Plans for a £20 million service station complex at Ilford Park, Stover, have been thrown out. The bid, by Arnold White Estates Ltd, proposed an 80-room budget hotel, pub, restaurant, petrol station and retail area. The company is likely to appeal It received the backing of Teignbridge planning officers after no objections from statutory consultees such as Devon County Council and Natural England. Objections or concerns were, however, raised by councils in Newton Abbot, Bovey Tracey, Ilsington and Teigngrace. According to AWE representative, Rebecca McAllister, the scheme would provide 'substantial benefits to the area' and create up to 150 jobs. She said the firm would contribute up to £30,000 on a water protection scheme to protect nearby Stover Lake and claimed the proposed diversion of the A382 would provide 'significant improvements' for the country park with the creation of a buffer zone and the re-siting of the car park away from the Site of Special Scientific Interest. New traffic lights at the Drumbridges roundabout would, she said, result in better traffic management and the Highways Agency had concluded that there was 'no better site' for a service area on the A38 between Plymouth and Exeter. Most councillors were unconvinced by Mrs McAllister's arguments, including Cllr Fred Symons, who criticised the notion of traffic lights at Drumbridges, saying current debate suggested similar existing arrangements only worked 'when they're switched off'. He was also concerned that if the woodland site was developed, water run off could result in pollution and flooding. Cllr Jeremy Christophers said the application was 'highly premature', the information 'paper thin' and that the plan would do nothing for the local economy. 'There's nothing to convince me this is a good idea,' he said. Perhaps the most comprehensive attack on the scheme came from Cllr Anna Klinkenberg, who concluded that the scheme would have a 'serious detrimental effect' on the surrounding area. She argued it was already well served by petrol stations, hotels, gift shops and supermarkets and said that to provide a pub at the new development would encourage drink driving. Increased pollution would, she said, make the children of nearby St Catherine's Primary School 'the filling in a sandwich between a noisy industrial estate and a polluting service station'. Councillors voted 19-2 against.
