Georgeham Parish is in the North Devon Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its villages have more than exceeded the minimum provision for new houses specified in the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan 2011 – 2031. It is only summer 2021; the number granted permission in Croyde is over 70, nearly double the minimum number specified in the Local Plan. More applications for houses in the Parish are going through the planning system.

Based on the additional housing that has been built since 2016, there is overwhelming evidence that new houses built here (unless genuinely affordable) go largely to commercial holiday lets. Local people cannot compete with the prices paid for houses by commercial business and second homeowners, who also often holiday let their properties.

Building houses for commercial holiday lets is breaking down the sustainability of the community as local people can no longer afford to live in the Parish and are driven out.

The result is that the finite green field areas of the AONB are being destroyed to build houses for commercial holiday use rather than for homes for permanent residence.

Developers are trying to get around statutory protections and planning provisions for AONB’s that only permit the building of houses on green field areas in extremely limited circumstances. Developers are using the current inadequate 5 year housing supply for the whole of North Devon to build houses located on green sites in the AONB, profiting business at the expense of escalating harm to the natural landscape and local communities.

The worrying effect of this government policy is its untold permanent harm to AONB’s and the natural environment and the long term sustainability of their local communities.

The latest planning application of this type is 73649 for 5 market value houses.

There are other ongoing applications for housing developments in the Parish that will result in loss of green fields. See application 72677 for a housing development off North Buckland Road, Georgeham.

Please sign this petition to object to the planning applications that propose building houses which are not part of the strategic plan for this area. These undeveloped green fields are part of the AONB, which has Statutory Protection, which should not be ignored. The petition will be forwarded to the local MP and District Councilors.