Councillor and Town Mayor Steve Eva has written a letter to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities regarding the appeal decision over the M&S site on Market Street.

The plans by the developer Acorn Blue are to turn the former M&S building into 14 luxury flats with retail space below. The plans were refused over a year ago, however, around 8 months ago the developers lodged an appeal which has now been approved meaning the development can go ahead.

In the letter to the department, Falmouth's mayor said that he and the council: "strongly opposed this scheme, particularly because the scheme drove a road through the centre of the facade to make way for private parking, bringing more traffic into our pedestrian streets, and being completely out of character with the Conservation Area."

The developers say that the plans for new parking spaces within the development would lead to 35 extra vehicle movement over 24 hours and only 3/4 at peak periods which the mayor called "scarcely believable".

The mayor also said that the decision to allow the appeal is an "exceptionally bad" one that is poorly argued, sometimes contradictory, and lacks evidence to support it.

As the letter goes on the Mayor addresses several issues and states that the inspector's report reads as if there was a bias to allow the appeal from the outset. and that the inspector had made a "significant misreading" of a key policy intention in Falmouth's Neighbourhood Plan.

Other issues raised included traffic and vehicle movement, Conservation Area and Heritage, loss of retail space, and concerns for the precedent this appeal sets.

When concluding the letter the Mayor described the scheme as: "bad practice, poor urban design and damaging to our town centre and its future" he also claimed it was sad the developers had been "so greedy" as without the road and parking plans the scheme would have been viable".

The letter was supported by not only Falmouth Town Council and the Planning Committee but several local community organisations such as Falmouth Place Shipping Board, Civic Society, Falmouth BID, and many more.

You can find the plans and the appeal here: PA21/04472 | Mixed use development comprising retail and residential uses