A COUPLE who run a pub in South Zeal have slammed Dartmoor National Park’s planning authority after being told to take down external lights they say are crucial for the safety of customers.

Lyn and Simon Powell have run the Oxenham Arms since April 2012, when they restored the Grade II* listed building to its former glory and re-opened it for business.

A few months after opening they decided to hang a string of lights onto the front of the building to illuminate their car park at night for customers leaving the premises. This followed a couple of incidents where people had fallen over either in the car park or down the steps leading out of the pub. The lights hang on the eaves of the building on pre-existing hooks.

They have been told by Dartmoor National Park Authority that in order to have the lights on the building they must have planning permission. The couple argue that having not changed the fabric of the building, being made to apply for planning permission and pick up the costs that would incur is ‘ridiculous.’

Simon said: ‘We have spent a lot of money restoring the building in what we believe is a sympathetic manner. We have been growing our customer base well and we think we are doing well as a business.

‘Being in a small village like we are, there are not street lights everywhere. There is a single street light on the opposite side of the road that barely puts out any light on our front step or car park.

‘Just a couple of months in we had folks falling over due to the darkness. It can be so dark out there that people can’t get their keys into their car.

‘There were already metal hooks on the eaves of the building so we put up the LED low power lights. They put out less light than a 60 watt bulb and for three years we illuminated the car park without any problem. But now we’ve had letters from the national park. So we decided to turn the lights off.

‘We put them on last Wednesday night for a short period of time while customers were leaving and the next day we got a call about it. The situation is ridiculous.

‘Health and safety needs should overrule the Dartmoor National Park’s planning rules. If we can not put the lights on we may be forced to close up. If it is deemed unsafe we may just have to bolt up the door, which would be a huge loss for the village and stupid of the national park to let it get this far.

‘We have 18 people on payroll, and we are an iconic building in the centre of the village. The lights would be off by 11pm, I just don’t see the problem.’

Lyn added: ‘Why should we pay £2,000 or more to have architectural drawings and have an electrician in? It is just another way of getting money out of us.

‘We had a handrail fitted to the pub entrance. It cost us £1,000 to get permission for that. If we have to spend £2,000 on planning then I’d almost rather see them in court about it. It is just ridiculous. We only want what other pubs in the area already have. The Taw River Inn in Sticklepath has very similar lighting outside. So why is it such an issue for us?’

A spokesman for the Dartmoor National Park said: ‘We have had complaints from a member of the public about lights being attached to a listed building. We are in the process of investigating the case and we hope that this can be resolved with the landlord without any further action needing to be taken.’