Michael Wight and Adele Fulner the directors of Bridge View described the situation as ‘soul destroying’
By Rebecca Ricks
BBC South West Investigations
Completed new homes in a Cornwall village have been boarded up and left empty after a planning stalemate, according to developers.
Bridge View claimed council delays and abnormal costs have left it unable to deliver 33 homes in Calstock, including affordable housing.
Parish councillor, Dorothy Kirk, said it was “a tragic situation where everybody loses”.
Cornwall Council said it was working with stakeholders to find a solution.
‘Expensive and difficult’
A document published by the council in January 2024, stated there were 160 households on the waiting list for homes in the parish.
Ms Kirk, said: “I hope somehow we can rescue it.
“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.”
The new homes at Bridge View were granted planning permission in 2018.
Bridge View in Calstock was originally given permission to build 33 homes, 15 of which were set to be affordable housing
One of the directors, Michael Wright, said his firm had allocated £2.8m, for 15 affordable homes but claimed council delays then cost the firm £1.2m in interest,
He accused the council of “weaponising” legal planning agreements and “strangling the business cash flow” by blocking the sale of completed homes.
The council said issues with the development had been “ongoing for several years” and that it had “done all in its power to work with the company”.
Mr Wight said the abnormal costs included the need to build a second road, a more complicated drainage system and a large retaining wall, the wall understood to have cost about £750,000.
Coupled with the interest from the delays, he said their affordable homes budget was “eroded”.
The abnormal costs at the site were said to include a large retaining wall
He told the BBC that in November 2023 the affordable housing operators backed out, after delays, and realising the “magnitude” of possible maintenance to the large wall.
The firm showed the BBC evidence that no new affordable housing operator wanted the homes and as a result they could not fulfil planning conditions.
They received one offer from RentPlus, a rent with the option to buy model, but the firm was not within the council’s approved list as it was considered an intermediate operator.
The developers appealed one of Cornwall Council’s refusals with the inspector ruling in favour of the council but said the costs associated with the site were abnormal.
The developers said the latest submission for amendments was submitted to the council in April 2023, but the planning department did not provide a response until January 2024, longer than the expected 13 weeks.
They said that delay alone cost the firm £880,000.
The funding for the site expired in October 2023 and by March, in a stalemate with the council, the site was mothballed.
The interior of one of the newly built homes at Bridge View
Adele Fulner, another director of the firm, said it was a “complex situation”.
“I’m sorry it hasn’t worked out the way we wanted it to,” she said.
“I feel like we could have fought harder to make it happen and for that I apologise.”
A family-run business, the firm said this was their biggest build to date and they felt the outcome had been “soul destroying”.
Workers at the site have now boarded up the windows as the site is expected to be returned to the lender
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.”
It said it “must adhere” to planning policies, including neighbourhood plans” and was actively working to secure the delivery of the development and affordable housing.
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