Campaigners have expressed their disappointment after a bid to safeguard Knowle’s parkland was rejected this week.

The move by the Knowle Residents’ Association (KRA) to register the whole of the site as an ‘asset of community value’ was turned down by East Devon District Council (EDDC).

If successful, it would have given the group a chance to put together a financial bid to buy the parkland.

But KRA chairman Keith Northover said, despite the refusal, the group would be happy if proposals to gift the site to Sidmouth Town Council went ahead as planned.

He said: “We are disappointed, but at the moment we are not prepared to put in another application because we don’t want to wrong-foot the town council.

“We only intended to do this in order to save the park for use by the residents of Sidmouth.”

An East Devon District Council spokesman said that the application had been refused because the Knowle Residents’ Association had tried to register the whole of the Knowle site - including the car parks and access road - which ‘did not meet the criterion that constitute a community asset’.