OPPONENTS to the Lidl supermarket in Okehampton are furious that work has begun on the store before a planning approval notice has been issued.

Planning permission for Okehampton's third supermarket hangs on Lidl meeting the concerns of the Environment Agency, yet the JCBs moved in last week.

Okehampton is the second location in two weeks where construction work for Lidl has started prematurely — contractors were ordered off a site at Marsh Barton recently because the discount supermarket chain only had outline planning permission to build.

Concerned residents are annoyed that unlike Exeter City Council, West Devon Borough Council has taken no action to stop the work.

'I am dismayed to find that development is going ahead without full planning permission,' said Alan Finch who objected to the proposal because of its potential detriment to the Okement River which surrounds the development site in School Way.

'Now the construction work is taking place I feel it is unlikely that the council will enforce the environmental procedures that are required.

'I did not want Lidl to go up in the first place but at the very least proper measures to protect the river for the benefit of the people of Okehampton should be in place.'

Resident Ana Pulteney said what Lidl was doing was 'appalling'.

'The company is riding rough-shod over the planning process and it's just not fair game,' she said.

The borough council's head of planning and development, Stephen Gill, said Lidl has been given a warning but enforcement action had not been taken because the firm could be just days away from meeting the concerns of the Environment Agency.

'I believe following comments from the Environment Agency new plans were submitted by Lidl on Tuesday — if that is the case we are virtually there with planning permission,' he said.

'It would not be prudent to take enforcement action if we are just a day or two away from it.'

Mr Gill said Lidl had been told as early as last Wednesday that it was proceeding with the work at its own risk and had been warned of the possible consequences.

He said the Environment Agency ideally wanted a seven-metre buffer zone between the river and the development but was willing to compromise on this if more planting and conservation measures were put in across the site to provide a habitat for flora and fauna.

Lidl did not wish to comment on the situation.