Cornwall proposals to go before committee

Plans for a residential development in Blackwater, Cornwall, look set to be backed.Treveth Holdings – a company owned by Cornwall Council – is behind the application, which concerns a site on land at North Hill.Proposed are 32 homes across a mix of open market and affordable dwellings.A report drawn up ahead of Cornwall Council’s planning committee meeting on 29 August noted that the proposal demonstrates a “good approach to design in terms of the internal layout and arrangements with the creation of key nodal points and arrival spaces”.”The delivery of single storey homes with proportionally generous gardens is also seen as a key benefit of the proposal,” it added.It also said: “The provision of enclosed buffer strips to hedge boundaries is a design feature which is not typically encouraged for biodiversity reasons and results in a layout which fails to positively address the public highways to the North and West of the development.”Further, the failure to deliver any meaningful on-site open space or the full 10 per cent biodiversity net gain on site weigh against the proposal in the planning balance.”Taking all these factors as a whole, given the high local housing need and support from the Parish Council, on balance it is recommended that the application is approved subject to the completion of a Section 106 Agreement and conditions as recommended.”