OPPOSITION to a controversial housing development on the western edge of Ivybridge is gathering steam, with the proposals slammed as ‘madness’ and ‘bringing nothing to the town’.

National house builder Persimmon last week lodged the application for 77 homes on two fields – 2.63 hectares in total – immediately north of Woodland Road, between Cornwood Road and Stibb Lane.

The development will comprise 2, 3, and 4 bedroom houses, with approximately 25 per cent ‘affordable’ housing.

The application follows a public exhibition in June last year, at which the company displayed plans for 65 houses on the site.

Concerned residents quickly got together determined to fight the proposals, and a Facebook page – No More Housing to the West of Ivybridge – has remained active since.

MP Gary Streeter also got behind the campaign, and this week said: ‘I still do not support this application as it is outside the local plan.

‘With all of the proposed building on the eastern flank already, there is a real danger that Ivybridge is once again going to be over developed and I hope the planners will reject this application.’

In the few days since the application was put up on South Hams Council’s website, 12 objections and one comment have been received, including one saying ‘this is madness’.

Opponents point to the hundreds of houses in the pipeline for the eastern side of Ivybridge, as well as the thousands proposed for the new town of Sherford a few miles away.

They say Ivybridge is more than doing its bit to help meet the shortfall in housing.

But they also point out that the proposed site was not allocated for residential development in the 2011 Ivybridge Site Allocations Development Plan Document.

It was however considered for development as part of South Hams Council’s land availability assessment exercise last year and found to have only limited constraints to development.

There are also concerns over the extra strain the development would place on the town’s infrastructure and services including schools, roads and health services. Objectors note that local amenities are very limited and the development would be a long way from the town centre.

For more on this story, see this week’s Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette