WAINHOMES held a public consultation event in Delabole last Thursday and Friday to present plans for 65 new homes at Treligga Downs Road to the community.

A team of planners from Wainhomes gathered at St John’s Church in the village to answer questions from the local community about their plans to build 65 new homes.

The plans propose the construction of 65 homes, ranging from one-bed bungalows to four-bed detached houses, with additional car parking and a new public space of community interest. Proposed materials include brick, painted render and tile hanging, which will ensure the new homes are in keeping with other properties in the area. These homes are to be a mix of affordable and open market housing, with section 106 monies to be allocated to the Delabole Primary School expansion.

The pre-application was submitted in October 2018, with public consultation running in March and the planning application hoped to be submitted to Cornwall Council in June. Further to this, ongoing consultation and discussions will continue through July and August with ‘determination of the application’ taking place in November.

One Delabole resident was optimistic about the plans. He said: “I think there’s a long way to go yet, but around 18 people came to the consultation within the first hour, which is a good sign. They look quite impressive, because they’re doing bungalows up there too, making a nice mix.”

Cornwall Councillor for Delabole, St Teath and St Breward, Dominic Fairman, told the Post that Wainhomes had already obtained early advice from Cornwall Council’s planning department, which said: “Should an application such as this come forward at this time it would be considered a departure from the development plan. It would be necessary to ensure that any uses/community benefits proposed within the submission meet an identified local need and the proposals have the support of the local community. It should be noted however that departure applications are not without significant risk. It would need to be clearly demonstrated that the benefits of the proposed development would significantly outweigh the lack of compliance with the local plan; evidence that the land uses proposed are required in this location, and community support would be critical.”

The indicative plans presented to the public showed a potential layout for 65 homes including a number of ‘extra care’ affordable homes, which are suitable for older residents to downsize to bungalows that are purpose built to cater for lifetime needs. Other affordable units will be a mixture of rent and affordable sales for local need.

Cllr Fairman said: “I was pleased to be able to attend the event for the full five hours on Thursday and talk to residents about their views and opinions.

“There has been widespread concern about the capacity of the school to cope with more children and I have facilitated discussions between Wainhomes and the Aspire Academy Trust about a potential solution in the form of a new classroom in the existing school grounds.

“With a development of this size it should be possible to achieve multiple community benefits and I have highlighted the existing plans for a village wide 20mph zone and in addition requested a serviced plot of ground with a car park for the parish council to enable the future development of a village hall or even a purpose built doctors surgery.”

He added: “Whilst smaller developments might seem more acceptable to people, there is no obligation to provide affordable or local need houses in sites of less than ten houses and much less scope to achieve any other meaningful benefits to the community.

“However, the planners have made it clear that this proposal would require strong support from the community and so I hope that the parish council will listen to as wide a range of views as possible before they are asked to vote on any future planning application that may come forward.”

Aside from the overall impact of the development and the capacity of the school, many people had concerns about the proposed access off Treligga Downs Road with many stating a preference for an entrance directly off Westdown Road.

Local people have been making their views known via Cllr Fairman’s public Facebook page.

Leah Mountain claims the site would be ‘turning Delabole into Camelford’. She said: “This would be right in front of our homes blocking a lovely view. You can’t fit all the kids in the primary school to the point where about two to three kids from each year have had to stay down a year just to make it work. Also the doctors, which you can never get an appointment for, and it is only open a couple of days a week — and the shocking parking as well.

“You’re turning Delabole into Camelford. You should be concentrating on the problems in Delabole, not adding a bigger one — just for money!”

Emma Lynch was also opposed to the plans, and said: “Any development such as this in such a small village with few amenities, and that already has serious issues with the main road and residents’ parking, lack of school spaces, should require that the developers — the main beneficiaries of the project — invest in the infrastructure of the village to sort these issues out before adding any more people. A small public car park for school pick up/drop off on the outskirts of town, and not really anywhere near the school or anything else for that matter, doesn’t really cut it for me I’m afraid.”

Jackki Lavender had concerns about the access and road issues. She said: “Not sure why they are making another entrance, there will be three road junctions in a very small space — this new build, Reservoir Close and Belmont Close. This is very dangerous for highways off a small country lane that doesn’t even have painted centre lines. The whole proposal is a disgrace and all about the money.”

However, Wainhomes left Delabole feeling fairly positive about the future of the development. Eighty-six people signed the register of attendance during the consultation, although the developer was almost certain that they had in excess of 100 people attend over the two days.

Wainhomes planner, Jamie Grant, said: “It was pleasing to have such a turnout on both the Thursday and the Friday, we had representatives from the local community, the parish council, Cornwall Council, Cornwall Rural Housing Association and the Aspire Academy Trust, which we felt provided a very well-rounded response. We will be going through all the feedback forms received over the next week or two.

“Wainhomes is proposing a residential development for approximately 65 homes, which includes two to four bed open market dwellings, two to three bed affordable dwellings for local people and a number of accessible bungalows. The scheme at this stage seeks to address local needs, which includes the provision of affordable homes for local people; land set aside for the parish council for community use; a 20-space car park to be used as a school ‘drop off pick up’ point as well as future residents and visitors; an education contribution towards the expansion of the primary school; and further S106 contributions to be discussed with Cornwall Council and the parish council.

“To allow Wainhomes to deliver this, it is important that we gain local support should a planning application be submitted — we really appreciate all feedback received to date. Wainhomes will provide a summary of the feedback received to the parish council and any other interested members of the community.”

What are your thoughts on the development? Email [email protected] to let us know.