THE future of a controversial development in Gunnislake still hangs in the balance this week after Caradon councillors opted to investigate matters further before making their decision.

Local builder Barry Shipton has been forced to put in a new planning application for one house that is nearing completion at the Old Coal Yard in Gunnislake, because it is in the wrong position and differs markedly from the original design. He has also had to resubmit plans for a second house still to be built on the site.

The council, advised to approve the plans by its officers, deferred a decision on Thursday evening to consider the issues more thoroughly. It will also investigate how the house came to be so far advanced before the errors were noticed.

The matter has attracted the fury of neighbours, who say their privacy has been compromised as a result of the changes, and a previous applicant has threatened legal action claiming the council has treated Mr Shipton's application with favour.

Mr Shipton, who spoke at the meeting, said he was angry he was caught in the middle. He said he had done everything right apart from a simple mistake over the position of the house.

Mike Sampson also spoke at the meeting. He said he was angry that the council seemed to be operating double standards and planning officers appeared to favour Mr Shipton over his neighbours.

Mr Sampson said he'd had to abandon plans for a more modest property on the site because of the cost of dealing with contaminated soil — a condition, he says, that was not placed on Mr Shipton. Mr Shipton, however, said he had dealt with the contamination in the proper manner in 1999.

Mr Sampson also claims he was allowed to build only one house, and a previous application for a multiple dwelling was rejected in 1987, in what the council described as an over-development of the site.

Mr Sampson disputed Mr Shipton's assertions, and that of planning officers, that the deviations from the original plan were small — he said the house was now a three storey, five bedroom, three bathroom house rather than two storey, four bedroom, and had additional windows overlooking neighbours.

He said he held out little hope of getting any compensation for his wasted money and time: 'But somebody must be taken to task over this — it's absurd,' he said.

Mr Keith Rolfe, Caradon development control manager, answering points raised by Mr Sampson, said as far as he was aware Mr Shipton had removed the contaminated soil.

He said they did not consider the two houses to be an over-development and anyway planning policy had changed — the Government now recommended maximising the use of brown field sites.

Mr Rolfe said they did not think the house as it stood, and plans for a second, were particularly harmful and he said they were currently negotiating over windows and other features to try to improve things for neighbours.

He added they were trying to improve their monitoring procedures.

Councillor Paul Adams said he had major concerns about the size of the house already built and demanded a survey to ascertain its exact dimensions with reference to the approved plans. He demanded a condition that the house be used for personal residence only, and he demanded the Environment Agency was called in to investigate the allegations about contaminated soil.

Mr Adams said he was concerned that the house was almost finished by the time anyone noticed the discrepancies.

'I would like investigated the reason it wasn't picked up — it should have a full report and it should be made public,' he said.

'There are serious implications here — we would be setting a precedent.'

And Mr Adams said every aspect of the second house needed to be looked at again if the first were approved in its current position.