Plans to provide six temporary housing units for homeless people in a car park have had to be put on hold after councillors were unable to quiz a highways officer about the impact the scheme could have on parking in Penryn.

Cornwall Council had applied for planning permission to install the one-bedroom units in Commercial Road car park in Penryn.

Planning officers had recommended that the council's central sub-area planning committee should approve the plans but Penryn Town Council said that losing the car parking spaces could impact the town centre which it said was starting to thrive once more and has plans for further improvements.

The council said that the car park was underused and said a survey found that it was operating below capacity. However, this was disputed by the town council and a local resident who said his own survey found that it was often almost full.

They claimed that if the housing units were placed in the car park it could displace 10,000 vehicles a year and this could lead to businesses in the town losing vital customers. The town council said that it was currently undertaking a place-shaping exercise which looks at building on the success of the Commercial Road area, a location that the council said had seen an uplift in trade in the last couple of years.

Members of the committee wanted to quiz one of the council's highways officers on the findings of the conflicting parking surveys and about the impact that the planned new homes could have on the town. However, despite councillors being told that an officer was attending the meeting remotely when questions were asked, it was found that there was no officer available.

Committee chairman Alan Jewell was clearly unimpressed and said that it was "unacceptable" that no highways officer was attending the meeting. After the meeting was adjourned to try and get an officer to attend the meeting by phone, Cllr Jewell eventually proposed that the application should be deferred to allow more information to be provided and for a highways officer to attend a meeting of the committee. The proposal was agreed unanimously.

Prior to that, the committee heard from Penryn town councillor Mary May, who said that whilst the council wanted to support the provision of more housing to help the homeless, they felt that the Commercial Road car park was the wrong location. She urged the council to consider other sites in and around the town.

She said: "Commercial Road is all about the name really, it is commercial. Some seven years ago we met up for the local plan and I offered up the car park as a possible location for student accommodation, but how things have changed. Commercial Road is growing. It needs some money put into it."

Cllr May said that Commercial Road was Penryn's high street and that it was important for local businesses to be able to retain car parking spaces in the area to ensure that it remains accessible for all. She added: "We are relying on the car park in Commercial Road. We are on the up. Please, don't stop us."

Sam Irving, head of housing delivery at Cornwall Council, the applicant, said that modular housing like that planned for the car park was much needed. He said that the council was trying to deliver as much temporary housing as possible.

Mr Irving said that whilst there might be other suitable sites in Penryn for temporary homes those would be needed in addition to the proposed site in Commercial Road, not to replace it.

Olly Monk, Cabinet member for housing, said there was a desperate need for more temporary accommodation to both help those in need of a home and to reduce the council's spending on emergency accommodation such as hotels.

He told the committee that before the pandemic the council was helping around 250 households with emergency accommodation but was currently helping 700 households which equates to 1,500 people.

"Many of them have been displaced across the county in bed and breakfasts, Travelodges and Premier Inns which is costing the council £8million a year."

Cllr Monk said that the council was trying to provide more temporary housing and that he wanted to see more modular units like those planned for the Penryn site.

"We are aiming to put about 400 across Cornwall to try and end the need of people living in Premier Inns away from where they want to live."

He added: "We need accommodation in the Falmouth and Penryn area in the many hundreds to meet the need we have got. We need that accommodation and we need it as quickly as we can to relieve the budget pressure but, more importantly, to allow people to live in the areas they want to live."

The planning application was deferred and councillors said they hoped that the additional information could be provided in time for their November meeting.