Campaigners will this weekend stage a protest against national planning rules – which they say are responsible for the inappropriate development of more than 2,600 homes in East Devon’s countryside.
The rally at Knowle on Sunday (April 12) will see parliamentary candidates from across the region gather to speak on the effect of the rules, and their effect on communities. The event, which begins at 3pm on the terraces in front of the district council offices, will be one of a series of similar protests taking place across the country, organised by activists from the Community Voice on Planning.
The group says that 5,400 homes have secured permission to be built on contentious sites across East Devon since new rules designed to encourage sustainable development were adopted by the Coalition in 2012.
They say, of this total, 2,635 are on ‘inappropriate greenfield sites’, just under 2,500 are on high-quality agricultural land and 215 on land designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty.
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