Published by Emma Carton at 7:24am 3rd May 2019. (Updated at 11:12am 3rd May 2019)

Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Richard Whitehouse

The first phase in a major redevelopment of Hayle Harbour has been delayed after councillors were unable to decide whether to grant planning permission.

A reserved matters application - to deal with smaller issues not considered in an application previously - for North Quay went before Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee on Thursday.

Planning officers had recommended that the plans should be approved but councillors decided to defer the plans due to concerns about the design.

The committee heard that there had been major changes to the proposed development since it was granted outline planning permission in 2010.

The current plans include 151 homes, 2,104 sq m of retail space, 595 sq m of business space, 343 sq m of fishermen's storage space and 305 parking spaces. There would also be a large amount of public open space and the harbour area would be open for public access.

Developers Sennybridge (Hayle) Ltd had worked with the council, local people and stakeholders including the World Heritage Site team to come up with a design which would be suitable.

It had been backed by a number of people including Hayle Town Council but there were still some concerns raised at the meeting.

The first phase of a major development to do up Hayle Harbour has been delayed: Visualisation of the development

Local Cornwall councillor Graham Coad urged the committee to support the plans saying there was a "groundswell of support" in Hayle for the development.

But fellow Hayle councillor John Pollard said that while there was some support for the plans there were also some people who are not happy.

He said he was unable to support the plans in their current form and there were more changes needed.

One of his main concerns was around the plans to build multi-storey blocks on the edge of the quay saying that there had never been large buildings on the edge before.

Cllr Pollard suggested it would be better to move the larger blocks to the back of the development area and keep the quayside edge open.

Planning officers said in their report that although the development could cause some harm to the World Heritage Site it was outweighed by the benefits of the plans.

Cllr Pollard said: "I don't agree at all, the town is not going to benefit from this".

He said that while moving the buildings back could result in "slightly less profit for the developer" it would be worth doing:

"We should try and get the best scheme we possible can for this area.

"Residents are concerned about the over development of this site and the concrete jungle that would be created.

"We have got to get this right, we have waited 40 years for this".

Councillor Pollard

Cornwall Council could not decide whether to give it the green light amid design concerns: Visualisation of the development

Councillors were also concerned about comments which had been submitted by the International Council On Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) which is part of UNESCO which operates the World Heritage Sites (WHS) programme.

ICOMOS said it was concerned about the height of the buildings and the impact the development could have on the WHS.

In deferring the application the council will seek to contact ICOMOS to make clear their position on the plans.

The plans will also be referred to the council's design review panel to consider and work with the developers.

The proposal to defer the plans was agreed by 11 votes to three.

 

via https://www.piratefm.co.uk/news/latest-news/2864388/first-phase-of-hayle...