A proposal to build 22 homes on farmland at Lewdown has been submitted to West Devon Borough Council.

Property developer Viburnum (SW) Ltd has applied to the council for planning permission (3212/21/FUL) to build the houses on a greenfield site at Crossroads Farm, Lewdown.

The plan states that 14 of the dwellings will be open market housing and a further eight homes will be affordable homes or plots for self build projects.

The site is next door to where 17 homes are in the process of being built, after another developer obtained planning permission from WDBC several years ago.

The latest homes are a mixture of homes and bungalows in a variety of sizes, with a number of four-bedroom houses and three-bedroom bungalows among the open market housing.

Of the plots being put forward for the affordable or self build housing, the application states that four of these would be two-bedroom properties and four would be three-bedroom ones.

Two parking spaces are proposed for each home, with an enclosed back garden for each one. There would also be communal gardens and a play area included within the development.

All the houses would have energy supplied by photovoltaic cells on the roof. Comments are invited on the application via the planning section of the WDBC website by December 30.

Also in Lewdown, an application has been submitted to replace a cottage which already has permission to be enlarged - after the owner found the structure was too dilapidated to restore. Gareth Palmer’s application, 3843/21/FUL, is for Holster Yard, currently a three-bedroom stone cottage with an adjoining barn and lean-tos.

Piper Architecture, representing the applicant, reported that when the building was opened up, the structural timbers were found to be riddled with wet rot and woodworm.

As a result three walls were demolished at that point. The applicant is now seeking planning permission to demolish the remaining sections and replace it with a new build home on the same footprint, with slightly higher ceilings on the first floor to allow occupants more head room.

’The proposals will create an energy efficient new build dwelling replacing a dilapidated energy inefficient dwelling,’ said the report on behalf of the applicants.

Meanwhile, in the hamlet of Patchacott near Halwill Junction, a couple are appealing against WDBC’s refusal to grant planning permission to convert an equestrian barn into a five-bedroom home (original application 4154/20/FUL).

Applicants Josh Ware and Jess Wonnacott want to convert the barn, which was itself granted planning permission in 2015 as part of an equestrian business, into a home to be close to and provide care for Miss Wonnacott’s father who lives in the main house. WDBC turned the application down saying it failed to meet ’an identifiable local housing need’.