RESIDENTS living near Okehampton?s Exeter Road Garage have voiced concerns about plans to redevelop the site to provide 24 flats and four shop units.

Janet and Harry Bruce, whose bungalow is next door to the garage, fear they will be ?overlooked by 16 windows?.

Mrs Bruce said: ?We have no objection to residential development, but hopefully it would be in keeping with the bungalows that are adjoining.

?We have not got much of a view at the moment, but at least we can see something, it is just too much. We will feel like we will be living outside the prison at Princetown, but without the bars on the windows.?

Other residents have raised concerns about the proposal but Mrs Bruce says living adjacent to the site, they fear they will be most badly affected.

The full planning application to redevelop the garage site at 57 Exeter Road was lodged with West Devon Borough Council last month.

A number of residents in nearby Newcombe Close and Baldwin Drive have raised concerns about the provision of community amenities as the garage shop is the only place for people living in new homes to the east of the town to shop without coming into the town centre.

But Bryan Turner, from the architects behind the proposals, WWD Ltd in Exeter, said the company had just completed a series of answers for the local authority to issues raised by local residents and was ?very upbeat? about the scheme.

He said: ?We feel it is a step forward. Nobody wants their shop facility to go away. We have made a definitive statement to say the shop amenity will provide all the community use as it does now.?

The firm says this style of accommodation is not readily available in the area at present. Small flats were needed as they were often the first affordable way for people to buy a property.

Mr Turner said the residential development would, if anything, be quieter and less disruptive for neighbours than a garage and a 24-hour shop.

He also said that contrary to residents? fears, there was no pedestrian footpath linking the redevelopment to Okemoor Park in the plans, nor an intention on their part to add this.

Another neighbouring resident, John Webber, said he felt the development was out of keeping with the quiet surroundings: ?We moved here deliberately because it was quiet. It would not be quiet anymore if the development goes ahead.?

He said he was concerned the development would ?not encourage a community feeling, only a community resentment.?

The convenience shop and fuel station were currently well used. ?Most people use the facilities regularly. It would be a bit of a loss if it goes. It is very handy,? he said.

Resident Donald Bibey, who organised a petition containing 45 signatures about the footpath issue, said there was concern among residents of both Newcombe Close and Baldwin Drive that such a path would be inserted.

In a letter sent with the petition to West Devon Borough Council he said a path could ?open the way for anti-social behaviour?.

West Devon Borough Council planning officer Jane Green confirmed in a letter to Okehampton Town Council that the application remained as submitted with no direct pedestrian link between the site and the turning area in Newcombe Close.

She said officers were ?well aware from their responses that neighbouring residents would not wish to see the route created.?

Okehampton Town Council raised no objection to the proposals but strongly requested that half of the shops be food and grocery outlets to maintain the community amenity.

The application is due to go before the borough council?s planning department at the end of the month.