Plans for huge 400-lodge Cornwall holiday resort labelled 'monstrous'
Plans have been submitted for a huge 400-lodge holiday resort near Newquay.
Green Ridge Resort would cover over 70 hectares of Cornish agricultural land but some residents believe it will add to traffic ‘chaos’ in the area.
Kingsley Leisure Developments Limited, run by Cornish developers the Simpson family, has lodged proposals with Cornwall Council’s planning department for outline permission to build the holiday resort on land to the north of the A392, near the hamlets of Mountjoy and Colan, to the East of Quintrell Downs.
The development would include up to 400 accommodation units. Around 150 units would be rented out and the remaining 250 units of the accommodation would be privately owned.
The plans also include the following facilities:
Swimming pool
Spa
Gym
Swimming lake
Activity hub
Shops
Food court, including a restaurant, bar and café
Dog walking area
Running/walking trails
The Green Ridge Resort would be built in five phases, with the completion of the first phase occurring in 2027 and each subsequent phase happening annually thereafter.
The final phase would occur in 2031.
A planning statement says: “The Green Ridge Resort would represent a circa £50–60 million capital investment in the local area.
“It would generate 56 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs for each year of its give-year construction phase, 175 FTE direct jobs during its operation and enough operational and visitor expenditure to generate 350 FTE jobs.”
However, the proposals have already received critical comments from residents.
One said: “Absolutely appalled by the prospect of this monstrous proposal. Most if not all of Quintrell Down’s residents will be in agreement that the area does not want for nor need anything of this scale, especially during the peak summer where travelling into or out of Newquay is already an ordeal due to the growing amount of housing.”
Another said: “A development of this size and scale, is not wanted, is not needed (other holiday parks and a number of ‘aparthotels’ are locally available), will cause huge destruction of natural habitat for our endangered native species, will grossly impact the (already) saturated local infrastructure and increase the misery of the local community with zero benefit realised, other than those who will profit.”
One person said: “All roads into Newquay are already completely jammed in the winter let alone the summer. Traffic has never been so bad. This new resort will just add more chaos and unnecessary extra traffic to an already unusable infrastructure in the town.”
More information about the planning application can be found here.
Credit: Lee Trewhela/Local Democracy Reporting Service