Residents have pleaded for Dartmouth’s neighbourhood plan to be resurrected after councillors decided to abandon it.

Dartmouth Town Council chose to abandon the neighbourhood plan at November’s full council meeting.

However, at this week’s council meeting, residents spoke out in favour of producing a plan.

Cllr Lynne Maurer, who is chairman of Kingswear Parish Council, said: “Neighbourhood planning gives communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and their local area.

“Could I ask the council whether their decision not to proceed with the local plan takes into account the impact this may have on neighbouring councils?

“While Kingswear has been burning the midnight oil, it seems that Dartmouth has just turned the lights out.

“Do we need to be concerned? With a new council to be elected in May 2019, will this decision be revisited? Should Kingswear, in particular, be concerned that its neighbours across the river seem to have given up?”

Town mayor, Cllr Rob Lyon, said he was sure fellow town councillors took all this into consideration when voting last month, but admitted it was possible the neighbourhood plan could be revisited in May, when a new council is elected.

Cllr Lyon also responded to claims the council had been given inaccurate information that might have influenced the decision made at November’s council meeting.

This information was that Kingsbridge Town Council had abandoned its neighbourhood plan.

The mayor claimed the information was correct at the time of the meeting, adding that he believed Totnes was not going ahead with its neighbourhood plan.

However, the chairman of the Totnes Neighbourhood Plan committee Andy Simms, and deputy mayor Rosie Adams, have confirmed to the Chronicle that Totnes is continuing to work on its neighbourhood plan.

A spokesman for the Dartmouth and Kingswear Society asked the council to reconsider its decision and questioned whether Dartmouth could afford not to proceed with a plan.

Cllr Lyon said he has “some concerns” that the council is not going ahead with the plan and reiterated that it is “quite likely” to be revisited by the council next year.

Resident Tony Tudor said he felt there is “good support” within the town for progressing this.

He said he hopes work can be done on the neighbourhood plan before the town council revisits its decision so it can go ahead quickly.

He asked the mayor if the council will accept invitations to assist in this respect. After consultation with councillors, the mayor said, informally at the moment, that it would be very helpful to have assistance. However, the council will not be able to ask for assistance formally because of its decision to abandon the neighbourhood plan.

Cllr Tessa de Galleani said it would be “very helpful” if people could carry on behind the scenes, so next year the council could look again at the plan.

However, Cllr Richard Cooke highlighted the issues he had experienced while working on the plan in previous years. He said there are not enough people willing to commit time and effort to get the plan going forward.