Cornwall Council’s development company Treveth has amended controversial plans to regenerate an area of the seafront in Penzance following opposition from the town council and protest by residents, writes Local Democracy Reporter Lee Trewhela.
In December, Penzance Town Council’s planning committee opposed the proposals to build 37 homes and eight commercial spaces including a pavilion building, along with changes to St Anthony Gardens and other public realm works on the town’s seafront near the celebrated Jubilee Pool.
A number of residents protested against the scheme outside the town council meeting, saying they feared it would ruin the historic gardens and include buildings which are too large and out of keeping with the area’s heritage.
They held banners accusing the proposals of turning Penzance into Benidorm – ‘No to Penidorm’ – and demanded ‘Penzance deserves better’ and ‘Protect PZ’s history’.
Treveth held a public presentation of the amended plans in Penzance last week, saying “it became very clear that the scheme we had proposed required some further work to address the valid concerns raised”.
A spokesperson for the company said: “We listened to the comments that both the public and the town council made and working with key stakeholders from the Penzance community including the mayor, local members and representatives from Sustainable Penzance and the Penzance Civic Society, we gathered valuable feedback and have readdressed key elements of the proposals.”
These include removal of the proposed pavilion building within St Anthony Gardens, allowing retention of the majority of the original walls and steps within the gardens and the introduction of a public event space to encourage increased community use of the gardens.
A lawn area has been introduced at the top tier of the gardens, and the original archway has been relocated within this lawn to allow people to sit within it, at the request of local people. There has been an increase in the amount of seating options and shelter included to enable people to choose where they sit dependent on the weather.
“The planting within the gardens will be revitalised to increase biodiversity and introduce species that can withstand the location, and it is our intention to work with local community groups and schools on the installation and long-term management of the gardens,” added the Treveth spokesperson.
“The existing gardens currently contain 799 sq m of soft landscaping and our proposals increase this soft landscaping to 1032.8 sq m.”
With regard to the development itself, the main block facing Coinagehall Street has reduced in height by between 0.45m and 3.3m, with an apartment being lost from the eastern end of the building and the upper floors stepped further back in order to reduce the mass and create a clearer view down the hill toward the sea.
The rear of this block has been curved and the brick colour has been made considerably lighter. “We felt it was still important for the building not to be bright white in order that it referenced the local Art Deco heritage assets without visually competing with them.”
The scheme now proposes seven commercial properties and 36 residential properties, of which 11 will be “affordable” under the definition of affordable housing in the national planning policy framework, which is “housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market”. This will include eight homes for “affordable rent”, where the rent is set in line with the Government’s rent policy and is at least 20 per cent below local market rents.
The remaining three will be shared ownership, a government scheme which provides an affordable route to home ownership for those who could not achieve ownership through the market.
Of the remaining 25 open market properties, Treveth is proposing 16 will be for open market rent restricted to local people, in line with the local market rental values. There will be nine homes for sale on the open market, which will also be restricted to principal residences and have restrictions which prevent them from being rented as holiday lets.
The spokesperson said: “After many years of the site sitting in poor condition and several failed attempts at delivering a variety of different schemes on the site, our brief was to design a viable and deliverable mixed-use development to create much-needed homes for local people, as well as space for vibrant local businesses and to bring life back into this important destination location in Penzance.”
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