Sithney church organ could be relocated to Italy

By Richard Whitehouse LDR.

New plans have been revealed to build affordable homes in Launceston; convert a disused pub into housing and to remove an organ from a church so that it can be relocated to a church in Italy. 

Cornwall Council receives dozens of planning applications every week seeking permission for everything from cutting down trees to building new housing estates. All applications are submitted to the council and are then validated before being published by the council on its planning portal.

Here you can find details of all planning applications which have been submitted or decided by the council. For those applications yet to be decided members of the public can also submit their comments about the proposals – whether you are in support or opposition.

We have picked out some of the more interesting applications from more than 100 which have been validated by the council in the last week.

Affordable homes planned for village

Plans have been published to build new homes on the edge of a North Cornwall village with all the properties to be affordable. Developers have submitted a pre-application to Cornwall Council before they prepare a full planning application for the site at Tresmeer, near Launceston.

The pre-application explains that the proposals are to build eight houses and eight flats on the site with all of the properties being affordable. Under the plans 30 per cent of the properties would be affordable ownership and the remainder would be affordable rent or self-build.

A design and access statement submitted with the pre-application explains that the homes would be modular, saying that these homes cost 20 per cent less to heat than traditionally-built new properties and are half the cost of a typical UK home.

The site at Churchtown Farm, Tresmeer, is considered to be a rural exception site and council planning policy states that these should have 100 per cent affordable housing.

To find out more about the pre-application search for PA22/01083/PREAPP on Cornwall Council's planning portal

Former pub to be converted into homes

Plans have been submitted to Cornwall Council for a former pub to be converted into housing and for two more homes to be built alongside it. The application is for The Countryman Inn at Langdon Cross, North Petherwin, near Launceston.

The pub closed in 2019 and has been vacant since, a design and access statement submitted with the application says the building "is generally found to be in a poor dilapidating state with significant damp". It explains that the building needs "substantial investment and renovation".

Under the new plans the applicant is seeking to renovate and convert the former pub building into two two-storey homes. In addition the developers want to demolish the north facing single storey section of the building and replace it with two semi-detached properties.

Each property will have two bedrooms, parking spaces and garden areas. The design and access statement says that materials will reflect those used in the existing building and that the new homes will be "modest".

For more information about the application or submit comments search for application number PA22/04663 on Cornwall Council's planning portal.

Church organ to be moved to Italy

An application has been made to remove a church organ so that it can be relocated to a church in Italy. The instrument would be removed from Chynhale Methodist Church in Sithney.

A document detailing conservation efforts made for the Sweetland Organ has been submitted along with the planning application which is also seeking to allow the church itself to be used for ecclesiastical purposes.

It explains that the church was closed in 2015 and that the organ has remained in place since but says that in other cases where organs have been left in closed churches they have ended up destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

The document states: "It is proposed to relocate the organ to St Mark's Anglican Church, Florence. Sweetland and his last apprentice Trice built several organs in Italy, but few have survived and none in their original condition. It would, therefore, be fitting that this organ found a new home in Florence."

It goes on to say that the history of the organ and its Cornish origins would be made available in a permanent display in its new home in Italy with brochures to take away. The brochures "would also invite people to explore the many attractions of Cornwall".

The Methodist groups which use the church are said to have "no use of the organ as their musicians use guitars, keyboard and drums".

To find out more about the application and submit comments search for application number PA21/11909 on Cornwall Council's planning portal.