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NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Mullion Parish Council will be on Tuesday 17th September. The   agenda can be found here.

Thank you to everybody who attended the meeting of Mullion Parish Council last night when the planning request for the area commonly known as The Catholic Field was discussed.  Also thank you to everybody who sent comments directly to Cornwall Council.

Here is the full text of the response to Cornwall Council from Mullion Parish Council.

"Fifty six members of the public were in attendance for this item, all of which were against the proposal.  125 objections had been submitted to the online planning portal, which the Councillors had had sight of.  This was the biggest reaction the Parish Council had ever seen to a planning application in the village.  A petition had also been signed by 5,700 people.  The consultation held by the developer was attended by 78 people with the vast majority being against the proposal.  This application does not appear to address any of the issues raised.

Mr C Moakes spoke on behalf of objectors and set out their reasons for objecting to the planning application.

The Applicant was not in attendance.

Councillors gave their thoughts on the proposal, before the application was put to the vote.

The Chairman asked for a proposal in support of the application.  None were put forward.

He then asked for a proposal on objection to the application.  It was proposed by Councillor Mrs L Skeites, seconded by Councillor M Rowse and unanimously RESOLVED to object to the application on the following grounds:-

AONB – 

This site is located within the South Coast Western section of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  This development would extend the built form of Mullion southwards.  When travelling southwards through Mullion, there is a marked sense of leaving the built form of the village at the junction of Polurrian Road and Nansmellyon Road, with the built form beyond this is seen as scattered development within the agricultural landscape of this part of the Lizard – Trenance Farm and Mullion Meadows is still perceived as being located beyond the built form of the village.  By building on this site, the perceived extension of the village would be much larger that this development alone as the scattered peripheral dwellings would be included in that extension.

The AONB has the very highest level of landscape protection and planning policy requires that development within the AONB must conserve and enhance the landscape character and natural beauty.  It is widely agreed that the considerable change to the landscape and the visual amenity of this part of Mullion would be detrimental to the AONB and would not be consistent with the primary purpose of the legislation.  The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit strongly opposes this application, as do the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

ACCESS – 

The location of this site is only accessed by two routes, both via Polurrian Road.  Polurrian Road is not suitable for additional multi directional traffic.  There is already residential parking on the narrow carriageway and it only benefits from a short section of pedestrian paving.  Access via the built up residential area, known as ‘Clifden Close’, is often restricted due to the poor parking of cars along this estate.  The bus from Helston to the Lizard regularly becomes caught up trying to navigate the estate.  The other route to this site is through the one way system which has restricted width.  Using this route includes joining Nansmellyon Road on a blind corner where the speed limit changes from 60mph to 30mph. Building in this location will create a significant amount of additional traffic through either the housing estate or the one way system, neither of which can cope with anymore vehicular movements.  There is a woeful lack of appreciation of traffic volume through the village. This development would be detrimental to the highway system in Mullion.

PREAPP – 

The Case Officer was entitled to his initial opinion, but it was not informed by the responses of any consultees and should not form part of the consideration in this decision making process. In the pre-app PA18/02299/PREAPP, the Highways Officer advised that the access should be onto Polurrian Road.  However, the previous pre-app, PA13/02153/PREAPP stated that the access should be onto Nansmellyon Road.  

NEED – 

The proposal is for up to 25 dwellings, 70% of which would be available on the open market.  The other 30% would be affordable houses for sale.  Even with a reduction in the open market value of the properties, most local people would not be in a position to purchase the houses.  The Village of Mullion requires affordable housing that is available for local people to rent.  The pre app stated that Cornwall Council “would not support this tenure in the area unless the applicant was able to provide specific evidence of need”.  No evidence is offered by them.

OTHER MATTERS –

Cornwall Council are actively promoting reducing Cornwall’s carbon footprint.  By allowing large developments in rural villages, where there are very few employment opportunities, Cornwall Council are not fulfilling their duty to reduce Cornwall’s carbon footprint.

This field should not be considered as a rural exception site.  Indeed, until Cornwall Council was imposed upon us, this piece of land lay outside of the Kerrier District Council Development Boundary as established by its Planning and Development Department.  The reason was to protect the outstanding visual amenity offered by Trembel Valley, of which this is a part.  Land is available elsewhere in the Parish which would offer a much safer and more accessible location which would not alter the appearance of the village.

The Public Open Spaces Officer at Cornwall Council was highly critical of the open space provided on this site, which was of no recreational value.  The layout would lead to garden encroachment, antisocial behavior and was contrary to Local Plan Policy 12.1b regarding the orientation of housing in relation to open space.

Areas of Cornwall are being designated under the ‘Dark Skies’ initiative.  By installing new street lighting on Polurrian Road, this would increase light pollution in an area located very close to the Heritage Coast and SSSI.  It would be an unwelcome urbanisation of Mullion.

It should also be noted that this site had been the subject to ten planning applications and three appeals since the 1960’s, all of which had been refused.  This application should be no different."

Mullion Parish Council Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month in the Centenary Room at the Methodist Chapel. Members of the public and press are welcome to attend.