Controversial proposals to introduce pay and display parking in eight Devon towns have been withdrawn. There had been huge opposition to the plans which would have seen charges being imposed after an initial free parking period in Braunton, Crediton, Dartmouth, Honiton, Okehampton, Salcombe, Sidmouth and Tavistock.
Devon County Council’s Cabinet this week accepted a report on the proposals which recommended withdrawing them. Councillors heard that a total of 5,323 representations were received with over half from Tavistock alone. In each case, the vast majority were opposed to pay and display.
Our sister print title the Herald Express, in a leader column from the editor, welcomes the decision. They write that it was a victory for people power who outlined why they thought the scheme would be a disaster.
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But the column says that it is a shame that not every authority seems to be showing the same common sense. In the same week, Dartmoor planners rejected plans for the conversion of a dilapidated barn on a farm into a house so the owners' adult child can have somewhere to live in an area where the average cost of a home is £750,000 and where no such dwellings have been built in the last 50 years.
The editor writers that authority members apparently prefer to stick to a policy that will eventually see a heritage building decay to a point where it simply falls down, and asks, what good does that do anyone?
Read the full column below
There are two stories in this week’s Herald Express at opposite ends of the spectrum in the application of good old-fashioned common sense.
On the plus side there’s a victory for people power as Devon County Council was forced to abandon plans to install parking meters in eight towns following spirited public opposition.
The negative, and borderline utterly absurd, was a decision to not allow the conversion of a dilapidated barn on a farm into a house so the owner’s adult child can have somewhere to live in an area where the average cost of a home is £750,000 and where no such dwellings have been built in the last 50 years.
Planning officers said the redevelopment was “high impact” and planning policies prioritised conservation of the national park’s natural beauty and cultural heritage over economic and social wellbeing.
To their discredit, Dartmoor National Park Authority’s development management committee backed its officers in refusing the application, apparently preferring instead to adopt a policy that will eventually see a heritage building decay to a point where it simply falls down.
What good does that do anyone?
Planning policies should not be so set in stone, so immovable, that by all appearances a sensible, practical desire to bring a run-down building back to life is rejected simply because of an intolerant and intransigent policy to protect the natural landscape at all costs. Allowing an occasional appropriate project will not suddenly open the floodgates to mass housing developments springing up all across the moor.