As a Star Wars fan in ownership of an impressive £12,000 full-sized replica of a Chicken Walker in his field, you can understand his sadness at having to take it down due to a lack of planning permission, but that’s the situation Paul Parker finds himself in.
Given the structure by welder Dean Harvey, he set up his AT-ST by the A38 near Ashburton in Devon as a talking point and a draw to the village for people from outside the area. Sadly, in the true spirit of Scrooge at Christmas, he received a letter from the local council telling him he has three weeks to take down the Scout Walker.
About 99 per cent of the comments I’ve had have been positive.
It’s a bit of fun. I wanted to do something that would create interest in Ashburton and maybe help get people to visit.
It’s been a talking point in the two weeks it’s been up.
It’s not doing any harm from what I can see but the council says it’s a fixed structure and it doesn’t have planning permission.
I’m going to fight it. I’ll put in a retrospective planning application and if that fails I’ll make it mobile by putting wheels on it and moving it around.
