A JUDGE has ruled that the decision to grant planning permission for the new Tides Reach Hotel near Salcombe will not be subject to a judicial review.

Responding to the action brought by a member of campaign group Keep South Sands Beautiful, the judge decided it was not possible to demonstrate sufficient fault in the procedures followed by the planning authority, South Hams Council.

The group had hoped to be allowed to proceed with the review, to convince the Eden Hotel Collection to alter the design of the proposed building.

Following the setback, KSSB has decided against appealing the decision after hearing that the company was considering 'going back to the drawing board' with the design. Eden has declined to comment on whether this is the case.

Members of the group had even suggested holding a competition for architects to come up with a more sympathetic design.

The company is part of the Rigby Group, headed by Sir Peter Rigby, who owns a house in Salcombe.

Eden's proposals, to demolish the existing, unoccupied Tides Reach and replace it with a larger and more prominent hotel, were passed by a slender six votes to five by the council's development committee in February.

KSSB feels that councillors were influenced in part by a fear of incurring costs to the council in the event of any appeal of their decision. While a figure running to hundreds of thousands of pounds had been mooted, legal advice given to the group confirms this potential cost would in fact be no more than £50,000.

The group also said a viability report compiled by Savills fails to explain why the hotel needs to have so many rooms, and was heavily redacted.

KSSB had to make a freedom of information request in order to obtain the report from South Hams Council, as it had not been made public with other documents relating to the application.

KSSB says it is in favour of the redevelopment of the hotel site as soon as possible, but is critical of the proposed design and loss of parking available to the public.

It said it had hoped 'to have a further opportunity to persuade South Hams Council to take account of overwhelming local views on the overbearing size and design of the proposed new building and the loss of public parking'.

A spokesperson for KSSB added: 'Although the legal route to reconsideration of the size, design and car parking for the hotel is closed, the campaign is far from over and various other initiatives are underway. Ultimately KSSB are hopeful that the Rigby Group will re-consider their plans in view of the legitimate concerns of so many local people, residents and home owners, and regular visitors to South Sands.

'A re-design need not take long to create and get approved.

'The delay involved in achieving a better solution need only be a few months.

'This does not seem to be much of a price to pay for avoiding a permanent blot on the environment of South Sands, and a permanent exclusion from the beach of the public dependent on car parking to bring their families and small boats.'