CONCERNED community representatives fear an East Devon “housing explosion” if blueprints for the region’s future go ahead.

Local Development Framework (LDF) proposals include 19,400 homes with a policy of two-and-a-half acres of employment land for every 250 dwellings.

Claire Wright, an Ottery St Mary town councillor, has warned East Devon District Council (EDDC) planning chiefs: “You will have big fight on your hands over this.”

She fears the authority’s current vision for the region will “lead to industrial estates springing up even in most vulnerable countryside.” “This is development on a massive scale and proposes to destroy what people living in East Devon hold dear,” she said.

District Councillor Roger Giles said the proposed level of development will “horrify” many in East Devon.

“It has placed a very great threat against a great deal of our beautiful countryside,” added Mr Giles.

He fears he and colleagues are in a “catch 22” situation that it will not be possible to introduce “significant new themes” into the council’s current blueprints, adding: “We do not like the huge and damaging housing figures – but we have been told by the officer we cannot introduce much lower housing figures later in the process.”