MORE than £9000 in pledges has been taken to help mount a legal challenge to a planning decision in South East Cornwall.
The Rame Protection Group (RPG), formed to object against a new house being built close to Rame Head, says it plans to pursue a judicial review of Cornwall Council’s decision last month.
Members of the East Planning committee went against planning officer advice last month to approve a four-bedroom home and garage on land opposite the Rame Coastguard Cottages and close to the National Coastwatch Station.
The RPG says that ahead of beginning the judicial review, its lawyers have sent a ‘pre-action protocol’ letter to Cornwall Council, asking that the Council rescind its decision.
A group spokesperson said: “It is our contention that the decision to grant approval for this development was deficient on five grounds: no Environmental Impact Assessment was prepared as required by law in an AONB; the committee failed to give adequate reasons for not following the planning officer’s recommendation for refusal; the committee failed to consider whether the development was in accord with the development plan; the decision was based on irrelevant considerations; and there are grounds for alleging procedural impropriety.
“The council has until September 21 to consider its response.”
While the principal planning officer for the AONB said the new build should not be allowed as it would have a detrimental impact on the landscape, the committee were sympathetic to the need for agricultural accomodation set out in the planning application.
But the Rame Protection Group (formerly Rame Defence Group) campaigners say: “The special rules governing agricultural tenancies should not have applied in this case, since no new worker is being taken on. The permission is not even tied to the farm, which means that should the farmer concerned choose to move back down the lane to the farmhouse, he can apply to have the constraint lifted on the grounds that it is no longer needed and then sell or let the house as he wishes.
“Unless this decision is overturned, any farmer could use this precedent to defy protective legislation to put up a new executive style house in the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of the Cornish coast.”
The group says it has appointed a solicitor and that it needed to raise £7500 for the initial stages of the judicial review process: it now aims to raise a further £10k to continue the next steps.