Local communities will continue to be closely involved over the next two years in developing the Newton Abbot and Kingsteignton Garden Community programme – thanks to a successful national funding bid by Teignbridge Council.
The award of £414,000 to the project will also help turn into reality the Garden Community vision of ’creating a healthier, happier and greener future’.
Over the past couple of years, the Council has been working with award winning architects DHUD and Hilton Barnfield to involve residents in developing a vision for the area.
With more than 4,000 low carbon homes scheduled to be built in the coming years, the Garden Community programme is focused on working with local people to ensure new housing developments create communities which are great places to live, provide easy access to diverse natural habitats, have a thriving economy and are carbon neutral. Its status as a Garden Community will help deliver a more diverse and affordable range of housing as well as an improved local road network, better public transport routes, jobs and community facilities.
Since the Garden Communities programme was launched in 2019 it has focused on identifying brownfield development sites which can be used for local housing, has worked with Devon County Council to build new cycling and walking routes, supported the Teign Estuary Trail extension and improvements to the A382 Bovey Tracey Road corridor, worked with the Environment Agency to reduce flood risks in priority town centre sites and through the Connecting to Nature project has identified accessible, quality coastal and countryside spaces for people to enjoy.
The new funding will enable this work to be expanded, capturing more local views and ensuring the Garden Community vision underpins housing development as well as funding important initiatives such as the Bradley Lane Bus Link scheme, which will provide a quicker and more reliable bus route to and from Houghton Barton; investigating the feasibility of specific flood resilience schemes; and looking at how brownfield sites like the former cattle market in Newton Abbot can be enhanced and redeveloped.
Executive Member for Planning, Cllr Gary Taylor welcomed the new funding and said: “Attracting more than £400,000 funding will make a huge difference to the way future housing developments will be delivered. It will enable us to build on the discussions we have had with local people to establish priority projects for the area, defining what building and environmental standards have to be met and ensuring that our Garden Community is a great place to live, work and visit.”
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