Early in December one of our members contacted the Society. Both he, and many of his neighbours, were concerned about a proposal the LPA had received six days earlier for a campsite in a field by Deere Bridge.

Following a visit to the site the Society submitted an objection, pointing out:

• the site directly abuts the highly protected landscape of the South Devon National Landscape.
• the access to the site is via narrow lanes without adequate passing places for caravans, campervans and trailer tents. These lanes necessitate considerable reversing and it is a known issues in the neighbourhood of Slapton.
• the field entrance is on a road with a long history of flooding.
• the site is steep and will require engineering works.
• the site abuts the Slapton Ley SSSI and is in the risk assessments zones
• Part of the site is recorded on the Devon County Environmental viewer as either a designated site or a DBRC Priority Habitat.

The field, we said, was an inappropriate location for caravans and campervans. Included with our submission were a number of photographs clearly illustrating the access problems. However, and as the case officer pointed out:

We are not the determining body for this proposal as the Local Planning Authority are a consultee on applications for exemption certificates. The exempted organisation will submit a notification to the LPA seeking their views before issuing a certificate permitting sites to be used for camping/caravanning. Therefore all I will be doing is issuing comments to the determining body based upon the site designations and potential constraints for them to take into account as part of their decision to grant or not grant any certification.

Not long afterwards the case officer reviewing the Notification issued his comments to the Club. Although these have yet to be posted to the Council’s website it is clear no exemption certificate has been issued.