IDEAS for an ‘ambitious’ project for the community to buy and run the Eagle House as a hotel have been put forward to Launceston Town Council.

The town council at its meeting in Launceston, on July 19, heard from Daniel Brewer, the managing director of a business called ‘Resonance’, who outlined his proposals for a ‘Launceston Community Trust’.

Mr Brewer said his business ‘helps community organisations, social enterprises and charities raise capital to make the world a better place’.

He said while his business has worked on local projects, it has yet to work on anything in Launceston, adding he is ‘looking at opportunities to do things here’.

His two projects, as outlined to the councillors, were for the community to join together to get Eagle House back running as a hotel, and the second project, developing a piece of land near Polson to provide a ‘high level of affordable housing for local people’. The site is the land behind the large layby off the A388, in the Kensey Valley.

Mr Brewer first told councillors of his idea for Eagle House. He said: “I live on Dunheved Road and work at St Thomas Hill. Every day I walk past the Eagle House Hotel.”

Referring to the planning application to change the use of the hotel to residential, which was approved by Cornwall Council, he added: “I have never objected to a planning application in my life, except that one.

“It was very unique and a valuable asset to the town. Clearly I’m very disappointed it’s now not open. I walk past this hotel every day and I want to do something about it.

“I don’t know how to run a hotel but I do know how to raise the money with the community to buy it and set it up and run it as a hotel.

“There is no way I can do it on my own and it’s quite an ambitious project to take on.”

Mr Brewer said he had checked and the Eagle House Hotel was still on the market.

The second project, Mr Brewer explained to councillors, follows Mr Brewer’s company being approached by a family trust that has five acres of farmland towards Polson. He explained that 30 years ago, a planning application to develop that site was ‘comprehensively refused’.

He added: “They got in touch with us to see if there is a way we could develop this for the community, particularly if there is a high level of affordable housing for local people attached to it.”

He said Kivells are acting as agents for the family trust, and Resonance was approached to see if they would be interested in ‘leading a community vehicle to take it on’.

“The only way these projects will succeed is if they are Launceston’s projects,” he added.

He said his hope would be to ‘establish a vehicle’ for local people to invest in, where they can get a return on that investment, but also something that will ‘safeguard assets that are for the economic, social and other benefit of Launceston.’ He said the projects could require in the region of £2-million to be raised.

He added: “It’s not for me about saving a hotel, as much as I think it’s a valuable asset and part of the town. It’s not even about affordable housing. For me what it does is create momentum for local people to get behind something.”

He said he wanted to ‘get people to engage with the opportunities and challenges the town faces’, adding: “It’s not easy, they [projects] are always hard work, but it seems to me there’s enough momentum and sense of identity about this town as well as frankly some money to be proactive about that vision.

“I really hope this just isn’t my idea — I hope it becomes something more than that.”

Mayor Cllr Brian Hogan thanked Mr Brewer and moved that the council supported the concept of his proposals. Cllr John Harris said: “It seems like a couple of great projects.”

Cllr John Conway expressed ‘mixed views’. He said: “Eagle House, absolutely brilliant and if that’s going forward I would like to think the council would support it. It’s something this town needs. Eagle House Hotel is the jewel in the crown in this town.

“There’s 1,800 houses more or less in the Launceston area in the local plan. Polson fields are not part of that plan. My gut reaction is we have got plenty enough affordable housing, do we need any more?”

Cllr Roger Creagh-Osborne expressed excitement at both projects, adding: “There is a big difference between developer led affordable housing and community led affordable housing targeted specifically at local people with local need. That’s one of the real strengths of a scheme like this.”

Councillors voted unanimously to support the concept of the projects.