DREWSTEIGNTON Parish Council has voted to oppose a ‘speculative’ application to build a farm shop to serve tourists beside the A30 at Whiddon Down after hearing objections from a packed room of local people.

There was standing room only at the parish council meeting at Whiddon Down Village Hall on Wednesday evening last week (September 5), as residents came to make their feelings known.

Applicant Jack Mann told the parish council that he would be realising his long-held ‘passion and dream’ to open a farm shop on a site to the north of the A30 at Whiddon Down.

He said: ‘I’ve invested most of my life savings to get this off the ground and I genuinely believe from the bottom of my heart that this project can do real good in the community. I don’t have any shareholders or investors, I’m not a property developer, this is just me. I’m hoping you can trust me.’

Mr Mann has applied to West Devon Borough Council to build a ‘high quality’ farm shop and café serving local food and drink with parking for 50 cars on the site. He said it would create jobs both directly and in businesses supplying the farm shop.

However, a number of residents and councillors spoke out against the application, saying it would spoil the countryside and add to traffic at an already dangerous junction of the A30 slip road with a minor road. They also suggested it would threaten existing local businesses.

Resident David Campbell said: ‘This is not a farm shop, this is a services. There is no link to a farm.

‘It doesn’t take into consideration the nature of the roads or the nature of the rural area. It will scar the landscape in such a way that we will regret it for the rest of our lives.’

Blue Ramsey, who lives nearby, said: ‘I would like to highlight that this is a massively visible site from Spreyton and North Tawton. It is going to introduce light pollution pretty much from anywhere to the north. Really, do we want a facility that is going to replicate the services already at Whiddon Down? It is in the wrong place. It is not going to be bringing anything that we don’t already have here, except an eyesore.’

Farming contractor Thomas Robinson said he used the right-hand turn leading towards the proposed development site, off the A30 slip road, and said you could ‘see the tyre marks’ where vehicles had screeched to a halt.

‘The slip road is too short,’ he said. ‘We are trying to do our jobs and employ local people and I’m worried about the safety of our guys, that someone is going to have an accident.’

David Foyle, who runs Woodleigh Coach House in Cheriton Bishop, said: ‘We’re very proud to say that our suppliers come from within 15 miles of where we are based and I think that goes for most of the businesses and cafes in the area.

‘Not only does this put at risk jobs in these businesses, it will also affect the businesses that supply them.’

Parish council chairman Bill Savage said: ‘My view is this is a purely speculative development in open countryside and we as councillors have a duty to protect the businesses we already have in our community.’

The council voted to object to West Devon Borough Council, which will be deciding the application.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

Mr Savage urged members of the audience to write to WDBC itself to make sure their objections counted with planners making the decision. An earlier application to WDBC to build on the same site was withdrawn after provoking local objections.