IT WAS a victory for Tavistock's elderly population this week as planners turned down a proposal to demolish the well-loved old folk's rest room and turn it into a retail unit.

West Devon Borough Council's planning committee voted by eight to two to reject Hunstrete Estates' application for the 50-year-old building in Brook Street because it would cause 'an unacceptable loss of a much-used community facility'.

After a year's campaigning to save the rest room, users and supporters who had travelled to the planning meeting at Hatherleigh to hear its fate said they were very pleased and relieved.

Rest room management committee treasurer Denise Bacon said: 'There have been so many objections to the proposal and in the short term the old folks have won.

'It has been a very upsetting time not knowing what is going to happen, but we hope now that we can improve things for the people of Tavistock and go on for another five years.'

Planning officers had recommended the plan for approval because they said there was no policy in place to deal with the loss of a community facility and there was no reason to refuse it on planning grounds.

Cllr Roy Connelly, who represents Tavistock North, said making provision for community need was something that ran throughout Government planning initiatives.

'There can be no better example of this than the way the rest room has been delivered for the benefit of the community for so many years,' he said.

'The facility serves a much wider area than Tavistock, reaching some of the most rural and isolated areas of Devon.'

The committee was told that between 300 and 400 people used the rest room each week.

'It's not just a facility, it is part of the fabric of the town,' said Cllr Ted Sherrell, whose comments received a round of applause from the 30-strong crowd of supporters.

'You can go in there, have a chat and read a newspaper and it does not cost you a penny. If you want a cup of tea or a sandwich it will not cost you much either.

'I have heard people say it is unique, well I don't know about that, but I have certainly never come across anything like it anywhere else.'

Cllr Sherrell said the elderly population was growing and Tavistock was a town to which people retired. The demand for services for older people was getting greater and greater yet the public purse could not cope.

'Here we have something which is not costing the public purse a penny.'

He said there were approximately a dozen empty retail shops in the town.

'We need another retail shop like we need another block of flats.

'There may be no policy to support the rest room but there is also no policy to say it has to be used for retail either. It is common sense and people's basic right that this application is turned down.'

Long-term resident of Tavistock and member of the history society Graham Kirkpatrick said the building should be preserved because it was built to commemorate the Queen's coronation.

'The proposal disregards conservation and national heritage and is inconsiderate to a section of the population,' he said.

The rest room has been leased to Tavistock Town Council for many years for a peppercorn rent of £5 per annum.

In a letter to the planning committee, agents for Hunstrete, D R Mills Associates, said it had been explained to the town council that the landlord had been unable to continue at the present rent for commercial reasons and from February 2009 the rent would rise to 50% of open market rental and 75% from 2014.

The intention to apply for planning permission had been discussed between the town council and Hunstrete, said the agents, who added that within the lease a sum of financial support had been offered to help fund an alternative venue for the old folk's rest room if permission was granted.

David Mills, of D R Mills Associates, said following the meeting that he was 'disappointed' by the decision and would be talking with his clients to see what the next step would be.

Chairman of the planning committee Philip Sanders said it was a very difficult planning application to determine.

'I voted for the officer's recommendation because it was difficult to refuse it in planning terms and if it does go to appeal I think Hunstrete will have some very good grounds to fight the refusal,' he said.

'Having said that, you can never predict the outcome of an appeal. I have seen some very unusual and unexpected decisions from planning inspectors.

'The committee felt the rest room is essential and irreplaceable and its argument is that there is not a viable alternative within the town that they can think of.'