MORE than 50 comments against a plan for a housing development near Newquay airport have been made by residents who feel it will have a detrimental impact on a quiet hamlet.

Developers Acorn Blue want to redevelop the site of the former Arla Creamery at Trevarrian to create 23 new homes and two commercial buildings featuring 17 business units.

Cornwall Council is recommending that the application is approved, but St Mawgan-in-Pydar Parish Council and the local division member Cllr Paul Wills both oppose the proposal. As a result, it comes before the council’s central area planning committee next week.

The site is just over a mile from Newquay airport.

A previous application was refused due to harm to the character of the area, lack of business space and absence of a Section 106 planning agreement. The new proposal includes additional employment space, a village green, pocket park (a small, accessible public green space) and informal open space.

The council’s recommendation for the Chief Planning Officer to approve under delegated powers would include a Section 106 obligation to secure financial contributions towards Mawgan-in-Pydar CP School and Penhale Dune Special Area of Conservation.

Comments from residents on the council’s online planning portal tend to share the same concerns – overdevelopment, a lack of infrastructure, added pressure on an already suffering sewage system and road safety. Their statements include:

“Trevarrian is a small hamlet and the proposed development is totally unsuited to the area.

“There are major problems already with sewage and waste water when there is considerable rain or surge on the sewage disposal.

“Home owners overlooking the beach see the sea turn brown as sewage is released due to the pumping station being unable to cope with any extra.”

“The proposed development of 23 dwellings and two commercial units is entirely inappropriate for a small hamlet like Trevarrian, which currently consists of around 60 homes spread across 50,000 square metres.

“The development would cram new buildings into just 12,000 square metres, significantly increasing density and overburdening the area.”

“I really hope the council will take note of this and the dire consequences of allowing such a massive development to take place in our peaceful village.

“My main gripe is the fact that the proposal has massively grown beyond the existing brownfield site and now has a big commercial space and affordable houses on greenbelt, undeveloped land within an area of great landscape value which was designed to hide the current factory and help it blend into the surroundings.”

“Trevarrian is a village/hamlet with little amenities or infrastructure to support this considerable development. Why is it necessary to ‘ruin’ a lovely rural area when there is enough development a few miles up the road in Newquay?

“This, if agreed, will leave it wide open for further development as in Newquay and what has been a quiet haven will be destroyed.”

The parish council is against the proposal as it believes it doesn’t adhere to the Cornwall Local Plan, is “out of proportion” to the size of Trevarrian and also mentions a lack of infrastructure and an already overburdened sewage system, among other reasons.

Cllr Wills agrees and cites a reduction in the number of affordable homes.

A statement by Cornwall Council’s planning department to next week’s committee meeting says: “When balancing the considerations, your officers give significant and substantial weight to the benefits associated with increasing housing supply in a sustainable location which, together with the proposed high quality employment units, would help to promote an effective use of land and secure a well-designed place.”

The application is due to be decided at the meeting at Lys Kernow (County Hall) in Truro on Monday, April 7.