‘I would cry’ – fears new homes in Tavistock could threaten World Heritage Site status

Plans for major housebuilding in Tavistock have raised fears that the town could suffer the same fate as Liverpool and lose its World Heritage Site status from overdevelopment.

Campaign groups have been set up to fight proposals coming forward which could swell the number of properties in the market town by more  than 1,000 if they were all approved.

Opponents say there has been a wealth of interest from speculative developers since it became clear that West Devon Borough Council does not have a five year land supply to meet new government targets on housebuilding.

They and local councillors fear that hundreds more cars using the same road network will bring the town to a standstill and impact the heritage designation.

Liverpool was stripped of its World Heritage Site (WHS) status in 2021 after a Unesco committee found developments, including a new Everton football stadium, threatened the value of the city’s waterfront.

Closer to home, at Hayle in Cornwall, proposals for a major harbour redevelopment scheme including hundreds of new homes had to be revised over concerns that it would impact the WHS.

There are currently six large developments in the frame in Tavistock – 350 homes at the Tors on Callington Road already have planning permission but others at Callington Road (120), Butchers Park Hill (330), New Launceston Road (200), Plymouth Road (250) and Violet Lane (142) are under consultation or going through the planning process.

Tavistock town councillor Graham Parker said the majority of sites were not allocated in the joint local plan which dictates how areas should develop and were classified as being in the countryside.

The government changing planning policy at the end of last year has meant many councils are now having to reconsider sites that they previously refused.

The councillor said that apart from Violet Lane, traffic from all these new developments would have to travel on the same roads to come in and out of town.

“We have four or five junctions and roundabouts that are absolutely hammered as they are already at capacity,” he said. “We can’t increase the size of the roundabouts or roads or do anything within the WHS that would ease the traffic flow.

“You only have to see what happened when National Grid put in new pipes before Christmas, the town came to a halt, that could become permanent if we have traffic from an extra 1,000 homes feeding into these junctions. There is every chance this could put our WHS at risk.”

Michelle Davis, one of a group who have formed TRACED (Tavistock Residents Against more Callington Road Estate Development) said one of the reasons she moved to the town was because of the World Heritage Site status.

“I think I would cry if Tavistock lost that,” she said. “The visitors’ centre and the Guildhall is so much part of that and we would lose so much money if it was delisted. Visitors will stop coming and shops will start closing.”

TRACED member Margaret Kent said there was “a lot at stake”.

Campaigners are also concerned about local services not being able to cope.

They have recently mounted petitions in the town’s central hub, Bedford Square, during busy Saturday mornings, attended by Tavistock and Torridge Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox.

Sir Geoffrey said: “All around Torridge and Tavistock developers are relying on Labour’s new centrally imposed housing targets, which require us to take hundreds more houses a year on top of existing plans, to demand that they be allowed to build on green-field sites.

“Yet, these sites are outside the local plans, which have had democratic consultation and assent and there is no coherent or adequate provision for how these new households will be managed within our small market towns and rural communities.

“I am determined to support local residents who are fighting back. TRACED is one such group, which is part of a growing Tavistock-wide campaign.”

Tavistock Town Council will discuss the Callington Road plan by Barratt David Wilson homes at its meeting next Tuesday (February 17) but the authority is just a consultee, West Devon Borough Council will make the decision on this scheme and all other planning applications in the future.

So far more than 70 objections have been made on the borough council’s planning portal including Gulworthy Parish Council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The deadline to comment on the plan is February 26.