Around 20 affordable homes are to be built on the outskirts of a village in East Devon as the district’s newest town continues to grow.

Up to 180 new homes will be built near Rockbeare as part of the wider Cranbrook development, writes local democracy reporter Ollie Heptinstall.

eastdevonnews.co.uk

East Devon councillors last month approved the outline plan, for land west of Gribble Lane and south of London Road, at a planning meeting.

Affordable housing will account for 15 per cent of the homes (classed as up to 80 per cent of market rates), and four per cent will be custom or self-build plots.

The development includes an adjoining piece of land to be used as natural green space, while all other matters will be considered as part of a detailed ‘reserved matters’ application at a later date.

Approval was given despite more than 100 public objections, as well as from Rockbeare and Whimple parish councils.

It was suggested the development contravenes the local plan and Rockbeare Neighbourhood Plan, that Cranbrook was originally planned with no building south of the former A30 (London Road), and it would have an adverse impact on wildlife.

Others suggested it would have a “detrimental impact on the rural character of the area,” cause greater pressure on local public services, go against efforts to reduce climate change, and lead to a loss of agricultural land.

However, subject to a number of conditions, planning officers recommended approval, deciding it would be an “attractive and legible development, which would integrate well with the natural environment within the site and beyond.”

Councillor Mike Howe (Independent, Clyst Valley) agreed, stating: “Our policies here and now dictate the Cranbrook Masterplan overrides the neighbourhood plan of Rockbeare. It’s the newer document and, as such, it has prominence.”

“When you add that to the fact we still don’t have a five-year housing land supply and, to be frank, this looks – I know it’s indicative and we’ve got reserved matters [to come]– like a lovely scheme. And this is the type of scheme we should be having.”

The planning committee, who met in July, voted to approve the plan by eight votes to three.

Measures taken during the Covid pandemic such as social distancing and wearing face masks “unequivocally” reduced the spread of infections, a report has found.

www.theguardian.com 

Experts looked at the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – not drugs or vaccines – when applied in packages that combine a number of measures that complement one another.

The Royal Society report, called Covid-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions, reviewed the evidence gathered during the pandemic for six groups of NPIs and their effectiveness in reducing transmission.

These included masks and face coverings, social distancing and lockdowns, test, trace and isolate, travel restrictions and controls across international borders, environmental controls, and communications.

When assessed individually, there was positive – if limited – evidence of transmission reduction from many of the NPIs used in the pandemic, the review found. However, evidence of a positive effect was clear when countries used combinations of NPIs.

Additionally, evidence showed NPIs were most effective when the intensity of transmission was low, supporting their use early in a pandemic and at first sign of resurgence.

During the early stages of responding to an emerging infectious disease, NPIs tend to be the only controls available before the development of drug treatments and vaccines.

However, as was seen during the pandemic, their use can have adverse personal, educational and economic consequences – making assessment of their effectiveness essential.

Prof Sir Mark Walport, the foreign secretary of the Royal Society and chair of the report’s expert working group, said: “There is sufficient evidence to conclude that early, stringent implementation of packages of complementary NPIs was unequivocally effective in limiting Sars-CoV-2 infections.

“That does not mean every NPI was effective in every setting, or at all times, but learning the lessons from the wealth of research generated in this pandemic will be key to equipping ourselves for the next one.”

The review found social distancing and lockdowns were the most effective category of NPIs. Stay-at-home orders, physical distancing and restrictions on gathering size were repeatedly found to be associated with significant reduction in Sars-CoV-2 transmission. The more stringent the measures were the greater the effect they had, the experts found.

In care homes, measures such as cohorting and visitor restrictions were associated with reduced transmission and reduced outbreaks.

Additionally, the report found that in school settings, closures and other distancing measures were associated with reduced Covid-19 cases, but the effectiveness varied depending on a range of factors, including adherence and pupils’ ages.

When looking at the use of face masks and mask mandates, studies consistently reported the measures were an effective approach to reduce infection. The evidence further indicates higher-quality respirator masks – such as N95 masks – were more effective than surgical-type masks.

