A PROPOSAL for 42 wholly affordable homes has been approved despite several Cornwall councillors raising concerns about pedestrian safety on a narrow ‘rat-run’ which will lead to the entrance of the development.

Coastline Housing, which said that its aim is to eradicate the housing crisis in the Duchy, applied to Cornwall Council to build the development, complete with a 20-space community car park, on land off Rough Street, Lanner, near Redruth.

A meeting of the council’s strategic planning committee heard various concerns about the narrow access to the site and fears it could lead to accidents and pedestrian injuries.

The local member, Cllr John Thomas, brought the matter before his fellow councillors because of access worries on Rough Street, which he said was used as a rat-run to and from Stithians, Four Lanes, Redruth and Camborne and could lead to serious injury.

A meeting on Thursday, October 22 heard that the council’s highways officer initially raised concerns about the safety of pedestrians leaving the main site entrance.

“Extensive negotiations” led to amended plans which include a new 1.8m footway from the access point to the eastern site boundary with Rough Street, a pedestrian link to Henscol Praze and a small build-out which would allow a protected area for pedestrians along the front of the site. Accident data indicated no recorded collisions on Rough Street or its junction with the A393 in the last ten years.

Cllr Helen Bilham, represented Lanner Parish Council, which supports the application. She told the committee the area was allocated as a housing site, supported by local people as part of a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) referendum.

“What this development offers Lanner should be considered – the importance of sustaining a village where people can live, access services and maintain community connections. The proposed community car park is a tangible benefit, offering additional parking for local facilities and supporting village life.”

She acknowledged residents’ concerns about pedestrian safety, but stressed that the council’s highways department was happy with the suggested mitigations.

Jo Harley, development manager at Coastline Housing, told the committee that 116 families are in need of rented accommodation in the parish and 824 in the adjoining parishes. She said a search of Rightmove showed there are currently just two properties available to rent in Lanner, both of which were expensive.

Cllr James Ball, vice-chairman of the strategic planning committee, said he visited the area on Sunday afternoon when the road was “incredibly busy”. Despite the meeting hearing there hadn’t been any reported injuries on the road, he was told by residents there had been a couple of incidents where vehicles had hit pedestrians’ arms.

He added: “There is huge concern about the access to this site. In my opinion, it’s dangerous. You’ve got residents who would step out straight from their gardens into the road and wouldn’t necessarily see the cars coming down the road, even at 20mph. The sticking point with this is that we’ve heard from our own highways expert that they consider it to be perfectly acceptable.”

Cllr Peter Channon said: “I cannot understand why we’ve chosen the narrowest and darkest part of the road to have the main access.”

Cllr Adrian Parsons added: “It’s incredibly sad that this is the second application in two months where we are witnessing farmstead being encompassed by developments.” He also thought it was “incredible that we are in a situation where highways consider that to be an acceptable access for 42 houses, with all the lorries and traffic that will come along with that development”.

He said that the parish council’s support for the scheme and its benefits was persuading him to support the application as long as there were a “vast array” of conditions attached.

“Is this an ideal application? No,” said Cllr Andrew Long. “It is more concerning that this is the second application in a row we’ve had for wholly affordable housing and we’ve had objections, which is a bit scary considering the housing crisis we’re in.”

He added that as Cornwall Council can’t demonstrate a five-year land supply, the committee would struggle to oppose the application when judged against national planning policy.

The committee was warned about refusal, with a legal officer using the example of a previous housing application in Launceston which was refused against highways advice. It was later approved on appeal and the council was fined £125,000.

Following debate, the committee voted to approve the development with ten votes in favour, one against and no abstentions.