WEST Devon planners have granted planning permission for a new visitor centre at the Fairground Heritage Centre at Lifton.

Planning permission was granted for the building by West Devon Borough Council on October 25. Set into the side of a hill, it will double the size of the existing building which is used to display vintage fairground rides.

Richard Sandercock, who owns the site, said the new building would be built as an extension to the existing one, housing the attraction’s collection of vintage fairground rides. Once built, it will display several vintage fairground rides in the Fairground Heritage Trust’s collection which are currently in storage.

‘We have three or four that we can’t use because of lack of space,’ said Mr Sandercock. ‘We want to get them all up and running. I have got to sort out the contractors and costs now, so hopefully we can make a start in the spring, and have it finished by the following spring.

‘It will be good for visitors because it will be all under one roof. Instead of going from one building to another they will be in the dry.’

The new visitors centre will cost £500,000 to build, with the money to come from the proceeds of an auction of Mr Sandercock’s collection of steam engines, vintage machinery and tools at his workshop next door to the Fairground Heritage Centre.

This includes £350,000 raised for his Conqueror Burrell steam engine, which he has owned for 40 years.

The new facility will house three rides — The Skid, The Rodeo Switchback and the Brooklyn Speedway — which have been in the Fairground Heritage Trust’s collection since the 1980s.

‘The Skid doesn’t need any work, but the others do because they have been packed up since the 1960s,’ said Mr Sandercock. ‘That isn’t a problem though because we have people, our volunteers, who can do the work. Now my workshop is empty, I will probably lease that back to the trust so they can do the work in there.’