The Western Morning News 21/07/2004
At least one inquiry will take place over the future of a beach where developers want to invest £200 million on land which locals say is a 'village green'. Robert Jobson reports
Gloria Price, like hundreds of others, has been going down to the beach at Carlyon Bay on and off for more than 30 years.
She shudders at the imminent prospect of it being covered with 511 holiday apartments developed by the latest owner of the beach, Ampersand of London.
With her husband Peter, a retired police officer, it was Mrs Price who applied to Cornwall County Council last autumn for the beach to be registered as a village green under the Commons Registration Act.
This week her application, and an ensuing objection lodged against it by Ampersand, prompted councillors to recommend a public inquiry.
It will involve the council appointing an independent inspector to hold what is called a non-statutory local inquiry into whether the beach can be registered as a village green.
Later this year, at a date and venue to be fixed in the Carlyon Bay area, he will hear the evidence of both the beach users and beach owners past and present, and make recommendations to Cornwall County Council's modification orders panel.
Ampersand and the company's supporters living in Carlyon Bay, where opinions are mixed on the merits of the proposed £200 million beach development, are confident that the village green application will be rejected.
The Prices and 340 members of Carlyon Bay Watch, who have submitted statements confirming that they have "indulged in lawful sports and pastimes as of right" on the beach for "not less than 20 years", think otherwise.
Mrs Price said: "I believe this beach is a village green and always has been. The evidence to support that is overwhelming. To us it is common sense."
The beach is in fact three beaches - Crinnis, Shorthorn and Polgaver - created in the last 160 years from china clay waste.
Mrs Price said: "340 residents in Carlyon Bay - which amounts to 56 per cent - have signed forms. If the village green application succeeds it stops the development. The developer has already put been on notice."
Both sides in the dispute say case law, going all the way to the House of Lords, is on their side.
The Prices and Carlyon Bay Watch cite the case of Sunningwell, in Oxfordshire, where the Church of England applied to build on glebe land.
Residents in Sunningwell successfully claimed that this land had been used as a village green.
Lord Hoffman ruled in the residents' favour, stating: "It does not matter what people think. It is what people do."
However, Ampersand and its lawyers are confident that they will win the argument.
Andy Woods, an Ampersand director, said: "Groups opposed to developments often use this 'village green' tactic as a last resort to attempt to thwart proposals for which planning permission has been given.
"I am not aware of any comparable circumstances in which a site such as ours has been registered as a village green.
"For example, a case involving a private beach at Whitstable, in Kent, was recently dismissed following a public inquiry. We believe that our objections will stand the scrutiny of a full public inquiry."
It is the not the first time that St Austell residents have ventured down such a route. A few years ago the people of Charlestown, and the surrounding area, gathered for a public inquiry to determine whether the coast path went across the lock gates in the privately-owned Charlestown harbour. The planning inspector ruled in favour of the harbour owners, Square Sail.
All involved in the Carlyon Bay saga are waiting to see whether Government ministers will intervene and call in Ampersand's revised planning applications, supported in principle last June by councillors.