Volunteers for a community enterprise are celebrating after winning a five-year battle to secure planning permission for a composting site at Bowd.

The Otter Rotters managed to survive ‘exorbitant’ new Government fees that forced other community groups to close down, but supporters continue to fight on.

The team is now celebrating after attaining planning permission to compost on the old Woods Farm recycling site.

Director and volunteer Mandy Jennings said: “This will partly re-instate our capacity and enable schools and other organisations to benefit from the compost produced. This is a lifeline for Otter Rotters, and it will have benefits for the community and environment.”

The not-for-profit enterprise provides support for learning disabled individuals and disadvantaged people – offering them a gateway back into the workplace. It has provided green waste kerbside collections across East Devon for 15 years.

The new site will be a facility for composting the green waste collected from Sidmouth’s kerbside collections.

Mandy expressed her gratitude to district councillor Roger Giles for his help in identifying and securing the site, saying: “[He] has been a long-standing supporter of Otter Rotters.”