AN ambitious plan for how West Devon, Plymouth and the South Hams could develop over the next 20 years was agreed by West Devon Borough Council this week.

The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan (JLP) will now be submitted to an independent planning inspector, who will make the final decision following a public consultation on the document starting this month.

The plan, which covers important issues such as health, transport, homes, jobs, the economy, green spaces and infrastructure from 2014 to 2034, was considered by members of the borough council at a meeting on Tuesday.

The JLP is a culmination of months of planning and discussions between local communities, neigh-bouring councils, landowners, businesses and developers interested in shaping the future of the area.

The plan makes provision for 26,000 new homes across the three council areas, of which 6,600 will be affordable homes to rent and buy, with 86% planned for brownfield sites in Plymouth.

The plan also proposes 312,653 square metres of new employment floor space to create around 13,200 jobs, with 71% of the planned growth to be focused on the Plymouth policy area, to take the pressure off the other areas.

Dartmoor is not included in the plan.

In West Devon, 17 sites have been allocated for housing, most of which already have planning permission for development or have already been built. As the plan is from 2014, any development since then falls within the allocation.

In Okehampton in particular, there is an allocation for 775 homes. The Linden Homes and Persimmon Homes developments to the east of the town are already in the process of being built and the landowner now has planning permission to extend the development site to the north east for the further 775 homes.

Cllr Graham Parker, lead member for strategic planning, told the Times: ‘There is already a big development to the east of the town and now the landowner has got planning permission to extend that by another 775 to the north east.

‘What we’re saying in the plan is that is basically it for Okehampton, in terms of housing as far as this plan is concerned. Local residents are preparing a neighbourhood plan and if they come forward with additional sites we’d be delighted but that’s their decision.’

The site for 775 homes got permission for development late last year and although the paper work was still being ‘tidied up’, Cllr Parker believed there was no reason why work wouldn’t start on that site within the next two years.

Cllr Parker said there were two main issues for Okehampton included in the plan — local borough council members and town councillors wanted the plan to indicate support for a town centre access road to relieve some of the traffic congestion in the town centre, which it did, and he said there had been debate for months about the future of the Stockley employment site. The team had decided the plan would identify that site as an employment-led development site.

The JLP had gone through various engagements and consultations over the past 12 months and from that, key changes had been made as a result of comments received. A proposal to redevelop the Mill Road car park for housing, which was raised last year, will not be allocated for housing in the new plan.

Richard Grant, local planning manager for Plymouth City Council, said: ‘We’ve gone through engagement in the past 12 months and various ideas have been out there for consultation. People have commented on them and told us what they think and some things have been changed as a result of the comments we received.

‘There was a proposal that went out in the summer for the Mill Road car park to be redeveloped for housing but that’s been dropped and is not in the plan.

‘Neighbourhood plans will come forward however, and communities will have the ability to look at their own patches with a very detailed set of thoughts and they can come forward and use that information and do what they like with it. So they may well come and have another look at that site, but in terms of our local plan, we’ve dropped that from our list of sites.’

The Okehampton rail link with Exeter has also been supported in the plan.

Cllr Parker said: ‘The plan says three things about the railway — one, it promotes the Tavistock to Plymouth line; two, it promotes the Okehampton to Exeter line, which already exists but we’re already part of a steering group with the county council, operators and landowners to push for that to be opened on a regular, daily basis, not just as a tourist line; and three, it commits all four authorities — Plymouth City Council, South Hams, West Devon and Devon County Council — to press for the northern relief line linking Exeter round to Plymouth.’

The plan will now go out for formal consultation from March 15 to April 26, and West Devon Borough Council will host a number of engagement events for the public to learn more and ask questions, details of which will be published in the near future.

Cllr Parker added: ‘This is an historic moment for two reasons — the Joint Local Plan is the most significant co-operation yet between the three authorities and secondly, this plan for the very first time sets out an overall strategy for sustainable development of the Plymouth and South West sub regions. We are not the first Joint Local Plan in the country but I’ve been in this game for 50 years and I am convinced it’s the best I’ve seen’.

For more information on the plan go to www.westdevon.gov.uk/jointlocalplan