A PUBLIC footpath down to Swanpool Beach has been officially opened despite a section from a housing development not yet being completed.

Falmouth mayor, Cllr Steve Eva, formally opened the new public footpath from Falmouth Golf Club car park down nearly to the South West Coast Path entrance above Hooked on the Rocks last Tuesday (November 16).

The new public path, on land owned by golf club owner D.C. Hughes Falmouth Limited, is the result of years of effort by former Cllr Mike Varney, first as chairman of Carrick planning committee and then as chair of strategic planning at Cornwall Council. He supported the development plan for the golf club and made sure that the path was a condition of planning permission being granted.

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The path has been welcomed by local residents and other walkers who can now safely avoid the hill on Swanpool Road.

The final section of this new footpath, from the other side of the car park to the corner of Pennance Lane, will open in the next few weeks when work on the adjacent housing site at The View at the top of road has further advanced.

In September the developers of the site Linden Homes told the Packet that it was well aware of its obligations to complete the footpath which would be finished once the development was completed. They did not give a timescale.

Building the footpath was one of the conditions when the company was granted permission to build the homes at the top of the road on appeal.