The natural and built environment of the South Hams is now under greater threat than ever before.

A combination of rapidly rising property prices and the ever-increasing complexity of the planning system are conspiring to place the South Hams under ever greater pressure from developers and developments of all types.

As a result, its character and beauty, loved by so many and so crucial to our economic well-being, is under a very real threat.

More than a third of all jobs in the region are dependent on tourism and hospitality, with visitors attracted by our beaches, the architecture and ambience of our market towns, and the beauty and tranquility of our countryside. Few, if any, come to view the ever-growing number of identikit and characterless housing estates being built purely for profit that now smother previously green fields, destroying biodiversity, and doing nothing to meet the needs of the local community.

There is a real need for genuinely affordable housing for local people that almost all of this development clearly fails to meet. Instead, yet more and more highly-priced houses continue to be built, many bought as second homes, creating communities largely uninhabited in winter yet overcrowded and congested in summer.

We have an eighteenth century road system unable to cope with the volume of traffic being generated, strangling and polluting our communities, and damaging the health of our children.

The South Hams Society plays an important role in making the priorities of the local community known. And today, more than ever before, we need an active and involved Society.

You can find out more about our history and who we are, and the work we are doing by clicking on the relevant links.

We need your support!

Our Aims
• To stimulate interest in and care for the beauty, history and character of the South Hams.

• To encourage high standards of planning and architecture that respect the character of the South Hams.

• To secure the protection and improvement of the landscape, features of historic interest and public amenity.

• To promote the conservation of the South Hams as a living, working environment.