Coastline Housing has been allowed to create 13 parking bays on grass verges in Porthleven, despite opposition from neighbouring residents.

The housing association has been giving conditional planning approval to put the bays on land opposite 2 and 9 Elliston Gardens.

In its application the association said: “The reasoning for this is to add additional parking, alleviate parking problems on the estate and improve access for traffic and emergency vehicles.”

Neighbours argued that the extra bays were “unnecessary” and would “dramatically change the appearance of the area for the worse.”

In a letter to Cornwall Council, which took the decision, residents Alison and David Bowman wrote: “Elliston Gardens is part of the conversation area. We need to keep as much natural space as possible in this area and the proposed plans would not be keeping with conservation ideals.”

They also feared that the bays would “do more harm than good.”

“Elliston Gardens is a public road and by making them allocated parking bays it would actually be reducing the parking for the local area. There isn’t a parking problem, but by restricting who can park there could create parking issues elsewhere,” they said.

However, in its decision notice Cornwall Council declared that the bays were “not harmful to the wider visual amenity of the area.”