Milton Damerel Parish Council

LDF Team Torridge District Council Riverbank House Chanters Road BIDEFORD Devon EX39 2QG

18th January 2008

Dear LDF Team

North Devon & Torridge District Councils’ Core Strategy Development Plan Document Issues & Options Report November 2007

Members of the Parish Council welcomed the opportunity of an extended consultation period and have used the opportunity to provide a response on the above report. Please refer to attached, which was discussed and agreed at the Council meeting on 16th January 2008.

In accordance with the comments and letters in the local press the document was found to be very difficult to understand and from it to deduce the characteristics of the options and issues. I attended one of the community events and had opportunity for discussion, but in retrospect not having read the report in advance, (as I assume would be the position for most of the public attending), there was not sufficient detail on the limited displays to have an informed discussion; apart from the executive summary, the display was limited to maps and development summaries for the main settlements and very little detail on the issues and options or implied impact for other locations. However, we submit the Parish Council’s responses based on our understanding of the issues and options, with particular emphasis on real concerns there are on the future direction for parishes such as ours - “standing still” and no development of housing for local needs or opportunities for local business and employment is not palatable or “sustainable”.

A Parish Plan project is ongoing and our target is to complete by end of May - we are currently analysing the data collected through the household questionnaires, for which we have achieved an over 70% response rate. We have referred in the response to a few initial conclusions from the data collected.

Yours faithfully

Grace Millman Vice-Chair of Council

Parish Clerk : Mrs Roberta Jackson Westfields, Venn Green, Milton Damerel, Holsworthy, EX22 7NP.

Telephone: 01409 261196 E-mail: [email protected]