Flats plan for former Falmouth cinema site (From Falmouth Packet)

Flats plan for former Falmouth cinema site

11:09am Tuesday 5th August 2008 in News By Emma Goodfellow

Falmouth's former Grand Cinema site could soon be turned into 20 flats at the fifth attempt.

Four previous applications for the site in Smithick Hill and the adjoining depository site in Fish Strand Hill have already been turned down by planners, but the latest plans from applicant Mr J Grice have found favour with the town's councillors.

At a meeting yesterday evening, Falmouth town council's planning committee voted five to one in favour of offering no objection to the proposal to put 20 flats and 20 onsite parking spaces on the land, provided that some of the accommodation was priced as affordable housing.

Councillor Diane Merrett said the proposed development would be "a massive complex, overbearing and over-development."

But committee chairman Stephen Eva said: "This is the fifth application they have put in. They have done everything Carrick council has asked them to do. For us to turn around and turn this down I think would be wrong."

He added that the development would clean up the site, which had become a waste ground.

"One man and his dog uses it as a dump. It's full of old sinks, there's even a bicycle up there - and because it's private land nobody will clear it off. It's to our advantage to clear that area," he concluded.