Hayle Fights “Completely Unacceptable” Harbour Development

The Mayor of Hayle, Clive Polkinghorne, says residents of Hayle must give their views on a proposed new development on North Quay, which he believes is “completely unacceptable” to the town.

At a meeting of Hayle Town Council on October 18 it was unanimously agreed to “strongly oppose” a development of buildings on the harbour front which could be several storeys high on the grounds of its visual impact, lack of protection of heritage, and multiple breaches of the town’s Neighbourhood Plan on parking, scale and type of development, traffic, heritage and the need to maintain the identity of different parts of the town.

Speaking after the meeting, Mayor Polkinghorne said: “The residents of Hayle have made it very clear to councillors that they are massively against this unnecessary and overbearing development which we believe will deliver little if any benefit to the town. We have lodged our strongest objection possible to Cornwall Council on their behalf and will continue our opposition to the scheme in its current form. However, it is vital that as many people in Hayle express their views to Cornwall Council’s planning team, their County Councillors and MP if it is to be changed to something more in keeping with Hayle and the needs of its residents and businesses. We urge everyone with a view to contact Cornwall Council urgently ahead of a decision being taken as early as December.”

Mayor Polkinghorne added that the developer, Sennybridge, had declined repeated invitations to discuss concerns raised after the planning application was submitted, saying: “We had hoped the developer would meet with Hayle Town Council to answer questions about the scheme, but it has so far refused to engage properly with the elected representatives on the council. There is a growing concern amongst some councillors that it has no intention of doing so, and that despite the project contravening numerous areas of the Neighbourhood Plan which residents voted overwhelmingly to adopt earlier this year, seems intent on ram-rodding this scheme through the planning process with no regard for the local community.”

Other bodies including Historic England and the International Commission on Historic Monuments and Sites have lodged strong objections to the development, much of which would be in the boundaries of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage site.

Details of the scheme (PA18/04577) can be found at http://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/onli…/applicationDetails.do…

See also PA18/04577 | Application for approval of reserved matters (access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale) pursuant to outlin