Falmouth University student village Penryn, Penvose site

The Halo Village development, previously known as Penvose, near the Penryn Campus of Falmouth and Exeter universities was given outline permission in 2018 despite planning officers recommending refusal.

The 20 hectare site would see 1,858 beds for students (reduced from the previously agreed 2,000), a park and ride facility, over 600 parking spaces, including 300 for students, a 48-bed budget hotel, a pub, restaurant, café and hot food takeaway, a shopping parade, doctor’s surgery, children’s day nursery and sports and leisure facilities, including gym, yoga studio, squash and tennis courts, and sports clinic.

A aerial shot showing where the Halo Village would be built near Penryn (Image: LDR)

Accommodation for the students would include 1,585 en-suite and studio beds within 42 clustered apartment blocks, 273 beds within 25 townhouses including 97 wheelchair-accessible units.

Reserved matters on appearance, landscaping, layout and scale came before Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee today (Thursday, June 15), which heard a lot of opposition to the scheme from members themselves, parish councils and a neighbour of the site who fears his business will be ruined.

Councillors were warned that any highway safety concerns were already addressed when outline permission was granted in 2018, and that today’s matter was simply to seek consent for landscaping, ecology and design. That didn’t stop many councillors addressing road issues and questioning the need for such a development in the “different world we now live in” following the Covid pandemic.

John Tozer, who owns an equine business and caravan site on neighbouring Treliever Farm, told the committee that the proximity of floodlights on the proposed sports pitch would “decimate” the area and drive his customers away. He added that “2,000 bored students crawling all over the land, littering and using it like a free Longleat” would devastate his business.

How the Halo Village student development near Penryn could look (Image: Verto)

Like many of those present, he questioned the safety of a proposed cycle / footpath along the A39 which would run from the site to the Penryn Campus.

Keith West, representing Mabe Parish Council which is strongly opposed to the application, said: “We can all make mistakes, the secret is not making the same mistake twice. Cornwall Planning was advised several years ago that access to the university campus across the A39 would prove fatal. That advice was ignored and sadly that prediction has come true. To pass this current application would potentially leave those making such a decision open to possible prosecution for culpable homicide should another fatality occur.”

Ponsanooth parish councillor Lorna Jackson made her council’s feelings clear too. “It is difficult to put into a three-minute speech how objectionable this application is. A rural parish faced with a 40-acre island of concrete and Tarmac, which would be one of the largest developments in Cornwall and is totally out of any planning context.

“Of course we accept that planning permission was granted in outline, but that does not mean this application as now presented should be passed by default. There are many aspects to this which create harm and which can be reasons for refusal. You can see in the report that there are outstanding objections from landscape, ecology and the police in terms of site safety. It is not possible to design these concerns out.

“The environmental impact is highly questionable. Over 300m of existing Cornish hedge up to 200 years old would be removed. This development would create significant light spill impacts, which would be visible from near and far including the AONB.”

She added: “The largest fear however is the proposal to allow all students and visitors to walk along a 2m stretch of pavement next to the A39. We echo the sentiments expressed by Mabe. At outline planning stage, your own highways officer was not confident you can deliver safe access that discharges your duty of care – so are you confident now?”

She pointed out that local Cornwall councillor Peter Williams met Cornwall Council officers in March where “promises were made” that the application would go through a design review, which still hadn’t happened.

Applicant Andy West addressed the meeting: “There is a known housing crisis in Cornwall; this housing crisis is amplified in Falmouth and Penryn where the number of HMOs [houses in multiple occupation] is over 30 per cent higher than the national average. There is a deficiency of sustainable housing for students now let alone to meet future demand and the development already benefits from outline permission.”

He said what would be the world’s first net zero construction would benefit “everyone and everything” including students, locals, biodiversity, the environment and the planet. The 1,850 beds at the Halo Village could potentially release 269 homes to local residents in the Falmouth / Penryn area.

Mr West added that the development, which includes 130,857 sq ft of commercial and leisure space, would create thousands of green jobs boosting the Cornish economy as well as generating 1,550 construction jobs. After it was built, 350 permanent jobs would be created on site. He said the concerns raised by officers and stakeholders had been taken into account.

Cllr Andrew Long mentioned that Devon and Cornwall Police had concerns over student security on the site. “It’s been highlighted in the news this week that we need to be looking at people’s security very carefully.” Mr West said that relevant lighting and CCTV had been covered as part of the planning conditions. He added that access via a footpath and cycleway link is fixed as part of the original outline permission.

Cllr Peter Channon told the applicant: “It concerns me that you don’t have very much support for this from the university. Does that not concern you?”

Mr West said there was a lack of support at the outline stage as the university was planning its own student accommodation development but that hadn’t proceeded. He said they have had “constant conversations” since and the university acknowledged Halo Village would offer those students living in HMOs a different form of accommodation.

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Local division member Cllr Williams, who spoke against the proposal and said the 2018 approval was “a mistake”, questioned the need for the village five years after outline permission was granted since when accommodation for over 2,000 students was built or being built in the Falmouth area and 600 more student beds approved in Truro. “That’s 2,600 so I don’t know who’s going to fill yours.” He said there had been no communication since the original application to suggest that Falmouth University had changed its objection.

Mr West reminded the councillor that the committee had already approved the plans for 2,000 beds on the site and cited the Studytel block in Penryn “which has come to a grinding halt” as an example of some schemes which might not come to fruition.

The committee’s vice-chairman Dulcie Tudor said: “The lack of scrutiny between 2018 and today makes me feel uneasy. It also makes me feel uneasy that local member was told there would be a more detailed review in March and it didn’t happen.” She added her main concern was student safety as there had been a recent death on the road and suggested a pedestrian crossing should be installed nearby.

Cllr Rob Nolan pointed out that it was a very different world now from the one in which the original decision was made in 2018. “We did not expect working from home. We were told there was a real need for student accommodation. I am not being shown a need now five years later, but we are told it does not matter – all we can concern ourselves with is design, ecology, landscape, drainage and highways … and that’s our fault for passing it in the first place.”

The committee voted in favour of refusal on the grounds that “design and layout would lead to the fragmentation of ecologically important hedges” with light spill having an impact on the bat population and ecological value of the site.