Plans for the conversion of Looe's Barbican Methodist Church to provide a children's centre should be refused, Caradon's planners were due to hear yesterday. Planning officials are concerned about the height and design of a proposed extension to the former methodist church, which was built in the 1960s and is located in Trewint Crescent. Cornwall County Council's Children's Centres, which is behind the proposed conversion, aims to provide a pre-school teaching and play area, creche, counselling rooms, refreshment area and office space, as well as a multi-purpose suite. Members of the district council's planning committee have been told that there is a link between the scheme and separate plans to develop affordable housing on the nearby Sunrising Estate, which was dependent on the relocation of the existing pre-school to free up land. Officials said that while the principle of the change of use was acceptable, the ridge height of the proposed extension to the church would be higher than the existing and would not be sympathetic to the original building. It would also have an impact on the adjoining property known as The Manse which, while also in the ownership of the Methodist Church at present, was unlikely to be retained.
