COULD the unearthing of a ‘rare discovery’ put a spanner in the works for a controversial housing development in Launceston?

It has been suggested part of the land where permission was granted at appeal for the Hallam Land Management Upper Chapel development of up to 140 dwellings ‘may have been used as a Roman fort or marching camp dating from the first century’.

Simon Hickman, principal inspector of historic buildings and areas for Historic England, said: “There are few Roman sites in Cornwall, and if this is proven, it would be a rare discovery indeed.

“At present, we have concerns that the proposals may lead to substantial harm to archaeology of national importance. We strongly recommend further investigation and site layout revisions prior to determination of the application.”

Mr Hickman sent the comments to Cornwall Council, as Historic England is one of the consultees for the latest reserved matters application for the development on site.

This latest application, which is awaiting a decision by Cornwall Council, is looking at the appearance, landscaping, layout and scale following outline approval, which was granted at appeal in 2014 for the dwellings, open space and landscaping, including a local equipped area of play, new vehicular and pedestrian access off Upper Chapel, extension to existing cemetery, car park and associated landscape, parking, engineering (including ground modelling) works, site reclamation (including demolition) and infrastructure.

Mr Hickman wrote to the council: “My colleagues in our listing department have received an application to designate part of the land within this site as a Scheduled Monument.

“My colleagues anticipate carrying out further investigation to ascertain the provenance of the site’s evident archaeological potential towards the end of November. It would be helpful if you could delay determination of the application until those investigations are complete.”

Mr Hickman suggested the applicant ‘could also consider amendments to the site layout to avoid construction in the area … preserving the archaeological remains in-situ’.

He added: “While we note that some of the area of proposed open space is to be used for an extension to the adjacent cemetery, there are other areas of open space that could be built upon in exchange for leaving the area of archaeological potential undeveloped. If kept undeveloped, there is however no reason why the area of archaeological potential could not also be used for public amenity.”

The part of the site highlighted by Historic England appears to lie south of Trebursye Road, east of Beechcroft. A spokesperson for Historic England estimates the size of the site it is looking at to be about 150m2.

They added: “Only a part of that site overlaps with the development proposal. We are currently talking to the local authority, we just need to better understand what’s under the ground. It was something identified by ‘LIDAR’, we just need to explore what it is. We are liaising with the owner and local authority to visit at the end of the month and will do an inspection of the ground there. We will liaise with the owners and developers to manage the remains in the best way.”

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “We understand that the applicant is aware of the comments made regarding archaeology and they are being considered by their consultant. The determination date for the application is currently January 17, 2018.”

On the council’s interactive map, it notes the site, saying: “Earthwork remains visible on LIDAR imagery and the outline of a possible drove way on historic maps suggests the site of a deserted medieval or post medieval settlement, or potentially a Roam fort at this location.”

Launceston Town Council’s planning committee recently considered the reserved matters application at its meeting on November 2, but at the time did not know about the site’s possible archaeological importance.

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Rob Tremain, said: “I’m very keen on local history but I knew nothing about it.”