Brimhay Appeal

Aim

Dartington community campaign to legally challenge redevelopment of social homes, community garden and wild valley with bats and dormice.

 We are a  community in Devon taking South Hams District Council to a Judicial Review, for granting planning permission to a developer bent on destroying wildlife. The scheme also forces social tenants, against their wishes,  from bungalows with gardens into flats.

Our Council won't protect us, so we're doing it for ourselves. Help us set a vitally- needed national precedent and stand up for the rights of wildlife, for local people and our kids future.

Our campaign is for Brimhay; a close of small bungalows set around a green adjoining a wild stream valley, in the heart of Dartington village, near Totnes, Devon. The valley is home to dormice and five species of bats- all endangered and which should be protected by European legislation.

In granting permission for the redevelopment of the site in the face of hundreds of objections, our council ignored wildlife legislation, the Localism Bill, the community's rights to established open space and footpaths.  Owners of the site, South Devon Rural Housing Association, ignored Brimhay's community of elderly and less able people and intend to bulldoze their bungalows and rehouse them in flats against their wishes. 

We need your help to enable our Judicial Review case, which will be heard in the Royal Courts in London on 19th July. Mrs Justice Lang gave permission for the case to proceed on all grounds by order dated 7th March. Accomplishing this significant hurdle has meant that there will be a substantive hearing on the merits of our case in court. If successful, this will result in a quashing of the planning consent granted for this site. We have already raised over £2500 through local fundraising events. 

 Winning will support Brimhay's residents, strengthen European wildlife legislation, save a community garden and give local people a real voice in the future of their place. Together we can fight for justice. 

 This campaign is championed by 'Don't Bury Dartington Under Concrete' . Our community led alternative plans for Brimhay have received support from  Jonathon Porritt, Lord Matthew Taylor, Molly Scott Cato (MEP) and Kevin Mc Cloud- Channel 4's Grand Designs. 

See www.dontburydartington.co.uk  for more. 

If you despair at-

• Current policies that give developers the right to ignore wildlife and our environment
• Our countryside being covered in clone concrete houses
• Local people having no real say in planning the future of their place. 
• Support this appeal.

This project successfully funded on 10th July 2016