RESIDENTS have called for a ‘line to be drawn’ after plans for new homes were rejected for the third time.

Landowner Andrew Lopes wants to build on a field next to existing housing at Trevillis Park in Liskeard.

After an earlier planning application for 14 homes was refused, Mr Lopes went to appeal, and this was dismissed.

A subsequent planning application for fewer homes also failed to gain the support of planning officers.

Last year, Mr Lopes revised the scheme, submitting an application for nine retirement bungalows.

But local people said that the issues of access and highways safety remained just the same.

The Trevillis Park and Joan Moffat Close Residents’ Association was formed to fight the plans.

Now, Cornwall Council has issued a refusal of the most recent planning application, on the grounds that the new housing would be ‘detrimental to the character of the area’ and that the vehicular access to serve the development would be constrained.

Bryn Williams, of the residents’ association, said that while its members were delighted with this week’s news, they would be ‘reticent in bringing out the bubbly just yet’.

Residents were worried, he said, that Mr Lopes would try again to get plans through.

‘We’d like a line drawn in the sand – a categorical statement to say that this field is out of bounds,’ said Mr Williams.

‘It’s the third application that’s been in and turned down. There’s a lot of elderly people here, and they’re at the stage of their lives where they just want a bit of peace and security. People’s lives are being disrupted, and it’s having an adverse effect on their well-being.’

The Cornish Times approached Mr Lopes’ agent, Collier Planning, about the refusal and his plans for the land – the agent said they did not wish to make any comment at this stage.