PERMISSION for two new homes has been granted despite planning officers saying the site is in open countryside.

Bryan Hammond Sr had applied, along with his sons Zachariah and Bryan Jr, for outline planning permission to build homes on amenity land west of The Laurels in St Mellion.

He told Cornwall Council’s east sub-area planning committee that his plans would help the current housing crisis in Cornwall.?

Mr Hammond Sr said that he had been born in Cornwall and lived in the Duchy all his life, travelling extensively around the county as a showman.

He said that he and his family had been “grateful for the heart warming support that we have received from local people for our planning application”. There had been 23 public comments submitted about the application with 21 in support.

Mr Hammond’s new plans had been drawn up after a previous proposal, which would have used a smaller site, were refused.

He said that he considered that the application should be considered as “rounding off” the village with St Mellion Golf Course bordering one side of the site and homes on another.?

Mr Hammond Sr added: “With the current housing crisis in Cornwall we feel that this is a good use of this land.”

Local Cornwall councillor Sharon Daw was also in support of the plans and said it was “clearly rounding off” and said it was a “clear cut case for approval”.

Committee member Adrian Parsons commended Mr Hammond Sr and his agent for the work had done all they could to ensure that the plans accord with planning policy.

He said that he thought the plans were appropriate adding: “Other than building houses what are you going to use that field for?” Cllr Parsons added that, as a farmer, he could not see that the land was suitable for agriculture and that building two homes there would be better.

St Mellion Parish Council had held an extraordinary meeting about the plans in August which had been very well attended. The Council said that the case was ‘finely balanced’ with valid arguments for and against, but that in the end it was clear that a majority were in favour of supporting the application.

Cornwall Council’s senior development officer George Shirley had recommended that the plans be refused.

He argued that the plot was not part of the settlement of St Mellion and that the new houses would extend built form into the open countryside. While the site was reasonably well enclosed, the proposal would not meet the definition of rounding-off, he said, nor any other of the circumstances via which new housing is supported within the Cornwall Local Plan.

He added that building in this location would lead to an erosion of the rural context in an Area of Great Landscape Value.

But St Mellion Parish Council members did not entirely agree: they’d argued that the village did not have formal boundaries, and therefore any judgement on boundaries would be speculative, and that the plot was bordered on one side by an ancient Cornish hedge and on the other by a road. It was felt that should the plans be approved, they would not necessarily set a precedent for future adverse development.

After a full and detailed debate, the East Planning Committee agreed to grant outline planning permission, against officers’ recommendation, with eight votes in favour and one against.