Town council view on new Premier Inn in St Ives Cornwall

St Ives Town Council’s planning committee met last night (Thursday, November 9) to discuss a revised application by Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn brand, to knock down Cornwallis Nursing Home on Trewidden Road and replace it with a hotel, reduced from an original 100 rooms and with a 50cm reduction in height, together with 20 parking spaces. The majority of hotel guests would be asked to use the neighbouring Trenwith public car park.

The proposals have seen more than 600 objections on Cornwall Council’s online planning register and many residents who are against the plans held a protest outside the council offices. They also sat in the meeting holding placards bearing messages such as “Stop this needless monstrosity”, “No room for the Inn”, “Save our last remaining care home” and “No to Premier Inn”.

"Unwanted and unneeded"

Brian Selman, who represented a large group of those opposing the scheme, said it was an “unwanted and unneeded development” and a “blot on the St Ives horizon,” which had essentially remained unchanged from the previous application and would cause a major loss of privacy for nearby properties. He said there was no supporting evidence that a hotel of its scale is needed in St Ives.

Addressing Whitbread, another opponent Shelley Thornton added: “St Ives is a little fishing village, it’s not the cash cow and giant tourism Mecca you think it is. If built, this eyesore will forever ruin our iconic skyline. Please stop this folly.”

Protesters make their feelings known about the Premier Inn plans in the council chamber

Planning consultant Chris Dadds, speaking on behalf of Whitbread, repeated much of the information he presented at a webinar on behalf of the application held earlier in the week. This included the planning history of the site with a previous permission for a 39-room aparthotel at the location.

He said locals’ concerns led to Whitbread reducing the size of the hotel from 100 rooms to 90 as well as its size and design, which now has a more traditional look.

Whitbread representatives previously said that the hotel would lead to 30 jobs in the town, would create a gross value added (GVA) economic gain of £1.7m and £90,000 in business rates revenue for Cornwall Council.

READ MORE: Premier Inn defends 'monstrosity' planned for tourist hotspot

Cllr Luke Rogers said: “There were a lot of complaints last time about the imposing nature of the building on Trinity Watch and all of the housing behind, including ventilation fans and noise of traffic. What has changed to reduce that?”

Mr Dadds replied: “In terms of those proposals, nothing.” This was greeted with laughter by members of the audience, who were asked to keep quiet.

Comparing the previous design and the revised plan, Cllr Steve Hynes asked Mr Dadds: “There’s no difference in the scale and mass of the two buildings, is there?”

In response Mr Dadds said: “The way the building is treated is very different. The original application was very contemporary with a single material. The new proposal changes the materials."

Cllr Hynes pressed on: “I understand that but the overall massing’s the same, isn’t it?” Mr Dadds said it was marginally smaller.

Protesters make their feelings known about the Premier Inn plans in the council chamber

Mayor of St Ives Cllr Johnnie Wells said: “There are 2,000 properties in St Ives already where you can rent and stay, so they’re not bringing anything to the community. The development is far too big for the site and all the things we need in St Ives, a hotel – which is putting added pressure on our biggest car park – is the last thing we need.”

Cllr Hynes added: “If we had our way I’m sure everyone in this room would agree we want a care home – there’s a big demand for care homes.” Members of the public applauded him.

“We’ve gone from an upturned bathtub to a better design, I’ll concede that one,” but he said the changes to the application were “paying lip service and not addressing the fundamental issue here – we still have a carbuncle in the middle of what is a conservation area which would denigrate St Ives as a town”.

"Living nightmare"

Cllr Andrew Mitchell commented that if the hotel was built neighbours would have a “living nightmare”. He added: “This is the wrong thing in the wrong place. That building has to be stopped – it cannot be allowed to be built.” He asked the council to lodge the “strongest possible objection”.

“It’s gone down by ten rooms, wow, it’s gone down by 2ft, yippee. It is a much better design but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. It’s basically the same application, it’s the same carbuncle, it’s the same mass,” said Cllr Mitchell, adding that as the Cornwall councillor for the area he would want the application to go to committee for discussion if planning officers recommend approval.

Cllr Rogers said: “Everyone agrees in this room pretty much that it’s completely overbearing on local residents. I feel really sorry for the residents directly behind it. St Ives is at capacity when it comes to tourism. We love tourists but we’re at capacity – the car parks, the infrastructure. We don’t need more hotels. What we need is care homes and social housing.

“If we ever voted in favour of something like this at the cost of something so critical as a care home, what are we doing here as a council?”

How the revised Premier Inn in St Ives would look (Photo: Whitbread)

Cllr Kenny Messenger, the planning committee’s chairman and deputy mayor of St Ives, said: “The change in height is the equivalent of me picking my agenda up [off the table] tonight. The application, if I can put it in football terminology, is not Premier League, it’s Second Division relegation zone. It has too many floors and flaws.”

The council unanimously voted to strongly object and if Cornwall Council are minded to support the plans requested that it goes to committee.