TEIGNBRIDGE Council has had to fork out £850,000 compensation for a planning bungle 13 years ago.

And it could well have got off lightly for the pay out is well below the original £3 million claim.

The long running saga began in 1999 when the district authority mistakenly granted Lady's Mile Holiday Park, Dawlish, permanent planning permission for tents and caravans on part of its land.

The owners only applied for temporary permission to coincide with the solar eclipse that year, when it was expected thousands of people would flood into the area.

S