Why do you feel this way and do you have any other comments?

In respect of housing allocations in Topsham, the Panel is dismayed that proposals to continue to encourage the development of green land around the town and continues to promote sites 91/94 off Newcourt Rd. We restate our observations contained in our previous response under “Topsham Housing Sites” and urge the council to reconsider imposing such development on this last area of semi rural land around the town, especially one that has such constrained traffic infrastructure serving it. If ECC ignore this request, all development must be undertaken in a manner that maintains the rural ambiance of Newcourt Rd, retaining existing hedgerows and tree planting to buffer the road and its inhabitants from large scale new development beyond. Multiple points of access to the road, with all the visual disruption this brings, must be prohibited. The Panel is aware that the Council have also disregarded its request that it resists applications to develop land in this area until the Plan has run fully through the democratic process and policy is properly examined.

Why do you feel this way and do you have any other comments?

We question the attractiveness of this site, squeezed between the motorway and railway line and beneath power lines. Noise and light pollution will be very significant, reducing residents’ health and wellbeing whatever the mitigation. Residents might reasonably expect to have decent outside space. Alternative uses should be sought for this site with an emphasis on biodiversity. This and the other three Newcourt Road sites will collectively result in further loss of green space and therefore the gap between Topsham and Exeter.

Why do you feel this way and do you have any other comments?

I would like to make the following submission with regard to the proposed plans for Newcourt Road, Exeter (Sites 91 and 94): I am not sure who will be making the decision with regard to these planned developments but assume the Planning Committee must be involved. I have been a resident in Newcourt Road for over 30 years now and am not even sure that the Planning Committee has ever visited Newcourt Road – despite its growing development? Has a non vehicular use/safety audit ever been conducted? The current planning applications all rely upon a single road use survey carried out over a single 6 hour period on a cold and damp Tuesday in March 2018 (nearly six years ago and BEFORE all the recent major developments) which was interpreted and analysed by a potentially interested party) I am not alone in failing to understand just how such an old and inappropriate road for development is being developed (with these extra plans for further development). Newcourt Road is – in many ways – still the road designed and built over 190 years ago to service agricultural fields and some agricultural workers' cottages. At no point does it have more than a single footpath on one side only (there being no room for a second path on the other side) and the road is so narrow that cars already park partially on the narrow path. For considerable lengths it has NO footpath at all. I genuinely think you would struggle to find anyone who could take an objective look at the road and think it is one ripe for development? In conversations with those already involved in the developments I have heard comments that they have never known such developments to be allowed when pedestrian access is so limited. Even Catherine Smith (The Council rep at the Mathews Hall consultation) did say “Devon tells us that Newcourt Road can't take any more”. I could write reams about just how inappropriate any future development of Newcourt Road would be – but that would detract from my single wish that someone would take a good hard and objective look at the road (and conduct appropriate traffic and non-vehicular surveys) before just adding more danger to this road.

How do you feel about the site at Newcourt Road?

Unhappy

Why do you feel this way and do you have any other comments?

This is a quiet area for nature. Not happy that you would allow building here.

How do you feel about the site at Newcourt Road?

Neutral

Why do you feel this way and do you have any other comments?

This proposal is sited in an area of high archaeological potential. Many archaeological finds and features have been recorded nearby. Any development should be informed by pre-determination archaeological assessment and evaluation, and accompanied by a programme of archaeological mitigation.