A BUSINESSMAN has vowed to ‘push as hard as he can’ to press on with redeveloping the derelict Old Mill in Okehampton despite further delays in knocking down the existing derelict buildings.

Hotel owner Simon Essex is behind the Okehampton Skills and Sports Trading Company — the trading arm of site owners the Okehampton Skills and Sports Trust. He wants to build 18 new homes on the site, described as an ‘eyesore’ and a danger to local children.

‘I’m pushing as hard as I can,’ he said. ‘I’m determined that this scheme is going to go ahead and will benefit the trust and the community of Okehampton.’

Planning permission to first knock down all the site buildings except the Grade II listed chimney has now been delayed due to a request from planners for a new survey of bats.

Bats are already known to roost in the derelict buildings but because of numerous delays in developing the site, surveys previously carried out have now expired.

Calling on an early decision from the borough council to allow the demolition, Mr Essex suggested public safety now had to come first and the bats should be rehoused in Simmons Park or somewhere else nearby.

‘I’m at a loss as to why there has to be a delay because the buildings are condemned by everyone, by English Heritage and by the West Devon Borough Council building inspector.

‘I don’t understand why we have to wait for an ecology survey to say there are bats there when we know there are bats there but we also know that the buildings have to come down because public safety overrides that.’

He added that if he hadn’t needed planning permission because the buildings are in a Conversation Area, they would have been demolished by now.

‘The buildings are coming down and in fact the buildings will be coming down as soon as we can bring in a bulldozer.

‘The bats won’t be killed though. We might be able to trap them and relocate them to Simmons Park.

‘I do understand we have to put in mitigation plans which include relocating the bats.

‘We have had a letter now from West Devon Borough Council to say they are willing to work with us, which will give us a timetable.’

Mr Essex added that the company associated with the trust intended to put in a separate planning application for the 18 homes — a mixture of townhouses, cottages and appartments — to West Devon Borough Council in August.

The intention is that the housing development should follow the existing footprint of the factory building to look down towards the river.

He said the plans would solve another major safety concern, the sharp dangerous bend on Mill Road, which currently has no pavement despite being used by children walking to and from Okehampton College.

Mr Essex said: ‘The development specifically provides a two-metre wide pavement along there but public safety doesn’t seem to be very high on the council’s priorities.’

Mr Essex’s comments come after Okehampton College executive principal Derrick Brett, flagged up concerns. Mr Brett, who is also a trustee of the Okehampton Skills and Sports Trust, expressed his fears about the safety risk of the site, where children trespassing on the site have been seen by near neighbours in the buildings.

He and fellow trustee Christine Marsh, also a town councillor, have called for an end to the planning stalemate which has led to the site remaining as it is for more than 20 years.

Mr Brett told the Times: ‘These buildings have been like this for as long as I’ve been associated with the town, which is 16 years.

‘At the moment the planning is getting in the way, that is my understanding from the conversations I’ve had.

‘My point is if the barrier is getting planning permission to demolish them and they are just left, what are they going to look like in ten years.’ time?’