The battle to save Carlyon Bay from the developers
It looks like a corner of Cornwall which has retained its tranquility. But a plan to build 500 holiday homes and a sea wall to protect them threatens to end all that. No wonder the locals are up in arms. Ian Herbert reports
Friday, 22 June 2007
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The allure of the proposed holiday complex at Carlyon Bay, in Cornwall, is irresistible if its website is to be believed. Beside the images of a becalmed sea at sunset is the offer of a "truly sustainable resort in economic, environmental and social terms" which will encourage people to stay in the UK, rather than fly abroad.
But the investment company which plans to spend £200m transforming Carlyon into Cornwall's biggest privately funded regeneration project was weighing up whether it has any future at all in the resort yesterday.
A sea wall to protect the resort's 500 upmarket holiday homes, shops and restaurants will not now be built after Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, blocked the move. The latest round of the battle of Costa del Carlyon has gone to the locals.
To the delight of the project's detractors, Ms Kelly backed a public inquiry's decision to reject plans for the wall, which was to be built 40 metres further out to sea. Though it would have posed no problem to marine ecology, Ms Kelly agreed that a "large engineered development in a largely undeveloped bay" ran contrary to planning guidelines.
The existing sea wall nearer the proposed development provides a fall-back option but reverting to it may "diminish investor confidence", Ms Kelly said. At the public inquiry last year, the Environment Agency and independent consultants expressed doubt that the existing wall would offer adequate protection.
For those opposed to the development of Carlyon - where Edward and Mrs Simpson once arrived by seaplane to play tennis, Tony and Cherie Blair once stayed overnight and The Who once performed - the decision is a vital victory. The campaigners are determined to prevent views from the South-west coastal path becoming obscured and three more Cornish beaches - Crinnis, Shorthorn and Polgaver - falling into private ownership.
"We're not against the idea of development here but we want something which is environmentally sensitive, proportionate and safe," said Roy Bennett, the chairman of Carlyon Bay Watch, a group opposed to the development, which has alternative plans for 200 apartments affecting only one beach.
The developer, Ampersand, bought the site and its 1991 planning consent in 2003 when Cornwall was catching the tourist tide created by the Eden Project, six miles away, and Rick Stein at Padstow. It has already spent £50m preparing for construction of The Beach (as it is calling the site) - including £100,000 hiring a window and sales space in Selfridges on Oxford Street, London, in 2003 for a promotional campaign. It is keen to press its environmental ambitions with promises to "explore" solar power and rainwater reuse. There has also been talk of "flowing" architectural contours to reflect those of the bay.
But despite promises of 500 jobs and £21m in new tourism revenue a year, there has been stout resistance from those who believe the development will double the size of Carlyon. Cornwall County Council was persuaded to mount a public inquiry a few years ago into whether the beaches could be granted village green status, to protect them. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, proposed another public inquiry when Ampersand sought to extend the uses for the site which were originally granted by Restormel Borough Council. The company promptly withdrew its requests but then told those who had already bought properties to take up an option of terminating their contract and getting a full refund of their deposit, plus interest.
The latest setback is dividing Cornwall. Opponents insisted yesterday that Ampersand's plans to dump 260,000 tons of sand over its new sea wall and haul it back into place in trucks when the tide inevitably drew it away across the beach, was unsustainable. But the local Western Morning News led the defence of the company, arguing that Cornwall needed this "classy plan" and that a chance to upgrade its "less than salubrious holiday accommodation" may have gone begging. Completion of the project is now "far from certain", the newspaper believes.
Steve Hurst of the St Austell Independent Traders' Association said the decision sent the message: "Do not come here. You will not be a success," to business. Malcolm Bell, the chief executive of South West Tourism, said: "We do not want beaches developed but this is a unique [case]. It is a brownfield site [and] an eyesore."
Ampersand's director, Andrew Woods, said: "We are surprised and disappointed that, despite [Ms Kelly] stating that the upgraded sea defences would be an improvement, she has concluded that planning permission should... be refused."
