PROPOSALS by the CLS Laundry to add an extension to its controversial building at Decoy, Newton Abbot, have been submitted.

Representatives of CLS have been in consultation with Teignbridge Council planning officers with plans to build an additional lorry bay for the unloading of soiled laundry adjacent to the boiler house. Les Edgecumbe, of Aller Park, one of the residents who led protests over the laundry being built at Decoy – their properties look out on to the site – said an extension would 'be a wart on the carbuncle'. Mr Edgecumbe said the plan also involved uprooting two of the trees which were paid for by council taxpayers money. He maintained the trees were supposed to be under a protection order. The laundry wants a manoeuvring space for vehicles and that would involve taking out the trees. 'No effort should be spared to object to any attempt to extend this blot on the landscape. 'When they have achieved one extension, they will go for more and more. Word is that they are already tight on work space and that more capacity is required. This must be the real reason that sites on the Brunel and Heathfield industrial estates were rejected by the company – that nice big green field up for development grab – if required later. 'Where will it stop? Are we to have our noses rubbed in their soiled laundry affair?' asked Mr Edgecumbe. The official planning application went in on tuesday, and it will be advertised. The three Teignbridge Council ward members – Cllrs David Corney-Walker, Gordon Hook and Robert Leeper – are holding a surgery in St Luke's Church Hall, Milber, on Saturday, September 9, to gauge residents' views. At the surgery there will be a book available for residents comments to be registered. As well as a 'carbuncle', residents also likened the laundry to a space ship, a blob and an eyesore, particularly at night.

In 2002 after the district authority's planning committee granted permission, it emerged at a public meeting that a vital condition relating to materials was omitted from the decision notice. Admitting its error the council conducted an internal inquiry and in an almost unprecedented move called in the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate. One of the major issues was a colony of great crested newts, the moving of a fence and screening, and Teignbridge had agreed to undertake further landscaping, allocating up to £10,000 for that purpose. By the end of that year the sum had already been exceeded and projected costs with a maintenance agreement for the following two years was £12,213. Cllr Hook told the Advertiser: 'I will be doing all I can to reassure local residents that I am opposed to this application. The original plan and building is a curse on the landscape and this new application is like adding salt to a wound. 'Within the application there are plans to cut down two mature trees. We need more trees, not fewer, and less buildings not more. 'I will be doing everything in my power to publicise that this application has been submitted and will be doing all I can to stop it going ahead.'