199 holiday homes to be built at St Mellion Golf Club

Cornwall Council’s east sub-area planning committee voted unanimously on Monday morning to grant approval to the application at St Mellion International despit concerns that the development would be turned into a standard housing development.

The parish council said: ‘Communal parking areas have been changed to two allocated spaces for each dwelling; the dwellings themselves have been changed from blocks of holiday units to detached and semi-detached properties plus rows of terraced houses; and paths through the site now look like made-up roads.

‘The parish council is concerned that such layouts are being used to pre-empt lifting the holiday occupancy condition attached to this permission.

‘It is felt that the site plans should reflect the permission for holiday homes and not a residential development for which permission has not been granted.’

In his report, which recommended approval, planning officer Matthew Stephenson also highlighted that the development did look like a residential development, but that was not a reason to not give planning permission.

He said: ‘The layout of the two sites are in some ways more akin to a more traditional residential scheme you may find in an urban area, it being laid out as terrace rows and pairs of semis. However, this in itself is not a reason to refuse consent in your officer’s opinion. Whilst to a degree different to other holiday home development it would be speculation to say whether or not such holiday homes would or would not be successful in finding buyers or investors.’

The development of the holiday homes is part of a wider scheme which includes a new hotel, a reconfigured and extended golf course and new leisure facilities.

Local councillor Jim Flashman told the committee that he supported it and that it was ‘an improvement on what was there originally’.

Source: Tavistock Times Gazette

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