A CONSTRUCTION Environment Management Plan (CEMP) submitted in relation to an application for more than 60 homes in Bovey Tracey has been rejected by planners.

19/00137/MAJ for 63 dwellings on land off Moretonhampstead Road was granted conditional planning permission in October 2024, in spite of a swathe of objections, including from Bovey Tracey Town Council.

Condition 6 of the planning consent stated that no development will take place without the submission and approval of a CEMP, which Tilia Homes submitted on June 17.

However, Teignbridge District Council (TDC) refused to approve it.

‘There are insufficient details throughout the CEMP document and inaccuracies detailed when compared to related documents’, the council said.

The council said that, in coming to this decision, it considered the policies of the Teignbridge Local Plan.

‘It remains the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all conditions are discharged in accordance with the decision notice’, the council added.

A CEMP includes details about the location and timing of sensitive works, the times during construction when specialist ecologists need to be present, identification of biodiversity protection zones and much more besides.

19/00137/MAJ also includes provision for access, landscaping, open space and associated infrastructure, as well as three self-build plots.

The design and access statement for 19/00137/MAJ says that the proposal will ‘deliver much needed housing with 30 per cent specifically as affordable dwellings with a mix to include one bedroom flats, two, three and four bedroom houses’.

‘The development will help to increase pedestrian connectivity in the area and the landscaping benefits proposed have been designed to serve the wider area as well as the immediate site’, the statement says.

‘New housing will assist in generating additional expenditure in Bovey Tracey which will support and reinforce the existing services and facilities in the area.

‘The development will thus generate new investment in the local economy and create new construction and supply chain jobs over the lifetime of the development’, the statement adds.

‘The proposals reflect the character of Bovey Tracey and the surrounding villages in the design of the built form, materials selection, detailing and landscape treatments.

‘The proposed development thereby integrates with the existing character and environmental quality of the surroundings and will bring economic benefits to the wider community while delivering much needed affordable housing for local people’, the statement goes on to say.