22/05/2023
Our small Cornish town needs your help in a planning battle with a celebrity developer and his family.
Some of you might know Lostwithiel, ‘the fairest of small cities’. Nestled in the Fowey Valley, the town’s historic centre is a conservation area boasting the remnants of a Medieval palace, a Tudor bridge and 92 listed buildings. Crowning the green hills above the town, in a designated Area of Great Landscape Value sits the exquisite 13th century Restormel Castle. ‘There is history in every stone’ is how the poet John Betjeman once described Lostwithiel.
Those of us who are lucky enough to live here love our town. We are a thriving, vibrant, strong and supportive community. We don’t live in the past and we recognise that nothing stays the same for ever. But we do believe that it’s important to preserve what is so special here for future generations. Our town, its rich heritage and the landscapes which surround it, once lost to unnecessary development can never be recovered.
If you haven’t heard of Lostwithiel you’ll almost certainly have heard of Sir Tim Smit, creator of the massive tourist attractions that are the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. He lives on the edge of town. Brand Smit is almost universally revered. Here in Cornwall though, less so. Our relationship with tourism is more complex. Mr Smit though has made a massive amount of money out of ‘green’ tourism and now he wants to do it in Lostwithiel.
A few years back he bought a redundant golf course here. He’s planted thousands of fruit trees and good for him. The world needs more trees. But in 2021 he also put in an application for 19 holiday homes, an agronomy centre, cookery school and restaurant, and parking for well over 100 cars. All looking down upon our historic town, in the setting of our castle and in a green field Area of Great Landscape Value. Following massive campaigning and opposition that application was rejected a year ago.
But he’s back, and now with his son Alex,
We are concerned residents of Lostwithiel, campaigning to save the green hills surrounding the Fowey Valley (AGLV) from the construction of Tim Smit's holiday lodges and large golf clubhouse.
