Cornwall’s highways development team has said it now has no objections to the plans provided for a prospective new housing scheme in Callington. 

Outline permission is sought for 10 open market houses and four affordable homes on land off the Haye Road. 

Local people who said they were against the plans earlier this year had cited the increase in traffic movements on an already congested road, and the visibility at the entrance and exit of the site as major concerns. 

Cornwall’s east highways officer had asked the developer to address key issues that he felt would make the access potentially unsafe. He’d suggested that the proposed access point, which emerges very close to another junction, could be changed to a position to the south west of the site. 

A revised document was submitted by the developer earlier this month and while the access point itself has not changed, the highways officer has stated that he has no objection, provided that the agreed visibility splay for motorists is ensured by planning condition ahead of the start of any other work. 

Nine people had lodged their objections to the scheme when the application went in earlier this year. Most alluded to the already busy Haye Road which is used by motorists and pedestrians accessing the health centre. 

One said: “The approach road is not adequate for the volume of traffic. Parking is permitted along part of the north section of Haye Road, making it virtually single carriageway at this point.” 

Another local resident described how a “silly parking scheme” forces motorists “to drive onto a private layby in order to prevent collisions”. 

And a third person commented that “traffic entering Haye Road from the Liskeard direction encounters a blind and diffcult turn. When another car is exiting at the same time with pedestrians also walking, it can be unnerving.” 

One resident who wrote in to Cornwall Council painted a chaotic picture of this part of the town, describing   “people in cars, on foot, and in wheelchairs or mobility scooters, and mums with prams” going to the health centre, agricultural vehicles coming out of Frogwell Lane, and cars turning as their drivers tried to find parking spaces. 

A separate concern for some people is the loss of agricultural land. 

Callington Town Council were set to discuss the planning application yesterday (Tues 19) as the Cornish Times went to press. 

To view the documents visit Cornwall Council’s online planning register and use the reference PA23/01085.