Planning

Planning History

Crinnis Beach, Shorthorn Beach and Polgaver Beach together make up what is known as Carlyon Bay, a popular seaside resort since well before the second World War. During the nineteen-fifties, the complex presently known as The Cornwall Coliseum was built, and was then gradually extended with a Wimpy Bar and a nightclub.

In 1973, the Cornwall County Council rejected an application for re-development for residential use on the grounds of traffic, amenity and the local environment.

In 1989, the Borough of Restormel granted consent for 511 Apartments to be used only as Holiday homes, subject to conditions about the improvement of local roads, a sea wall etc. At that time the intending developer said that it was the only way that he could preserve jobs on the site. However, almost as soon as permission was granted, the site was sold to someone else.

In 1995, the same Borough granted a Certificate of Commencement (necessary to preserve the 1989 Planning Approval) even though only a few white lines had been painted on the roadway and a few wooden stakes had been knocked into the sand.

In 2002, the present owners, Ampersand, made two applications to the Borough regarding the site, the first being to lift the conditions of the original consent about restriction for Holiday lettings, and the second being to radically change the design in order to add an hotel, a leisure centre, 30,000 square feet of retail space etc.

The Borough, at a meeting in June 2003 of its Planning Control Committee, gave its conditional approval to these two applications notwithstanding the fact that the Environment Agency made it very clear nothing should proceed until a Flood Risk Assessment had been approved, and the further fact that Cornwall County Council had made clear its opposition, not only because of traffic considerations but also because the development was contrary to the County Structure Plan and was in conflict with the County Development Plan.

In July 2003, CarlyonBayWatch delivered a petition of 929 signatures to the Government Office of the South West at Plymouth, calling for the matter to be referred to a full Public Enquiry.

On the 08/09/2004 the development company withdrew their revised planning applications and reverted to the extant planning permission (granted in 1989 and renewed in 1995 and again in 2000). Technically, they do have permission to build to those plans on Carlyon Bay Beach. BUT not only are those plans not the Beach project which they have been advertising for sale, but part of the permitted plans include the construction of a Sea Wall. However, since the 1989 plans were granted, legislation for the construction of Sea Walls has changed. Sea Walls of this nature now require an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Latest Application

As part of the proposed build, in February 2005 the developer finally made an Application for permission to build a revised Sea Wall defence, having been notified by Restormel Borough Council of the risk of Enforcement Action. This was because a considerable amount of work had already been completed, with steel shuttering buried into the sand along the foreshore for approximately 1 km (0.62 miles) or about 75 per cent of the length of the beach without a shred of Planning Approval, about which Carlyonbaywatch (CBW) had maintained contiuous pressure for action upon the Council.. This wall had been advanced by upto 40 metres into the tidal zone from the line of the 1990 design. The developer's Application was supported by an Environmental Impact Assessment and numerous other documents which were then subject to detailed challenge by CBW, who made a presentation at the Council's meeting of 1st.June 2005.

Despite CBW's unchallenged expert evidence, and the evidence from its own advisors, and also despite the enormous increase in environmental damage that must result, the Council then gave its Approval for the new Sea Wall design. However, because the Council had been told by Government Office that this Application was the subject of an "Article 14 Direction", at the end of June the whole matter was passed to Government Office of the South West in Plymouth (GOSW) for consideration. Since that date, CBW has made a substantial number of further submissions and continues to press its case for a new public inquiry with GOSW. We had in 2004 been successful in obtaining a public inquiry for the plan to include major shopping and hotel facilities on the beach, as a result of which, the developer then withdrew that plan. Because the application for the new Sea Wall and beach re-charge would be vastly more damaging to the environment, logic dicates that there is an even stronger case for an inquiry this time around. We continue to monitor events closely.