Major plans for the expansion of Homeleigh Garden Centre at Crediton in mid-Devon have been announced by the Broad family, who also operate Homeleigh centres at Bude and Launceston.

Plans involve a new café and warehouse plus new indoor retail space, creating up to 60 jobs. Highways improvements for a new entrance off the A377 will be required.

In December Mid Devon District Council deferred the application pending a report on the plan’s affect on Crediton town centre and traffic issues.

The company’s revised planning application envisages reducing the number of parking spaces from 194 to 163, halving the number of coach spaces to three and staff parking from 42 to 30. The proposed height of the buildings has been cut from 5m to 3.7m.

The site, acquired by the Derek and Enis Broad and their son Rob in 2017, already has planning permission for the proposed retail floor space and range of goods.

The company says the site is not fulfilling its potential and is currently under-utilised with large areas of unused scrub ground surrounding a random series of east-to-west gabled simple horticultural glass-houses and propagation poly-tunnels. Site facilities like the shop, customer toilets and car park, it says, are “rudimentary”.

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“Long-term lack of developed facilities on site has added to a steady decline in employed staff numbers and the existing garden centre employs four full-time staff and three part-time staff,” the application support document explains.

“This application is to modernise the site as a viable garden centre, with associated retail and other gardening related and sundry non-related goods, together with an in-house café for the on-site consumption of food and drink.

Local media reports suggest the scheme has split the local community, with over 100 letters for and against.

The Broad family set up their Launceston centre in 1977 and acquired the Bude site from Wyevale Garden Centres earlier this year.