ANGRY café owners in Tavistock claimed this week that local authorities were powerless against big companies when a national chain of coffee shops continued trading without planning permission for a decking area.
Costa Coffee, which opened in Brook Street a couple of weeks ago, failed to get planning consent for its patio area from West Devon Borough Council's planning committee yet the site, which was already partially constructed, is being used for business.
The council is working with Costa Coffee on a new application which will be more acceptable to the committee but John Masters from The New Pantry cannot understand why the council has not ordered for large structure to be removed.
He told the Times: 'I am not against Costa Coffee but what I am against is large companies coming in taking everyone's business without even having planning permission. They seem to be able to do whatever they like yet small businesses like mine have to adhere to what the council says.
'Councils seem to be powerless when it comes to big companies,' said Mr Masters, who also claimed that the company had not stuck to their original plans for the coffee shop building.
Phil Bradbury from Donella's café said there was one rule for big companies and another for the little ones. He had been told that the company could carry on trading if they had appealed against the decision.
He said: 'They can continue trading pending an appeal and companies like that have lots of money to appeal — what is a few thousand pounds to them. They can get away with whatever they like, yet up here in Paddons Row I cannot even put an A-board at the bottom of the road advertising my business.'
A spokesperson for the borough council said planning officers were waiting for a fresh application to be submitted in the next couple of weeks.
'The application was for air conditioning, decking, fencing and a large umbrella but when the officers visited it seemed like some of these things had already been started,' she said. 'The air conditioning has since been removed because it was very prominent and the fencing has been adjusted.'
Planning officer Ed Persse said: 'We are treating Costa Coffee like we would anyone else —we try to work with people to resolve things amicably and the company is talking and co-operating with us. If that stops or if we do not get something acceptable then we will look at pursuing enforcement action.'
Mr Persse said it was not against the law for Costa Coffee to trade on the decking area as no enforcement notice had been served on them.
'We do not feel what the company has done warrants immediate enforcement action.' he said. 'We do not want to pursue this route when we can come up with a solution because it would involve a lot of unnecessary work. This approach would be the same for anyone, it makes no difference that it is a national company.'
A spokesperson for Costa Coffee confirmed the company was currently in talks with the planning department of the local authority with regards to the rear decking of the Tavistock shop but declined to give any more details at this stage.