Yesterday, an appeal put forward to the Planning Inspectorate by Living Quarter Properties (Porth) Ltd., a luxury housing development company planning to build homes on a historic Newquay cliff site, was rejected. This follows a public hearing, as well as a three-week period in which the decision was finalised.

The appeal in question was on Condition 2 of Living Quarter Properties’ 2007 Planning Permission — known as “the stabilisation of the cliffs.” This stabilisation would — in simple terms — mean the drilling of stabilising bolts into the side of the cliffs, as well as the injection of concrete which would be covered by meshing. This would provide a secure base on which to build a number of luxury holiday villas on top of the Whipsiderry Cliffs. But geotechnical experts have routinely pointed out how the drilling would destabilise the cliffs further than their already precarious condition.

How did it get this far?

The Save Whipsiderry Cliffs campaign began in 2022, as developers Living Quarter Properties (Porth) Ltd. began making moves to build seven luxury villas on cliffs overlooking Whipsiderry Beach, Newquay. The campaign, organised solely by local residents and with community support, has staged protests, organised the Save Whipsiderry festival, and regularly negotiated with regulatory bodies in order to prevent their construction.

The group also emerged because Cornwall Geoconservation Group highlighted the danger of the proposed plans for construction on Whipsiderry Cliffs. They were emboldened when developers ignored guidelines in their own reports regarding the safety of the cliffs.

In late February and early March of 2023, a contractor with Living Quarter Properties began to drill into the cliffs and attempt to “secure” the surrounding caves within the cliffs. When a swiftly organised protest was staged in March 2023 to combat this and prevent the work from taking place, private security went beyond legal bounds and manhandled protesters.

The cliff collapsed where the contractor had been drilling in the following November, causing Cornwall Council to fence off the area. This, in effect, meant that local residents, who had used the beach for decades, were prohibited from doing so because of the work of Living Quarter Properties, which had caused environmental damage. Further collapses occurred in April of last year.

The developers, for their part, seem persistent in their pursuit of building, submitting near-constant applications and appeals to the various regulatory bodies that oversee the safety of the area. The appeal went to a public hearing on the 11th of November, which went poorly for Living Quarter Properties.

The Hearing and Decision

The hearing was hosted in the Griffin Inn, Newquay, and was well attended by campaigners, concerned community members, councillors, and geotechnical experts. The primary subject of the hearing was the aforementioned Condition 2 of the developer’s planning permission, which required them to stabilise the cliffs for their construction.

Three parties discussed the issue, presided over by inspector Nick Davies, who made his final decision yesterday. Living Quarter Properties were represented by Matthew Crompton, Civil Engineer and Director of CDeC Design and Construction Ltd., and Paul Foster, Ground Risk Specialist.

Cornwall Council was represented by a number of experts, including Rhys Hobbs, Cornwall Council’s Environmental Resilience and Adaptation Manager, and Justin Ridgewell, an Environment Agency support adviser. The Save Whipsiderry Cliffs group were supported in their position in the discussion by Steve Parry, an expert in geotechnical engineering.

Throughout the extensive hearing on Condition 2, those advocating for Living Quarter Properties performed poorly. They were routinely combated on the proposed solutions and stabilisation methods, which included bolting the cliffs and blasting concrete to keep the cliffs stable. When this was proposed, both Council representatives and Parry attempted to explain that the cliffs were simply not stable enough to maintain the construction of the seven luxury villas. A poor decision, in other words, could endanger the lives of the people who use the beach, as well as damage the immediate surrounding area.

On the issue of maintenance, they performed even worse. Advocates for Living Quarter Properties discussed plans to set up a limited company for the maintenance of the cliffs — in other words, to ensure the properties would not collapse onto the beach below. The proposed company would, according to the delegates, be run by those who owned the villas, possibly with the consultation of a geotechnical engineer. This plan was routinely ridiculed by experts and members of the public alike. The hearing was followed by a site assessment conducted by the inspector to aid in the decision on the appeal.

A win for the time being

In Davies’ final decision on the appeal, released last night by the Planning Inspectorate, the appeal was shot down, acting as a victory for the local community and the preservation of the natural area. In the report, the obvious points were made that further construction presented great danger to the cliffs.

On the subject of maintenance, the report also stated that “the maintenance schedule lacks the detail that is necessary to ensure that the stabilisation works are properly maintained,” undermining the lacklustre plans of the developers to provide an adequate maintenance infrastructure.

Highlighting the hard work done by Save Whipsiderry Cliffs, the report also stated:

“The Save Whipsiderry Community Group (the SWCG) has commissioned a number of reports from a suitably qualified expert to review the appellant’s expert reports. One of these reviews the Second SSR, and concludes that it fails to investigate the complex geological and geotechnical nature of the site.

“It identifies that the November 2023 failure was largely controlled by fault zones within the rock mass, and that similar low-strength, persistent zones of weakness remain present within the rock mass, which have not been investigated or considered in the appellant’s reports.”

Cobblestone reached out to Andrew from the Save Whipsiderry Cliffs campaign. In his statement on the report, he said:

“We are pleased with the decision that the Planning Inspectorate came to. It’s the first time we felt as a group, as a community, we’d actually been listened to in the many years that we’ve been trying to reach the Council and inform them of our fears relating to the cliffs and the proposed development.

“It was also the first time that I saw the Council (who are the coastal protection authority) really fight for the coast. So it was quite a reassuring sight to see them stand up for Cornwall and our coastline. I think we were also interested to hear the points of view of the developer.

“When their plans were spoken out loud, as we’ve always known, it was clear that they were talking nonsense.

“It was fantastic to feel the support of the one hundred-or-so local residents, councillors, and community members of Newquay, Porth, and Whipsiderry. It was fantastic to see them question the developer and really put them under pressure to explain the actions that have led to this point and their current plans for the future.

“In terms of the future, obviously people will be happy with this decision, and we are happy. What we are still left with is a piece of coastline that’s been desecrated and destroyed — there are still steps at Whipsiderry; however, the chance of them being open in the future is slim. We still hold that hope going forward.

“Hopefully the developer leaves this space alone, and together with local councillors, the MP, and other interested parties we hope to find a solution that enables the public to have access to a beach that they had access to for over 150 years. Hopefully we can come up with a plan for the future that sees families with children and other people back on Whipsiderry Beach, using it as it was before the developer turned up.”

The planning permission remains in place for the construction of the villas, but a statement released on the Save Whipsiderry Cliffs Facebook page stated that “in the meantime we are celebrating that the correct decision has been made.”

Image via: Facebook, Save Whipsiderry Cliffs.