Penryn Town Council has refused to support plans for the threefold expansion of a student residence at the Old Telephone Exchange on Helston Road.

At a council meeting on Monday evening attended by several residents of nearby Mount Wise, Mount Villa and Helston Road, as well as by the property owners, the council objected to the plans on almost the same grounds as they objected to similar plans in January.

The plans, which still have to go before Cornwall Council for a final decision, four current rooms housing eight students replaced by a mix of 10 one and two-bed units capable of accommodating 24.

A proposal to create rooms for 21 residents on the site at 97 Helston Road was refused in January due to concerns over increased scale, height, footprint, and density at the site, resulting in over-development, loss of privacy and unreasonable disturbance, but the applicants claimed to have addressed these issues with their new design.

Erica Tull, speaking on behalf of the site's neighbours, said: ""While the application states these issues have been addressed, there is clearly no substance to this other than a minor modification to the frontage which does not go as far as even the planning officer advised.

She said residents were "very disappointed" with developers' attempts at consultation, which she alleged amounted to "doorstepping" an elderly couple living in Park Wise, and called the application "a crude re-hash of the original."

Furthermore, she cited inconsistencies in the plans and asked what the intention was for the borders, whether the development was for students or a "mixed community" as claimed by the owners, and said residents seriously questioned "the professionalism of the architects and motivation of the architects."

She concluded: "If this did not have such potential to significantly worsen our quality of life, it would be a laughable punt."

Objections listed by the residents include concerns over occupancy, scale, loss of privacy and overlooking, noise pollution, and parking and road safety.

Councillor Chris Smith, chair of the planning committee, said the new plans did not raise the ridge height as previous plans had, and dormer windows had been changed to roof lights to reduce overlooking, while the height of a front extension had changed from three storeys to two.

He said the problems "boil down to two issues: overdevelopment in that area of town, and design issues and un-neighbourliness."

Councillor Martin Mullins said not providing car parking "doesn't mean they won't just park down the road," and there were "too many issues and too many people to occupy such a small space," and added: "If it was pigs or rabbits you wouldn't be able to do it."

Councillor Chas Wenmoth said the whole area was "saturated" and parking problems meant a bus was stuck for three quarters of an hour on Helston Road last week.

He added: "We'll be building houses in outside toilets the way we're going."

Councillor Mark Snowdon said he believed the distance between windows in the front of the building and houses in Helston Road might break regulations on overlooking, and requested a site visit, but the proposal was not supported.

Councillor John Langan proposed that the council object to the plans on the same grounds as before, and the council voted to refuse support on the grounds that it would result in cramped development with insufficient amenity space, the two storey extension would be overbearing and out of keeping with the street scene, the new frontage would cause overlooking of neighbouring properties, and the increased number of residents would increase the amount of noise pollution.