A NEIGHBOURHOOD plan which derailed over a row over building on a greenfield site is apparently back on course after a survey of village residents backed coming together to complete it.

The survey of the 386 occupied homes in the village had 142 responses, a 39 per cent response rate which organisers Lamerton Parish Council said was higher than two previous consultations, in 2016 and 2022. This most recent survey was sent out by the village’s neighbourhood plan group in March 2023 to households in the village with a number of questions on where development should be built within the village, and how much. The first question was whether residents still wanted the council to complete a neighbourhood plan for the parish — backed by a clear majority, with more than 82 per cent saying yes. And there was a clear wish to keep the number of houses to a modest number, with, 79.7 per cent said they wanted no more than ten additional houses to be built in the parish up to 2034, and these should be for local people.

Karen Dreyer, one of several parish councillors in the neighbourhood plan group, said: ‘The response to the survey was higher than that of previous consultations in 2016 and the 2022 Lamerton Housing Need Survey, with 142 responses being received from residents in Lamerton’s 363 occupied premises, a 39 per cent response rate.

‘Eighteen responses were received from businesses operating within the parish and in a separate collaboration with Lamerton and Tavistock primary schools, Lamerton’s five to 11 year olds were able to tell us about their experiences of living here. She said there was a ‘very clear value’ placed by residents throughout the parish for the rural nature of the parish: ‘Words such as ‘rural’, ‘countryside’, ‘peaceful’, ‘wildlife’, ‘views’, ‘green spaces’, ‘quiet’ figure prominently as the most valued first choice about living in Lamerton, together with ‘community’, ‘pub’, ‘friendly’ and ‘school’. It is not therefore surprising that nearly 88 per cent of respondents valued open countryside and fields as green space top priority.

‘Sixty-five per cent were not in favour of building on green spaces at all, whilst most of those who were prepared to see development on green space did so on the basis that it was only for affordable housing for local people. 79.7% of those responding to the question considered no more than ten more houses should be built in the parish in the period to 2034.’

The neighbourhood plan group said a summary of results would be published on the parish council website in due course. Housing remains controversial in Lamerto. An earlier proposal by West Devon Borough Council to build 18 new council houses on a greenfield site, at Green Hill in Lamerton, split the village.