Many people were delighted by the prospect of a crematorium at Poundstock, making cremations much easier for bereaved families than the current long journey to Bodmin or Barnstaple provides. Equally, many who lived or had business interests in Poundstock were appalled by the idea and opposed the planning application. Either way, the proposal was controversial.
Cornwall Council passed the application (7-4 votes) on 19th December 2022, but it has since been challenged in the courts at a Judicial Review, a long and expensive process.
Sir Duncan Ouseley, High Court Judge, has, on 4th October, ruled against Cornwall Council and the Atlantic View Crematorium Consortium and pro the claimants Gemma Watton (who owns holiday lets) and Jonathan Cameron, a local resident.
The Judge criticised Cornwall Council’s planning advice. You can read the full judgement here.
Richard Kimblin KC explains the legalities here.
The BBC has reported that Cornwall Council will not be challenging the decision, and that it is expected to have to pay £70,000 in court costs.
A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “The matter was subject to a High Court challenge and, whilst the council is disappointed with the outcome, at this stage we accept the court’s judgement as it is not in the public interest to challenge the matter further.”
Correction, at paragraph 89 the Judge says: ”No viability assessment was
presented by the Consortium or considered by the Council”. Nowhere does it say officers had believed the proposal was viable, they simply didn’t bother to address the issue.
The Judge decided viability was a material consideration & the council officers’ failure to advise on it made the granting of planning permission unlawful – just one of the reasons why it was unlawful.
Thank you for the correction; I have re-read that part of the judgement and amended.
Another link sums this up very well.
https://cornerstonebarristers.com/victory-on-6-grounds-in-the-high-court/
I spent 3 days at the Royal Court of Justice listening to the arguments. You are right it was a very costly process. From a financial position there are no winners! The winner is the parish of Poundstock and future generations who have prevented 14 acres of land being harmed irreversibly.
For the supporters their only real concern was the distance to travel to Bodmin and Barnstaple. Did any of them consider the impact on the local tourism businesses in the area? Did the clergy who enthusiastically championed this crematorium consider the harm to the countryside and the impact on the protected landscape surrounding this site.
I think not from what I have read.
I have spent over 4 years following this applications and the appalling way it has been dealt with by Cornwall Council. The Cornwall councilor for Bude was very vocal in his support. He stated it would not harm tourism and would not harm the landscape. No evidence was given just his word! If scalping the area expecting it to recover in 15- 30 years is ok then there is something wrong with his thinking in terms of protecting open spaces.
The Strategic Committee hearing was painful due to the mis-leading and half truths that were made. Democracy only works for Cornwall Council when it suits them. They had no intention of listening to the people. This seems a familiar story with local and national political parties.
This Crematorium was the same size as the one that is being built in Plymouth to serve 300,000 people. The one at Poundstock was to serve 25-28000 people.
This article states councilors said that they thought it was viable. I can tell you at the meeting that viability was not discussed. It was simply stated that viability was a commercial concern – end of conversation. They ignored most of the objectors comments and the worry I have is how many developments have been approved that should not have been.
There are many questions left unanswered as to the conduct of those involved in this application. It seems that right at the start of this process a plan was hatched to push this through without any thought to the residents of Poundstock or the surrounding landscape.
To sum up it was in the wrong location , would cause extensive harm to the area and landscape and Cornwall Council did not care.
I hope CC Planners and the legal officers take on board what the High Court Judge said. They failed in their duty of fairness and did not take a balanced view. 4 CC councilors did vote against this application and I thank them.
A classic example of empty vessels making the most noise but, as they had money, they could overrule the wishes of most and their democratically elected representatives.
I wondered when comments like this would start. If you read the 90 odd pages of the judgement you will see that we are not empty vessels and please do not just assume we are made of money. If you think it is acceptable for your so-called democratically elected representatives to make unlawful admissions and ignore their development plan then fine but in our rules based society we need to be concerned as to how they are applied.
What rubbish!
More like Still Waters Run Deep with people who know what they are talking about.
Full support for TH.