Council asked to reconsider housing at battle site

A Devon council is being asked to reconsider a planning application for a development near a Viking battle site after previously rejecting the proposals.

Torridge District Council (TDC) turned down the plans for 39 properties by Bloody Corner in Northam three years ago, due to concerns over their location.

Bloody Corner is thought to be the site of a battle between Danes and Saxons in AD 878, in which the Viking king Hubba was killed.

The council has been asked by the developer's agent to reconsider the application due to a lack of sites to meet the government's housing targets for the next five years.

Both TDC and a planning inspector previously rejected the plan, expressing concern the location would impact the coastline and estuary zone, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But developer James Tizzard has asked the council to reconsider the proposal as a "sustainable development" given that it immediately adjoins Northam and is within walking distance of a range of facilities.

His planning agents argue it meets the council's policy because of the lack of a five- year land supply for new homes.

They said Mr Tizzard had revised the layout to help soften visual impacts and "provide a scheme that satisfies the appropriate landscape related policies".

Bloody Corner is thought to be the spot at which either King Alfred the Great or an Earl of Devon slayed Hubba the Dane, a Viking, in the ninth century. A Grade II stone tablet at the site commemorates the battle.

Four letters of objection to the plans have been submitted to the council, with comments about the area being at "saturation point" for housing, and loss of wildlife habitat and green space.

Torridge District Council will consider the plans later.

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