THE main part of works to decarbonise two Mid Devon leisure centres won’t begin until planning permission has been granted, the authority has been forced to confirm.

The clarification comes after the district council’s planning committee agreed to consider the applications for energy improvement works at Exe Valley Leisure Centre in Tiverton and Lords Meadow in Crediton at a future meeting.

However, a council press release issued on Monday, October 4, a day before the committee meeting, stated that the works had already started.

A council officer later confirmed that only minor works which don’t require planning permission will be undertaken until the committee gives approval.

It follows a planning dispute in July, when it was revealed that plans to increase the size of a car park for a property company owned by Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) began before permission was given.

Permission was subsequently refused, although it will now be decided by a planning inspector.

Referring to this, Councillor Les Cruwys (Lib Dem, Cranmore) said at a planning meeting on October 5: “Yesterday, the district council put out a very nice notification to the public explaining what was happening with these covers and the solar panels and everything else in the two leisure centres and that work will start on the fourth of October.

“The fourth of October was yesterday. The work started yesterday. And yet here we are on the fifth looking at when to have the planning committee to give it permission.

“We have jumped the gun again and if we expect the public to adhere to the planning process then we ruddy well have got to do it ourselves.”

Andrew Busby, the council’s corporate manager for property, leisure and climate change, clarified the situation: “The work that we’ve started on relates to the ground source heating installation and we’re well within permitted development rights for that stage of the project.”

Permitted development rights allow for some works to be carried out without going through a formal planning process.

Mr Busby added: “The second stage, which is the air source heat pumps and the solar panels, won’t be started until permission is secured.”

The work will allow both leisure centres to move away from high-cost fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

It is being funded by £2.8 million secured from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of its public sector decarbonisation scheme.

Ollie Heptinstall

LDRS