Local residents are continuing to protest over a lack of progress with Dawlish's Old Vicarage. 

The Grade II listed property on Weech Road, which has been slowly falling apart over several decades, has now been stuck in planning limbo for almost two and a half years.

Plans to demolish parts of the Old Vicarage and restore others have been opposed by Historic England, the organisation responsible for listing properties, as it thinks the site is still of historic interest and wants to protect the cob of the main building.

Teignbridge District Council told Dawlish Nub News in September it hoped to be able "to make a decision in the coming months".

Now, the council says it is "reviewing the options we can take to resolve the current impasse."

At a meeting of the Old Vicarage Action Group (which wants the application to be approved) on 20 January at the Swan Inn, it was highlighted that part of the dividing wall with the property next door had fallen down. 

Part of the dividing wall has fallen down (Paul Perkin)

Chair of the Old Vicarage Action Group Paul Perkin said: "It is well documented that the residents are unhappy and have been for a number of years at Teignbridge Planning Department's failure to conclude the current application and rejection of previous applications and as a result, we are left with a decaying dangerous unsightly building to live beside."

Cllr Martin Wrigley (Lib Dem, Dawlish North East) offered some insight into the situation at the meeting.

He said: "An application can sit for a long, long time, whilst the applicant and the planners are talking.

"If we can get Historic England to acknowledge that it's fallen down so much, then Teignbridge have an easy way of going forward. 

"If we can get Teignbridge to find a way around it that's in the public interest... that might be a way around it.

"We did see the Boat House down by the railway demolished. That was a listed building, and it was demolished because of the overwhelming public interest.

"The next step for us will be to go and talk to the planning officers."

Read more about the situation here.