A developer’s new plans to reinforce the cliff at Whipsiderry ahead of building its controversial luxury homes scheme have been turned down.

Cornwall Council planning officer Mark Evans has rejected Living Quarter Properties (Porth) Ltd proposal to insert 337 steel rods to a depth of between 15 and 25 metres into the cliff face for the seven villas on the site of the former Paradise Cove Hotel to “float on.”

The company had gone back to the drawing board and submitted a re-discharge condition two of its 2007 planning permission after three major cliff collapses occurred during the cliff stabilisation work.

Save Whipsiderry Cliffs have staged several protests to stop the luxury homes being built on the site following fears works to stabilise the cliff will destabilise it and that the scheme will have a detrimental impact on wildlife.

A spokesperson for the campaign group said: “We are delighted that Cornwall Council has rejected the developer’s application to discharge condition 2 of the planning permission.

This condition is all about the developer’s methodology to stabilise the cliff, to support the development of the seven holiday homes and how they will maintain this for its 125-year life so is critical to the development going ahead.

“Thankfully Cornwall Council rejected this application with the following reasons.

“The methodology of cliff stabilisation is not informed by a sufficient understanding of the geology, geotechnical conditions and processes to allow for an appropriate site-specific solution.

“We read this as.. their reports did not show any evidence that their drilling and meshing solution would address all the factors in play at Whipsy – the wave action, the ground that “behaves more like soil”, and the sea caves that they conveniently ignored – again.

“Information is provided in relation the maintenance regime of the proposed solution; however, it largely focuses on inspection, and does not set out any indication of repair/replacement requirements that are specific to the materials proposed.

“The reports basically said we’ll inspect the mesh, rods, cliff regularly, but no provision was detailed regarding how they would fix it if/when it fails.

“The proposals submitted do not assess ecological impacts and no scheme for ecological mitigation / compensation has been provided.

“Yet again, the developers and their agents failed to even acknowledge that the works proposed are damaging to the habitats on the cliff and provided no mitigation solution.

“This is not the end, but it proves that Cornwall Council planning will not bend over and sign off this condition based on flawed and incomplete evidence.

“They want robust methodologies and evidence to prove that any stability solutions will actually work. Can this ever be achieved? We think not. Rest assured, the Save Whipsiderry Cliff group are committed to seeing this through to the end, and preventing further damage to the cliffs at Whipsy and reinstating public access to our much loved beach.”

Campaigner Lyndsey Young added: “We are glad that Cornwall Council planning department have made the decision to reject this application.

“This decision was based upon missing essential detail in the application, a lack of evidence to support the developers proposed stability plans, and a general failure of the developers to prove they understand the complex geotechnical & geological processes in play at Whipsiderry.

“They also failed to provide any assessment of ecological impact and proposed mitigations.

“In other words, the two “expert” reports upon which the application was based were flawed and failed to address many of the required conditions.

“Of course, this isn’t the end, the original planning permission still exists, but it is another step towards the prevention of further destruction at Whipsy.

“The Save Whipsiderry Group are committed to preventing any unnecessary destruction to the cliff face and habitat, and re-instating public access to the beach, once the safety issues have been addressed.”

Colan Cornwall councillor John Fitter added: “The planning officer Mark Evans has issued a refusal on the application for the discharge of Condition 2 on the Paradise Cove site which was about the method, they intend to use to make the cliff safe prior to building out the permission they have for the holiday homes.

“This is not only about building holiday homes which are not needed, but it is also the ongoing risk of further destruction to the cliff face at the Cove which in the view of many experts who had seen this latest application, would be the result if this latest application had been carried out.

“Cornwall Council must now stop sitting on its hands and now take urgent measures to get the Whipsiderry steps open once again to the public, this cove has been the playground of the local community and our visitors for many years, we cannot let another summer go by while Council Officers sit on their hands and decide what they want to do. Not rocket science just get the steps open.”

Living Quarter Properties (Porth) Limited has been asked to comment on their new plans.