A PROPOSED expansion to an Okehampton service station would inject £7.5-million into the local economy through employment during its construction and provide an extra 40 jobs on site in the future, the Times has learned this week.

Dartmoor National Park planners will decide tomorrow (Friday) on an application for a replacement highway services building, extended car park, heavy goods vehicle parking area and landscaping at Whitehouse Services between Okehampton and Sticklepath.

The plan has been recommended for refusal by planning officers because it would have a detrimental impact on the character and visual appearance on this part of the national park landscape and is against planning policy.

Planning consultant for Whitehouse Services Joseph Marchant said that the development would increase employment opport-unities both during and after construction as well as significantly improve the current facilities for a growing community.

He said: ‘The services are at breaking point. The number of people needing a stop is far more than can be catered for in the current buildings and facilities.

‘The population is growing and more people have private transport, demand is not what it was 30 to 40 years ago.

‘In my opinion, Okehampton needs to increase wealth and opportunity for young people. The owners of Whitehouse Services — the Snowdon family — have appointed many of their consultancy services locally. The next stage of the project will be £7.5-million to be spent on local contractors and services.’

Mr Marchant said this would be an economic lifeline for many families. He said this project, through the construction workforce, the future full time jobs, which would rise from around 30 to around 70, and the increase in visitors and business opportunities supported by better infrastructure, had every opportunity to help the area.

‘The imaginative and distinctive contemporary Dartmoor architecture of the proposed site could well draw people into taking a break in this location and exploring the town and this would be good,’ he said.

Mr Marchant also expressed that planning application, if approved, would improve traffic problems as well as delays when purchasing fuel or goods.

‘The service station is popular and busy. Traffic all enters through the forecourt. The proposals re-route traffic and will split fuel purchase traffic from service stop traffic, this separation and reposition of the access makes for a much improved situation.

‘The present scheme has one till for all fuel purchase and goods. This causes delay, but there is inadequate space to change things. The new scheme allow for the existing shop to be relocated, enabling the existing structure to deal with high convenience motorist needs and to invest in a bank of new payment facilities for fuel customers.’

Mr Marchant said that the current overall aesthetic appeal of the site was really poor and the very best materials and technologies for the new scheme, including the below ground infrastructure, had been proposed.

He added: ‘The materials selected for the scheme have been chosen to celebrate the materials and textures of the moor. The scheme maximises southern light and has a sleek form which has an agricultural scale. The site is where it needs to be to serve the road users and the choices have considered landscape.

‘The layout doesn’t only deal with huge benefits for underground services and treatment and traffic management, but also was picked to try and reduce the impact of the A30 from the moorland to the south. The buildings would sit parallel to the road and along with the trees, would mask some of the visual intrusion of the road.

‘It may also deflect A30 road traffic sounds. At present, there is a visual intrusion created by the site which is very piecemeal. The new integrated scheme would have a far more pleasing appearance and so whilst it is larger, it would still be much better.’

Dartmoor National Park Authority planning officers have recommended that the proposal be refused on the grounds that it would have a detrimental impact on the character and visual appearance of the landscape and that it conflicts with the Dartmoor National Park Core Strategy, which is a blueprint for development over the next few years.

A spokesperson for Dartmoor National Park Authority said: ‘The application has been recommended for refusal because the proposed development would, by reason of its scale, design and location, have a detrimental impact on the character and visual appearance of this part of the National Park landscape.

‘Also, the proposed development is outside any classified settlement and does not represent the small scale expansion and development of an existing business site — an appropriate sustainable tourism/small scale recreation enterprise based on the intrinsic qualities of the Dartmoor National Park or development needed to promote national park purposes. It is therefore contrary to the Dartmoor National Park Core Strategy Development Plan document.’