THE chances of a pub being built on a housing estate in Launceston has reduced significantly after a bid to build houses on the land allocated for it was submitted to Cornwall Council.

Outline planning permission for the construction of several hundred houses, a school and a family public house with letting rooms was granted for the land at Long Field Road, Launceston in 2012, known as Hay Common.

While a later reserved matters application in 2018 did not include details of the school or public house, the school was later built but the plans for the public house did not progress.

When the planning permission was granted, a Section 106 legal agreement stipulated that the developers were to issue terms of the disposal of the public house site through agents and use reasonable endeavours to secure the sale of the site for use as a public house – with a stipulation that if it had not been sold within two years or by the construction of the 51st dwelling, it could be used for another purpose if another planning application was granted.

In the latest proposals for the sites, between four and nine houses could instead be built on the site.

The applicants planning agent told Cornwall Council: “This application relates to a vacant area of land off Long Field Road in Launceston which forms the entrance to the Hay Common residential development. The site is currently laid to grass and is accessible via Longfield Road. The wider area is part of the residential expansion to the southeast of Launceston. The site is not subject to any landscape or heritage designations.

“The initial Hay Common development outline permission was approved in 2012 (full details set out below). This permission granted outline consent for several hundred houses, a school and a public house etc. The masterplan allocated the site subject to this application for a public house. This approval was subject to a section 106 legal agreement.

“The reserved matters application was granted in 2018 however this did not include details of the school or public house. There have been numerous discharges of condition applications, deed of modification applications and amendment applications for the wider site and the school has been approved and built. No details or plans or an application has ever come forward for the public house site.”

In lieu of the public house, the applicant is seeking a permission in principle to build between four and nine houses – a figure which would later be decided by Cornwall Council.

As it is a development of under ten dwellings on a non-rural location, it is likely that any approved development would not be required to provide affordable housing within the provision.

The applicant said that their own analysis concluded that the 0.64 acre site would comfortably accommodate nine dwellings, which they said would be a positive contribution to the supply of housing locally.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

The full proposals can be viewed on the Cornwall Council planning portal under reference PA26/05429.