Outdoor activity centre plan for Dean Quarry near St Keverne

Representatives of Shire Oak Quarries Ltd, the parent company of the quarry near St Keverne, held a public drop-in afternoon last Friday to display their ideas of how the land could be developed.

It had previously been earmarked as a potential supplier of rock to the UK's emerging tidal power lagoon industry – but last summer the government threw out such a development at Swansea Bay that had been led by Mark Shorrock, who owns Shire Oak, leaving a question mark over the future of Dean.

Now Shire Oak is putting forward three proposals. One is to re-open it as a quarry, extracting around 200,000 tonnes of rock per year - although existing permissions may need to be extended beyond 2035, as the extraction rate would be too low to meet the conditions required before this deadline.

The second is to re-open with an increased extraction of around 400,000 tonnes per year, in order to meet the conditions, but this would require extra road and sea movements to transport it.

The final suggestion is to close the quarry now and restore the site, developing it into an outdoor pursuits centre - with snorkelling, coasteering, paddle boarding, surfing and even bungee jumping - a dive centre, all-weather rock climbing centre and training centre for coastguards and other emergency services.

To help finance this, along with grant funding, there would need to be accompanying property development, in the form of 11 new-build apartments at the top of the site. It is also proposed to convert six outbuildings at Higher and Lower Treglohan, next to the two existing cottages, into "low-cost" housing, although they would not be officially classed as "affordable."

Before the displays were opened up to the public, members of St Keverne Parish Council and some local business owners were invited to attended a private presentation.

Members were supportive of redeveloping the outbuildings, but said the apartments that would be predominantly used as holiday accommodation were not the kind of housing the community needed, which was affordable rental.

They also questioned who would buy such houses when mineral rights existed until 2035 - meaning blasting could theoretically begin again on their doorstep.

Councillors were concerned that most of the ideas for the outdoor pursuits and dive centres were already provided by businesses locally, which led them to question whether grant funding would be available for the plans.

Council chair Sarah Lyne pointed out this could mean the community was left with "11 massive great houses that we don't want" - as these would be scheduled for building first - and no community facilities.

Adrian Lea, from Shire Oak, argued that their plans would provide everything in one "exceptional site", but councillor Bill Pollard called it "a Tesco, effectively", with Mrs Lyne saying not only would it take custom away from the specific businesses but also the accompanying cafes, pubs and car parks that survived on this trade.

Mr Lea said: "What we're desperate for is you as a community saying what it is you would like to see."

Councillor Michael Anselmi said industry was what would really help the community, by providing jobs, adding: "You have got a wonderful lake, surrounded by The Manacles, renowned for sea bass. Why not look at something like a fish farm?"

With regards to option one, Alistair Thomson, of Shire Oak, said: "We wouldn't want to operate it. We would sell it with mineral rights for the best price we can get."

This led to councillor Jill Ludbrook to say: "If it goes on the market with the right price all sorts of people might be interested - including us."

Option two still depended on the Swansea project, added Mr Thomson, who said: "With a change of prime minister anything could happen."

The site has not been operated as a quarry for a decade, despite mineral rights remaining in place until 2035. The West of England Quarry at Porthoustock remains in operation.