Cate Blanchett’s plans to light the landscaped gardens she is creating at her Cornish hillside home could be defeated by the presence of local bats.
The Hollywood actress has submitted proposals for the land around her newly developed property above Mawgan Porth beach, near Newquay, that includes local plants, trees, boulders and a grass drive.
The Oscar winner and her husband, the playwright Andrew Upton, bought an unassuming stone cottage overlooking the beach for £1.6 million in 2020 before demolishing it to build an ultra-modern five-bedroom home.
Blanchett and Andrew Upton
DAVID M. BENETT/DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES
Residents have complained about the noisy building work and huge lorries reversing 200m along a narrow lane to deliver supplies to the house.
The couple have now applied to discharge conditions attached to the awarding of planning permission, including overlighting, landscaping and shutters.
In the latest application, four types of lighting feature on the garden design plan, including eight pole mount path lights, three spike lights under trees, three low-level step lights and four wall lights.
However, an ecologist who was formally consulted on the plans has said the state of three of the four lighting options do “not comply with the guidance note referenced in the condition wording”.
A survey carried out in May 2021 found “no active bat roosts” in the cottage before it was demolished, but it did state that because bats were “found to forage across the whole area, recommendations are made for a low lighting regime as well as proposals for ecological enhancement of the development”.
Bats are found to forage across the whole area where the new home is being built
SWNS
The condition wording of the original application given permission in 2022 stated: “Prior to the use of the dwelling hereby approved, a lighting plan as set out in the submitted ecological report to comply with Bat Conservation Trust guidance note shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority.”
The previous report recommended outside lighting was “minimised where possible.”
It added: “Where lighting is required for safety or security reasons, it is recommended these are low level, capped to direct light downwards and placed on short timers.
“Metal halide, fluorescent sources must not be used. LED luminaires to be used where possible due to their sharp cut-off, lower intensity, good colour rendition and dimming capability.
“A warm white spectrum will be adopted to reduce blue light component. These would conform with Bat Conservation Trust recommendations for lighting.”
Blanchett’s latest plans were submitted to Cornwall council on January 20.
They include the “mass planting” of olearia bushes, sea thrift, ornamental grasses like ampelodesmos mauritanicus, and the “scattering of Cornish boulders”.
The remaining proposals include installing hardwood decking next to the house, a grass driveway with concrete stabilisation from Greenstones pavers, as well as Cornish granite steps leading up to the large property.
• A Highland pile or a Cornwall coastal cottage for £600,000?
Blanchett, 56, is one of several actors and entrepreneurs who own or rent properties in the beachside village of Mawgan Porth, which has earned the nickname Hollywood-on-Sea.
She bought two modest properties in the village in late 2020 and Kate Winslet has been regularly spotted by locals. The actress Imogen Stubbs is a long-time owner, having bought her beachfront house in 1995.
Jason Statham, the action star, is said to have bought a house there last summer after putting notes through the doors of houses he wanted to buy.
Stanley Tucci, the American actor and filmmaker, is a regular in nearby Watergate Bay but has been known to pop into Cornish Fresh, Mawgan Porth’s grocery shop.
The former fishing village of 300 residents also counts financiers and entrepreneurs, including Richard Reed, the co-founder of Innocent Drinks, among its residents.
Comments are closed.