Opposition to 20 new affordable homes in Cornwall's biggest village

Lee Trewhela
·4-min read
Land in Millbrook where 20 new affordable homes could be built
-Credit: (Image: Bean Designed)


Housing association LiveWest has applied to build 20 affordable homes in Cornwall's largest village. However, the local parish council and some residents oppose the development citing road safety concerns and a lack of infrastructure.

The application for the houses on land at Southdown Road, Millbrook, near Torpoint, will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee on Thursday (November 21) when it has been recommended that the chief planning officer should be given delegated powers to approve.

The matter was called to committee by local councillor Kate Ewert, who supports the plans subject to offsite highway/pedestrian improvements being made. However, given the local interest and in the interest of transparency she wants fellow councillors to decide the proposal's fate.

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LiveWest said: "Our intention is to deliver a secure and sustainable new development for our clients. We are seeking to capture the character of the existing settlement and through a careful and considered design process create an attractive quality development within Millbrook."

All 20 energy efficient homes would be rented and would include the provision of allotments for community growing of fruit and vegetables.

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A previous scheme for 22 homes on the land was refused following an appeal in 2010. The key reason was due to the perceived sustainability of the site, along with highway impacts. LiveWest argues that changes to the Cornwall Council Local Plan to support rural exception sites - a policy allowing development in countryside in certain circumstances - such as this one, is in the development's favour.

Millbrook Parish Council has objected to the proposal on a number of grounds, including the "inadequate" road infrastructure of Hounster Hill, Tanyard Corner, Quay Corner and Newport Street, and concerns over pedestrian safety, citing a lack of a proper footpath on the development side of Southdown Road.

The parish council commented: "While we are highly sympathetic to the need for more affordable housing in the village, this proposal is for the wrong side of the village, and no adequate improvements to the inadequacies of infrastructure have been made or proposed."

Among public comments on the council's planning portal are:

"I am very surprised to see this application being raised again after it failed last time on traffic and lack of infrastructure, nothing has changed to improve this. There has been no road improvements at all . A new road would have to come into Millbrook as a safety aspect before more houses are to be built.

"We have a huge amount of social houses in our village already and its not local people filling them when they do become empty. Millbrook is already the largest village in Cornwall with a lack of amenities please don't make it worse than it already is."

"I think there are better suited sites outside of Millbrook near Torpoint. The village already suffers with bottleneck traffic on a regular basis. The roads just aren't geared up for the village to grow by this amount, with the main access routes being narrow this will cause more problems."

However, not all locals are opposed to the scheme. "About time we had some affordable housing, hopefully this will help to accommodate some of the locals who need homes. With falling roll numbers, the local pre-schools and primary schools would benefit from an increase in numbers. Hopefully some of these homes maybe aimed at single men who seem to struggle to get any kind of social housing."

The planning officer dealing with the application noted: "Whilst the concerns of the local residents and parish council are understood, it is evident that the proposal has been carefully and patiently devised, taking into account the views of the local community, with the resulting proposal being a high-quality scheme which would raise the standard of development in the area without being conspicuous in longer distance views across Millbrook from the south.

"Furthermore, it would provide 100 per cent affordable housing to meet local need, which is a significant material planning consideration in a housing crisis, and it has been evidenced that the local highway network could satisfactorily accommodate the development, notwithstanding the previous findings of a Planning Inspector some 14 years ago."

There are currently 83 households seeking affordable accommodation within the parish of Millbrook.

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