A controversial planning application for the £200,000 'signal box' offices at Kingswear railway station – which were built and occupied more than eight months ago – is now 'imminent', steam rail boss Andrew Pooley has said.

Meanwhile, Dart-mouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company has sparked another row with village campaigners – this time over the removal of 45 metres of rail track.

But Mr Pooley said the removal of the rails was to comply with safety regulation and he assured villagers that no further construction at the station is planned.

The Paignton-headquatered steam rail company went ahead and built the new office complex at Kingswear's listed railway station believing that no planning permission was necessary because of the company's status as a railway company.

Earlier this year a village campaign group – Kingswear Action on Rail and Riverboat Development – forced South Hams Council to shell out for an independent legal investigation into the development. The investigation found that the company did need permission for the building and for the removal of the rails that had to come up as a result of the development.

Mr Pooley, the steam railway firm's company manager said: 'We are putting in a retrospective planning application at the request of the district council. We are happy to do that and it is imminent.'

In the meantime, the company has just removed another 45 metres of rails at the railway station to move the station's buffer stop further away from the new building.

Mr Pooley said that the move was a legal requirement of Her Majesty's Inspector of Railways.

He said: 'The sleepers were all rotten. The rails were removed and the buffer stop moved up the line 45 metres. To put people's minds at rest, no further construction is going to go ahead.'

But the latest rail removals have infuriated members of the KARRD campaign group who claim that the latest work on the rail also requires listed building consent.

They complained to South Hams Council and demanded the council order a halt to the work and the replacement of the rails.

'We also contend that listed building consent must be obtained for developments of this sort. No such application for development has been made,' said campaign group secretary Richard Rawlins.

A spokesman for South Hams Council said: 'We are investigating this issue as a priority.'

The council also said that as far as the planning applications for the 'signal box' development goes: 'The railway company has been invited to make applications by the end of September.'