EACH week, hundreds of planning applications come before Cornwall Council’s planning department, seeking to win approval for various plans right across the Duchy.

These plans can comprise of a number of different reasonings– ranging from permission to replace windows or listed building consent ranging up to large house building developments or changing of use of a building, for instance, from an office to a café, or flats.

Within this large and often complex system, there are a number of formats from which planning advice and approval can be sought.

These range from full applications where all the details which comprise a proposed development or work to a building are submitted, to outline applications, where further details are yet to be confirmed, for example, an outline application with reserved matters for appearance may not confirm the final proposed development but rather seek permission in principle.

An example of this is one for an outline permission for 20 dwellings on land with reserved matters for appearance and scale; the reserved matters would require further permission later for their inclusion.

Other types of applications include pre-application advice requests, where would-be developers submit often outline proposals to a local authority to ascertain whether it is likely to gain support or not prior to submitting a planning application.

The vast majority of applications are decided by planning officers employed by a local authority under ‘delegated powers’, meaning they do so on behalf of their employer, however, some applications are ‘called in’ by local councillors to be discussed at an area’s strategic planning committee meeting, meaning the final decision rests with a committee of councillors.

The erection of three dwellings at a property in a village near Liskeard has been refused by Cornwall Council.

59JH Property Development Ltd applied to Cornwall Council seeking planning permission for the three houses at Jubilee House, Fore Street, Pensilva, Liskeard.

However, it was met with objections from the World Heritage Site planning team and the local parish council.

In its consultation response, the WHS team said: “The WHS office's own review of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch scale mapping of c.1880 shows the area around Pensilva and Middlehill to be well established by this date with multiple small field plots serving the new mining communities as were established here at that time.

“Two attached cottage dwellings are shown fronting Fore Street, within the northern part of the application site, and these now form the single dwelling known as Jubilee House. The nineteenth century cottages were located within their own garden curtilage, to the south, but the boundary denoting this has since been lost. The northernmost of the two adjoining smallholding plots appears to now form part of an extended lawned garden to Jubilee House.

“While no direct connection with mineworkers can been established using Tithe and Census data, it is considered highly probable that mineworkers would have, at some point, occupied the small fields that today comprise the two-plot application site. This consideration is based on the understanding that Pensilva and Middlehill where established as a direct response to the rapid growth of metalliferous mining in and around Caradon Hill from the 1830s.

“It is considered reasonable to conclude in this context that the application site was associated with mineworkers at some point in the nineteenth century, as part of a smallholding, with a number of mineworkers and their families probably occupying the cottages and associated plots over time. This precautionary approach is required in dealing with suspected smallholding landscapes as has been established by a number of planning appeals across Cornwall.

“The proposals will see development of the land that remains largely as it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The undeveloped garden and field retain the same character and relative layout devoid of development as can be seen on historic mapping.

“The undeveloped nature of what are highly likely to have been plots in use as smallholdings is significant as the infilling of such plots has been the subject of numerous planning appeals where such infilling has resulted in harm sufficient enough to lead to the dismissal of those appeals.

“The infilling of the garden and field will neither conserve or enhance the retained undeveloped character of this section of the WHS and a degree of harm will result.

“Whilst such harm may be regarded as less than substantial, the WHS Office would note that CLP Policy 24 requires that any harm to the WHS should be wholly exceptional and specifies that any harm to the significance of a designated or non-designated heritage asset must be justified. Proposals causing harm will be weighed against the substantial public, not private, benefits of the proposal.

“In this instance the WHS Office would note that the direct and attendant benefits of the proposed three open-market dwellings are not substantial public benefits.

In refusing the application, Cornwall Council told the applicant: “The application will involve the provision of three additional residential units on land outside of the definable boundaries of the settlement of Pensilva. The application site does not represent a small gap in an otherwise continuous built frontage and the development would visually extend built form into the open countryside and does not constitute land which is substantially enclosed by built form. The site is therefore not considered either an infill or rounding-off scheme in accordance with policy 3 of the Cornwall Local Plan. The introduction of three dwellings at the site, along with the loss of this current undeveloped rural character, would represent an undesirable extension of residential development into the countryside, whereby it would erode at the landscape of this rural site and its setting and would diminish the dark skies and tranquillity of this land.

“Additionally, the proposed layout of the dwellings is cramped and offers a backland suburban layout, which is at odds with the prevailing character of this area. Therefore, the proposed development will result in visual harm to the character and appearance of area.

“The site is beyond the boundaries of any defined settlement and in the absence of any other special circumstances to justify residential accommodation within this location, the proposal would conflict with the aims and intentions of policies of the Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies 2010-2030 (Adopted 22nd November 2016), policy C1 of the Climate Emergency Development Plan Document February 2023, paragraphs of the Cornwall Design Guide 2021 and paragraphs of the National Planning Policy Framework 2023.

“The introduction of residential development on the site would dilute its likely historic significance, which stems in part from its undeveloped (rural) nature and probable association with mineworkers, as part of a smallholding. The infilling of these fields and loss of the established field boundary would therefore neither protect, conserve or enhance the retained undeveloped character of this section of the Caradon Mining District World Heritage Site and as such a degree of harm will result.

“This level of harm when considered within the context of the Caradon Mining District as a whole would be considered less than substantial. However, the public benefits of providing three residential units are not considered to be so substantial as to outweigh the identified harm to the Caradon Mining District World Heritage Site.

“Therefore the development is contrary to the aims and intentions of policies of the Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies 2010-2030 (Adopted 22nd November 2016), policy C1 of the Climate Emergency Development Plan Document February 2023, policy C9 of The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site Management Plan 2020-2025, paragraphs of the Cornwall Design Guide 2021 and paragraphs of the National Planning Policy Framework 2023.”

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