A FORMER Chagford hotel will be demolished to make way for ten dwellings, Dartmoor National Park Authority has decided.

The proposal to replace the Great Tree Hotel with a single building on its footprint, sub divided into nine units, won planning permission on the condition that a new access to the site was created.

The plans for the hotel, which lies within extensive grounds to the north of the town, received eight letters of objection which raised concerns about the ?dangerous access?, the development would be outside any recognised settlement and it exceeded the Devon Structure Plan expectation of new houses to be built in the National Park. Worries were also expressed about the loss of a hotel facility.

Dartmoor Preservation Association opposed the application by Gerald Wood Homes because it considered it was contrary to the Local Plan and there was a lack of need for housing. This view was also shared by the Open Spaces Society.

Following concerns raised at a site meeting about the inadequate access, the applicants sought the advice of consulting engineers, resulting in a proposal to construct a new, central access into the site.

Members of the National Park authority agreed the development could take place providing a new access was constructed.

At a meeting of the park?s planning committee last month DNP member Hugh Whitley told members the scheme was ?a very good one? and with suggested improvements regarding the entrance there could be good visibility.

?When was the last hamlet built on Dartmoor?? he said. ?It is about time another one was built, and I thoroughly recommend it to members,? he said.

But Nick Waterhouse said the authority would not even be thinking about it if there did not happen to be ?a hunk of decaying hotel sitting on the site?.

?I have a strong impression there is considerable unease about this ? we are going to create a much more populated area,? he said.