Climate Action: Bovey & Heathfield (CABH) is made up of a small group of local people who seek to help provide our community with the knowledge needed to take action on climate change. We also seek to be pro-active when it comes to helping achieve the right balance between the many needs and desires of the community and the pressing concerns about the effects of climate change, pollution and ecological disruption.
We are certainly not apologists for developers or others who, through whatever motivation, try to satisfy those needs and desires. We will call them out if and when necessary, to ensure that the interests of the community and nature are foremost and that public mandates, both societal and environmental, are respected. We live on a perpetually fragile planet, during what is, for us, a fragile moment in its history.
Regarding the forthcoming housing development off Moretonhampstead Road in Bovey, we recently posted an initial news item. There has been some comment on social media, much of which shows dismay at the changes and disruption to the land and wildlife and the loss of open green fields. “Too many houses” is a common thread. We felt it may be helpful to address these concerns with factual information which, whilst in no way taking away from the clear sadness that the development invokes, might give some understanding of what is happening and why. Some of the comments are copied below, with our responses. Reference is often made to the legal requirements for the development. All the documents can be found on the Teignbridge District Council (TDC) website under the planning application reference 19/00137/MAJ. There are a lot of documents, many of which were superseded. However at the end of this there’s a short list of those documents we consider the most relevant to concerns expressed.
“Clearly, it is good if there is to be no gas boilers in the properties but what will provide heating?”
- Electric air source heat pumps will be the energy source. However, the whole idea of “fabric first” design is to minimise the amount of space heating that is needed, thus reducing energy consumption and bills.
“The massive loss of tree cover on the site is not mitigated.”
- There is in fact a significant mitigation process within the approved Landscape and Ecological Management Plan, which is available at the TDC website (see below).
“It will be interesting to see if, on completion, there is 30% affordable / rented properties as it is certainly not contained in the approved planning permission.“
- The provision of affordable housing is not normally included in the planning permission itself, but is in a separate legally binding document known as a “Section 106 agreement”. This does in fact require 30% “affordable housing” (20 homes) which will be provided through a Housing Association. The details of the agreement, including definitions of affordable housing etc, can be read at the TDC website (see below).
“The flaw with the planning application was that there is no provision for safe connectivity to the town centre. Tilia Homes have made no attempt with the local community who will be impacted by this development.”
- We believe that CABH is in a good position to support and encourage an active travel (walking, wheeling & cycling) route between the development and the town centre/school. The Local & Neighbourhood Plans endeavour to establish such a route but it is rare that planning authorities can impose conditions relating to land over which the developers have no control. That said, there is already a reasonable route via an existing footpath and pavements/roads, though this could be much improved upon, and we will encourage provision of an attractive alternative, which we believe the developers are also keen to see established. They will have contributed a significant sum of money through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), a quarter of which, we believe, is received by the Town Council. It seems right that some of this should benefit the community through improvements to active travel.
“Not sure anyone can really ‘sell’ the environmental aspects of the development given the environment and wildlife that’s had to be destroyed to build the houses! What a joke!”
“All trees across the site are to be felled except the conifers on the northern boundary.”
“I’d like to see swift boxes on every house. Sad to see a large amount of oak trees chopped down that must have been at least 100+ yrs old. Think more should be thought about on this new site re wildlife. Hedgehogs and dormice in that area too.”
“Too many houses and too much traffic. So sad to see beautiful Devon being eroded.”
“Very sad to see all the “new” builds, all the land that has been lost. Far too many houses now, far too many people, far too much traffic. Should never have been allowed.”
“It’s terrible, feel Bovey has had more than its fair share of new houses and mostly on green fields”
- It’s incorrect to say that all the trees across the site are to be felled except the conifers. The documents and existing conditions following the recent works confirm that many trees are retained.
- But yes, it’s of course sad to see fields, trees and wildlife habitats disappear and people are right to care about that. Most of us would prefer that new homes could be built only on brownfield land or empty sites within towns.
- The stark reality is that there simply isn’t enough of that land available to meet the housing needs we now have. People need somewhere to live — especially local families and those who work in the area — and if new homes aren’t built at all, prices rise further and it becomes even harder for local people to stay in and help their own communities to thrive.
- Planning policies do try to balance these pressures. New developments, which are often, as in this case, in planning allocations for decades before being built, nowadays have to include green spaces, tree and hedgerow planting, significant wildlife measures and usually affordable housing as well. All of those requirements are present here. That doesn’t replace what was there before, but it does recognise that both housing and environmental protection matter. And in the long planning process there are many public consultation opportunities, in which anyone can participate. The weight given to those in the end results may be debatable but, as has been seen with the National Trust Bonds Meadow land, sometimes people power really does work.
- So whilst it’s understandable to feel a sense of loss, the difficult reality is that some carefully planned development on the edges of towns is often the only practical way to provide the homes communities need. Like much in life, compromises have to be made and it seems that our society has, mostly, got somewhat better at getting the balance right than, say, through most of the last century.
Documents referenced in the planning consent decision notice for application 19/00137/MAJ at Moretonhampstead Road, Bovey Tracey can be seen on the Teignbridge District Council website:
Click “Start”, search for 19/00137 scroll down to the end of the list and click on “Hybrid planning application comprising….”. Then under the Documents tab you can filter “Document Type” to just show
- Notice/Order/Agreement. Here are the Decision Notice and the Section 106 Agreement
- Determined Drawings/Documents. There’s a lot of information but the documents that may be of greatest interest in relation to concerns that have been expressed are (under the “Description” column, in alphabetical order):
Arboricultural Constraints Report
Ecological Impact Assessment
Landscape and Visual Appraisal
Southbrook Lane PRoW Environmental Enhancements
Transport Statement
Tree Protection Plan
The Landscape and Ecology Management Plan (LEMP) was revised in October 2025 and can be found by returning to the list of applications under the reference 19/00137/ and choosing “Discharge of Conditions 5 (LEMP) …”. The relevant document is LEMP revision 005.
