General Discussion

In his spending review speech on Weds, George Osborne said that unused commercial land would be used for Starter Homes.

Does commercial land mean land designated for employment? 'Cos if so I'd just like to point out that Dawlish hasn't got all that good a track record for having its designated employment land being used for er........employment.

Also, remember, that in the Teignbridge Local Plan land out by Langdon Hospital is scheduled to be future employment land.

I don't know how long commercial land has to have been unused before it qualifies for housing to be built on it instead but I wouldn't mind betting that land in Dawlish designated for employment ends up having houses built on it sometime in the future.

Without doubt Lynne, so from the land available that could be another 100 + houses. I will have to update my calculations on doctors per head of population Teignmouth V Dawlish. The last time I did a calculation it was a difference of approx 300 residents more per doctor in Dawlish against Teignmouth. and with all these extra houses that gap can only widen even allowing for the expansion of Barton.  In addition I suppose it will be good sense to build starter homes next door to a mental hospital, perhaps some of the less volatile inmates could be housed in them re-introducing them back into society whilst giving them quick access to support if they need it.  

You right about the poor take up of employment land, Lynne.

The 1.8 hectares behind Sainsbury's designated for employment has only had a small proportion of the land developed since planning approval was granted in 2008, with only speculative interest in the remainder. Futhermore many of the sites on the Shutterton Industrial Estate are under-utilised and/or in need or redevelopment.

Despite such evidence Teignbridge appear undeterred in its quest for more employment land, extending the Dawlish development boundary by 8 hectares for this purpose through 'Main Modifications' to the Local Plan in 2014 - and coming back for another large chunk of countryside under September's proposals in the NW Secmaton Lane Draft Development Framework Consultation.

We still await the result of this Consultation of course - and while there will not be too many bets against more countryside being swallowed up by our District Council, the odds on whether any employment will actually be delivered would, through this announcement, appear to be  lengthening.

Gary Taylor

Yes we are still awaiting the result of the NW Secmaton Lane Draft Development Framework Consultation and whilst the planners could cock a snoop should they so wish to any and all of the suggestions we have made about it, they cannot cock a snoop to recent changes in central government planning and housing policies that will impact on it.

Out for consultation at the same time as the NW Secmaton Lane DDF was Teignbridge's policy on Affordable Housing (affordable in this instance = housing association below market level rented housing and shared ownership).

Recent government policies have blown great big holes in both of  'em.

The planners and housing officers at Teignbridge must be pulling their hair out!

So to say I will be intrigued to see what policies eventually emerge from Forde House concerning the development at NW Secmaton Lane and the type of housing (by which I mean types of tenure) that will be built there is to understate.

Ken, it's not a mental hospital, it's a forensic psychiatric hospital, ie. People who have committed crimes,I certainly wouldn't want o live in such proximity.

From last weeks Dawlish Gazette:" Killer to be held indefinitely at Langdon"

A freed killer who was receiving treatment in the community in Exeter risked the lives of shoppers by starting a fire at the Debenhams store in Princesshay.

He had a ten-year-long history of offending and was jailed for 42 months in 2007 for manslaughter after he injected a fellow heroin user with a fatal dose.

He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and will be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.