The new £10 million Garden Park at Trago Mills, Stover, has opened for business amid a flurry of publicity and celebrity endorsement.

Garden designer Diarmuid Gavin performed the honours on Saturday as thousands of visitors poured in to see what the region's newest garden centre has to offer.

At a launch party to celebrate the opening, Trago boss Bruce Robertson heaped praise on his staff and management team, saying they had overcome a number of hurdles in the eight years since the project began.

He also thanked local councillors for their support in overcoming resistance from Teignbridge planning officers.

Mr Robertson has christened the five new towers on the site 'Steve's stakes', reflecting the problems he had convincing Teignbridge Council's head of planning, Steve Robinson, that they were in keeping with the 27 others on the site.

Last year councillors voted overwhelmingly to approve the hallmark towers, despite Mr Robinson's recommendation that they were an eyesore and out of keeping with the 'rural' nature of the shopping complex.

Mr Robertson said more than half of the £10 million cost of the new centre had been pumped directly back into the region's economy by employing local contractors.

He is hopeful the centre will stem the flow of shoppers who are currently travelling outside the district for the range of goods and services only major garden centres can offer.

'Trago has been the premier family destination in the south west for some time and will continue to be so because we do things properly and offer people what they want,' he said.

Cllr Jeremy Christophers, the ward member who has championed the Trago expansion, said the new development would help keep visitors in the area at a time when every penny counted.

Borrowing from the firm's own catchphrase he said: 'Nobody beats Trago.'