A PROPERTY for recovering drug and alcohol addicts in Newquay, which some local residents say has blighted their lives, has been operating in an unauthorised manner for many years.

Luke House, in Parkenbutts, St Columb Minor, owned by Charles Terence Estates and run by PAS Ltd, does not have the required certified planning usage.

The property, home to around a dozen people, only has certified C1 use, for hotels and guesthouses, and not the C2 use for hostels "with an element of care", required by planning law.

The news comes just weeks after a bitter dispute between local residents, PAS Ltd and Cornwall Council over plans to open another property for recovering addicts in the centre of Newquay – Danesbury House – owned by the same company.

Now Parkenbutts residents have urged council chiefs to shut Luke House as an "unauthorised" development.

Alan Boylan, who lives nearby, said: "We would have expected the council to proceed with a notice of unauthorised development, particularly in the light of the numerous objections submitted during the initial planning applications. We believe that the present operations at Luke House would unacceptably affect the public amenity."

Police have been called to Luke House 27 times in the past three years due to problems with crime and anti-social behaviour.

Cornwall Council says it has yet to make a decision on the property.

In an e-mail to the authority, Mr Boylan warned: "At this point I must advise you that we are seeking professional advice into the procedures adopted by the council throughout the duration of the planning application through to its current position, prior to the possibility of lodging a formal complaint to the Local Authority Ombudsman."

Steve Gilbert, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Newquay and St Austell, slammed Cornwall Council.

"This is yet another example of the council failing to properly follow its own planning procedures or involve local people in decision-making. What should be straightforward and transparent becomes convoluted and closed to scrutiny," he said.

"Across Newquay the failure to get to grips with planning policy has left a tangled knot that needs to be sorted out with a myriad of different uses taking place without the correct consents."

Cornwall Council said the property may be "immune" from enforcement action, having been in use as a hostel with an element of care since 1994 – despite never obtaining the required change of use. A spokesman said: "The running of the property without the necessary planning permission is not a criminal act; it is not illegal to carry out works without planning permission they are, however, unauthorised.

"The council has yet to make its final recommendation as to whether or not it is expedient to pursue any formal action in regard to the alleged unauthorised change of use."