Images have captured the state of a £9m property development in Cornwall, now half-built and deemed a ‘dangerous’ eyesore after the builder went bust.
Local residents have voiced their frustrations over the ‘intolerable noise and nuisance’ caused by the stalled housing project, urging the council to step in. St Mabyn parish council has appealed to Cornwall Council to utilise its powers of compulsory purchase to take control of the failed project.
The site was originally designed to accommodate 27 new-build two, three and four-bed properties, with a total market value of approximately £9m. Only a few houses have been finished, leaving the estate largely a hazardous construction site, with waste materials piled up.
The parish council also highlighted an “astonishing blunder” by Cornwall Council and South West Water that allowed work to commence without any sewage scheme in place.
Company goes bust with £340,000 of debt
The current state of the property development site (Image: SWNS)
South West Water is currently dispatching sewage tankers to the site to manage effluent from the three completed and occupied homes.
Hard Drive Construction Ltd, the firm which had been attempting to build the estate on the village outskirts for several years, went into liquidation in February with debts exceeding £340,000, as reported by the parish council.
Graham Smith, the chair of St Mabyn parish council, believes it’s “in the public interest” for the county council to “intervene” in the Chapelfields site.
The site seems to be in the possession of Landmark Estates Mayben Ltd, a company whose accounts boast nearly £6.4 million in assets but also reveal several mortgages over the land. The total net assets are listed as a mere £127,000.
‘Intolerable nuisance’
The current state of the property development site (Image: SWNS)
The only director of Landmark Estates Mayben Ltd is a 57-year-old Dutch businessman based near Leicester, named Mohammed Fatehamhomed.
Records from Companies House indicate that Mr Fatehamhomed holds 173 directorships, with over 50 of them being companies that have since been dissolved.
St Mabyn parish council is now urging Cornwall Council, which controversially granted planning permission for the scheme over a decade ago, to utilise its powers under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act to forcibly purchase the Chapelfields site.
Mr Smith stated: “There is an overwhelming case, in the public interest, for Cornwall Council to intervene.
“The parish council has for years been listening to and talking with local residents about this unfinished development and the intolerable nuisance.
“We have on multiple occasions sought assurances from the developers that they have a plan to complete their project. But there is clearly no end in sight, without Cornwall Council doing what it now needs to do.”
More affordable homes for local people?
The current state of the property development site (Image: SWNS)
Due to the developers’ repeated failures, Cornwall Council could modify the nature of the planning approval and demand that a higher percentage of the homes are “affordable” for local people.
North Cornwall MP Ben Maguire, along with local Cornwall councillor Robin Moorcroft, have voiced their worries about the incomplete Chapelfields project.
“There is a very strong feeling in the community that Cornwall Council has inflicted this appalling nuisance on us and we want to know what Cornwall Council is going to do to sort it out,” Mr Smith added.
St Mabyn parish council has extended an invitation to County Hall to send a representative to its forthcoming meeting.
Cornwall Council has been approached for a comment.
