Plans to build nearly 200 houses in Ottery were revealed by a developer who wants the land to be taken into account in the document for Ottery’s future.

A spokesman from David Wilson Homes South West revealed the proposal for land adjacent to Greatwell Farm when she spoke at East Devon District Council’s Local Development Framework (LDF) panel last week.

She said her company was looking into a housing scheme which could create up to 180 new homes on the land south of Chineway Road to the east of Ottery’s town centre.

The land is 4.7 hectares in size and the houses would be at a density of 30 homes per hectare, with the scheme providing around 70 affordable homes.

If built it would provide up to60 per cent of the houses required to be built in Ottery until 2026 according to the current LDF draft document, which outlines housing and industry growth figures.

David Wilson Homes say it is the most appropriate site and should be included in the new list of available land for development in Ottery St Mary going forward, despite Ottery council saying they would prefer new development to take place to the west of the town.

But they added Ottery Town Council professed a propensity for large, one-off developments in its statement to EDDC, which the David Wilson Homes plan would be and said early funding could pay for the sewage upgrades which need to take place in the town for housing growth.

Kelvin Tutill, managing director of David Wilson Homes said: “Potential development land at Ottery St Mary is in our medium term strategy but our plans are at a very early stage and we are still looking at the options.”

He added David Wilson Homes will be consulting the local community before making any decisions on the land by Greatwell Farm.