Objectors to Meudon Hotel's plans to build holiday homes in a protected wooded valley have launched an aerial drone video highlighting the diversity of wildlife on the site.
The hotel near Mawnan Smith has had an application to build ten holiday homes in the wooded valley down to the beach plus a new outdoor heated swimming pool with changing facilities, a treatment spa and a casual dining restaurant recommended for approval by Cornwall Council’s planning officer.
A decision is due to be made at a meeting of the West Cornwall planning committee on Monday, November 13. The application itself has 155 comments of objection and is opposed by the parish council and the AONB organization itself.
Campaign group Save Meudon Valley, made up of local residents, say the application, the second for the site, will threaten the entire eco-system of the valley.
They have released a video of the valley taken from above by a drone to illustrate their objections to the application.
The video shows a bird’s eye view of the valley with captions highlighting the fact it sits on a stretch of undeveloped coast in an area of outstanding natural beauty next to a special conservation area.
The video points out that buzzards, skylarks, owls and bats and many other rare and protected species currently call this place home. “They are part of a unique eco-system which has taken centuries to establish,” the video points out.
They say at night it is pitch black and silent allowing nocturnal animals to thrive undisturbed and that it is one of only 34 AONBs in the country with its protection as high as a national park .
The objectors say building ten new homes in the valley threatens the entire eco-system. They say losing canopy cover, habitat and hunting grounds that could take generations to recover.
“Habitat should come before holiday homes and hot tubs,” they say.
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“Exploiting our nationally protected unspoilt coastlines to extract profits for shareholders is not in the public interest.
“Once the valley is gone it’s gone.”
The seaside hotel, owned by Kingfisher Resorts which purchased the property in 2020, said, at the time of earlier planning submission in 2022 that was refused, that it needed to build the holiday homes to survive economically.
It says the new units have been designed as a family of “residences”. Bream House, Hotel Meudon’s existing five-bedroom accommodation unit, would also be redesigned to follow a more traditional arts and crafts aesthetic.
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