THE CHANGE of use of land for the siting of 43 holiday lodges has been approved by Cornwall Council despite a plethora of objections.

Atlantic Bay Holiday Parks Ltd applied to the local authority seeking permission to site 43 holiday lodges and associated infrastructure including internal roads, parking and bases on land at Atlantic Bays Holiday Park, St Merryn, Padstow.

The applicant told Cornwall Council: “The application site (is located within a rural setting adjacent the existing ABHP site with a former WWII airbase, St Merryn Airfield a private unlicenced airfield not in regular flight use, to the west, and farmland surrounding to the east and south.

“The site comprises of an area of some 1.6 hectares of agricultural land, albeit with hardstanding to the north-east and south-east boundaries associated with the historic use as part of the St Merryn Airfield.

“The existing Atlantic Bays Holiday Park (ABHP), provides a range of all year-round tourist accommodation, including luxury lodges, cabins, touring pitches and serviced and un-serviced camping pitches, all of an extremely high standard, set in attractive surroundings with exceptional facilities, security and customer care.

“Since COVID there has been a significant shift in holiday destination trends, with UK staycations now seen as a significantly more popular choice for holiday makers,. This has resulted in an increase in demand for holiday units at ABHP for holiday use.

“The proposed scheme has been conceived as a sustainable extension to the existing holiday park, which already caters for a range of tourist accommodation types but would meet the increasing demand and expectations of visitors for good quality accommodation in an attractive setting, sympathetic to the natural environment. 3

“The proposals seek to build on the success of the existing holiday park site through a modest expansion of the site onto this adjacent parcel of land, with an additional 44 no. high-quality holiday lodge units, capitalising on and supporting the increased demand for staycation accommodation in the UK.

“The proposals would provide valuable continued support for the existing successful tourism business through additional revenue streams resulting from the additional units and meeting demand for staycation accommodation, which also brings with it additional secondary spend opportunities, enabling the business and wider site operations to remain competitive in the tourism sector, and further in supporting the local economy.

“The proposals would provide additional tourist accommodation through a change of use of redundant agricultural land.”

17 objections were lodged by members of the public.

There were also concerns over the impact of the plans on the nearby St Merryn Airfield, an objection to which was overcome through the changing of some of the plans.

St Ervan Parish Council and St Merryn Parish Council also issued objections.

The planning officer, in approving the proposals, concluded: “When considering the overall planning balance, the economic benefits of the scheme, which are given significant weight in line with paragraph 85 of the NPPF 2024, together with the social and environmental benefits of this proposal, are considered to outweigh the identified minor landscape harm to the surrounding non-designated landscape and loss of agricultural land and tip the balance in favour of the proposed development and it is recommended for approval.

“All other matters raised have been taken into account, including the comments of the Parish Councils but none is of such significance as to outweigh the considerations that have led to the recommendation.”

It was approved subject to a number of conditions.