The latest stage of plans for the Langarth Garden Village took place on Friday at Threemilestone Community Centre and was well attended. 

Interested parties were able to browse an exhibition of visual plans and detailed information about the project, which was granted outline planning permission in April 2022, and meet members of the project team who were available to discuss the next steps and to hear feedback on the proposals.  

With its mix of affordable homes, apartment schemes, co-living hubs, community and retail centres, two new primary schools and community facilities, all set in well-designed landscaped green spaces and supported by an integrated transport network, Cornwall Council hopes Langarth Garden Village will be a place where people can live, work and thrive.

Most recent detailed planning permission was granted in February for Governs Park, a designated Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) offering around 35 acres of natural green space and over 6km of walking and cycling routes for use by future residents and those in wider Threemilestone, Kenwyn and Truro.  

Detailed plans are currently being finalised for the first new primary school, and for the community infrastructure, parks and green spaces, as well as design codes for the neighbourhood areas west of the Langarth Park and Ride. Applications for all three reserved matters are due to be formally submitted shortly, before applications for the first of 3,500 homes.  

Dulcie Tudor, Independent Cornwall councillor for the Threemilestone Chacewater Division, said: “I feel very positive about it. I’m looking at plans for things you would never see from a private developer for a village of this size: the green infrastructure, the school going in first. What I’m seeing on these information boards is the things the council said it would deliver. 

“It’s an extraordinary position as a councillor, being presented with everything you have asked for. It’s never happened before, and it’s because the council is the master planner.” 

Cllr Loic Rich, member of Truro City Council and Cornwall Council and former Mayor of Truro, said he had experienced a U-turn in his feelings towards the plans. “I was initially opposed to it on principle because it was building on a greenfield site. 

“But when people are coming to you because they are being evicted, you realise this is what’s needed. 

“There will be affordable housing. It’s the only hope for local people, and people keep asking me when they are going to be built. They are finding it so difficult to get somewhere in Truro, and this is their one chance to raise a family here with a good quality of life. 

“I’m not pro-development, but it could be a lot worse than this. They just need to get on and build it.”