Torridge District Council looking to replan for new future7 Aug 2023 11:32
Https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/major-devon-housing-plan-thousands-8654921
Torridge District Council Leader, Councillor Ken James said things were looking up for Torridge with the new marine innovation centre at Middle Dock, Appledore which had secured £16 million of government funding and Torridge selected as one of 20 locations in the country to get a share £400 million from the new Levelling Up Partnership Programme.
The Northern Devon Futures partnership, which includes the council and Petroc College, is also working to improve the lives of those who live and work in Northern Devon and develop well paid jobs in the marine and renewable energy sector. Cllr James said Petroc College hopes to become a university in the next 10 years.
He added: “We want to keep our young people here to get a first class education and work. At the moment, they have to go away to study and work and come back when they can afford to live here.
“With the local plan we can be on the front foot. We know this is a deprived area and wages are low but we want to lift it out of that. We could go it alone but my aim is to ensure we don’t and we have a joint local plan with North Devon District Council.
“With the Futures project and the Levelling Up funding, there will be some overlapping with North Devon and it will drive the whole area forward. If we are going to succeed we need to work together.”
The “green economy” is expected feature heavily in a new plan, with the evolution of agriculture, green hydrogen, marine technologies, aquaculture, onshore wind, and solar/battery storage.
Cllr Chris Leather (Ind, Northam) said: “I have been on the plans committee for the last four years and we have really struggled in certain aspects with some of the policies. There is no point spending thousands of pounds doing a partial review of the joint local plan when we cannot change the policies. We have award winning planning officers here in Torridge – let’s get on a make a new one.”
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