The majority of parishioners felt that the Village Study, a development plan made public last week, was proposing too much land for development compared with the draft Island Plan.
St Martin Constable Silva Yates said that the study proposed building between 50 and 60 first-time buyer homes and between 25 and 30 social rented homes for the elderly over a 25-year period in different fields close to the pub and church.
Mr Yates said that the lack of affordable first-time buyer homes in the parish was ‘acute’. He is now asking parishioners to comment on the study, which began in 1993 and which could influence the next Island Plan.
But one parishioner, Peter Searle, pointed out that the draft Island Plan, which will determine Planning policy for development over the next ten years, was only proposing about 16 homes in the parish. He said: ‘There is a big difference between 16 houses in ten years and 90 houses over 25 years.’
