The development, which would have brought 33 homes to the Cornish village of Calstock, has been mothballed, as developers blame the council for “weaponising” planning
New homes have been boarded up and left empty after a long-running row between a council and a housing developer.
The development, which would have brought 33 homes to the Cornish village of Calstock, has now been mothballed, with developers blaming the council for “weaponising” planning agreements.
Developer Bridge View was granted planning permission to build 22 homes in Calstock on the banks of the River Tamar in 2018.
A director of the company, Michael Wight, claims his firm had allocated £2.8m, for 15 affordable homes but blamed council delays for costing the firm £1.2m in interest.
There were 160 households on the waiting list for homes in the parish, according to a council document published in 2024.
Mr Wight claimed that the council had blocked the sale of completed homes in the development, a move which he said amounted to “weaponising” legal planning agreements and “strangling the business cash flow”.
However the council claimed it had “done all in its power to work with the company” adding that there had been issues with the development “ongoing for several years”.
Mr Wight said he had been required to build a large retaining wall which is understood to have cost about £750,000 as well as other abnormal costs including a second road and a complex drainage system.
These costs, along with interest payments he blames on council deals, meant that the project’s affordable homes budget had been “eroded”. He told the BBC that he could not find an affordable homes operator to take on homes on the site after the affordable housing operators backed out in November 2023 after concerns over the cost of possible maintenance to the retaining wall and the delays.
The only firm to make an offer, RentPlus, was not on the council’s approved list, Bridge View told the BBC. With no affordable housing operator on board they could not fulfil planning conditions, the firm explained.
A planning inspector agreed that the costs associated with the site were abnormal in a ruling on an appeal brought by the developers against one of the council’s refusals. Parish councillor, Dorothy Kirk, told the broadcaster it was “a tragic situation where everybody loses”.
“I hope somehow we can rescue it,” she added. “We have to find a solution, end of. I don’t want Calstock to be deprived of homes, I don’t want to see the developer lose everything. It’s been a long, expensive and difficult journey. We have to have houses for local people.”
Bridge View said it had submitted amended plans to the council in April 2023 but got on response from council planners until eight months later in January 2024, well outside the expected 13 weeks.
In March the site was mothballed after funding expired in 2023 and with no resolution to the stalemate with the council in site. Another of the firm’s directors said that as a family-run business the outcome on what had been their biggest project to date had been “soul destroying”.
Cornwall Council told the BBC it was working with stakeholders to find a solution, in a statement the local authority said it was: “Committed to working with developers that have been granted planning permission to ensure that a housing development, and the agreed number of affordable housing homes, are delivered in line with the planning permission.”
The council added that it “must adhere” to planning policies and was actively working to secure the delivery of the development and affordable housing.
MirrorOnline has approached Cornwall Council and Bridge View for comment.