Our small Cornish town needs your help in a planning battle with a celebrity developer and his family. 

Some of you might know Lostwithiel, ‘the fairest of small cities’. Nestled in the Fowey Valley, the town’s historic centre is a conservation area boasting the remnants of a Medieval palace, a Tudor bridge and 92 listed buildings. Crowning the green hills above the town, in a designated Area of Great Landscape Value sits the exquisite 13th century Restormel Castle. ‘There is history in every stone’ is how the poet John Betjeman once described Lostwithiel. 

Those of us who are lucky enough to live here love our town. We are a thriving, vibrant, strong and supportive community. We don’t live in the past and we recognise that nothing stays the same for ever. But we do believe that it’s important to preserve what is so special here for future generations. Our town, its rich heritage and the landscapes which surround it, once lost to unnecessary development can never be recovered. 

If you haven’t heard of Lostwithiel you’ll almost certainly have heard of Sir Tim Smit, creator of the massive tourist attractions that are the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. He lives on the edge of town. Brand Smit is almost universally revered. Here in Cornwall though, less so. Our relationship with tourism is more complex. Mr Smit though has made a massive amount of money out of ‘green’ tourism and now he wants to do it in Lostwithiel. 

A few years back he bought a redundant golf course here. He’s planted thousands of fruit trees and good for him. The world needs more trees. But in 2021 he also put in an application for 19 holiday homes, an agronomy centre, cookery school and restaurant, and parking for well over 100 cars. All looking down upon our historic town, in the setting of our castle and in a green field Area of Great Landscape Value. Following massive campaigning and opposition that application was rejected a year ago. 

But he’s back, and now with his son Alex, he is still determined to turn our beloved landscape into a tourist attraction and make a few more million from land he bought for a song. 

The application this time is for 19 individual 'drum' shaped holiday home buildings under the guise of an ‘apart-hotel’, a security office building, and a massive clubhouse/restaurant/bar which will service both holiday makers and golfers alike. And that’s despite him being on record saying this is not a viable site for a golf course, which does kind of suggest that his primary interest is the revenue he’ll generate from his high end holiday camp. 

We need to be clear that no one objects to the golf course and no one objects to his orchards. Our beef is only to do with him wanting to bring a holiday resort into a very special landscape which we believe must be preserved, and which will also impact upon the conservation status of a unique and historic town. 

And let’s not kid ourselves that if this application is approved then that’s where it stops. Once these buildings are in place then it opens the door for more, which will inevitably follow. There is so much more land on this site which could still be developed. It’s no secret that Mr Smit’s original application included a 4 bed triple garage luxury pad for his son until his consultant advised him it might be wise to remove it ‘at this time’. It’s also no secret that Mr Smit has described this project as a legacy for his son. Nice for Alex. Not so much for Lostwithiel. 

So that’s the nub of it. There’s so much more we could talk about to do with traffic on country lanes, the impact on existing local businesses and sustainability and the climate emergency. 

But this boils down to making a stand, and not allowing those with celebrity, power and influence to ravage our country side to pad their pockets, simply because they have the money to employ a host of consultants to circumnavigate the legislation which would apply to everyone else. 

We know it’s going to be a tougher battle this time. We want to make sure we have the best possible expert opinion and advice to get this thing defeated. While this may not tell us anything we don’t already know, it will add considerable weight to our grounds to object. 

£1500 will enable us to obtain initial legal advice  

~£5000 will enable us to also employ one of three additional specialists in transport/sustainability, landscape or heritage. 

~£8000 will enable us to employ two experts 

~£12500 will enable us to employ all three. 

It’s a lot of money and times have been hard. 

There are so many other far more important appeals than this. You’ll have seen those ads on the television about places where people are starving or in fear for their lives. This is a local planning dispute and if this does get approved we will survive and won’t go hungry or get killed. 

But if this touches a nerve in any way at all and you can help us reach our target then we will be enormously grateful, and you’ll have hopefully contributed towards saving a small piece of Cornwall from unnecessary development, but also our ever diminishing ‘green and pleasant land.’ 

It’s a David and Goliath thing. But we can’t use a sling and we need your donations instead to have a chance of beating Tim Smit. Please help if you can. Either way, please consider placing an objection on Cornwall Council’s Planning Register: 

Details of PA23/02502 can be viewed on PA23/02502 | Gillyflower Golf clubhouse and reception, 19 holiday lodges (apart-hotel c1 use class), small classroom and new access and parking arrangements. | Gillyflower Golf Cott Road Lostwithiel PL22 0HQ (cornwall.gov.uk) 

Comments here: 

https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=RS1K19FGKH400