Since the start of 2019 the applicant has made three previous attempts to build a house on this site, one of the few remaining green spaces on the hillside.

The first application for the construction of a new two storey studio house 0201/19/FUL was submitted after pre-application tree clearance had taken place, and was subsequently withdrawn.

Two months later application 4159/19/FUL was submitted. As we wrote in our objection:

This site at Lower Rockledge is particularly sensitive and the previous application, which we objected to, was rightly rejected by SHDC. Natural open space and retention of trees and vegetation between the properties on this hillside are a rare and attractive feature of this part of Salcombe.

The application was rejected. The applicant appealed. The appeal was dismissed.

The third application 2831/22/FUL followed in October 2022. This also was refused, with the case officer concluding:

The proposed scheme in terms of its scale, form, design, massing, fenestration pattern and features is such that the development lacks harmony and fails to integrate with the local built surroundings and respect the site context. This would have a transformative effect on the verdant character of the site, spaciousness of the area, and density of development.

As the Society has emphasised in our objection to this latest application, the same conclusions should apply. Yet despite our concerns, those of the Council's Landscape Officer and the Town Council, the case officer concluded: 'the size of the dwelling is such that the site would not appear overdeveloped, and a sufficient area of open space would be retained around the building.'

Nonetheless the application was refused because the Council's Tree Officer decided the applicant had been unable to overcome his previous objections.

The applicant has since appealed, informing the Planning Inspectorate:

The appellant has absolutely no confidence having interrogated both the officer’s delegated report and the specialist inputs from the trees and landscape officers that these reports have been properly read and understood by the council.

As a result, the applicant claims, a public enquiry is necessary, where both council officers and the applicant and his experts will be subject to cross-examination by counsel in order to provide the Inspector with a 'clear verbal explanation of the methodologies and data in relation to the health of the trees'.

An Informal Hearing is scheduled to be held at Follaton House on 27 November.