Massive rockfall hits luxury development site in Cornwall earmarked for seven £1m new homes

Dramatic footage shows the massive rockfall next to a luxury development site which has been earmarked for seven new second homes worth £7million.

Thousands of tonnes of rock have plummeted down the 200ft cliff face at Whipsiderry Beach, a site previously home to Paradise Hotel, in Newquay, Cornwall.

It comes after there was a major cliff fall at the site in November last year, when residents were warned to stay away as 'much more' was expected to fall.

Meanwhile, Living Quarter Properties has planning permission to build seven £1m second homes above the beauty spot, but campaigners have long battled the proposal and have even held successful protests at the site to halt work.

After the latest rock fall they have now called on Cornwall Council to stop the development altogether, claiming it is 'an absolute miracle' how no one has died.

Earlier this month, Living Quarter Properties submitted plans to add rock bolts and meshing to the cliffs to help stabilise them, which is still being considered by the council.

They claimed in the latest application the cliff was 'more stable' than before and there was now 'exposure of good quality rock on its face'.

However, the Save Whipsiderry Cliffs campaign said the latest incident, which happened on April 13, should mean the scheme was now scrapped for good.

A spokesperson said: 'Surprise! There's been another collapse at Whipsiderry. Just two weeks after the developer submitted a report saying the cliff was "far more stable" than previously thought, the cliff collapses.

'Madness. People willing to risk anything for profit.'

Andrew Robey, a member of the campaign, said up to 10,000 tonnes collapsed in the latest fall.

He added: 'In a report recently it said that the cliff was more stable now than it was before which is obviously not true as we have just seen. It is now in Cornwall Council's hands.

'We are still shocked the development was given the green light. Our own geotechnical analysis of the cliff concluded it is in a highly fragile state.. To try and stabilise it with a few rock bolts and netting is not sufficient and working on that cliff raises safety issues.

'How no one has died is an absolute miracle. What we want is for Cornwall Council to stop the plans.' 

A report submitted to planners described the cliff face as 'currently unstable' but said the previous landslip had improved its stability.

The report read: 'The cliff profile is no longer undercut, making remediation simpler, and there is exposure of good quality rock on the face.'

It suggests that rock bolting and meshing with a regular maintenance and renewal regime would provide sufficient stabilisation to reduce erosion to an acceptable level to provide protection to the proposed development for at least 125 years.

The site was used back in March last year for a protest by locals who were campaigning to have work stopped to fill in caves at the base of the cliffs, to enable the properties to be built on top of the 200-foot cliff.

Campaigners successfully saw developers get their licence suspended over fears their work could make the cliff too unstable.

Save Whipsiderry Cliffs group said contractors had been excavating sea caves, with heavy machinery, drilling into rock, inserting steel rods and filling the caves with concrete, including part of the cliff face above.

Due to the damage caused by the fall, the steps and surrounding footpath were shut for safety reasons to allow specialist engineers to carry out investigations on site.