A MULTINATIONAL coffeehouse chain has today been unable to confirm or deny if it is expanding its business to a town on the fringes of Dartmoor.

In addition to a new Co-op food store, Dolbeare Meadow Business Park, the new development in Ashburton, will include a drive-thru café.

And it is this drive-thru café that coffeehouse chain Starbucks has long been rumoured to be eyeing up to run.

However, Starbucks has today, Wednesday, February 19, told the Mid-Devon Advertiser that it ‘does not have any plans to share about Ashburton at this time’.

A drive-thru café just off the A38 on the outskirts of Ashburton has proved divisive among the town’s residents.

Some say it will have a negative affect on the town, in particular for those businesses in the town centre, but others say Ashburton must move with the times

This latest development follows the announcement by property management company, Blackfinch Property, of a more than £2million loan to help get the new Co-op store off the ground.