Cornish Guardian 16/11/2003

Beauty of the Beach will be ruined forever by Stephen Fry, Par

I CAME to live in the St Austell area 29 years ago and in that time I have spent many happy hours - at Carlyon Bay, winter and summer alike, walking, sunbathing and swimming. I enjoy the peace, tranquillity and beauty of this area of beach — it is an ideal place to get rid of the stresses of modern life.

I am horrified that Restormel Council, which has consistently in the past made bad planning decisions, should allow development of this scale on a beautiful Cornish beach. If this decision is allowed to go through, future generations will be denied the beauty of this special place. By all means demolish the Coliseum, build a first class hotel with leisure facilities, a swimming pool and a nightclub, but why ruin the Shorthorn beach and wildlife area?

Some years ago the beach was beautifully kept, a team of young men scoured the beach every day picking up litter, etc. It was so clean it won awards.

Ampersand have deliberately left it full of rubbish this year to strengthen their case for redevelopment. Similarly, along the road to Polgaver they have bulldozed areas which contained rare orchids, no doubt to stop a preservation order being placed by English Nature.

I have spoken to lots of people this summer locals and visitors alike, and they are all so sorry that this beauty is about to be destroyed to create Costa del Carlyon Bay.

I don’t live in Carlyon Bay so cannot be accused of nimbyism, but I feel sony for the residents who will have to put up with the vast quantities of lorries, cement-mixing lorries etc who will be required to build this monstrosity.

In the summer I came past the sewage works at Par which by the smell is obviously at full capacity. How will it cope with an extra 511 dwellings? No doubt we will pay extra through our water rates to extend it. I understand this development is contrary to the area structure plan and I appeal to the powers-that-be to stop it.

After all, when the development is completed the only jobs available will be for cleaners, which will go very little way towards solving Cornwall’s economic problems and if developments like this on beaches are allowed, tourists will boycott Cornwall as the reason why they came in the first place will be gone.