THERE are calls for West Devon's controversial core strategy to be abolished in light of the new Government's decision to scrap housing targets across the country.

From now on, local authorities will have the freedom to make planning decisions themselves without figures being imposed on them from Central Government.

In West Devon's core strategy, 750 homes are planned for Tavistock and 900 for Okehampton in edge of town extensions — but the leader of West Devon Borough Council James McInness confirmed this week the council would be happy to look at housing need again in light of the change in government policy.

Opponents to the core strategy are demanding the authority follows the example of South Oxfordshire District Council and scrap the core strategy immediately.

Cllr Ted Sherrell said: 'It is now totally untenable.

'It was always an imposition contrary to the wishes of the great majority of the citizens of West Devon and now it does not even have the technical legitimacy of being Government policy.'

The core strategy was approved by the future planning and housing committee in April by six votes to four but there has been strong opposition both in Tavistock and Okehampton to the level and location of housing and delivery of infrastructure.

Senior Conservative councillor Christine Marsh, who is also now chairman of Devon County Council, resigned as a member of the committee after she claimed she was substituted at the crucial meeting by her political group, because she was going to vote against the controversial plans.

Cllr Mandy Govier, representing Tavistock South, said she was not convinced by a great deal in the core strategy. Cllr Govier, who also sits on the future planning and housing committee, had previously abstained from voting on the core strategy while she was mayor of Tavistock, but has now decided to speak out.

She said: 'We really need to look at the core strategy again.

'We need to look at the smallprint because there are no guarantees — no guarantees we will get a new school, which is desperately needed, or a new hospital, the employment we need or 40% affordable housing.

'We need houses but we also need employment and Tavistock is not attractive to businesses because of the road structure.

'It does not matter how much employment land you create, if it's not the right location people will not come here. I believe it is the tourism sector we should be concentrating on.'

Chairman of the borough council's planning committee Philip Sanders said the core strategy as it stood was going to create a satellite town in the Tavy Valley and he did not believe that was the right solution.

'I would welcome the opportunity to look at this part of the core strategy again, but I am conscious that our local development plan runs out in 2011, and what the impact of not having a core strategy in place would be.'

A spokesman for the Department for Communities said it was up to councils whether they wanted to continue with their core strategies or not — the Government was not making them.

The Government's communities secretary Eric Pickles has written to all district and borough authorities giving councils and communities the freedom to make planning decisions in the knowledge regional strategies will soon be history.

He said: 'The previous Government gave a green light for the destruction of the Green Belt across the country and we are determined to stop it.

'We've promised to use legislation to scrap top-down building targets that are eating up the Green Belt, but I am not going to make communities wait any longer to start making decisions for themselves.'

In a statement to the Times, West Devon Borough Council said despite the abolition of the regional spatial strategy (RSS) and the withdrawal of regional housing targets, the housing need for West Devon remained high.

The council had a duty to meet these housing needs and had plans in place to ensure that an appropriate level of new homes could still be delivered, in the right locations.

Chairman of the council's future housing and planning committee Conservative Cllr Diana Moyse said the borough council was confident the future plans it had developed met the needs of the local community and it would continue to promote the proposals set out in the core strategy for West Devon.

Cllr Moyse said: 'The plans ensure that employment opportunities and other infrastructure, such as new schools and healthcare facilities, are provided alongside new housing to deliver improvements in the quality of life for local people.

'The risk of not having the core strategy is that an increased amount of housing development could take place on other sites throughout the borough, without providing the infrastructure and facilities that local communities need.'