A proposal to put an "awful" camera pole in the middle of Maenporth beach just outside Falmouth would drive people away, it has been claimed.

A planning application has been submitted by Citipark to install an ANPR camera pole at Maenporth Beach on the beach side of the car park, which itself is on the beach.

ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition which registers vehicles as soon as they enter the car park.

The full application is for a car park management system featuring an ANPR camera, associated signage and Pay and Display machine.

The pole with the camera on the top would be used to monitor parking at the car park with the payment machine installed at the entrance to the car park, along with a building mounted camera.

Falmouth Packet: Site plan of the park showing the positioning of the car park furniture. The site of the pole is shown as a red dot.Site plan of the park showing the positioning of the car park furniture. The site of the pole is shown as a red dot. (Image: CAD Architects)

The car park is currently operated by Life’s a Beach café although the businesses name does not appear on the application.

The application was condemned in the comments section of Cornwall Council’s planning portal where it was posted last week.

One of the first comments on the site was by Christopher Kinder who said: “This beach sits in an ANOB and with an ugly camera pole proposed right in the middle of the beach.

“A pole anywhere to be an eyesore.

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“This beach is an amenity 12 months of the year for local Cornish residents for dog walking to fishing and beach sports exercise attracting an important tourist industry that the cafe benefits from all summer long.

“Imposing parking charges will only exacerbate parking elsewhere detrimental to traffic flow and increased dangers and potential accidents.”

Mr Petet Longbottom also said: “Awful proposal which will drive locals away from using the beach and cafe, cause more dangerous road parking and ruin the area.”