A PLANNING application for a business park on land at Sidford was submitted and then returned to agents for Fords of Sidmouth – after district council planners said it was ‘incomplete’.

Officers told the applicant they will need to provide an environmental statement after experts carried out their own screening assessment.

The issue has arisen because of the scale and nature of the development and the potential impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The application could not be validated as a result.

“It is normal practice to give an applicant three weeks to provide any missing information and, in the meantime, the application would be kept on file as dormant,” a district council spokesman told the Herald as it went to press yesterday.

“In this case, planners feel that it would take the applicant much longer than three weeks to get all the documentation together for the environmental statement .

“The application will, therefore, be voided and the fee returned to the agents, who will be invited to submit a fresh application when they are ready.”