A decision on the future of a proposed landfill site just off the A38 at Kennford will be made tomorrow (April 16) at a Devon County Council Development Management Committee meeting.

Last week, the County Planning Manager recommended that the application for a 700,000 cubic metre inert waste and recycling facility on fields at Lower Brenton Farm, home of the Orange Elephant, should be refused due to its ‘unacceptable landscape and visual impact’.

Applicants BT Jenkins have been eyeing up the Kennford site for some years. The firm’s original planning application for a landfill of 1.2 million cubic metres of inert waste and a recycling facility was withdrawn in 2022. BT Jenkins then submitted a revised application in 2023 for a smaller landfill for 700,000 cubic metres of inert waste with a ten-year tenure.

A final decision on the fate of the proposed landfill was due to be made in February. However, it was delayed shortly before the Development Management Committee was due to discuss the matter after BT Jenkins requested additional time to submit more information.

The Clyst St Mary-based earth-moving, plant hire and landfill firm currently operates the Trood Lane recycling and inert landfill site which is about a kilometre away. But this site is nearing the end of its life, having exhausted its permitted capacity. The site at Lower Brenton Farm was intended as a replacement.

BT Jenkins said it had listened to feedback after its original planning submission and had changed its plans in its subsequent planning application in response to the concerns that had been raised.

‘In years to come, the changes to the restored landscape will be barely noticeable,’ said Russell Lowton from BT Jenkins.’ A changing landscape is nothing new, agriculture has shaped Devon’s countryside for millennia,’ he added.

However, there are still fears about the safety of people using public rights of way around the site and about the impact the site will have on the character and view of the nearby Peamore Park and Garden heritage site.

The controversial planning application has numerous opponents. Objections have been logged by several hundred individuals or households. A petition opposing the proposed landfill site with 3,325 signatures was presented to Devon County Council in November 2024. Additional objections have also been submitted by the parish councils in Exminster, Kenn and Shillingford St George, a local primary school, garden and wildlife groups, cycling and walking groups and Action on Climate Change in Teignbridge.

Teignbridge District Council’s planning department are also unhappy with the landfill scheme amid concerns that it will disrupt proposed house building in the area.