Commercial Road car park, Penryn pods for homeless proposal

Cornwall Council has applied to put the one bedroom "modular construction" pods to provide short to medium term move-on accommodation in part of Commercial Road car park behind The Job Centre with "infrastructure" and landscaping.

The council says because of the "very high" success rate in helping rough sleepers into settled housing of a similar scheme in Truro, it was now looking to expand it to Penryn.

How the proposed units may look

It is says there are currently around 650 households either rough sleeping or living in emergency or temporary accommodation in Cornwall. This includes in unsatisfactory and unsustainable emergency provision such as B&Bs and hotels.

It says it is currently spending considerable and unsustainable sums each year on placing people in commissioned/non-commissioned accommodation, which is often only partly recoverable from Housing Benefit, resulting in significant financial losses to the council.

It says as part of a search for suitable council owned sites to provide this specialist housing, the car park at Commercial Road was identified as being a car park which was occupied at a maximum of approximately half of its capacity. Hence this development proposal.

The pods are proposed for Commercial Road car park

"The idea is that the pods are not a first stage ‘emergency’ response to a person presenting as homeless," says the council in its application. "for example a hostel, a B&B or HMO with shared facilities, but are the next ‘stage two’ when that person has had some help and support to ‘move-on’ to a more sustainable housing solution.

"The modular pods provide ideal, self-contained but manageable, single occupancy homes for people that are ready to move-on to the second stage in the journey out of rough sleeping.

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"The scheme will provide accommodation for former rough sleepers, on their pathway to settled housing. The residents will have moderate to lower support needs having already received first-stage support and will continue to do so throughout their time living at Commercial Road, Penryn."

The facilities in the pods include an open plan lounge – kitchen – diner, storage and utility cupboard, a fairly spacious shower room and WC and a single bedroom with full height window and further storage.

The pods are proposed for Commercial Road car park

A meeting was held on-site with members of Penryn Town Council and ward member and the council’s devolution team in October last year for 12 units and was also presented to and discussed at a public Town Council meeting.

There was some support but also some concerns from residents immediately adjoining the site about possible amenity impacts and more widely about the loss of car parking spaces from both members of the public and the Town Council.

Following the meeting the Town Council said that it no longer wished for the whole site to be devolved to them and reiterated concerns about the loss of car parking. The application was reduced to six units with an attempt to retain as many car parking spaces as possible.

Penryn Town Council is now asking for people in the town to comment on the plan PA22/02627 on the Cornwall Council planning portal.