A Cornish parish council has instructed solicitors to look into Cornwall Council’s decision to approve a contentious plan to build a Co-op store in St Agnes.

However, not all parishioners are happy with the decision by St Agnes Parish Council with some questioning how much any legal action will cost. Others say they welcome the new store opening in the village.

Westcountry Land (St Agnes) Ltd applied to Cornwall Council to build the Co-op store, access, parking and landscaping on land next to new affordable homes it also developed off Penwinnick Road in the coastal village. New changes to the application included a green roof on the shop and a condition that a car port is built before the Co-op opens.

The authority’s planning department recommended approval after a retail impact assessment – by the applicant – concluded there would not be an effect on the viability and vitality of the village centre.

However, others disagreed including local councillor Pete Mitchell who brought the matter before the council’s central area planning committee last November – instead of it being decided by planning officers – due to the “foreseen detrimental effect on high street leading to shop closures” as well as parking being insufficient and access not being substantial enough.

The proposal – which received 110 objections and seven comments in support on the council’s planning portal – came before the planning committee again earlier this month after members deferred making a decision in November over road safety concerns caused by a pedestrian crossing, which has been built at a depth of 1.453m rather than 1.5m.

The meeting heard from officers that the crossing and vehicle and pedestrian access had all been assessed as acceptable and safe, and recommended approval.

A vote to approve was won with four in favour, three against and three abstentions.

However, St Agnes Parish Council called an extraordinary meeting on Monday (January 26) after concerns were raised by residents and councillors about Cornwall Council’s “decision-making process” in relation to the Co-op approval and whether to instruct solicitors to review the available information and raise any potential issues.

According to the minutes of the parish council’s planning committee on January 19, a member of the public highlighted “various procedural flaws, factual and policy inaccuracies and concerns that Cllr Alan Rowe, Labour & Co-operative Party, failed to declare a conflict of interest in the application and asked the parish council to intervene on behalf of the community”.

Following discussion on Monday, the council resolved to instruct Kingsley Smith Solicitors LLP, specialists in planning law, to focus on highway and junction safety and equality and access issues affecting the social housing within the development.

Cllr Rowe, a member of the planning committee who had supported the application on planning policy, said that before he took part in the committee meeting, he checked with the council’s monitoring officer (the council’s most senior legal officer), another council solicitor and the chair of the meeting and they all stated there was no conflict of interest.

The Labour & Co-operative Party is a description used by candidates in UK elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party.

The Co-op retail group does make contributions to the Co-operative Party, but Cllr Rowe says it didn’t pay anything towards his election expenses, which were solely paid for by Labour.

The parish council’s decision to seek legal advice has elicited comments on social media pages dedicated to St Agnes with a number of people querying the cost.

An Agnes resident said: “There are lots of comments about the cost of the legal action and where the money is coming from.

“Most people in the village are happy for a Co-op to be built there. Most of us are actually looking forward to it.”

On the parish council’s own post about the meeting, a resident commented: “How much would this cost? The Scout hut needs help, the library, the bus stops, the toilets.

“This is beginning to appear to be a middle class vanity project. ‘That St Agnes is too good for a Co-op’.

“An anonymous vote should be taken first over 24 hours allowing the whole village an opportunity to express their feelings regarding the Co-op.”

Another asked: “Is the cost of solicitors already in your budget or will our PC contribution increase to pay it?”

The parish council said it “recognises this is a complex matter and that the community holds differing views”.