THERE were tears at Monday's meeting of Dulverton Town Council when members stuck to their guns and opposed allowing a sculptor to use the town's old bottle store in the Guildhall car park as his new base.

The council's planning committee had already recommended refusal of the application to change the use of the store to a sculptor's studio.

Cllr Roger Woolley said the committee's decision had been based on the fact that the store was in a residential and conservation area and the new use could potentially cause dust and noise pollution as well as extra traffic.

But in light of the fact the application had been supported by the Exmoor National Park Authority, the matter was put before Monday's full council meeting for further discussion.

Councillors were told by the wife of the sculptor that her husband had made a living making creations both large and small for the last 20 years.

She said his work could be found in many private collections as well as on public display.

However, she became upset when the majority of councillors remained unmoved.

She sobbed: "We did not have any problems in the village where we used to live and we lived there for 20 years. This is a man's livelihood you're talking about."

But councillors felt the real problem lay in the wording of the change of use application, fearing it was "too open ended" and could potentially lead to a large scale commercial operation.

Mr Woolley said: "It is not the council's purpose to comment on the ability of the person involved.

"There are industrial premises more suitable for this purpose further down the road."

His colleague Mike Balsom added: "I am sure this would be an asset to the community but I think it is in the wrong place."

Members voted against allowing the change of use but agreed to try and help the applicant find alternative premises in the town.

l The new chief executive of West Somerset District Council, Tim Howes, came in for criticism when he went along to the meeting to introduce himself.

After telling councillors how important the opinions of town and parish councils were, Dulverton councillors took the opportunity to accuse the district council of riding roughshod over them.

Cllr Woolley said Dulverton was the capital of Exmoor but no one had asked the town council for its views on a possible tourism merger with North Devon.

Cllr Woolley also asked why the local police officer had had to report a car parked without tax in Northmoor Road on three separate occasions to the district council before any action was taken.

However, he told Mr Howes that a district council enforcement notice had finally been put on the car, but that notice had not been dated and was therefore legally unenforceable.

Mr Howes said he would look into the incident on behalf of the council.

l Councillors also questioned Mr Howes about the issue of dog fouling prosecutions in light of last week's Free Press report when a Watchet woman accused the district of failing to act on the information she had given them.

Cllr Bridget Baillie asked exactly what information the district council needed to prosecute when in the case of the Watchet woman she was prepared to give evidence but no legal action had been taken.

Mr Howes said the Watchet case had since been resolved and said there had been a misunderstanding but action would now be taken by the council.

He said another dog owner was also due to be prosecuted by the district and further details of that would be released soon.

l Cllr Woolley secured the backing of the council for his suggestion that he print up polite notices to put on cars parked on white lines used to provide access for disabled drivers.

Members also agreed to hand out the notices if they spotted an offending vehicle when they were in the town.

l Dulverton residents were asked to complain loud and clear about their television reception if they were having problems receiving BBC programmes.

Cllr Brian Allen said the main problems occurred during the day, particularly in the Northmoor Road area, and had caused considerable anger during Wimbledon.

However, in a letter to the council, the BBC reception advice centre, in London, said they knew of no current problems with reception from the Brushford TV relay.

Mr Allen reported that local man Colin Needs had acted as a representative for the BBC and he urged people with TV troubles to either tell Mr Needs immediately or contact the BBC's reception advice centre on 08700 100123.

l The police would be asked to enforce parking restrictions in the town after councillors reported that motorists were continually flouting restrictions in certain areas.

The matter came to light as councillors discussed a proposal to create a parking space exclusively for the use of the community/school bus outside Wreneaton House.

The secretary of the Exmoor Community Bus Association, David Perry, had invited a council representative to the association's next meeting to discuss the plan.

However, councillors felt that they could be setting a precedent by creating a space solely for the use of the bus, especially as alternative parking places had already been suggested to the operators.

Cllr Balsom said: "There are other places to park this bus but it seems that the people who drive it don't want to park it there and walk home.

"We should not be creating a space on the public highway for it."

Cllr Woolley added: "It is up to them to accept what we suggest."

Councillors agreed to send a representative to the next association meeting with the instructions that a designated parking space could be created in the car park opposite Exmoor House.

l Councillors gave their backing to plans for a Millennium sculpture trail.

They blamed a lack of communication for causing their initial fears at an earlier meeting of large scale sculptures being strewn across the countryside.

Instead, they were subsequently told many of the sculptures would only be around six inches high and well hidden in areas around the town to give people the challenge of finding them.

Several of the sculptures would feature natural themes such as ferns and animals.

The project was being funded by Somerset Now with support from the community education office.