Dozens of protesters tied red threads to the gates of the former Dairy Crest site in Totnes as part of a demonstration marking the ‘anniversary of nothing’ at the derelict site.

Organised by the Atmos for Totnes campaign group, the event last Saturday commemorated the two year anniversary of the behind-closed-doors deal between former site owners Saputo UK and new owners Fastglobe Mastics.

At the time, Saputo had simultaneously been negotiating an imminent sale agreement with Totnes Community Development Society (TCDS).

The deal with Fastglobe was struck by local land agent, Patrick Gillies, the brother-in-law of Tom Atherton – president of Saputo UK.

Since then, nothing has happened at the site.

The Atmos scheme followed a landmark referendum in the town which secured an 86 per cent ‘yes’ vote from the community.

It sought to provide 62 affordable homes, 37 retirement homes, a 58-bedroom hotel, new workspace, and a music and arts venue.

Protesters dressed in black and red, gathered outside the site to listen to speeches, including one from Rob Hopkins, a TCDS director, who said: “To stand any chance of getting planning permission, they need to figure out how to redevelop the Brunel Building, which is worth, as it stands here today, minus one million pounds.

“They need to figure out how to develop the site in such a way that it completes the last stage of the town’s flood defences.

“They need to figure out how to get close to 62 homes, the large majority of which need to be affordable.

“The reality is they have bitten off more than they can chew, they can’t do it.”

Speaker Mary Coughlan-Clarke of Atmos for Totnes asked: “Where would we be today if we hadn’t had to endure the unnecessary pain of ‘two years of nothing?’

“We may well have actually been meeting here later tonight to celebrate the opening of the Brunel building as the South West’s foremost music arts and cultural venue.

“It would have been one hell of an opening night, the hottest ticket in town”.

Protesters tied 732 red threads, representing the number of days since the site was sold, to the site’s front gates in an act of mourning and resistance.

Attached were tags which read: “Two Year Anniversary of Nothing, 22 January 2022. Two years since the unethical sale of this site. It’s not too late to overturn this injustice”.

Sixty-two small red cardboard houses, representing the affordable homes in the Atmos plan, were placed on top of the gates.

TCDS says it will shortly be submitting a “robust, viable, compelling and well-evidenced case” to South Hams Council urging the authority to use its compulsory purchase order powers to enable the Atmos project to go ahead at the site.