Housing developments must be more sustainably situated. Apart from destroying precious arable fields, essential farming, beautiful countryside, and our quality of life, many have no real provision for the inevitable increase in traffic on our narrow roads. Council officers tell us we must all cycle, walk or use public transport, but this is completely impractical for an ageing population and when buses are so unreliable and expensive. It would be even more impractical for residents living on top of a hill, like the ridiculous DCC development proposal on Markhams Farm, miles from anywhere, with single track roads, and no public transport or community facilities.

Devon County Council Highways officers approve most planning applications, stating that there is no problem with traffic, yet roads around Exeter are regularly grid-locked, causing serious air pollution, huge delays and understandable frustration for everyone. This is a really serious problem now, so what will it be like when many thousands more houses are built in the next decade? As the large majority of them are expensive, the owners usually have two cars, which they need if their work is far from home and they have children to drop at school enroute. 

What we need are truly affordable homes close to people's work place, not miles away, and also more control over greedy developers who do not care about local residents. Planning officers must look outside the box and into the future to create thoughtful long-term projects that will protect residents' quality of life and mental health, our villages, countryside, food supply, wildlife, ecology, and environment.