A planning stalemate in the Cornish village of Calstock has resulted in the developer boarding up the completed new homes.
Bridge View said that unexpected costs and council delays had led to it being unable to deliver the 33 homes, which included much-needed affordable housing for the area.
Cornwall Council said that it was working alongside stakeholders to reach a solution to what parish councillor, Dorothy Kirk, described as \”a tragic situation where everybody loses\”.
Dorothy Kirk continued: “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.\”
Michael Wight, a director at Bridge View, said that the firm had allocated £2.8million for 15 affordable homes but claimed that council delays cost the company £1.2million in interest while accusing the council of \”weaponising\” legal planning agreements and \”strangling the business cash flow\” by stopping completed homes from being sold.
The abnormal costs faced by the developer were incurred by the requirement to build a second road, a complicated drainage system and a significant retaining, with the wall alone said to have cost around £750,000.
Wight told the BBC in November 2023 that the delays and potential scale of maintenance required for the retaining wall had led to the affordable housing operator backing out, with no new operators that met the council’s criteria interested in taking on the homes.
After Bridge View’s latest submission for amendments in April 2023, the developer had expected to receive a response within 13 weeks, but the council took until January 2024 to provide one. By this time, the funding for the site had expired.
Adele Fulner, a director for Bridge View, said: \”I\’m sorry it hasn\’t worked out the way we wanted it to. I feel like we could have fought harder to make it happen and for that, I apologise.\”
The Calstock development was Bridge View’s largest to date, and the company described the outcome as \”soul destroying\”.
A statement by Cornwall Council 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.\”
