Welcome to Clyst Action Group
The Development
1,750 houses to be built between Clyst St George and Clyst St Mary. This is not a modest village expansion, this is a totally new settlement that will be 3 times the size of Clyst St Mary, 6 times the size of Clyst St George. What they are proposing is deleting Clyst St Mary and Clyst St George to create another Cranbrook.
Road Networks
The people pushing these developments have never lived in the area. They have no idea just how congested the roads are currently, never mind if you add a further 20,000 cars into the chaos (Marlscombe) and then 3500 more in addition from this development. In just a few years we are looking at gridlock most times of the day, not just rush hour, and can you just imagine the Summer Holidays, Devon Show, Rugby Matches. There solution is to simply put some traffic lights on the Clyst St Mary Roundabout. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous ?
Flooding
They are building in an area that floods regularly (see pics below) and by that we mean rivers in the street and lakes across fields. We don't need to look at some charts that say flood zone 2 or 3, at some times of the year huge areas look more like the Lake District than the Clyst Valley. This area is traditionally the soak-away for Exeter. As we look towards a warmer and wetter climate things will only get worse, just as they decide to concrete over the very land that may help alleviate the pain.
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Health Infrastructure
We are already at capacity. We don't have enough Dentists, Doctor surgeries and the local RD&E reports that over 90% of beds are full on any given day. Services are stretched to breaking point. These developers don't care, they don't live here, they will take the cash and run leaving people literally dying because of lack of services.
Nature
Nowadays this is just a footnote in a developers plan and yet when you take into account the destruction of the habitat of hundreds of thousands of animals and insects it is criminal. The area between Clyst St George and Clyst St Mary houses a number of protected species including breeding pairs of Barn Owls, colonies of Bats and Water Voles. It is the area chosen by Canada Geese to live in Summer Months and we are blessed with an abundance of great agricultural land which has been farmed for thousands of years.
Sewage
This isn't a pleasant subject but unfortunately it is a massive problem in the Clyst Valley.....set to become catastrophic. At that point who is responsible, are these developers going to step up and take responsibility? We already have daily sewage overflows in the area polluting rivers, the sea and local beaches...this is not just affecting our environment but also our health. We know from experience that developers and authorities will not tackle this effectively and additional homes added to those already going ahead will push everything over the edge.
The Gateway to East Devon
As you exit from Junction 30 of the M5 to travel onwards to the many beautiful villages, towns and beaches of East Devon you want people to immediately absorb that unique Devon countryside. The villages of Clyst St Mary and Clyst St George act as the gateway to East Devon. To build a housing estate and eradicate any historic character is EDDC shooting itself in the foot. Those first impressions of a building site, non descript modern houses, the disappointing impression visitors will get, can be prevented. We cannot shoot the Golden Goose that so many other counties would be clamouring to have.