This is the moment a woman approaches armed cops at a firing range near her home in Devon, which has enraged locals since it was built without permission.
At the quarry site in Holcombe Rogus, Corin Hancock, 34, was videotaped approaching police wielding their firearms and demanding that they stop.
Ms Hancock and her husband, 48-year-old Rob Chislett, say their children are terrified to walk outdoors because police shoot high-calibre firearms up to four times a week – without a permit.
They’ve been at odds with Devon & Cornwall Police for eight years, claiming that they’ve been using the site without authorization.
Villagers are also unable to complain to their local MP Neil Parish after he resigned from the commons after being caught watching porn in the chamber.
In recent years Mr Chislett says the gunfire has become far worse, going from the occasional pistol shots to machinegun-like fire – and leaving his children scared to go outside.
The father-of-two explained: ‘It honestly feels like we live in a warzone. I listen to the Ukraine news all the time and think the videos sounds similar to my garden.
‘It’s so loud that my little boy is constantly complaining saying he doesn’t want to go outside, it’s just too frightening.
‘For us it’s been horrendous, especially over the last couple of years. The frequency and volume of the weapons they are testing there is absurd.
‘It’s gone from being used up to maybe a dozen times a year with relatively small arms fire to four times a week with high velocity rifles.
‘The standard sound limit for a clay pigeon shoot apparently is around 55 decibels.
‘The levels that we have got is 70-85 decibels. The planning engineer who we spoke to about it said that this number multiplies by a factor of ten for every ten decibels.’
Devon and Cornwall Police submitted a new application last week to fire guns all day, five days a week.
They stated in the application that they had been utilizing the site without a permit since 2014, blaming it on “unknown causes.”
However, a separate application to develop on the property shows that they were prompted to apply that year by Mid Devon District Council.
Locals, who claim they feel like they’re in Ukraine, are enraged by the new application, which includes authority to shoot on weekends and heavier calibre weapons than before.
Mr Chislett also alleged that the facility is insecure, claiming that children from Holcombe Rogus may easily gain access through a ‘poorly maintained’ wooden barrier.
He noted that his wife easily stormed onto the site during firing last week in a fit of rage and confronted police officers.
Despite her being threatened with arrest, she was eventually able to get the officers to ceasefire and pack up for the day.
‘We also have two little chalet huts on our land, and one lady brought her partner who had just returned from Afghanistan,’ he added.
‘Imagine how a squaddie who was simply trying to unwind would react if he was abruptly thrust back into the midst of a barrage of gunfire.’
Following a week of suspension, Devon & Cornwall Police submitted an application for authorization to use the facility on Monday, May 23.
‘For reasons unknown to both parties, neither Devon and Cornwall Police nor Mid Devon District Council were aware that the temporary consent had passed some years ago,’ the force wrote in the application.
‘This is, possibly, due to a change in personnel over the years. We recognise our part in the failure to record the lapse in the planning consent and confirm that this was purely by accident;
‘It was certainly not by design or anybody’s intention for the end of the temporary consent to go unnoticed.
‘The end of the temporary consent was brought to our attention last year, in 2021.’
Despite this explanation, in 2014, the police filed a separate application for planning permission to construct a facility on the property.
Mid Devon District Council warned D&C Police at the time of acceptance that they would need to reapply for permission to use the property that year, which they did not do.
‘The applicant is advised that the use of the site as authorized under 04/02000/FULL will expire on December 31, 2014, and that any continuation of the use as a firing range after that date will necessitate the submission of a new planning application,’ the council stated.
‘I think the most alarming element actually isn’t simply the fact that the police disregarded the guidelines,’ Mr Chislett said in response to the application.
‘It feels like the police are just running roughshod over us, it just feels like another example of the police having their own set of rules – which is infuriating.
‘I cant work out if the application is so poor that they’re trying to justify building some purpose-built unit somewhere else, or whether it’s sheer arrogance or incompetence.
‘I think it’s probably the latter, which I find just utterly ridiculous.
In response to the claims by Mr Chislett, a spokesperson for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall said: ‘This site has been used for safe police firearms training since the 1970s.
‘Unfortunately the fact that planning permission for this essential activity had lapsed was missed, we believe due to a change of personnel.
‘As soon as this error came to light our building and estates team commenced discussions with Mid Devon District Council.
‘An application has now been submitted which will enable local residents’ views to be taken into consideration and comments to be submitted.’
Locals now say they intend to challenge the facility’s continued and future use through protests and legal action.