Cornwall planning decision on Kergilliack 133 homes near Falmouth

Barratt David Wilson Homes had applied for full permission to build the new homes on land off Hillhead Road in Budock.

The application went before Cornwall Council’s west sub-area planning committee yesterday for a third time after it was deferred twice by councillors who were concerned about proposals to narrow Kergilliack Road to allow for a new footpath which would serve the development.

Planning officers had negotiated with the applicants and local Cornwall councillor John Bastin to come up with an alternative plan for the footpath.

Previous plans would have seen the road reduced from a 5.5metre width to 3.5m for 47m – with eastbound traffic given priority.

But under the revised plans the road would be reduced to 4.1m and the stretch affected is just 16m long.

To enable this the developers had agreed to install a new footpath which would link Kergilliack Road with Hillhead Road, cutting through the new Pen Bethan development.

However, despite this compromise, local town and parish councillors and other local Cornwall councillors said they were disappointed to not be involved in the negotiations.

Alan Jewell, speaking on behalf of Falmouth Town Council, said that the council objected to the application because it had not been involved in the discussions and still had concerns about the plans.

He said: “We took this plan to the town council and they rejected it unanimously. They felt they hadn’t been consulted and felt there were better solutions.”

Cllr Jewell said that the plans to narrow the road were “unacceptable” and added: “I don’t think we should narrow this road at all.”

John Langan from Penryn Town Council said that he would echo the comments from Falmouth Town Council.

He added: “It is a route out of Penryn and into Falmouth – to bring it down to a single lane for whatever length is ridiculous.”

Cllr Langan said that with the number of homes which are being built in that area it was vital that the road was maintained as a two lane route.

Budock Parish Council chairman Malcolm Bennett said that the council had raised “serious concerns” about the plans for the road from the outset.

He conceded that the new proposals were better than those previously put forward but said that if more work had been done earlier then the situation could have been avoided.

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David Matthews, agent for the applicants, said that the developers had listened to the concerns and answered all questions and provided alternative proposals.

He said that the new proposals were “the final roll of the dice” and urged councillors to grant approval.

Dave Saunby, Cornwall councillor for Falmouth Trescobeas, said that he and Cllr Jewell had contacted people living in the area to see if they would be willing to part with some of their land to accommodate the footpath and cycleway.

He said that while an earlier attempt by the developers to get 2.5m of the homeowners’ land was rebuffed the councillors had found that they would be willing to part with 1.5m of land.

Cllr Saunby said that this would be enough to prevent the road having to be narrowed and urged the applicants to do more work to secure an agreement for what he said would be “most simple solution”.

Councillors on the committee asked whether they could ask for this to be added as a condition to the application but officers said that the highways improvements were actually part of an earlier planning approval given for another housing development in 2018.

They said that while Coastline Housing, which is responsible for the neighbouring development, had been involved in the discussions about the road changes and had agreed to the new proposals, they did already have permission for the earlier plans.

Committee member Mark Kaczmarek thanked the officers and Cllr Bastin for working to secure a better proposal for the road.

He added that the developers would be listening to the meeting and if Cllr Saunby had a better solution then they may take it up.

Sue Nicholas added: “I would hope that a bit of common sense will prevail here and the developers go back and talk to the residents when that would seem to be the most simple solution.”

Cllr Kaczmarek said he could see no other reason to refuse the plans and proposed that they be approved as recommended by the planning officers. That was seconded by Graham Coad.

An additional condition was placed on the development that a replacement hedge which is to be created should use local stone.

The application was approved with 13 votes in favour and one against.