Mixed reactions have greeted the news that the much-talked-about Kingsteignton 'urban village' looks set to become a reality.

On Monday, senior Teignbridge Council officers gave their backing to plans to develop almost 2,000 homes, new schools and medical facilities, new roads, shopping centres and industrial estates on worked-out clay land.

Their decision has yet to be approved by district councillors on Monday when the senior committee, the executive, meets at Forde House but close sources predict little resistance.

The big unknown, however, is what the government will make of the plans.

After a seven-week period of public consultation which ends on May 22, Teignbridge will submit its plans to an inspector representing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

That officer has the power to approve, amend or dismiss the council's ideas.

Chairman of Kingsteignton Parish Council, Cllr Jill Morris, said she hoped Teignbridge would explain where power lay during the rest of the process but added: 'I'm relieved that at long last a decision is in sight. it will give us the opportunity to express our opinions and our criticisms and I hope that our talks from here on are as constructive as possible.

Fellow Kingsteignton councillor and also chairman of Teignbridge Council, Cllr Mike Walters, said it was still too early to comment freely without running the risk of falling foul of conduct rules.

'We must be careful that we don't commit ourselves until the executive has had chance to debate the proposal on Monday,' he said.

'We don't want to get into a situation where our powers to comment later on when it counts are curtailed because we then have to declare an interest which might be prejudicial because we earlier played our hand.

'Suffice to say that whatever comes next it we must ensure that it serves the needs of Kingsteignton.'

The chairman of protest group KREAG, Jim White, was less equivocal.

'This isn't going to be a village any more, it's going to become an industrialised town,' he said. 'It seems to me that WBB and AWE are driving this hard through the planners and they've got exact;y what they want, chapter and verse.'