Pitch 'n' Putt scheme set to go public

9:24am Friday 2nd May 2008

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A controversial £15 million plan for new homes and shops on the site of the current Falmouth Pitch n' Putt course will only proceed after a major public consultation exercise, the scheme's architects have promised.

And the developers have this week raised the stakes by pledging to re-invest any profits from their scheme into further affordable housing provision for the Falmouth area.

The plans, embracing 133 homes, up to five shops and a community hall, will go on public display on Thursday May 22, with an open day from 10am to 8pm in the clubhouse on the 7.5-acre site. Experts on hand will include planning, highways and ecology consultants.

Justin Dodge, managing director of Truro and Falmouth-based CSA Architects, said press reports quoting opponents and based on leaked details of the scheme had given a misleading impression of what was proposed.

He said: "Traditionally, there is a suspicion with development schemes that the public are only consulted once a plan is done and dusted, but we are emphatically not just paying lip service to the consultation process.

"We are consulting with the public fully five months before we anticipate submission of the planning application. The final design is a long way off and the public will have a genuine opportunity for input."

The scheme has been drawn up for Plymouth-based developer Magily Ltd, in close collaboration with Carrick District and Falmouth Town councils, and is subject to a full environmental impact assessment study.

Forty per cent of the residential element will be for affordable housing, with a mixture across the site including all sizes and types of units - one, two, three and four-bedroom accommodation, houses and just flats, in equal proportion.

Key features of the plan in its present form include: 96 two, three and four-bedroom terrace houses, 27 two-bedroom flats and ten one-bedroom flats, 53 affordable homes, up to five shops, a Community Hall, retention of all existing hedgerows and trees, wildlife corridors along entire length of Swanpool Road boundary, footpaths and cycleway from Swanpool Road to Swanpool Beach, a "Village square" open space green area and 194 parking spaces.

David Foley, managing director of Magily Ltd, pledged: "Should this scheme be successful, it is our intention to roll any profits into further affordable housing schemes in the Falmouth area. We are totally committed to investing in Falmouth."

He commented: "Magily Ltd has a proven track record and has emphatically demonstrated its commitment to delivering affordable homes for local people in the Falmouth area over the past 12 years.

"That record includes Falmouth's first 100 per cent affordable homes development, at Prislow Fields in Swanvale."

He also explained that, "contrary to ill-informed statements in the press," the current plan did not include any cutting through a hedgerow or trees for road, cycleway or footpath purposes - all existing hedgerows and trees would be entirely retained.

Mr Dodge commented: "We are acutely aware that this is a very sensitive site and the biggest planning issue is the fact that it's in an area of outstanding natural beauty. With this in mind, the scheme has been very carefully drawn up to ensure that its visual impact is minimal.

"We commend the scheme as displaying and demonstrating attributes of the historic character and fabric of Falmouth. We have studied Falmouth's classic street layouts, such as Arwenack Avenue - and incorporated similar elements here.

"It would deliver key affordable housing to Falmouth, where generally there is very little land available for such provision."

Mr Dodge added: "The Goldenbank area has expanded quite rapidly over the last ten years, but these recent residential developments are what we call cul-de-sac suburbia, with no communal facilities, no sense of community. "

Mr Dodge also confirmed that, contrary to recently publicised suggestions, the plan covered only the Pitch n' Putt course and no additional sites.