PROPOSALS for a highly controversial young offenders' rehabilitation centre at Highampton will go before West Devon planners next Tuesday with a recommendation for approval despite objections from 97 residents.

Planning officers have endorsed C-FAR's application to convert Burdon Grange Nursing Home into a centre for adolescent rehabilitation because they consider it is 'unlikely to have any significantly different environmental impact than the current use'.

Meanwhile, officers are recommending an alternative proposal for a rare breeds visitor attraction, submitted by opponents of the C-FAR scheme, be refused because of concerns over the level of traffic it will generate.

Highampton Parish Council Chairman Charles Dumpleton, one of the leading campaigners against the charity's scheme, has accused planning officers of 'ignoring' the fears of local people.

He said: 'This centre will affect the amenity of the small, rural parish, and to ignore what the parish has to say is not democracy.

'I hope the councillors on the planning committee will give more weight to our concerns because they are supposed to represent the people.'

Campaigners have vowed to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights to fight the plan on the grounds that it would infringe their right to peaceful enjoyment of their homes and possessions.

'We will not stop at this meeting if the plans are approved,' said Mr Dumpleton. 'A centre for young offenders here would be disastrous — trying to integrate them in a parish of this size is preposterous.

'There are residents within 50 yards of Burdon Grange who will be living in fear if this centre is allowed to happen.'

Villagers claim they have been given no guarantee that the young men at C-FAR, who will be referred from courts and prisons to a life change ten-week rehabilitation programme at the site, will remain under supervision at the centre. They fear crime will increase and their houses will fall in value.

Mr Dumpleton said the proposal for the 'Highampton Ark', a tourist attraction and educational facility with rare breeds as its theme, was not just a plan to try and scupper the move by C-FAR but a serious proposal.

'We will carry on with our plans even if we are turned down for Burdon Grange — we need to create jobs and boost tourism in our community which has been so hard hit by foot and mouth disease.

'No-one will want to live here or come here if there is a young offenders' centre in the heart of the village.'

C-FAR is no stranger to local opposition, having met it before when it applied for planning permission to convert a farm complex near Holsworthy into its base. On that occasion the plans were recommended for approval by officers but refused by the full council.

Chief executive of the charity Trevor Philpott, an ex-Royal Marine, said the situation was different now because C-FAR had been operating successfully for more than a year at Okehampton Camp.

'We were not up and running at that stage but now we can show that it works,' said Mr Philpott, whose current figures reveal a 61 per cent success rate of trainees completing the course, which includes nine-month mentor support.

He said that given time he hoped C-FAR would be able to win over the hearts and minds of the residents.

'Not everyone in Highampton is against us because we have had some positive reaction after meetings and presentations we have held there,' he said. 'I think given a bit of time and encouragement the residents will see for themselves that the guys are not running around the community getting up to terrible things.'

The work of the charity has been supported by leading figures in the prison service, probation and academic fields, including Sir David Ramsbottom, the former director general of the Prison Service.

Sir Jimmy Saville also gave his backing to C-FAR when he visited its base at Okehampton Camp two weeks ago.

Sir Jimmy branded opponents as 'Nimbys' (Not-In-My-Backyard) and said people had a responsibility to help those who had fallen by the wayside.

West Devon Council's planning committee will be told next week by officer Chris Watson that there have been no serious problems at Okehampton Camp since C-FAR was set up and the level of supervision provided to trainees was 'clearly high'.

'It is difficult, therefore, to see how an objection on fear of crime alone could be sustained when the available evidence suggests these fears will not materialise,' he said.