WEST Alvington will see a new development of 17 homes, after councillors gave their approval in the face of objections that plans were 'severely compromised' by, among other things, a 'laissez faire attitude to pedestrian safety'.

The DCH development at 'Home Field', behind the Ring of Bells pub, will include eight affordable homes and nine for sale on the open market.

Meeting on Wednesday, January 14, South Hams Council's development management committee heard from planning officer Ben Gilpin, who said the site was the 'most sustainable' of those identified for development in the village.

He added that the proportion of affordable housing was high, although the impact on the South Devon Area of Out­standing Natural Beauty was an issue.

The officer also discussed the Government's requirement, since 2012, for every local authority to be able to demonstrate it had available housing land for the next five years, saying that this came into play when making decisions.

As noted by various planning inspectors, South Hams Council does not currently meet the requirement. This makes it much more vulnerable to developers lodging appeals against its decisions, potentially expensive for the council, and is therefore a significant factor in decision making.

And later in proceedings, committee member cllr John Squires said it was 'ridiculous' that members were constrained in their decision making by the council's inability to show that it had a five year supply of available housing land.

Objectors said that none of the three pedestrian access points proposed were safe, given the narrow road through the village and fast-moving cars, and a police inspection had raised security concerns over the design of the estate.

Parish councillor Robin Ladkin said that West Alvington council had voted on two occasions to reject the current proposals, but did want affordable homes to be built on the site.

However, having the affordable housing tucked away in a corner of the development amounted to 'blatant social discrimination', and they 'wanted none of it in their village'. Cllr Ladkin was also concerned that locals would not be able to afford the open market housing, given the prime location, and that the chance to make the site genuinely sustainable had been missed.

Cllr Simon Wright sits on the DMC, as well as being chairman of West Alvington Parish Council. For this reason he declared an interest at the start of the meeting, and did not vote on the application, but took part in the debate as ward member.

He said that the open market homes were 'clearly enormous', and when comparing the size of their garages with the size of the affordable houses, he wondered how many more affordable units might have been fitted in. He said there was a 'high degree of interest and engagement' locally in the future development of the town. Un­fortunately, parishioners' views had not been taken on board in the design of the scheme.

The design and access document prepared on behalf of DCH by Andrew Lethbridge Associates stated: 'It is not always possible to fully include all input received during a pre-application consultation into a final design proposal for various reasons.'

Addressing the segregation of affordable and open market housing, it adds: 'It is far simpler, and the resulting maintenance quality much better, if the areas under the ownership and responsibility of private homeowners, management companies and the housing provider are clearly defined. However, as far as possible we have integrated the affordable units with the open market in terms of location within the site and material finishes etc.'

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Wright said: 'Broadly speaking, we were all for a development of some description, but I was disappointed that it didn't fulfill the needs and expectations of the village.

'It fell short on access, on the 'them and us' situation with the affordable homes, and because the houses were angled a bit wrongly it didn't take full advantage of the possibilities of solar power. It was very disappointing.'

He added: 'If you're going to build in the AONB, you have to have exceptional circumstances – K5 proved that. I tried to show this development was not exceptional; it's fair, but not exceptional, because of the poor design, layout and access – but my colleagues didn't agree.'

Before the vote, Cllr John Squires vented his frustration on the issue of available housing land. Having sat through a gruelling day of deliberations on various planning applications, he questioned why the committee had to go through the 'rigmarole' of debating housing applications, if at the end they would have to pass them anyway, because the council could not demonstrate that it had five years' supply available.