residents of Aller Park, Newton Abbot, expressed cynicism, anger and despair this week at a public meeting into the CLS laundry row.

The packed meeting, in the Teignbridge Council chamber at Forde House, heard council chief executive Howard Davies explain why the Ombudsman's report into the row had found the council guilty of maladministration on two counts.

The first indictment revealed that Councillor A's report to the planning committee, during the planning process, had mistakenly referred to the proposed building as being 'constructed of brickwork, aluminium window frames and a profiled aluminium sheet roof.'

In fact, the application documents presented to the planning committee – including an artist's impression of the building – had shown the building almost exactly as it appears today.

The committee had knowingly approved the building in CLS's blue and white corporate colour scheme which today is causing so much anger among Aller Park residents.

The maladministration had been a technical error, therefore, and would not have altered the planning committee's decision.

Mr Davies would not reveal Cllr A's identity and stated that any mistake on his part was an internal matter for the council to deal with.

The second finding by the Ombudsman was that the planning committee had required that the developer should submit further details of the building materials to be used before construction. However, this requirement failed to appear on the consent when issued.

Present at the meeting was Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross, who has a 20-year background in architecture.

He said: 'This is a bad planning decision,' and added that the failure to include the materials specification in the consent was a 'developer's dream.'

'The sad reality is that we're saddled with it,' he concluded.

Mr Younger-Ross urged that the council now needed to 'instill a quality of design ethos' with regards to future planning and that, while the council had technically adhered to all the planning guidelines in this case, with the exception of the Ombudsman's findings, he pleaded with it 'not to take a narrow view of major planning decisions'.

This last point was largely referring to concern voiced at the meeting about a proposed further development for a new football pitch just 300 metres from the CLS site.

Head of planning services Steve Robinson said of the proposal, which would not technically be considered a 'major' development: 'The proposed pitch is 800 metres from Aller Park.

'This is a distant view in planning terms.' He dismissed residents' calls for better discussion and consultation stating that the council was meeting the minimum legal requirements for the publicising of new planning applications.

On the issue of publicising planning applications, Cllr Mike Haines, chairman of the development control committee, told the meeting that his grandfather, who used to live in Milber at one time, always read the newspapers each week to keep abreast of planning applications, possibly implying residents could help themselves by doing so.

Much of the meeting was taken up with residents' concerns regarding the screening of the CLS site.

David Beer, assistant to the chief executive, explained that the tree planting had been carried out in accordance with regulations set out by the Department for the Environment,Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and acknowledged that it could take some years for effective cover to develop.

He also added that the trees, mostly deciduous, had been specified to suit the Aller Valley site and a colony of great crested newts which are subject to protection under European and British law.

Mr Davies' comment that £12,500 had been spent by the council on the landscaping was met by derisory laughter.

Also at the meeting was Cllr Gordon Hook, who suggested that CLS be approached and asked for a gesture of goodwill to be made to help make the building blend in adding: 'Surgeons can bury their mistakes, architects can only resort to ivy.'

Cllr Haines stated that the council had ongoing informal discussions with CLS and that the strength of feelings expressed would be passed on.

The meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, drew some barbed comments from the Aller Park residents who attended.

Mr Yates, of the Residents' Action Group, questioned whether the council had read its own booklet on planning. He also suggested that the whole affair had been 'a negligent fiasco' and claimed that none of the officers lived in the area affected, a comment which drew a round of applause.

Les Edgecombe added: 'I don't feel safe being represented by anyone who can put something like that in a green field site.'

Mr Davies commented: 'We have nothing to hide and we openly acknowledge that we have made mistakes.' He also informed the meeting that the council had learnt from its mistakes and that measures were now in place to avoid similar situations in the future.

The Ombudsman has recommended that the council makes an ex-gratia payment of £500 to the action group to remedy the 'injustice' dealt to residents.

This newspaper invited Alex Rowe, joint managing director of CLS, to make a comment on Tuesday's meeting and the call for CLS to reconsider it's refusal to alter the appearance of the building, but he declined.