UPDATE AUGUST 2023: Pendower Development Application PA20/03842 was withdrawn at the beginning of 2021. Now the developers have produced new proposals. We expect a full planning application to be submitted shortly.
Meanwhile here are some brief facts: The latest proposals include a new 23 suite apart-hotel, a restaurant with around 60 covers, staff accommodation and a shop. That could mean around 150 additional visitors to the site at any one time. The footprint is 2.4 times larger than the former hotel and still classed as a major development, not permitted in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) under national planning policy.
We’ll bring our website up to date with the finalist scheme once a planning application is submitted.
Since the developers launched their latest proposals, we’ve had a steady stream of new supporters, all as concerned as we are about the short and long-term implications for Pendower.
Scroll down if you’d like to join them…
P E N D O W E R
One of the most beautiful and highly protected beaches in Britain - loved by local people and visitors from all over the world - is threatened by over development.
Shore dock (Rumex rupestris)
Grey seal
Cornish chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
A fragile ecology of rare plants, animals and marine life protected by local, national and European laws, faces existential threats if the restoration and possible development of the site of the small hotel at the south western edge of Pendower is allowed to extend beyond the footprint of the existing buildings or to replace hostelry with homes.
The pink hotel
The small pink-washed hotel at the South Western edge of Pendower was a popular destination for visitors until it was sold over a decade ago. Since then it has been abandoned.
Restoration or redevelopment?
New owners have made several proposals. So far, all have failed to gain approval - either because they were too large and unsightly or because they would replace hotel rooms with permanent dwellings in one form or another - a significant change of use in a highly protected environment.
Inappropriate?
Housing development at Pendower would not only be ruinous environmentally, it would also be in clear contravention of local planning policies. Furthermore, it would appear to be despite the wishes of most local people who chose protection of the local environment as their top priority in a Roseland-wide poll and registered over 500 objections to Pendower Application PA20/03842 before it was withdrawn. (View the CC Planning Portal link)
It won’t stop here.
If over development were to be allowed, it would open the gates to similar proposals throughout the whole of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Cornwall’s most precious landscapes would be up for grabs.
Flood risk
The marshy willow beds below and beside the hotel site are in places less than a metre above sea level and designated by the Environment Agency to be at risk from tidal surges. (View Environment Agency flood map).
Drainage and sewage at this level would be very difficult and, inevitably, a pollution hazard.
Access
The Pendower Valley has remained unspoilt partly because access is severely constrained by steep single track roads on each side. The hotel site does not include these roads or any of the land that would be required to widen a road on either side.
Friends of Pendower
We are a charitable organisation founded nearly a decade ago. Our members come from all over the UK but we are predominantly local people who love Pendower and want to protect and preserve the beach and its valley.
Our purpose is: “to promote the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Pendower Beach and its environs designated as part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
Will you join us?
YES
to a restored pink hotel…
NO
to residential development.
Support our opposition to residential development at Pendower…