THE FIGHT goes on. That's the message from campaigners fighting plans for a controversial garden centre at Milverton Road, Wellington.

Despite being stranded in New York because of flight restrictions caused by the Icelandic volcano, Kieron McGrath of Tone Action Group emailed the WWN on Tuesday night, after the paper had gone to press, to say the protesters had rejected Taunton Deane Borough Council's 's decision to grant the planning application, and would continue to fight the proposal.

He said: "The (Deane council's) planning committee is clearly in breach of its own standing orders.

"As a result of representations by Tone Action Group, TDBC employed a barrister to determine whether or not it had in fact broken its own rules. Not surprisingly, counsel found that TDBC did not break these rules.

"Unfortunately this implies that an existing TDBC standing order is unlawful. TDBC tax payers might wish to question why it was necessary for the planning authorities to pay for advice concerning interpretation of their own rules.

"The fact is that the original application was rejected by the planning committee, and was subsequently overturned under circumstances that were distinctly questionable.

"Anybody who attended the meeting should be concerned at the abuse of democracy that was so apparent."

The shock decision prompted all three Wellington councillors sitting on the Deane planning committee to resign in protest, including Wellington Town Mayor, Peter Critchard, and the Mayor of Taunton Deane, Wellington Cllr Bob Bowrah.

Mr McGrath added: "A secondary issue we have taken up with the council concerns the failure of the planning department to notify objectors to the application of the date and time that the committee would meet.

"This appears to have been a crude attempt to stifle debate and to deprive objectors of their democratic rights.

"Tone Action Group has established that of the 140-plus objectors who wrote letters and emails opposing the application, almost none received notification that the meeting was taking place.

"This includes almost the entire population of Runnington, the hamlet which will be most affected by this proposed development."

He said officials had told the group that council records showed those who had objected were notified of the date of the meeting.

Mr McGrath said: "This is patently untrue and Tone Action Group intends to provide proof that TDBC is being economical with the truth."

South Western Property wants to build an 8,000 square metre retail outlet with parking for 100 cars, plus coaches on the site, which is on agricultural land beyond the River Tone, seen as the boundary of Wellington.

In a statement to the WWN on Tuesday, the Deane council said: "The council has been advised that its decision-making process was correct and that the decision of conditional approval should stand."

It added: "There will therefore be no further review of the decision, and members of the public will not have the opportunity to raise further issues."