A FAMILY who have lived on the same road in Falmouth for over 120 years have applied to build three new ones in the place of their current home.

Hannah St Ledger told a meeting of Falmouth Town Council’s planning committee that the new homes would allow three generations of her current family to live together.

The family has applied to extend and alter 42 Wodehouse Terrace to divide it into two independent houses and replace the current garage with a new home.

She told committee members that her parents built the current house in the 1980s and, she hated to say it, but it was ‘poorly built’ and a ‘terrible’ design’.

Falmouth Packet:

Picture: The current house and garage on Wodehouse Terrace

She wanted to improve not just her home but the surrounding area because from the road “it really sticks out like a sore thumb”.

She said her immediate family have lived in 41 and 42 Wodehouse Terrace for over 63 years.

“I personally lived on Wodehouse Terrace all my life,” she said. “For 51 years.

“We have a very long and established relationship with Falmouth and especially Wodehouse Terrace and our plan has evolved from that love. It has evolved over many years with the consideration of the local area being paramount.

“I believe we are one of the most longstanding families on the road.”

She said her great grandfather lived opposite the gun site and bought the allotment space on the terrace to help the local area.

She said she wholly understand the conservation area and those who lived there and had been working with a local architect and a conservation specialist and was trying to enhance the local area.

She said: “The design has been made to allow three generations of the current family to live together and support each other: my family, my brother’s family, who wants to return to Cornwall to continue working as an A&E doctor, and my elderly parents-in-law.

She said with concerns about parking on the road neither she nor her brother drove but there was parking on site and there was still space.

“We grew up on the road and it is close to our hearts and want to maintain the sense of community and the special quality of the road,” she said.

Despite some concerns over a dormer roof, councillors on the committee said it was one of the best presented applications they had had.

They voted to recommend approval of the application which will now go before Cornwall Council’s planning committee.

However, Falmouth & Penryn Conservation Committee has already said it ‘strongly objects' to the application saying it is an over-development of the plot size with over-massing and height issues.

"This would cause loss of public parking spaces in this already critical area," it says in its written objection.

The committee said it was also extremely concerned about the loss of the public view of the harbour which, it said, is very important as regards the character of the Conservation Area.

It has suggested a small terrace of three houses would be preferable or a pair of slightly larger semi detached properties.