A Cornwall Council planning committee has approved plans by the council’s own offshoot company Treveth to build 40 new homes despite concerns about the amount of affordable properties.

The application sought approval for design, layout and scale following outline approval in 2023 on 1.37 hectares of undeveloped land off Angarrack Lane at the southern edge of Connor Downs, between Camborne and Hayle.

It is an affordable-led housing scheme with 50 per cent of the total provision being affordable homes for local people. The mix would be ten affordable rented, ten shared ownership and 20 open market.

However, the division member Cllr Lionel Pascoe and the local parish council were not happy with the minimum affordable housing provision, low number of rented properties and a concern that, despite assurances to the contrary, the open market properties cannot be guaranteed to be occupied by local people.

The matter came before a meeting of Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee on April 17.

The council’s planning department said that while the parish council and Cllr Pascoe’s disappointment at the level and tenure of affordable housing provision was acknowledged, planning policy allows for the proposed amount of open market housing to facilitate the affordable housing. The council’s affordable housing team was satisfied with the proposed affordable housing provision.

Carl Gill, from Gwinear-Gwithian Parish Council, said that although his local authority could see many positives in the application, councillors still had concerns that the amount of community benefit was less than acceptable. “How does site after site that comes forward always seems to make the absolute minimum affordable housing?” he asked.

He added that the council was concerned that the shared ownership properties would go to people outside the parish as had happened with similar housing schemes. “Surely Treveth and Cornwall Council can do better than offer ten properties at affordable rent?”

Cllr Pascoe echoed the parish council’s concerns that there would only be 25 per cent affordable rent, which he believed was “really unacceptable”.

Tom Davey, development manager for Treveth, highlighted that the one, two and three bed homes would meet local need and there would be contributions towards local education and healthcare. He said all open market properties are subject to Treveth’s local connection priority policy and restricted for use as a primary residence.

Mr Davey added that the company had a 100 per cent track record of providing housing for local people and he saw no reason why that would change at the Connor Downs site. Responding to concerns from some councillors that there was nothing legally binding and set in stone to ensure the housing goes to local people, Mr Davey reiterated that it was “pretty much set in stone” in terms of Treveth’s policy.

The application was unanimously approved by the planning committee. Each house will have parking and gardens, with an area of open space and retention of hedgerow, plus a footpath link to a nearby playing field. Properties will be a mix of semi detached, terraced housing and bungalows.