Seaside locals fume over Cate Blanchett’s plans to turn field into car park
LOCALS in a picturesque seaside town have been left fuming over Cate Blanchett's plans to turn a field into a car park.
The Hollywood actor reignited a row over building plans for her controversial holiday home in Mawgan Porth, near Newquay, Cornwall.
Disgruntled locals are not happy that the Australian actress is in the process of building a modern "eco-home" for her family.
The 54-year-old has been building a sprawling three-storey bedroom property in the coastal village for months.
Land Registry records show that Blanchett bought the former cottage for £1.6million in 2020, and then shelled out £1.25million a year later for the adjoining field.
But her latest plans to develop the neighbouring field into a new driveway and parking area for the home have sparked fresh controversy,
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The Hollywood star and her playwright husband Andrew Upton have been accused of a "blatant land grab" with people saying they snapped up the second plot purely to stop another home shooting up next to theirs.
Residents have also accused her of causing huge disruption with heavy construction traffic, earth-moving diggers and noisy hammer drills during its construction.
Mawgan Porth has been dubbed "Hollywood-on-sea" due to the influx of celebrities looking at or having bought properties there post-pandemic.
Aquaman's Jason Momoa, action film star Jason Statham and actor Stanley Tucci are just some of the A-List celebrities reported to have properties in the village.
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But locals who reside there all year round say it is changing at an alarming rate thanks to changes made by those such as Mrs Blanchett.
They say wealthy residents buying the properties as second homes that they only stay in for a few weeks of the year has eroded the sense of community in the village.
Neighbours had already accused the Lord of the Rings star of damaging a sensitive coastal wildlife habitat by demolishing a former cottage to make way for a much larger eco-home.
, former military medic turned dog walker Emma Keelan, 45, told how she had lived in Mawgan Porth for almost 20 years.
She said: "It’s unbelievable how all these celebrities and wealthy people behave. How much is enough? They’ve bought the houses for crazy amounts of money but they just want more and more. If they get permission for this what next?
"Normal people already can’t afford to live here any more, look how it is in the winter, it’s a ghost town."
Another resident who has lived in Mawgan Porth for 18 years but didn’t want to be named said: "The whole situation with that road is a mess.
"It’s the lorries coming up and down, it’s a never-ending building site."
They said Blanchett has been active in the community and described her family as "really sound people" but still described the area as a "non-stop building site".
"But how much more do you need?" they said.
"She got permission for what she got but now wants more."
This references Blanchett's latest application to Cornwall Council for a "change of use" of the field.
Blanchett plans to use a permeable green grasscrete surface to blend in with the landscape with a turning head, retaining stone wall and native planting.
An ecological survey found the maritime grassland site to be a suitable habitat for a variety of wildlife species including slow worms.
As part of mitigation measures, there will be bat boxes for roosting and reptile refuges using logs for winter hibernation.
Part of the field will be used for ground source heat pumps to power the whole house.
In a statement, her planning agent said: "The proposed re-development of [the house] and its replacement was driven by the desire to make a more efficient use of this unique site, and to provide a sustainable dwelling that can be enjoyed by the applicant's multi-generational family.
"The applicants purchased the field site separately and subsequent to the purchase of [the house] specifically to ensure that the land was not developed with housing that could potentially encroach upon the amenities of their new home, which is sat within a comparatively constrained plot area when compared with others in the area.
"The driveway and parking area has been designed sensitively to minimise visual impact from surrounding vistas, helping the wider field to remain as a key landscape feature with every attempt made to blend the access seamlessly into the landscape.
"Within the wider landscape, the proposed access and parking area would not have a significant landscape impact and would not result in an unacceptable change in character of the land."
Officials are expected to make a decision on the latest plans for her Cornish bolthole later this month on January 24.
Blanchett also owns a £5million country estate near East Sussex, where she also bought up land next door - a £1.5million farmhouse with 100 acres.
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A representative for Blanchett told The Sun: "Our clients purchased the land to preserve the environment and protect it from over development.
"They are merely reinstating a pre-existing accessway."