Please note: This new parish council website
provides much greater flexibility than the former website. This has
allowed us to make minor changes to the layout of updates, to ease
reading. The content has remained the same, other than minor
adjustments to aid clarity and the feedback paragraph being adjusted
following Councillor Radclyffe's resignation in August 2020, resulting
in respondents being asked to send feedback to the Chairman and/or Clerk
(their email addresses are provided below). The original update, as
released in August 2020, is available at the end.
Parishioner feedback
We have received ten responses from parishioners. We are hugely grateful for all who have taken
the time and effort to share their thoughts and, in some cases, to offer their professional
expertise. We are using these responses
to develop a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to explain the reasons for
our research, our findings, and parishioners’ concerns.
The reasons
for our research
We are conducting
this research as a result of the findings of the 2019 Housing Needs
Survey. We are a team of volunteers,
working in challenging times, which is making this research take longer than
expected. We ask that all
providing responses do so in a polite manner.
The parish council has no fixed agenda on this subject and wants to move
forward in the best interests of our community, now and in the future. We are gathering facts about the
viability of an affordable housing project.
Nothing has been decided, and there will be a
full public consultation before any decisions are made.
The conclusions of the 2017 Land Availability
Assessment (LAA)
We have been asked by one parishioner to make it clear
that the sites under consideration are the three identified in the 2017 LAA,
and that Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) have stated that, “The purpose of the
LAA is to identify a strategic pipeline of deliverable sites, and as such it is
designed to quickly exclude options which on the basis of certain constraints,
such as flood risk. The LAA would be unlikely to reach a different conclusion,
unless there is evidence which alters the extent of the flood plain.”
The DNPA 2017 LAA Site Appraisals for the three
Dunsford sites can be viewed or downloaded here: DNPA 2017 Land Availability Assessment - Dunsford section
Flood risk
The three sites under consideration all have sections in
Flood Zone 3, the most serious flood risk designation. There is funding available for affordable
housing projects to conduct one Flood Risk Assessment (FRA); however, to
conduct such an investigation on all three sites would require external
funding, which may be possible through grants but we haven’t yet confirmed this
possibility.
A Flood Risk Assessment would produce a detailed flood
risk map, of greater local accuracy than the Environment Agency’s current
modelling for Dunsford, which could provide evidence that alters the extent of
the flood plain and hence alter the conclusions in the LAA. It is also quite possible that a Flood Risk
Assessment would make no difference to the LAA’s conclusions.
Informing all of our community about this research
The full parish council decided at our August 2020
meeting that it is essential that all of the village is aware of this research. We are in the process of designing a document
to deliver to all households. We look forward to hearing more parishioners’
thoughts in due course.
Other actions
We have reviewed all of the Dartmoor National Park
Authority (DNPA) Development Management Committee’s minutes from January 2019 until
July 2020. All discussions of affordable
housing and flood risk were highlighted and considered in detail, with the main
points summarised. These will be used to
further develop the FAQ document.
We have spoken to Hastoe Housing, who developed the Great
Mead affordable housing site in 1996; they are willing to consider any sites
that are proposed in the village.
Collating responses
The May 2020 update stated that we would put the
responses into a spreadsheet; however, having tried to do so, it produced an
unwieldy document that overcomplicated matters.
As most responses have been submitted via email, we will collate them
into a Word file. Before any details are
shared outside of the council, we will ensure that all personal information has
been removed.
Providing responses
Due to unexpected family commitments, Councillor
Radclyffe has resigned as a councillor.
We would be grateful if all correspondence regarding the research is
sent to our Chairman, Paul French, and the Clerk, Lynne Ogden. Their emails addresses are: pfrenchdunsfordpc@gmail.com and dunsfordclerk@gmail.com. All responses already sent in have already
been shared with Paul and Lynne.
August 2020 update:
Affordable Housing Research August 2020 Update (original version)