peabody1@whealnorthey.net

The beaches of Carlyon Bay before 2004

Welcome to the new-look site of Carlyon Bay watch.   The photo above is the very reason Carlyon Bay Watch exists.   It shows the three beaches - Crinnis, Shorthorn and Polgaver - which together make up Carlyon Bay near St Austell, Cornwall, as it looked before 2004.   This is the area which has been earmarked for a huge development of over 500 apartments, splendidly called 'The Beach'.

Plans for a massive sea-defence scheme have already been rejected by the Government after a Public Inquiry and a long campaign spear-headed by Carlyon Bay Watch.

But the fight is by no means over.  The developers have gone to appeal, claiming that the Government Inspector and the Secretary of State were complete idiots to turn down their plans.  That appeal is due to be heard later this year although no date has yet been set. In the meantime we are left with the eyesore that is the wreckage of the old Coliseum building, with piles of rubble along the beaches and with an illegal and ugly line of rusting steel shuttering.  The developer, Ampersand, has been ordered to remove the shuttering by the local authority, Restormel Borough Council, but has been given three years to do so.

The Iron Curtain

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LATEST NEWS   FOOTPATHS REGISTERED

Last month (April 2008) Cornwall County Council finally bowed to years of pressure from a group of local walkers led by Mrs Gloria Price to register several footpaths at Carlyon Bay as official rights of way on maps.Gloria Price

They are:

  • the path leading from the South West Coastal Path alongside the Carlyon Bay Golf Course, down to Fishing Point
  • the route down Beach Road to the development site and across the front of the old Coliseum building to the beach 
  • the path from Sea Road by the railway bridge across the golf course to the South West Coastal Path.

The Council says any objectors have until 3 July 2008 to submit their reasons and the matter would then be referred to the Secretary of State for the Environment.  

Although Ampersand has said that public access to the beaches will be maintained, the registering of these paths means unrestricted access to the beach would be enshrined in law.  CBW felt relying on Ampersand's assurances could lead to public access being by permission only and over time could be restricted or lost.

Roy Bennett, chairman of CBW, said: "The preservation of these footpaths will serve as a reminder to the Cornish community that only by vigilant effort can its heritage be preserved."

RADIO DATE

CBW President Terry Beer appeared on Radio St Austell Bay's Joan and Ann show on May 14 to give listeners the latest developments, or lack of them, on the beach.  He told County Councillor and former mayor Joan Vincent and her co-presenter Ann Truscott that proper use of the beach has now been denied for both locals and holiday makers for several years.  He said it was a great shame that with the recent warm and sunny weather the debris and rubble on the beach made it so unattractive and difficult for the beaches to be enjoyed.  

He said it would be several years before Restormel Council's order for the beaches to be cleaned up and the iron shuttering to be removed would be carried out.

He emphasised that CBW was not opposed to any development, but wanted to see a proportionate, sustainable, environmentally responsible construction on Crinnis - the brownfield site occupied by the Coliseum - rather than the huge development envisaged by Ampersand across nearly the whole of Carlyon Bay.    

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Carlyon Bay Watch (CBW) was formed by a group of local residents to raise awareness of the issues surrounding this development which, when completed, would dump a 'village' the size of Mevagissey on this beach.

Carlyon Bay has been a popular resort since the early part of the twentieth century.  During the 1930s the complex known as The Cornwall Coliseum was built, with a Wimpy Bar and a nightclub added later.  The Coliseum was a highly popular entertainment venue in the 1970s and 1980s but became semi-derelict after it fell out of use.  CBW has no objection to a new use being found for the original Coliseum site - the only part of the Carlyon Bay beaches which can be described as "brownfield".

But the sheer scale of the intended development, given planning permission 18 years ago, would spread concrete over not only Crinnis but Shorthorn as well.  Buildings up to five storeys high would cover the beaches down to the shoreline and up to the cliffs to the rear, all defended by a massive sea wall.  At a time of rising awareness of climate change and predictions of steadily rising sea levels, CBW believes this ambitious scheme is madness.  Proposals in 2005 to build a bigger sea defence scheme, which entailed artificially extending the beach area in front of the sea wall, needed new planning permission and after much hard work by Carlyon Bay Watch to raise public awareness of the various environmental and safety issues, the plans were 'called in' by the Government.

During five weeks of hearings in November and December 2006, Cornwall County Council and the Environment Agency joined CBW in arguing against the sea defence proposals.  The planning inspector subsequently reported that the scheme breached government policies on sustainable development, building in a coastal zone and on the undeveloped coastline of Cornwall.  He also said traffic generated would cause "material residual harm to amenity and to some extent highway safety considerations".  Ruth Kelly, who replaced John Prescott as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Development, agreed with the inspector's recommendation and refused permission for the sea defence scheme in June 2007.
 
The official site of Carlyon Bay Watch