Assessing test, trace and isolate measures, studies from several countries which implemented high levels of contact tracing, with isolation of infected individuals and their contacts, found reductions in Covid-19 deaths.

For the future, the report recommends establishing international protocols for conducting clinical trials and observational research on NPIs in advance of further pandemics.

Prof Christopher Dye, professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, said: “The next thing is Disease X as WHO (World Health Organization) has called it.

“We don’t know what it’s going to be, we don’t know where it’s going to appear. So we need a system which is generic enough in character to handle anything of that kind, and for me, the number one priority is to have a global system of surveillance response.”

Prof Christl Donnelly, head of department and professor of applied statistics at the University of Oxford and professor of statistical epidemiology at Imperial College London, said: “We can’t say for certain, and we wouldn’t try to, what might be implemented in future. But we can characterise the impacts of what happened with the coronavirus, and that will inform decision-making, but then of course, in a future pandemic, more data will need to be collected.”

The report draws together the findings of six expert-led evidence reviews, published in a special themed issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

The reviews looked at thousands of published studies, and identified papers that were suitably robust for inclusion in each review category.

But they’re the same size as ones approved earlier

East Devon councillors have turned down a development scheme at Clyst Honiton because the homes are “too small” and it would encourage peope to drive.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Planners were not prepared to accept proposals 10 square metres below standards recommended in national planning guidelines despite approving  houses of the same size earlier this year.

The plans for four commercial units and nine two-bed homes by Eagle One MMIII Ltd for land next to Old Tithebarn, Clyst Honiton were also rejected by East Devon District Council’s planning committee on the grounds that the 53 car parking spaces – 35 for commercial parking – were excessive when the council is promoting sustainable transport.

The land falls within the wider Tithebarn Green development which includes more than 1,500 homes, a community centre, employment provision and allotments and open space which have all received planning permission.

Whilst officers said this new proposal is acceptable in principle, they recommended it for refusal and are not keen on the development’s layout and appearance which they say needs more soft landscaping. They also want the homes to face the cycle path for what they call ‘natural surveillance’ and crime prevention.

They said cycling is a “real focal point of development in this area” as the cycle route stretches to Exeter, Exeter Airport, the science park and Skypark.

Development manager Wendy Ormsby said whilst there is no size standard for housing in the council’s local plan, the government is giving more weight to national planning policy guidelines of 79 square metres for two-bed properties, but the proposals are for 69 and 72 square meters.

Cllr Ian Barlow (Ind, Sidmouth) said it seemed a little unfair that this scheme should be refused when the houses are exactly the same size as those passed in January.

“This is in fact an improvement on what we passed this year as the houses have solar panels,” he said. “There is a good separation between the homes and the commerce side of the development.

“I think we are being unreasonable to people who are trying to build houses that we desperately need. We should be working more with these people to get it right.”

Cllr Brian Bailey (Con, Exmouth) said: “It seems grossly unfair that one month you can build these houses and the next you can’t. If this came to appeal I can’t see it standing up.”

But Cllr Simon Smith (Ind, Axminster) said the major difference between then and now was a new administration: “As a planning authority, we are mostly made up of new faces and I think we can be proud that we set the bar today of holding on to this standard as a precedent for future applications.

“We can say hey we are going to protect the welfare of people who want to buy or rent in this area and that is a good way to start this administration.”

Cllr David Wilson (Lab, Exmouth Halsdon) agreed: “I do not see why we have to make the same decisions as those that were made in the past. As a relatively new committee, if we show we are happy to have no consideration to how small a property is that could affect future proposals that come to us which could be smaller and smaller.”

Speaking for the applicant, Paul Withers said the level of car parking was critical to the scheme’s viability. He said the proposal had the same amount of parking as a commercial scheme granted planning permission earlier this year which is just 20 metres away from the site.

He said that at no time through the application process had officers raised the issue of house sizes and the plans did not conflict with planning policies.

The applicants would have been amenable to revising the hard and soft landscaping scheme, he added.