Opponents to a proposed landfill near Kennford took to their local footpaths this afternoon (February 5) to express their disgust at a decision by Devon County Council to defer a decision on whether to grant planning permission for a landfill at Lower Brenton Farm.

With placards urging decision-makers to walkers, cyclists and horse-riders safe from the 200 plus HGVs likely to accessing the site, the residents, many of whom had been due to attend today’s meeting, expressed their disappointment at the last-minute deferral.

‘Today we are not objecting against the landfill specifically, but the way it’s been determined,’ explained Mike Elliot from the Residents Against the Landfill Campaign.

Fellow Residents Against the Landfill campaigner, John Nuttall, described the decision to defer the decision, without discussion with fellow members of Devon County Council’s Development Planning Committee, as ‘unjust, unconstitutional and potentially unlawful’.

Nearly 40 residents followed the footpaths from the entrance of the Orange Elephant at Lower Brenton Farm through the green fields that would become surrounded by the landfill, if it is given the go-ahead.

A final decision on the planning application was due to have been made at today’s (February 5) Devon County Council Development Management Committee (DMC). But on Friday (January 31) the decision was suddenly deferred to the April 2 DMC meeting after planning applicants BT Jenkins requested more time to submit additional information.

The last-minute request to delay the decision came just two days after Devon’s planning manager recommended that the DMC should refuse to give the site the go-ahead because the site would ‘have an unacceptable landscape and visual impact’. Devon’s Planning Manager also stated that ‘it is not anticipated that an acceptable scheme could be negotiated through amendments to the current proposals, and deferral of a decision is therefore not considered to be an appropriate option’.