PLANS to demolish a riverside property near Looe and construct a fully accessible luxury home have gone before Cornwall Council.

Tremayne House sits immediately above the East Looe River and the railway line off the Sandplace Road. The building was condemned by the local authority in 2021 following a landslip.

Speaking on behalf of the owners, applicant Sepia Projects says that the cost of repairing the house came in at over a million pounds and that this is not a viable option. They intend to create a “superb, future proof design” that will meet all current standards, at the same time stabilising the land “so that no further landslips take place”.

While Tremayne House is well known, in part due to its position above the river and its bright, sky blue exterior, the property “has no design merit and no connection with its surroundings, apart from some romantic historical value” says the applicant.

The property comes with around a quarter acre of woodland, and the owners say they will enhance the biodiversity of the site through tree and ground management, work which will also anchor back the rock faces from the road to provide stability.

The proposed house will be built across three floors with a disability compliant lift connecting the levels. The ground floor will be hidden by a landscaped bund and will house garaging, storage, a cinema and gym. During a pre-planning application, the design of the new house was criticised by the planning officer for being “bulky and unsympathetic”.

But applicants say that by use of natural stone, timber cladding, glass and gabion wall, balustrading and a green roof, and at three metres lower than the level of the existing building, the house will be partially camouflaged into the landscape.