A parish council has raised concerns about the amount of development being given planning permission in a small village.

The issue was raised by Stithians Parish Council after a planning application for two new homes for Long Downs, near Penryn, came before Cornwall Council’s West Sub-Area Planning Committee last week.

A spokesman for the council said: “This application, if approved, will make the number of additional new dwellings granted permission in the last six months to ten.”

One concern is that the only shop in the village is on the opposite side of a busy road which cuts through the village at a local filling station.

The council said that the parish council had been trying to get improvements made to the road as there were fears that it is unsafe to cross.

At the committee meeting councillors heard that the plans for the two new semi-detached dwellings were on the site of an existing house which would be demolished as part of the development.

Planning permission has already been granted for two more houses to be built on the same site.

The parish council questioned why the development had not come forward as a single planning application rather than two separate applications. They said that if the application had been for a single house then they may have been able to support it.

A report to the committee had recommended approval for the application but the committee agreed with the parish council that it would be an over-development of the site.

The committee voted 11 votes to none, with one abstention, to refuse planning permission.