Battling Churchstow villagers have lost their fight to kill off plans for a 41,000 square foot potato processing plant on their doorstep – for the second time in just over a year.

Despite protests that the huge processing complex will leave Churchstow 'sandwiched' between industrial sites and wreck the villagers' 'way of life', planners said yes to the project.

The decision means Galmpton-based family farming firm of A J Lidstone and Sons can shift their processing operation in nearby Galmpton to the new site just off the A379 – 650 feet outside Churchstow and in the heart of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It will be housed in three huge buildings standing up to 27 feet high alongside a new home and site office.

The planners made exactly the same decision in April last year but were forced to reconsider the whole application after campaigners mounted a legal challenge, employed a barrister and threatened South Hams Council with a judicial review.

Following a second development manage committee debate on Wednesday the district councillors reached the yes decision by a vote of eight to four.

Campaigners warned the major planning application had still not come up with the evidence to prove the benefits to the community outweighed the harm to the AONB or the nearby grade II listed St Mary's Church in Churchstow - and questioned its lawfulness.

Churchstow Parish Council chairman Roger Hind told district councillors they now had the chance to 'decide either to keep the villagers' way of life the way it is or ruin it'.

He warned that if the potato processing plant is built it will leave Churchstow 'sandwiched' between two industrial sites.

And he added: 'If you are going to develop Churchstow then develop it as a place to live. Please don't turn it into an industrial village.'

But district councillors claimed moving the processing site to Churchstow just yards away from two main A roads would take HGV traffic off the minor roads system around Galmpton and help secure an important local employment operation.

Cllr Julian Brazil pointed out that the parishes around Churchstow supported the planning application.

The planning applications have been granted with dozens of conditions which includes a major landscaping scheme – which will be monitored for at least the next five years.

Andrew Lethbridge, speaking as agent for AJ Lidstone and Sons said the farming operation grows its potato crop across 700 acres of land scattered across the South Hams.

Because of the restriction on the size of the Galmpton site much of the crop has to be transported as far as Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to be placed in cold storage – and then trucked back to Galmpton to be packed and distributed.

But Mr Hind questioned whether trees would ever be able to hide the proposed building and Cllr Judy Pearce warned that the committee had not been given a proper report on vehicle movements, any landscape and visual impact assessment or a report about possible alternative sites as she declared: 'This is not the right site.'