By Debbie Pugh-Jones

PLANS for a residential development of up to 70 homes together with a 52-bed residential care home, a shop and a hair and beauty salon at Horizon Farm Bungalow, Bakers Hill, Tremar have again been rejected by planners who received numerous objections. 

The site, on 4.7 hectares of land 700 metres south of the village, is currently occupied by large industrial scale buildings used for intensive egg production. The scheme included 18 affordable homes with a proportion of the site allocated for Extra Care Housing.  

But planning officers said the proposed development was set in a location divorced from its nearest settlements and failed to demonstrate that it would provide safe access to and from the site for all modes of transport. 

It also said the proposal failed to provide financial contributions to deliver improvements to offset increased pressure on primary health care provision, the impact on the provision of public open space and on educational facilities and to mitigate against the impact of occupants on the nearby Special Area of Conservation/Special Protection Area. 

They added that the applicant has not demonstrated that the additional vehicular traffic it would generate would avoid an unsafe degradation of safety levels of the road network in the parish. 

The application also highlighted failings in the St Cleer Neighbourhood Development Plan. 

Kevin Johnson MBE, chair of St Cleer Parish Council said: “This latest submission is interpreted as placing substantial reliance on the existence of the current St Cleer Neighbourhood Development Plan as the primary justification for the entire scheme rather than providing compelling, objective supporting evidence to allay the concerns previously expressed by the Planning Inspector and currently by the Highways Department.” 

Mr Johnson went on to say that the St Cleer NDP’s strategy of redevelopment of the Horizon Farm site was ‘patently and evidentially terminally flawed’ since the site has had similar planning applications refused. 

He added: “It is widely recognised that the existing St Cleer NDP was subject to exceptionally low community interest and engagement and that the turnout at referendum which facilitated the adoption of the NDP (22%) was ‘pitiful’. St Cleer Parish Council is now planning a fundamental review of the plan.”