Protesters have won their campaign for a 'legal' investigation into how steam railway bosses are building a £200,000 new office block in Kingswear without planning permission.

South Hams Council has been pressured into launching the investigation after almost two dozen campaigners took their protest to the council's executive meeting in Totnes last week.

The investigation will be carried out by leading district councillor John Baverstock who heads up the council Corporate Performance and Resources scrutiny panel.

Council leader John Tucker told the campaigners who had crowded into the district council Follaton House meeting room that it was intended to carry out a 'full investigation' and added: 'It's a legal issue and we need to get that resolved.'

Mr Baverstock told them the investigation would be 'independent and efficient' and declared that it would start that very afternoon.

After the meeting Dartmouth councillor Jonathan Hawkins, one of the driving forces backing the Kingswear campaign, said: 'There are a number of serious questions that have to be answered. I have requested independent legal advice from outside of the council and that is essential.'

Richard Rawlins, secretary of the Kingswear Action on Rail and Riverboat Development said after the executive meeting that the campaign group was 'satisfied' with the decision to hold an investigation into whether the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company ever had the right to build at Kingswear without planning permission.

And he said that while the group was not out to force the steam rail company to tear down their building – which is now almost complete – they did want to see the scheme go through the proper planning process which would look at the size and shape of the building and possible see it reduced by one storey.

The rail company claims it has a permitted right to develop its railway station without planning permission.

So far South Hams Council's legal department has agreed – which has infuriated the campaigners who have called for an investigation by independent legal experts.

The railway company says the offices are 'imperative' to the success of the company's huge tourist operation which hands more than a million passenger journey a year.

The building is now so near completion that the company is planning to move workers in within the next few weeks.

Mr Hawkins attacked the company claiming it had 'abused its rights and added; 'It has ignored our community's views. Had they consulted and listened to our residents I am sure a compromise could have been made.'