The Green Party has warned that ‘hard won’ safeguards preventing developers from concreting over large swathes of East Devon could be lost under new government plans.

East Devon Green Party (EDGP) say they are ‘strongly opposed’ to the draft national planning policy framework.

EDGP spokesman Emily McIvor said that the proposals would allow growth and development to over-ride hard won local planning frameworks.

She said they were determined to ensure that developers built homes that were ‘truly sustainable’, affordable, complete with energy generation, public transport infrastructure, public services, open spaces, allotments and access to the countryside.

She said: “In East Devon we are campaigning for a local planning framework which will ensure that any new developments…will deal with their own waste and not impact negatively on the rest of us by causing increased congestion and by damaging the landscape.

“But hard won safeguards in the local development framework would be cast aside by the government’s policy of a presumption in favour of development.

“The government seems to think that faster house building is the solution to the country’s economic challenges. We do not agree.”