimated' the cost of the new road (into Broadmeadow) by something in the region of 50%! And these figures were accepted by Teignbridge!!!

That road will have to be built once Morrison's opens. Anyone who uses the river road through Teignmouth to Newton knows it. 

Housing in Dawlish will be allocated based on the Devon Home Choice criteria (i.e. banding and length of time in band) irrespective of where people currently live.

A thought. If that new road in T'mouth needs constructing then where will the money come from to build it? If only 340 new houses are to be built in Teignmouth over the next 20 years or so then I suspect not enough Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and New Homes Bonus (NHB) will be generated by them to pay for said road.

Which makes me wonder if CIL & NHB monies generated by all the house building due to take place in Dawlish will be spent on financing that road in T'mouth rather than being spent here, in the town that'll have produced that CIL and NHB revenue for TDC.  

This is how much CIL and NHB revenue TDC have calculated the new housing in Dawlish will bring them:

"It is calculated the proposed level of growth at Dawlish could potentially generate about £11m from Community Infrastructure Levy and also New Homes Bonus".

Well there you go then! Just about the right figure to pay for half of the road - the other half coming from the 1000 odd houses which WILL be built along the new route.

Teignbridge must know that this will happen already - they should come clean about it.