A RARE plant, mentha pulegium – better known as pennyroyal – is preventing British Ceramic Tile (BCT) from expanding its production and warehousing at Heathfield. The area off Old Newton Road is a County Wildlife Site (CWS) designated in November 2000 and notified to Teignbridge Council in the spring of 2001. The Heathfield pennyroyal site is described as a mosaic of heath, scrub and grassland with plant interest. It is illegal for anyone, including the landowner, to uproot or pick pennyroyal plant without a licence from English Nature. The native variety is listed and protected through the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Representations have been made for boundary changes to the site and the matter goes to Teignbridge Council's Executive on Monday. It is being recommended that the County Wildlife Site at BCT should be included in the Local Development Framework with an amended boundary. A report states that the council has asked the owners to enter into an agreement for sympathetic management of the site to protect the pennyroyal, but they had not entered into an agreement to date. Earlier this year, there was concern that wildlife was getting more notice than youth. In a public consultation in May, a resident maintained that greater emphasis was being given to wildlife than the younger population and that the area was seen as the only likely place for a skate park. Moorskating, of Bovey Tracey, objected to the allocation of the site as a CWS. The group proposed a youth activity centre for the site. BCT in its consultation claimed that as owner it had no record of designation. It believed the CWS boundary was totally inappropriate as it encompassed a substantial part of the site designated as employment land, which did not contain or encroach on any pennyroyal area. The company asked that the CWS designation should be removed from the entire site and replaced with a smaller area specific to current locations of the Pennyroyal colonies. BCT has asked permission for a house development with regard to the suggested boundary, but this has not been granted.