The former boss of a Teignmouth construction firm which went bust last year owing more than £1 million and taking with it 100 jobs looks set to find himself embroiled in a legal battle with a neighbour about a planning dispute.

Gerald Tranckle, previously the owner of Hannon Young, has built a car port without planning permission at White Oaks, his modernist detached home in Dawlish Road.

The wooden structure has blocked a private lane that gives access to neighbour Roger Caunter's 40ft well, his property's source of water for 200 years.

He is pursuing the matter with his solicitor and objected to Mr Tranckle's application for retrospective planning permission, saying the drawings submitted to Teignbridge Council were 'completely inaccurate'.

He also claimed that Mr Tranckle had got away with breaking the rules in 2007 by extending a parking area across the lane without permission, thereby restricting his ability to service a pipe which brings water from the well.

He told members of the authority's planning committee, which met on Monday to discuss the matter, they would be unable to arrive at a sound conclusion with the information in front of them. 

'These plans are still completely inaccurate which probably makes this meeting superfluous,' he said, adding that the 2007 planning breach had not been challenged by Teignbridge as it had not been in the authority's interest.

Planning officers agreed the private right of way had been 'substantially blocked' by the car port but that a fence had been moved to allow 'a reasonable means of passage'.

They said Mr Tranckle's plans had contained 'a number of minor inaccuracies' but those had now been corrected and planning permission should be granted.

Planning officer Tom Wilson said: 'It appears therefore that the issue of access to the well is capable of being resolved by legal means but this is a civil issue between the two neighbours and cannot reasonably be addressed by the planning process.'

Ward member Cllr Sylvia Russell argued Mr Caunter's case. She said the pending legal action was 'a side matter' and that Teignbridge needed to clamp down on what she saw as Mr Tranckle's trashing of the rules.

'The plans are not accurate, the car port was not built within the curtilage of the applicant,' she said.

Members agreed they needed to visit the site before deciding whether to grant Mr Tranckle, who did not take part in the meeting, planning permission.