Meudon Hotel counters 'holiday' homes claim in grounds of garden

The Packet met with Kingfisher Resorts CEO, Nigel Chapman at the hotel near Mawnan Smith this week after concerns were raised over his plans to build the ten luxury houses in the grounds of its historic garden.

The ten separate buildings will be built along the top of the ridge above the gardens which were originally created by the Fox family. One of the buildings, a six bedroom house, will replace Bream House, built by former owner Harry Pilgrim as his home, after he built the hotel in 1966. The development also includes plans for a heated outdoor pool, spa and gym which will be available for community use.

Bream House how it looks today.

However the homes plan for the Meudon has led to concerns from some residents who claim, in a circular put through people's letterboxes, that the ten buildings will be luxury holiday homes in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and will ruin the view from the coast path.

The proposed replacement for Bream House

They say that the homes will be detrimental to the coastline when viewed from the sea with most of the houses being visible from the bay. They also claim they will not be part of the hotel and will create even more congestion on the lanes as well as displacing wildlife.

They are also concerned that an agricultural field to the north of the gardens, purchased by the hotel, may be developed later on.

The field adjaecent to Bream House which was bought by the hotel

But Mr Chapman says that none of these claims are correct and that the hotel needs the new accommodation in order for the hotel to survive. It will make the hotel a destination for guests throughout the year rather than be subject to significant seasonal variation, creating permanent rather than temporary jobs.

The rear of two of the proposed two bedroom units which will sit below Bream House

He said while the residences will be purchased by individuals as an investment they will be leased back to the hotel for management and guest allocation purposes.

"There has been a lot of canvassing going on which is perfectly acceptable as long as it's balanced," he said. "Which it isn't.

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"It doesn't list any of the advantages to the local community and it doesn't give an accurate picture of what's actually going on. We have done a landscape visual impact assessment which found it will very marginally impact, but the impact also sits alongside protecting the historic elements of the garden. You've got to take a balance, you've got to have few eggs broken if you want to make an omelette.

"The impact is very marginal, you can see the new Bream House, you either like it or don't like it. That circular calls them holiday homes, they are not holiday homes they are hotel accommodation. They have a restricted use."

Where the proposed houses would sit

He says it is going to cost eight to ten million pounds to build them all and you cannot borrow that sort of money from a bank. But people can invest in the buildings and lease them back to the hotel, although they do get six owners weeks a year.

He says there are absolutely no plans to develop the field. "I actually bought it because I didn't want anybody to do anything with it except me" he said. He says the plans for the field include planting trees and creating a wildlife friendly haven.

Concerning traffic he said a survey had been done and highways have passed it "without a blink" because there are only 24 daily traffic movement traffic, two an hour.

The Meudon Hotel sits at the top of the historic garden

"You can't be destroying habitat and displacing the wildlife when you are planting three and a half thousand new trees to huge net gain for the bio diversity," he said.

The field will be designed by Richard Sneesby from Constantine, a nationally known landscape architect, who is also producing a masterplan for the gardens.

"I do think it's a shame that all this has been stirred up without the bigger picture being shown," he said. "We are part of the local community, and we want to be."

The parish council has said it could support elements of the planning application but not the proposed development in its entirety and has detailed concerns regarding much of the proposal.

While not objecting totally to the application, The National Trust says in its opinion the rural character of the headland's setting would be eroded unjustifiably and wants changes to be made to ensure this doesn't happen, while The Cornwall AONB unit says the application fails to address the AONB's sensitivity and character and objects.

The application has also attracted over 170 comments from the public on Cornwall Council's planning portal.

A final decision is expected in April.