After a wide ranging consultation with the community, the Thurlestone Neighborhood Plan (which includes Bantham and Buckland) has reached the submission stage. The plan is important, as once passed into law, it will be used to determine planning applications and future development in the area.
However, Bantham Estate oppose the plan, and do not want it to progress in its present form. The document the Estate have produced is long and forensically detailed, but we will try to summarise their reasons for opposing the plan below.
1. The Estate believes the plan doesn't recognise their importance to the local economy, or their need for long term sustainability.
2. They do not want the plan to be used to resist 'sustainable' development
3. They think the plan should show more support for additional housing, which the Estate would like to have a role in providing
4. They do not want settlement boundaries drawn around Bantham and Buckland, as this would limit any development to within those boundaries only.
5. They do not want the plan to limit new housing for local residents only, or to limit it to 'affordable housing' only
6. They do not want housing developments to be limited to a maximum of 5 dwellings per site
7. They do not want housing development to be limited to 'infill development' ie not only within villages, but in countryside locations as well
8. They wish to redevelop some of their farm and rural buildings, potentially for residential use
9. They do not want the above to be limited to 'principal residence requirements' ie they could be second/holiday homes
10. The Estate does not want 'replacement dwellings' (new housing built on the site of a former dwelling) to be limited to a 25% increase on the previous property
11. They do not want a restriction on new camping, caravan, or chalet sites
12. They want the option to provide further coastal facilities in the future, such as car parking, toilets, changing, refreshment facilities etc
This is a very brief summary, see the full text in non-PDF version here