Concerns have been raised that East Devon District Council's new draft Local Plan includes too many new houses in Axminster with not enough infrastructure.

The concerns were raised by residents and town councillors at a public exhibition, where EDDC displayed its plans for 1,050 new houses in Axminster, plus 7.2 hectares of employment land.

The Local Plan will determine how many homes need to be built and where in East Devon up until the year 2040.

'Preferred' sites for development in Axminster are outlined in the plan as follows:

• Land east of Lyme Road and Pestaller Farm, Beavor Lane, for 293 dwellings and one hectare of employment land.
• Land east of Chard Road for two hectares of employment land.
• Land west of Chard Road for 250 dwellings and 0.6 hectares of employment land.
• Land west of Musbury Road, the southern part of which that lies outside of the floodplain for two hectares of employment land.
• Land east of Musbury Road for 168 dwellings and 0.6 hectares of employment land.
• Land at Axminster Carpets is allocated for mixed-use redevelopment to retain the existing employment use and accommodate 50 dwellings plus additional employment uses. This allocation will need to be supported by further flood risk assessment and a comprehensive masterplan to secure pedestrian, environmental and other improvements.
• Land at Lea Combe, Field End, for 9 dwellings.
• The Scott Rowe Building at Axminster Hospital, Chard Road, for 10 dwellings

'Second choice' sites include Great Jackleigh Farm for 270 dwellings and 1 hectare of employment land, and land east of Lyme Close for 100 dwellings and 0.4 hectares of employment land.

In the event that all preferred allocations and second choice sites being consulted on were allocated, this would lead to 1,050 new homes in Axminster and 7.2 hectares of employment land.

The new draft plan also scraps the idea of creating an Axminster relief road, saying there were "significant viability issues" in delivering this.

At the same time as EDDC is putting its new draft Local Plan to public consultation, Axminster Town Council is working on its own Neighbourhood Plan.

Responding to the Local Plan, the Neighbourhood Plan steering committee has released a statement saying that EDDC's plan "falls short of fulfilling the strategic needs of Axminster" due to the lack of infrastructure included.

The statement read: "EDDC are quoting an Axminster population of 6,800. The 2011 census shows 6,577 and since 2011 there has been significant build with the estate adjacent to Cloakham Lawns being the largest with circa 400 homes.

"This will inevitably see an increase in the 2021 census numbers by maybe 1-2,000 people. This would realistically show Axminster with a population of closer to 8,000 people.

"Devon County Council states on the communities page of its website that Axminster serves a population of 18,281 which includes the surrounding villages of All Saints, Chardstock, Dalwood, Hawkchurch, Kilmington, Membury, Musbury, Shute, Stockland and Uplyme. No other town supports such a significant number of communities.

"There is a regeneration board that sits with DCC, EDDC and Axminster personnel and this has produced a draft strategy paper for the regeneration of the town (the broader DDC/EDDC group is also looking at the other towns in East Devon).

"It is clearly stated in this document that the major issue with Axminster is congestion in the town mainly due to the lack of any form of relief road thereby forcing large vehicles to go through the town centre itself.

"There is a lack of food retail on to the north side of the town and as such the residents from Millwey, Cloakham and Raymonds Hill, plus the villages of All Saints, Chardstock, Hawkchurch and Uplyme need to go through the town centre to access these services.

"The 2019 Master Plan for Axminster showed up to 800 homes to be built to the east of the town with the inclusion of a relief road. This has been shelved by EDDC as an option as they cannot see a way forward to funds for the inclusion of the road. Therefore, they are not considering this as an option in their new emerging plan.

"It's not just the lack of relief road that is a concern, there is no consideration for any infrastructure improvement within EDDC's emerging Local Plan but they are still proposing an allocation of 1,370 homes with some 800 allocated to the north and east of the town where the Master Plan showed the relief road.

"This means that the EDDC housing allocation will only add to the congestion issue within Axminster.

"This emerging Local Plan falls short of fulfilling the strategic needs of Axminster as there is no consideration of infrastructure and services improvement such as doctors, dentists, localised shops, etc. that were considered within the 2019 Master Plan.  

"We would urge the strategic planning team to work more closely with the urban renewal team so that the two plans converge to deliver optimum surety of the future as opposed to the current parallel running and possible duplication of effort.

"This short-sightedness smacks of a tick-box exercise to ensure that government targets are met without real consideration for the communities involved.

"If we allow this to go ahead as proposed then the chance of ever getting a relief road to the east of the town diminishes towards zero as the houses will then be in the way.

"It is important that the people of Axminster make their feelings clear to East Devon in a robust and considered way through the consultation feedback on their website eastdevonlocalplan.commonplace.is

"We do need more homes; we do need more industry and retail for jobs but we also need the infrastructure that will support a growing town (schools, health services, traffic control etc.). 

"We can't just grow the town by building more houses without thinking of the total impact!"

Future public exhibitions on the new draft Local Plan will be held at follows:

• Wednesday 7 December, Honiton, Beehive, 3pm - 7pm
• Thursday 8 December, Exmouth, Ocean, 3pm - 7pm
• Tuesday 13 December, Feniton, Youth Centre, 3pm - 7pm
• Thursday 15 December, Seaton, Gateway, 3pm - 7pm