As many of you will have spotted, I have copped some flak from two local community groups over my opposition to the recent Princes Foundation request to the Secretary of State to intervene in the decision by South Hams District Council to grant flexibility to the developers of Sherford in relation to design codes. I explained in this paper two weeks ago why: (i) the design codes will still be extremely high and there will still be a design panel, (ii) if we slow down Sherford, we will get unwanted development elsewhere and (iii) our young people desperately need these houses.
I am pleased to record that the government has now dismissed out of hand the Princes Foundation potentially catastrophic application. Good. Now the developers can crack on with Sherford, create a great new place for local people to live and we can defend any unwanted development elsewhere.
I had a very cordial meeting with the Elburton and District residents association following their outburst. We had a full and frank exchange of views and parted as friends. I did not convince all of them, but I was grateful for the opportunity to grapple with the complex issues face to face. I am seeing the Plympton Community Council soon. I have learned that meetings are better than firing off letters or e-mails as a way of resolving conflict.
In the meantime more money has been extracted from government to help complete the High Street through Sherford which has always been intended as the main way of linking the A38 and A379 as the new town develops. Sherford Road will at some stage be closed to through traffic. A conversation is now beginning in Plympton St. Maurice about how best to protect the Conservation Area from any increase in traffic (and if possible to reduce its traffic flows). There is some funding in the contract between developers and Plymouth Council that will facilitate some road changes at Buller’s Hill to assist with this. Local councillors are on the case and I look forward to following that development closely.
There remain other tricky issues to resolve about the future shape of Sherford. There is some talk of more green space being left between the parcels being developed and pushing modest fingers of housing into the massive community park instead. This has some attraction to it and it will also be interesting to see how that develops. Never a dull moment.