A SCHEME to transform a landmark former mill site into a retail, leisure, business and housing complex to rival Plymouth’s Royal William Yard has been given the nod by planners.

South Hams Council has approved the proposal by Burrington Estates for Ivybridge’s historic Stowford Mill, the former corn and later paper mill that closed in 2013 with the loss of many jobs.

The developer says the scheme will ‘open up the site’, allowing the public into the historic mill for the first time and adding ‘high quality facilities to Ivybridge, while strengthening its identity and contributing to the regeneration of the town centre’.

The plans include 36 new homes and 32 ‘later living’ one and two bed apartments, and the conversion of an existing farm to create two homes and 27 one and two bed apartments.

Read more in the Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette