A hearing date for a planning inspector to examine a master plan shaping Cranbrook for the next decade has been set.

Hearing sessions will begin at 10am on Tuesday, January 21, at East Devon District Council's headquarters in Honiton.

Further sessions will take place between Wednesday, January 22 and Wednesday, February 12.

The Secretary of State has appointed planning inspector Janet Wilson to undertake an independent examination of the master plan.

She will look at the soundness and legal compliance of the plan and whether it meets the requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act.

The planning inspector can come to one of three outcomes:

- The council has complied with the duty to co-operate and the plan satisfies legal requirements and is sound.

- The council has not complied with one or more of the above requirements and is therefore unsound.

- The council has complied with the duty to co-operate but the plan does not satisfy legal requirements and/or is not sound but could be made so by changes.

If adopted, the Cranbrook plan will sit alongside the East Devon Local Plan and will shape further developments in Cranbrook.

The plan also introduces new minimum space standards to increase room sizes and the quality of spaces within the new homes planned for the town.

The plan envisages that the town will grow to 7,750 homes with a population of around 18,000.

It also aims to ensure that Cranbrook is a healthy place to live with the help of programmes that are already underway such as the NHS Healthy New Towns Programme, which has embedded the promotion of health and wellbeing in the town as well as the Sport England Local Delivery Pilot that seeks to tackle inactivity.

READ MORE: Cranbrook master plan submitted to planning inspectorate

Speaking in August, when the plan was submitted to the Secretary of State, councillor Susie Bond said: "A huge amount of work has gone into producing the plan, which has been a long time in preparation."