OPPOSING sides in Devon’s most polarised planning battle having been setting out their strategies.

Speaking on behalf of developers building a controversial housing scheme on the outskirts of Newton Abbot, King’s Counsel Charles Banner said the independent planning inspector should take some of the objections ‘with a pinch of salt’.

He was speaking at the start of a seven-day inquiry into houses being built by Vistry Homes as part of the ‘NA3’ development at Wolborough which will eventually stretch to more than 1,200 homes in green fields.

The appeal centres on fears for the future of the Wolborough Fen, which sits alongside the site.

Vistry says the fen, which is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and home to a number of rare plant species, will not be affected by water running off the development.

Objectors say it will, and Vistry’s investigations have been inadequate.

Mr Banner said objectors would ‘protest that their case has nothing to do with their intense objection to the principle of development. You should apply a pinch of salt to their over-the-top objections’.

But other lawyers hit back.

Jack Parker, representing the Wolborough Residents Association, Abbotskerswell Parish Council and the Devon Wildlife Trust said: ‘Their only concern is not to stop this housing going ahead but to make sure the applicant does so in a way which does not harm the integrity of the fen.

‘It is insulting to them and the work they have done to suggest otherwise.’

And Jonathan Ward, for Teignbridge Council, added: ‘The principle of development has been controversial, but it has already been settled. The local authority has no motivation to do anything other than discharge its duties properly and lawfully.’

During the opening morning of the hearing, Mr Banner said the development could even improve the quality of the water entering the fen by reducing the harmful effects of agricultural run-off.

Mr Ward said the developers would have been better off working to address the concerns of local people than pressing on with their appeal and Mr Parker said the work the developer had done so far fell ‘terribly short’ of what was reasonably required.

Three independent Teignbridge councillors – the founder members of the ‘Newton Says No’ group set up in response to the NA3 plans – spoke out on preserving the fen.

Richard Daws said the developer had had since 2013 to prove that the SSSI would be protected, but had produced a ‘wholly inadequate’ response.

‘Residents have been forced into an eye-wateringly costly and time-consuming public inquiry,’ he said.

Liam Mullone said Vistry’s mission was to ‘stuff too many houses into a site that cannot environmentally sustain it’.

And Janet Bradford told the inquiry: ‘I’m not against development. I’m against the developers riding roughshod over the scheme.’

The inquiry continues.