Decision time soon for Dairy Crest site?

More than 130 locals have told South Hams planners that the new scheme for the vital Dairy Crest site is unfit for the town and should be thrown out.

Essex-based Fastglobe, which owns the Totnes site, may be hoping it will be third time lucky for its plans.  The first two proposals were rejected by the council but the second was allowed on appeal by a Government inspector.

This latest one though seems even more unpopular than either of those.

One man, an architect, wrote “As a local it feels like someone is spitting in my face to see what I hold so dear exploited to deliver yet another soulless block of flats.”  Many objectors who contacted the council as part of the planning process point out that Fastglobe has never engaged with anyone in the town about these plans, contrary to planning guidelines. Major developments are supposed to go through thorough community consultation.  The Atmos scheme promoters spent years designing a plan most locals wanted, but it was thwarted at the last moment when landowners Saputo sold to Fastglobe.

One objector said: “The reason this scheme is so dreadful is precisely the result of having done no community consultation at all. Allowing this scheme would make a mockery of council policy and prompt a race to the bottom for future developments in Totnes.” Another said: “They actually have no idea how we think.”

all the charm of an abandoned mall

This new plan includes 125 flats, a large increase from the 80 dwellings provided for before and double the 62 homes envisaged by Atmos. Many people feel it’s a massive overdevelopment and out of character for Totnes.

One contributor said: “This is the poorest quality planning application I’ve ever seen. It has“, he continues, “all the charm of an abandoned mall.” The pumping house block as an arts hub is a “foolish fantasy”.

Residents of Weirfields are particularly alarmed by the plans, with the three five storey blocks of flats on stilts and a 45 bed hotel opposite the station. One resident wrote: “My bungalow would have a three storey hotel positioned extremely closely to my property, reportedly within approximately one metre of my garden boundary.” They point out that the flats will overshadow their homes and the traffic – already congested and even gridlocked at times – will just get worse.

Tom King, on behalf of the Totnes and District Society, wrote that “Fastglobe claims that there will be no increase in traffic from this site compared to the time the dairy was active.  But that was 18 years ago and traffic has increased significantly.”

Parking space allocation – just 57 for the 125 flats – is unrealistic and the 20 current spaces used by residents would go in the new scheme. The flats are mostly one-bed and there is no figure placed on how many, if any, will be affordable. Fastglobe says it needs Vacant Building Credits to be applied if it is to provide affordable homes, but as Mr King points out, the Government inspector dismissed the idea that the buildings were just “vacant”, but in reality had been “abandoned”. “Our fear is that if VBC is not available, then Fastglobe will use another financial viability argument to avoid providing the required level of affordable housing and this is unacceptable.”

Rob Hopkins –  the Transition Town founder who guided the Atmos scheme from the start – points out: “In other words, if they are granted VBC this will directly offset the requirement for them to provide affordable housing, which the National Planning Policy Framework states is designed to “support the reuse of brownfield land, where vacant buildings are being reused or redeveloped, any affordable housing contribution due should be reduced by a proportionate amount.”

As he told the planning inquiry (as reported in the Pulse) Rob Hopkins adds:  “This application does not stack up and will never be built.”

Six supporters of the plan came forward, citing the need to get rid of the ‘eyesore” the site has become. But the message to South Hams planners seems clear from the objectors, summed up perhaps by this person who said: “I implore the council to really consider what is being proposed and what might be downstream for us all, and the future generations of the town, in agreeing to something so utterly inconsiderate of what is a rare opportunity to do something better, something far more imaginative, respectful and inspiring on a phenomenal site.”

The application is now under consideration.