PARISHIONERS in South Tawton fear that if an exclusive residential therapy centre is given the go-ahead people at risk to the community could be inhabiting the village in years to come.

At a meeting of South Tawton Parish Council on Monday, residents raised their concerns over the change of use of the Grade II listed property known as 'Wood House' into a healthy living and therapy centre.

Their main fear was, if planning permission was granted with a category two listing, the premises could be used as any kind of residential institution in the future and neither planning authorities nor local residents would be able to have an input into that.

The proposal has been advertised as a category two application but South Tawton parish councillors said there was no classification on the planning application when they supported it three weeks ago.

Residents made it clear at the meeting that they would prefer to see an application made which covers hotels, guest-houses and boarding houses and a further application for ancillary use made later on if that was deemed necessary.

The differences in the classification relate to the element of care involved in the operation — category two covers establishments from colleges to nursing homes and hospitals.

Brian Skilton from Throwleigh, who is one of the group involved in the project, said talks were taking place between the planning consultant and planning officers to come up with a solution.

'It is a bit of a grey area,' he said. 'We would not want to be restricted by a category which says we cannot have X amount of people who are on medication.'

He said the centre would administer drugs but not prescribe them and any drug addicts or alcoholics taking therapy would have already 'dried out' before coming to Wood House.

Mr Skilton explained that the centre, which would accommodate up to 40 residents and 20 staff, would offer high quality, state of the art and conventional therapies, workshops and training courses.

It would be manned 24 hours a day by professional, qualified therapists, counsellors and ancillary staff.

'The centre will be a very exclusive one which will deal with people, who for one reason or another, have had a breakdown in their life,' he said.

The aim was to restore confidence and self-esteem in people suffering from such things as depression, trauma, eating disorders and broken relationships.

Residents will be paying between £200 and £400 a day to be treated at the centre.

Local farmer Robert Mawle said, whatever the intentions were for this project, if a category two permission was given, any succeeding organisations would not have to come back to the parish council or West Devon Borough Council to get the go-ahead to run a 'completely different operation' at Wood House.

'This could lead to all sorts of problems,' he said.

'How many public inquiries would it take to drag South Tawton through the media mud and stop people from wanting to live here and send their children to the local school?

'This classification would open up the facility to any kind of use.'

Another resident said people with a psychological profile could be living at Wood House in the future who were a risk both to themselves and the community.

Members of the public were angry that the proposal had been discussed at the last council meeting when it was not on the agenda.

The meeting was told this frequently happened when planning items came in after the agenda was drawn up and circulated.

Chairman Cllr Bill Cann said the council had supported the proposal in principal but had not talked about the classification because it was not included on the application.

He suggested that a planning officer was invited to the next meeting to talk about the different categories and this was agreed.

Resident Greg Morgan said after the meeting he was disappointed in the council: 'I feel something as significant as this proposal which would bring a lot of people into a small hamlet should have warranted some time and research on the part of the council.

'Within a couple of days we (local residents) managed to find out the problems with the C1/C2 categories and we are not councillors.'