A WEST Devon business was dealt a blow this week when planners refused permission for its manufacturing operation.

The decision followed complaints from local residents about smells coming from the Colpro Group Ltd factory on the Ottery Business Park, where it has operated for the past nine years.

But the company said emissions were tested monthly and had always been below the minimum level.

Despite calls for a site meeting, West Devon Borough Council's planning committee rejected the retrospective application by the company, which makes glass reinforced plastic, after a heated debate on the issues surrounding rural business versus residential amenity.

A resident of Ottery, John Davis, said residents had nothing against the business operating under a B1 use, which allowed the assembly of septic tanks, but the manufacturing aspect of the business resulted in the strong smell of styrene coming from the premises, which exacerbated respiratory conditions suffered by some of the residents.

Environmental health officer Ian Luscombe said the styrene emissions did not contravene health and safety regulations — they were below the minimum level inside the factory so these amounts would be even less at the cottages.

But he confirmed that officers could smell styrene at the cottages on some occasions when they visited the site and complaints had been pretty continuous since October 2002.

'The smell is unlikely to cause any detrimental health effects but that is not to say it is has no detrimental effect on the amenity of those living nearby,' he said.

Manager of Colpro Dawn Lake said the business had grown from a one-man band to a workforce of eight and had been put on the site by the borough council.

The business had been manufacturing for many years, unknowingly against planning permission. But residents only started complaining in the past year, she said.

'The residents did not complain when we were working seven days a week and there were two other firms on the site manufacturing products,' she said.

'The styrene emissions are tested monthly and have always been below the minimum level and our extraction system is the best that you can get for the job.'

She added that residents had been invited to come and see the operation on numerous occasions to discuss their complaints but they had repeatedly refused.

Ward member for Lamerton Robin Pike said eight jobs were on the line: 'On the other hand there is a chemical smell present in the air which by its very nature scares people,' he said.

'We are encouraging more business and more housing development in the borough all the time and we are going to end up with a nightmare situation because as we see here the two do not appear to mix.'

Some councillors felt the application should be deferred to allow the company to come forward with a solution to get rid of the odour, which was, in fact, possible.

But planning committee chairman Roger Mathew advised members the best way was to refuse the application to allow the company to submit another at a later date which would suit all parties.

'This is a company which is on the verge of outgrowing its site,' he said. 'It is going to have to move or take some drastic measures to make it acceptable to the residents in the area.'