IN a challenging response to a county council plan for a promised £2 million new school at Devoran, Feock parish councillors have said it is not what they want and have rejected it.

They also plan to take their views to the Deputy Prime Minister demanding that road improvements to the A39 Carnon Downs bypass be carried out if the school still went ahead.

The county has threatened that unless the parish toes the line and approves their scheme - which calls for an access road to be sited off an already-busy Devoran Lane - the school will not be built.

After a packed public session at the council's monthly meeting in Devoran on Monday when so many villagers attended that there was standing room only, by a vote of seven to four members agreed to object to the county's planning application.

The disruption which the access would cause to the village would be too great, they agreed.

The decision came just two days before a site meeting was due to be held by the county council and ahead of a meeting at Devoran School planned for January 15 at which the chosen construction company will give a presentation.

The proposals for a new school in Devoran have already split the village and surrounding area. If it does go ahead it will give just one extra classroom - a small improvement on the already upgraded Victorian school in the centre of the village. It is also claimed it will lead to chaos in the already narrow Devoran Lane.

The county council originally intended access to the proposed school to be from the Carnon Downs bypass, due for major road improvements this year. But when the long-awaited road scheme was delayed to 2006 the county council said plans for the school would have to be finalised by March or available private funding would be withdrawn. There would have to be acceptance of an alternative access to the school from the village.

Many residents object to the way the county council has pushed the scheme forward.

Feelings among residents who spoke on Monday were, however, mixed with some emphasising the need for a bigger and better school, and others concerned at the traffic problems which could arise.

Clerk Alan Truan said the parish council was not against the new school but could not understand why the new road and the school could not proceed in tandem. Possible ecological objections blamed for the road scheme delay appeared now to have been discounted by English Nature.

Stuart Skeplorn described the county's stance as blackmail and said it was unacceptable.

Colin Holloway felt the parish should call the county's bluff and demand both the school and the road where they wanted it. "There must be a political will to do this," he said.

At the end of the public discussion 13 councillors considered a two-page resolution which they agreed should be submitted to the county council.

Their objections include the impact on residents and the quality of life in the village, a call for "greater will" to remove obstacles to allow the road and school to progress in tandem and a resubmission of the original planning application without further delay.

A copy of the response is to be sent to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office. It will incorporate the intent that should the county not accept its suggestions, the parish asks to meet senior officials to promote the instigation of an internal inquiry into the delays on the A39 and the proposed access to the new school.