THERE will be no highway link between two new adjacent housing estates in Launceston, Cornwall Council has confirmed.

The two housing developments — by developers Wainhomes and Taylor Wimpey — will be situated south of the A388 at Withnoe Farm and Hay Common.

The Taylor Wimpey development, ‘Gwel an Hay’, will comprise two, three and four bedroom homes, and the Wainhomes Withnoe development will see two, three, four and five bedroom homes.

The mixed-use development Gwel an Hay at Hay Common will also see a new seven-class primary school.

Launceston Town Council’s planning and economic development committee heard at its meeting in April from the deputy town clerk Frances Nally that on the Hay Common side, on a mini roundabout, there ‘should have been a spur road off to take you into the Withnoe side’.

She added: “I made representations to [Cornwall] Council but they said it’s not going to happen.”

Committee chairman Cllr Rob Tremain said they were ‘not particularly’ happy with the lack of a highway link between the two developments.

It means people wishing to drive to the new school from the Withnoe estate will have to leave the estate onto Tavistock Road, the A388, and then travel into the Hay Common estate — although Cornwall Council said there will be pedestrian links between the estates.

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: “There will be no highway link between the estates. When Wainhomes submitted their planning application, they were able to show that it was possible to create a new access onto Tavistock Road that would meet local and national highways policies and safety requirements, which they meant did not have to provide a road going via Hay Common.

“For school access, the focus is on ‘walkable neighbourhoods’, which means that people will be able to access facilities on foot rather than having to drive.

“Wainhomes will provide pedestrian links into the Hay Common site. There will also be a continuous pedestrian footway from Tavistock Road to Stourscombe roundabout that will meet the footpath emerging from the Hay Common site.”

A spokesman for Wainhomes told the Post: “Our site was always going to be standalone.

“We wouldn’t want to be reliant on somebody else providing our access point.”

A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said: “The masterplan for our new Hay Common development initially included a roundabout with provision for a road access to neighbouring land.

“Cornwall Council subsequently requested that we amend our proposals to remove the access to the adjacent site. This was due to the developer of the adjacent land seeking an alternative highway access.

“Planning permission for the revised roundabout configuration was approved by Cornwall Council on December 23, 2015.”