Walker Developments has submitted plans for up to 150 homes to be built on fields at College Valley in Penryn.

The company has revealed the latest in a line of designs for the site to the west of Hill Head Road, which stretches from the Falmouth branch line to a ridgeline above the A39, but does not include any development of the lower valley below College Hill.

Penryn residents have expressed dismay at the idea of development in the valley ever since Penryn Town Council and Cornwall Council agreed to mark the area as a preferred site for development at the very start of 2015.

In a pre-planning presentation that year the developers outlined proposals for around 200 homes, with 40 per cent affordable; and at a public meeting earlier this year a new plan for 240 homes with 35 per cent affordable angered residents and councillors who believed the company had gone back on a promise to safeguard the lower valley.

The outline application which has now gone to Cornwall Council covers 6.5 hectares, and in a design statement the company wrote that it remainder of its land "has been the subject of pre-application discussions but is no longer part of this planning application following comments from local stakeholder groups."

The plans include a main access on to Hill Head Road, with a footpath and cycle way leading through from Hill Head on to the road at College Hill, which will not be accessible by car.

The majority of the houses will be two storey, with some three storey buildings on the lower slopes, and there will be a mixture of one- to four-bedroom affordable homes and two- to four-bedroom open market homes based around what the developers says is "essentially a cul-de-sac" with footpaths and opeways leading off. All houses will have one or two off-street parking spaces and bike parking provision.

The design statement concludes: "The time taken to develop the scheme demonstrates that the applicant is keen to ensure the best and most appropriate scheme possible for this location in Penryn."

It states that the key ecological, drainage and access issues have been resolved and the design takes into consideration the Conservation Area and includes the provision of a hill-top park, although the statement does not include talk of formalising the open space which was key to many earlier designs.

It adds: "Whilst only in outline, it is envisaged that at the reserved matters stage the architectural styles and forms will... help to reinforce the historic fabric of the area. The scheme proposal can therefore provide an attractive new addition to the built environment of Penryn."

Within hours of appearing online, the application had already received two objections, including from Adele Wiles, who wrote: "More loss of green space, more pressure on our doctors, hospitals, dentists, more parking problems, more strain on our sewage system, more noise, more traffic. Our small town of Penryn surely cannot cope with more houses."

The plans will be discussed at the next meeting of Penryn Town Council's planning committee on Tuesday, August 2.