Kingswear South Devon - A group of Kingswear residents have appealed to the Secretary of State after a retrospective application on a controversial signal box was approved.
 
Members of the Kingswear Action on Rail and Riverboat Development (KARRD) group have already written to Eric Pickles asking that he launch a national inquiry into why the £200,000 office block was erected in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
 
Objectors to the scheme want to see the decision looked at again by a national independent planning inspector and the decision process at South Hams District Council reviewed during a public inquiry.
 
Mike Higgs, chairman of KARRD, said:  "We have written to Eric Pickles to call-in South Hams District Council's decision on planning grounds and we are calling for a public inquiry into the way it has been handled all along. We have concerns about the administration of this case which we would call mal-administration."
 
The call-in procedure was set in motion after members of the authority's planning committee voted 15 to four, with four abstaining, in favour of the new signal box application and an associated retrospective application to rip up 40 metres of listed rail track.
 
Opponents to the two-storey building at the Kingswear steam train terminus believe the building should never have been erected in its present location.
 
Dartmouth and Kingswear councillor Hilary Bastone told a planning meeting that had this application come up before the committee for the first time it would never have been granted.
 
Along with KARRD members he claimed the people of Kingswear had not been consulted by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company and no proper environmental impact assessment had been carried out.
 
Many residents believe the two-storey building is a blot on the landscape which obscures the views across the river Dart and has led to a loss of public amenities.
 
Cllr Bastone said:  "They have done a screening opinion which is subject to personal opinion but is not objective at all when it comes to the AONB, the scale of the project, the impact on the environment."
 
Fellow Dartmouth councillor Jonathan Hawkins added:  "I feel that this application has a number of mistakes. It would be for better if this application went to an outside body to be determined."
 
The Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company has always insisted it did not need planning consent because, as a statutory undertaker, it can build whatever it wants on its own land which is the track between Paignton and Kingswear.
 
This was confirmed to them almost 18 months ago by South Hams Council, but the company was later told its permitted development rights did not apply, in this instance, because the land was in, or close to, an area of outstanding natural beauty.
 
After the hearing, Andrew Pooley, the company's managing director said the railway had done everything which had been asked of it.
 
He said:  "I am glad the due process has been resolved. We have done everything we were asked to do as a business. We want to put all this behind us and take part in our community once more."
 
The steam train company said the new building, which looks like the signal box building which was pulled down on site 40 years ago, was part of an expansion plan and now houses its offices in new modern facilities.
 
After the hearing, which had come on the back of a full site visit by members of the planning committee, Mr. Higgs said:  "We will not let this rest. We will challenge this decision. We have appealed to the Secretary of State. We believe any building in the area should preserve and enhance the area which has high legal protection."
 
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