We would not normally advocate for a private individual pitching to purchase a property…but there’s a lot at stake here, in the middle of a bio-diversity and climate crisis. Some may justifiably point out that there’s a housing crisis, too, and there is. There’s a crisis in genuinely affordable housing – not just homes at a twenty per cent discount off an already heavily-inflated and unaffordable market price. Devon is now one of the most expensive places to buy, with the average house in south Devon costing 14 times the average salary at £425,000.
As an Ashburton resident, I know that much of the housing stock is very old, picturesque, subject to heritage protection or in a conservation zone. It is also, much of it, expensive to maintain, heat, insure and almost impossible to future-proof for climate change. So, yes, there are ‘cheap’ terraced houses, way below £425,000, but they have high hidden costs.
Unfortunately, we also know that developers have a nasty habit of reneging on promises to build genuinely affordable (and well-built) homes, claiming further down the track that the economics of the project no longer stack up. It happens time and time again. The expensive ‘executive’ homes go up and the affordable housing never materialises. Or the site gets land-banked and completely removed from the housing shortage equation until the developer judges it more lucrative to build at long last.
We’ve written about this before and about developers’ disregard for nature:
Now we’ve got another richly bio-diverse site under threat. I’m afraid the old hogwash about planting replacement trees will probably prove to be just that. How many times have we seen the wrong species of young trees dumped in the wrong location with insufficient care and maintenance and with the inevitable result that the poor things will fail – especially given the extremes of weather? Why do we keep cutting out chunks of our green lungs?
Kenwyn is a large, late Victorian house with extensive grounds filled with mature trees and shrubs, pretty much in the middle of Ashburton. It served for many years as a care home until its closure in 2013. Since then it has seen several failures in disposing of the property and one failed planning proposal. It has also had squatters. Now it has, apparently, been sold, subject to planning, to Devonshire Homes.
“Kenwyn update: Dartmoor National Park (DNP) put a 6-week Tree Protection Order (TPO) on the trees at Kenwyn on July 9. During that time members of the public can send their comments about this to DNP. Many of these mature and healthy trees are homes to bats and birds as well as being valuable habitat for invertebrates and providing welcome shade in our increasingly hot summers. If they are given permanent TPO status, the proposed development at Kenwyn, which involves cutting lots of them down, will not go ahead as it stands.
“If you want to see these trees left standing, please email planning@dartmoor.gov.uk, quoting the reference TPO228. And let us know in the comments when you have done so. Deadline is 20th August.”
Inge Page, environmental campaigner
The local family’s proposal for Kenwyn:
“Some of you may already be aware that Kenwyn, the former care home on Western Rd, has been sold (subject to planning) to a group who are going to develop the site by knocking it down and building 19 age restricted houses there. They plan to destroy large numbers of trees on the site
. There are bats and owls that live at Kenwyn, and many other species.
There is an alternative option…
My family and I would like to buy Kenwyn from the owner (Devon County Council) with the aim of restoring the beautiful old building as a family home. We’d like to use the site to provide free allotments for local people to grow fruit and vegetables. We would keep all the trees. We would also like to restore the other building (to the rear of the main house) so that we could offer studio space to craftspeople and artists with the aim of building and nurturing a creative community of makers.
We know this is a huge undertaking so we would be involving lots of other people to help make it happen.
The idea would be to set up a ceramics studio at Kenwyn with pottery wheels, kilns and a slipcasting workshop. Also a digital manufacturing studio (3D printers, vinyl cutter, scanning equipment, mold making etc), it would be an amazing place to make things. We have an enlarger and would be interested in setting up a darkroom, perhaps some screen printing facilities. We would be open to the thoughts and ideas of other local makers and artists. There are numerous craftspeople and makers who have expressed an interest in this idea, I think it would be an exciting and useful project in the town, potentially having a positive impact on lots of people in lots of different ways.
We understand that Ashburton also needs more housing but there are other opportunities and locations/sites that don’t require the unnecessary destruction of a beautiful old building.
The developers have said that the building is too water damaged to be restored and must be knocked down. I don’t think this is correct, it has stood since the 1880s and was built to last.
We would like to have a survey done, there is extensive damage but it is not beyond repair.
I think the people of Ashburton should know how much the developers have paid DCC, as I believe the council’s own guidelines make clear that they must seek the best price. If they have sold it off cheap then we should be allowed to know that and be able to make an alternative offer, one more in alignment with the interests of the people who live round here.
At the meeting in the town hall on Tuesday March 11, one of the town councillors asked the developers if they could offer any assurances that the affordable housing parts of the development (2 or 3 one-bed units out of 19, to be located away from the others) would actually remain on the plans. The developers said they couldn’t make any promises.
I really hope the DNP reject the developers’ application to knock Kenwyn down and build 19 houses, then we can negotiate with DCC to buy Kenwyn and finally bring it back into use in a way that truly enriches, benefits and develops the town.
Local people are unlikely to be able to afford the prices the developers will charge for the new houses.
The developers would make lots of money.
We would make lots of pottery and tomatoes.”
Jascha Lenkiewicz
In addition, I have been assured by potential buyer, Annie Hill-Smith (Jasha’s mother and Ashburton resident), that she would grant a permissive path to allow people to access this wildlife haven, and that they would create a number of much-needed allotments – vital as we face increased threats to food security.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that the trees need saving! Please email DNP, as Inge urges above, and do so before August 20! Email planning@dartmoor.gov.uk, quoting the reference TPO228.
