A NEW developer hopes to reinstate an expired planning approval in the Tamar Valley – but faces a host of objections.

Steve Wise has put in an application for 14 houses at St Dominic, on a site next to The Meadows where permission was granted in 2020. The current application, a new version of a scheme submitted in summer 2023, seeks to provide four self-build plots, five open market houses and five affordable homes. The applicant describes the new layout of the site as an improvement, with better consideration given to privacy and parking arrangements.

While the self-build plots would be subject to separate applications by their individual owners, the project as a whole has been designed as a “high quality group of dwellings”, says agent Ercle. The houses would be elevated in stone and slate hangings, with garden sizes exceeding the national standards.

But for local residents in St Dominic, certain problematic aspects of the previously approved scheme have not changed, among them the track proposed as access from the new development to village facilities, and the visibility for vehicles coming in and out of the site. Of 16 comments lodged by members of the public, 15 are in objection.

Objection has also come from the Highways Officer, who states that “safe and suitable access for all users has not been demonstrated, as the visibility splays are insufficient for the 30mph speed limit”.

Those speaking on behalf of the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty had said in 2023 that they objected to the principle of development itself at the site. The TVAONB said that houses here would have “an urbanising impact, harmful to the character of this designated landscape, and which could not be overcome by matters of appearance, landscaping or layout”.

St Dominic Parish Council is yet to discuss the current application, but had objected to the previous on several grounds.

Public comments about the proposal can be left until March 5. To view the documents visit Cornwall Council’s online planning register and use reference PA23/00881.