East Devon District Council is to discuss the development in Feniton, which has sparked opposition from residents in the area.

A PROPOSAL for a ‘controversial’ development of 50 homes in Feniton is expected to be refused by East Devon District Council.

The application to build houses on land adjacent to Louvigny Close and Station Road is due to come before the council’s development and management committee at the Knowle, today (Tuesday).

The plans include the erection of associated roads, sewers, landscaping, parking and garages together with the provision of allotments, play space and a community building.

Feniton Parish Council had voted unanimously against the development and in its submission to the district council said: “Feniton has historic concerns over both sewage capacity and more importantly drainage within Feniton, the continual additional building in Feniton has over recent years made the situation worse.

“Any additional building is totally unacceptable until both these are sorted out.”

Concerns were raised about existing flooding, drainage and infrastructure problems and the potential impact on community services such as schools, doctors and dentists, which are already oversubscribed. .

The Grade II listed farm land was also seen as valuable food resource for the village.

The district council has received 153 letters of objection.

In its recommendations the council said: “The proposed development would take place on an unallocated site in the open countryside where due to the local plan development strategy, which seeks to resist development in such areas.

“The development would lead to the loss of significant area of high quality (Grade II) agricultural land without it having been demonstrated that there is a overriding need for the development and that lower grade land could not be used or the benefits of the development would outweigh the loss of the land for agriculture.

“The development would therefore lead to the unjustified loss of land that should be retained for the current and future needs of agriculture.

“The proposed development shows a phasing programme which fails to meet the identified needs of the development within a timeframe which is appropriate to the scale and nature of the development.

“The resulting delivery of much of the affordable housing, parking and community facilities after phase one is complete, fails to meet the needs arising from the development.”