Wodehouse Terrace, Falmouth three new homes build approved

Permission was granted in April 2021 to replace the garage and house called Ithaca at 42 Wodehouse Terrace with three dwellings.

However the owner of the house Hannah St Ledger Brown put in a new application, which has now been approved by Cornwall Council despite objections from neighbours.

CSA Architects said this application to build three homes was an almost like for like scheme as the approved one which had now been deemed unfeasible for structural reasons and a total new build proposed. 

The new application drew 13 comments of objection with neighbours saying the build was an overdevelopment of the site, would cause parking problems and would block people's views over the harbour.

Illustration of what the three homes will look like (Image: CSA Architects)

Mr Thomas Merritt said he had no problem with the development of the exisiting property but drew the line at the garage development: "The problem sits with the development of the garage," he said. "Do you know how many people stop to take photos of the views over the harbour every day over this exact location? It's a lot! We would be destroying part of Falmouth's heart and heritage."

The key objections, he said, were the extension of the foot print and doubling of height of the garage and constituted overdevelopment.

"Three properties on this site is absurd," he said. "Sort it out and have some respect."

Mr Nicholas Carne said as a resident of the road for the last 29 years the parking has become progressively worse along the road with a combination of residence and commuting workers of the town.

"This planning takes no regard to the people whom actually live on road and is obviously not made by someone who will be living on the road and have to deal with the consequences themselves," he said.
"There is no need for elevating the property to block the views of a historic street in the town and encroach on the privacy of other properties around it."

While Mrs Nicola Carne said: "I thought we had managed to rid ourselves as residents of this very selfish scheme to create more parking chaos and discomfort along Wodehouse Terrace which is bad enough as it is.

While Miss Jessica Barber said the build would disrupt the historic view of Falmouth's natural harbour.

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"The purpose of Wodehouse terrace's Victorian houses were to be look out spots so sailors and captains could see the harbour, monitor the weather. This build would impact the houses historical purpose, purely for the generation of profit."

There was also an objection from Mrs Abraham on behalf of Falmouth & Penryn Conservation Committee

She said the Committee objected to this proposal particularly on the grounds of over-development of the plot. We fail to see how building 3 properties on land currently occupied by one would not be!"

However despite the objections, the application had already been recommended for approval by the town council's planning committee and Cornwall Council planners agreed.