ELEVEN of Teignbridge Council's retrospective applications to Dartmoor National Park Authority for domestic heating oil tanks in Christow and Hennock have gone through on the nod.

The other application, at 11 Road Park, Hennock, has been refused using delegated powers.

Colin Jarvis, the DNPA principal planning officer, explained that the container was in an area 'we could not accept for visual impact'.

He said Teignbridge had agreed to re-site it more appropriately.

Mr Jarvis added that it was an oversight by the council and as soon as it was realised, retrospective planning permission had been applied for.

All were decided on the delegated powers of the chief planning officer, Graham Wall, and all but one were granted subject to landscaping/ screening conditions.

The district authority's development control committee found itself in an embarrassing situation when officers explained the containers had gone into the front gardens of homes and it had not been realised that planning permission was needed.

On today's DNPA planning committee agenda. The district council's nine applications for St James's Place, Christow, and three for Road Park, Hennock, are listed as having been decided under delegated powers.

Members of the planning committee will note the decisions.

In April, Simon Barnes, the district council's solicitor, told members it had been the intention to hide the containers in the back gardens, but it had not been possible to put them there because of the difficulty of trying to persuade the oil to run uphill.

When the tanks were put in the front gardens instead, the fact that planning permission would be required was overlooked.

But residents of Road Park, Hennock, were fuming.

One said she had asked why it could not go to the rear or side of the house because it would still have been on higher ground, but the council had put it in the front garden and ruined it.

Another resident had refused to allow a container in his front garden.

Objections had been sent to Teignbridge Council and one of the objectors said what was really annoying was that it was difficult to get planning permission in the national park and 'yet these unsightly containers just go straight in and because it is the council they will get permission'.