PLANS to build 88 new homes on fields next to a leading local football club will be assessed by Teignbridge Council planners next week.

Persimmon Homes already has permission dating back to May 2020 to build on fields beside Homers Heath – home of Buckland Athletic – but will come back to the planning committee to discuss details on how the houses will look.

Housing applications for the site have proved controversial in the past.

It was during a debate on the Langford Bridge Farm project in 2021 that two councillors squared up to one another in a physical confrontation.

The project is part of the huge ‘NA3’ housing masterplan for open countryside to the south of Newton Abbot.

Around 17 or 18 of the homes in the latest stage of the project will be ‘affordable’, and members of the committee will be recommended to give the plans the go-ahead subject to a number of conditions.

Persimmon will present details of the appearance, landscaping, layout and scale of the planned homes for ‘Phase Two’ of the development.

Buildings could be up to three storeys high on some parts of the site, but planning officers say designers have tackled concerns that some of the buildings could be ‘overbearing’.

A report to the committee says the proposals add up to an ‘attractive visual appearance’.

Newton Abbot Town Council has objected to the plans on a number of grounds including concerns about drainage and a lack of public transport, meaning the new community would be isolated.