PLANS for an abattoir in a moorland hamlet near Mary Tavy were last week rejected by Dartmoor National Park Authority's planning committee, writes Nigel Canham.

Members of the development control committee said those living near Burntown Farm, Mary Tavy, would have been socially and economically disadvantaged had it gone ahead.

A meeting at Parke, Bovey Tracey, last Friday was told house values could plummet and that introducing more traffic on to the A386 could be dangerous.

The decision to refuse permission went against advice from planning officers who said the authority's policy was to support farm-related businesses.

County highways officers had not objected providing Burntown Lane was partially widened.

The NFU gave full backing to the scheme, noting the decline in small to medium-sized abattoirs during the last 15 years.

Eight of the nine committee members who visited the site recommended approval.

But Cllr Terry Pearce, chairman of Mary Tavy Parish Council, argued that none of the seven letters of support for the abattoir had come from within the parish.

'The parish council recognises the need for an abattoir in West Devon but this is entirely the wrong site,' he said.

Resident Lisa Jenkins, who said she represented 'the great ignored of Burntown', said people had moved in to the barn conversions 70 metres from the would-be abattoir site after they believed the farm had been wound up.

'We and all our neighbours would not have purchased our homes if we knew the truth,' she said.

During the debate member Diana Moyse relayed a conversation she had held with an estate agent.

'They said the properties could be devalued by as much as 50% if they could be sold at all,' said Mrs Moyse.

Dr Ian Mortimer's proposal that the scheme be refused was supported six votes to five with eight abstentions.

After the meeting, planning applicant Martin Smale told the Times he would consider his position before deciding if an appeal was appropriate.