PLANS have gone in for a new Welcoming Building in the car park at Powderham Castle.

This is among a list of applications that have been received by Teignbridge Council this week.

The application has been made in the name of The Earl of Devon Charles Courtenay.

In the design and access statement, Powderham Castle says: ‘The Welcome Building is to be used as the first point of entry and the exit point for visitors to the Powderham Estate.

‘The Welcome Building will be used as a place for orientation and to provide information for visitors, for the sale of tickets and basic refreshments, as a retail space and to provide toilets to visitors.

‘The Welcome Building has been designed to be read as a modern building but using materials that are sympathetic to its surrounding woodland and parkland contexts.’

The building would have a gross area of 47m2. This would be increased to 155m2 if the external ramps and steps are included.

The statement adds: ‘The proposed building needs to be visible to visitors so that they are able to easily pick out the building in the car park yet it must also be comfortable in the woodland and parkland landscapes that surround the car park while not diminishing the setting of the nearby listed buildings

It concludes: ‘The proposal for the Welcome Building allows the estate to provide many essential services for visitors that are not currently conveniently found on the estate.

‘This Welcome Building provides these services in a central location, easily accessible from the car park and from within the estate in a building that has been designed using materials that are appropriate to and sympathetic to their context. ‘

Every week dozens of planning applications are submitted to local councils, and the coronavirus pandemic has not changed that.

Among the other applications this week is one for the replacement of the existing 15 metre telecommunications mast South of the Sewerage Treatment site at Warren Road, Dawlish. It will be replaced with a 20 metre ‘Phase 8’ monopole mast with a radio equipment cabinet. The applicant is EE (UK) Ltd.