CRITICISM was this week levelled at West Devon?s planners and Dartmoor National Park Authority by a parish council furious at the proposed erection of a three-metre high advertising sign on the edge of the moor.
Planning permission for the ?ladder? sign, advertising companies at Yelverton Business Park, was granted by West Devon Borough Council last month, despite objections from Buckland Monachorum Parish Council.
Parish council chairman David Simpkins, said: ?It?s going to be a massive, ugly sign, right at the gateway to Crapstone and Buckland and opposite the war memorial.
?It will be the first thing visitors notice when they drive here ? it?s going to be a terrific eyesore.?
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Cllr Simpkins said the council could not understand why the sign could not have been erected just inside the entrance to the business park.
?A small sign we wouldn?t have minded, but this is going to look absolutely awful,? said Mr Simpkins.
?We are particularly cross they have totally disregarded our views and we are very cross with Dartmoor National Park not backing us and being totally contrary to their previous policies ? they kicked up a huge stink over a tiny sign at Yelverton.?
Parish councillor Susan Woolacott said: ?We told West Devon this would be unsightly at the entrance to the village. We are supposed to be the representatives of the local people, they don?t want it, it?s absolutely huge.?
West Devon planning officer Ed Persse confirmed the sign was
granted planning consent on December 30. The planning application was not brought to the borough?s planning committee.
He said: ?If we get objections to a proposal and we as officers think it?s okay, we write to the ward members advising them of the objections and they have the opportunity to say ?Yes, I want this to come before the committee?.
?Neither ward member asked for this, Dartmoor National Park Authority had no objections and the parish council were the only ones to object.?
Mr Persse said it was ?reasonable? to have an advertising sign outside a business park.
?I have to say that if Dartmoor National Park Authority didn?t object on visual grounds, it would have been rather difficult for us to say it affected the setting of the park,? said Mr Persse.
Colin Jarvis, principal planning officer for the DNPA, said the business park sign issue could not be compared with the recent refusal of planning consent for a small sign advertising a tea shop at Yelverton.
Mr Jarvis said: ?We are not the planning authority in this case. We do get consulted on many such issues around the park and we make due responses to the relevant district councils.
?In this case we obviously came to the view that it was not of such importance to warrant an objection. And in many cases if we do object it doesn?t necessarily follow that the council will respond in a similar fashion.?
Mr Jarvis said there were other business parks within the national park which had ladder signs and they did not adversely impact on their surroundings.