A PUBLIC consultation was held at St Teath Community Centre on July 3 over plans for proposed new homes in the village.

Ocean Housing has prepared a planning application to develop the homes on land adjacent to Tethadene, St Teath. These will include eight under shared ownership and 16 under affordable rent.

Development manager for Gilbert & Goode, who are the company behind the build, Craig Rowe, explained what the proposal is.

He said: “The proposal is for 24 new affordable homes. These will be a mixture of shared ownership and affordable rent.

“All of the properties will be held under a Section 106 agreement, which Cornwall Council put under any development which makes sure the properties are protected to remain affordable.

“They’ll all be nationally described spaces standards which are typically better than open market-based standards.

“Also there’s a housing need nationally, we’re not building enough new homes, as well as in Cornwall, and there’s a housing need in St Teath, that we hope to help to contribute towards.”

When asked of the benefits for the village, Mr Rowe said: “Socially there’ll be affordable housing for local people and economically it’ll be good for people with local connections. However we’re at an early stage, so we’ve been here to get people’s thoughts and when possible we’ll try to incorporate them into the designs.”

That job falls upon John Duncan, who has been given the job of designing the plot. He said: “I went and took a lot of photos and looked at key points to the village and tried to use that and a mixture of materials and window patterns to provide an interest and a relationship with the context.

“It’s also very important that we maintain all of the hedges around the site and the mature trees in them.”

Cornwall Councillor for St Breward, St Teath and Delabole, Dominic Fairman believes the plans are positive, even if he has a couple of concerns.

Cllr Fairman said: “I was pleased that Ocean Housing had acted on my recommendation of a drop in event in the village community centre rather than an online consultation. By sending postcard invitations throughout the village, they had ensured a good turnout and many residents came in to look at the plans and give their views.

“I was also pleased to note that the developers had responded to my request to include some one-bedroom units on the site and I was particularly impressed with the quality of the designs for the houses and the attention to details such as modern air-source heating, which is very energy efficient.

“The most concerns I heard during the afternoon and evening were about the vehicle access to the site off the busy North Road, especially as this is usually restricted by informal on street parking for the school. I hope and trust that the developers will take on some of the concerns raised at the event before they submit a formal planning application. This will then be another opportunity for residents to comment directly to the planning officer through the council website or by letter. The parish council will in due course get to discuss and vote on any application, and in my role as the local Cornwall Councillor, I will only be involved if the parish council disagree with planning officer’s recommendation.”

Despite all that, Cllr Fairman believes housing is vital for St Teath.

He said: “Obviously there was also general concerns about the level of development in the village — however with nearly 60 individuals or families with a strong local connection to the parish currently on the Cornwall Council housing list, there is real need for affordable housing in the parish and we need to keep this in mind when considering potential sites when they come forward.”

On the other hand, village residents had a number of queries.

Karen Blackman said: “My only concern is that local families won’t get the opportunity and that’s because of what happened in Camelford where we used to live.

“I knew of two Cornish families who wanted to move into these properties but were turned down and after everybody moved in, a couple from Manchester, who had no connection with Cornwall, told us that they had just moved in.

“So again my only concern is, is they use the term ‘for local families who have got true connections to Cornwall’ that the council and builders make sure it is for locals.”

Eileen Treby was concerned with the effect it’ll have on the school and the access.

She said: “There are two things I’m worried about, A, the access to the road and B, about school children when they come out of school.

“The school is already at over capacity and you also struggle to get a doctor in Port Isaac or Camelford, so that’s another problem for them to think about.”

Anne Perisic echoed Eileen’s statement regarding the school, adding: “I’ve been associated with the school for over 40 years and I’m worried about the amount of traffic, because we have problems with it as it is. There’s already a desperate need for more parking for the school. I’m also surprised that there are so many people needing affordable housing in St Teath.”

Alice Schofield and her husband live extremely close to the site and has concerns over the sewage system.

She said: “One of my main concerns is to do with the sewage system, which is diagonally opposite us at Rosen, Treroosel Road.

“The water works are right opposite us. It’s a very old site but in my opinion the site needs to be updated more.

“They have done some but what they need to do, because over the years there have been that amount of lorries going down the road, and it does affect property.

“The week before last, a large tanker managed to rip the gate right out of its post and over the years there have been lots of incidents like that.

“My main concern is, are they going to do any updating to the site, as it’s very old and is able to to take the workload from all these new housing developments.”

Rich Hughes and his wife Sue have lived in their property for over 15 years but believes the village is already overfilled and lacks the services for more people.

Rich said: “The infrastructure with the school and local doctors and hospitals are overfilled now. Also the access on the road with all the parked traffic at dropping off and picking up is going to be a main, although that’s the case in most villages. But with the volume of traffic these days, when does a village become a town? Especially with all these new buildings proposed.

“There have been over 70 proposed houses in Delabole, some of which have been passed and over 20 recently passed here in the village and now there are another 24. Another thing I’d like to mention is most people work in the towns. They drive to work and come back each day and then also drive into town at the weekends. Why are we building all the houses in the rural areas when the majority of the work and supermarkets are in the towns? How green is that when the government are supposed to be promoting ‘green living’? Also all these roads have potholes all over them, and they’re only going to get worse due to the volume of traffic.”

A man who didn’t want to be named, believed the houses will help locals, citing his son as an example.

He said: “I think it’s positive news, my son needs to have a property. He’s coming up to 30 and still lives at home, it’d be nice for him to leave home one day and this could help him on his way.”