The Western Morning News 12th June 2003

Plan to demolish Coliseum backed by Robert Jobson

A £110 MILLION scheme to create a world-class tourist village on a dilapidated Cornish beach was given a resounding vote of confidence last night by a planning authority.

Johnny Sandelson, chief executive of applicant Ampersand, emerged victorious from Restormel Borough Council's chamber at St Austell after being subjected to a verbal battering by his Carlyon Bay detractors.

The council's newly-elected planning committee listened to all sides of the argument before voting 9-2 to support his proposed demolition of the Cornwall Coliseum to make way for his beach resort on Crinnis Beach.

This planning approval will be subject to the signing of legal agreements covering highway improvement in the Carlyon flay area, to which Ampersand will contribute £2 million.

The company must also guarantee public access to the beach and satisfy the Environment Agency about its sea defences to protect the 511 holiday apartments, a hotel and other leisure facilities which Ampersand intends to develop.

The ambitious venture will also depend on whether Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott decides to call in the scheme for a public inquiry in response to Cornwall County Council's concern that it is a major departure from development policy.

After many months of negotiations with Ampersand, planning officers recommended last night that the company's two applications should be given delegated approval - subject to a long list of conditions to safeguard both the buyers and occupants of the holiday apartments and local residents who are worried about worsening traffic jams.

Last night's meeting received additional letters in support of Ampersand.

One person wrote to inform the council: "The objections raised on issues such as transport should be regarded as nimbyism.

"Existing residents at Carlyon Bay wish to block progress and stifle benefits to the borough."

But opponents of Ampersand claimed that its sales office on the Coliseum site was presenting an entirely different portrayal of the development by suggesting it would be turned into an exclusive residents-only private beach resort.

One objector alleged: "The set-up is designed to be so prohibitive that the public access widely referred to is not worth anything.

"Nobody is going to buy a £350,000 apartment only to have the public wandering by their windows."

Mark Frazer, speaking for the residents of Carlyon Bay and Charlestown, said: "This is not nimbyism. The majority of people in the area want something to be done about the sorry state of the Coliseum complex. For a county that sees its future in tourism, filling up beaches with buildings is like shooting yourself in the foot.

"We will be destroying the very reason that people come here.

"There are still so many unresolved issues that the development control committee cannot be satisfied that if it approves this project it would be doing anything other than giving the developer a green light to do as it pleases."

Mr Frazer said the residents of Carlyon Bay and Charlestown would do their utmost to persuade Mr Prescott to order a public inquiry and rescind a 1998 planning permission on the Coliseum site.

Support for Mr Sandelson came from Nicola Toms, who told the meeting that she had lived at Carlyon Bay for 23 years but could no longer afford to reside there.

She said: "You may think I'm a black sheep, but this development will be great for local businesses and will be a huge bonus to them."

Bill Higgins also backed Ampersand, saying: "I have lived here for 12 years, and if Johnny Sandelson wants to do this, let him get on with it."

St Austell councillor Shirley Polmounter felt the objections to the scheme had been exaggerated and the potential benefit played down.

She said St Austell Bay was a thriving tourism area with the exception of the Cornwall Coliseum site, and it was high time that something was done there.

Proposing that Ampersand should be given delegated approval subject to the outstanding issues being resolved was new Restormel councillor John Wood (Independent, Roche), who said: "I feel that this project should be allowed to move forward for the benefit of Cornwall."

Two months ago Mr Sandelson's appeal for Restormel councillors to be decisive and endorse his vision, just ten days before the council elections, met with a lacklustre response.

A proposal that Ampersand's application be approved ended in a 3-3 stalemate, with two other councillors abstaining, including planning chairman Coun William Corbett, who subsequently lost his seat on the council. That application was reconsidered last night, when a second Ampersand proposal for leisure facilities and a hotel came before a new planning committee.