PEOPLE power could have saved a Padstow beauty spot from ruin.

Hundreds of residents feared that a planning application to install a surface water outfall pipe at Booby's Bay, near St Merryn, could have been detrimental to the area.

But this week the application by the founder of Moneysupermarket.com, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Simon Nixon, was withdrawn.

More than 400 letters of objection were sent to Cornwall Council and over 1,300 people joined a group set up the social networking site Facebook in protest at the plan.

In 2009 planning permission was granted for a three-storey house at Little Polgarron, which includes a lower floor consisting of bedrooms and a leisure wing, which will be sunk underground. Site investigation work has since shown that the high water table on the site could put the property at risk of flooding, so the applicant has been forced to submit a second application for the proposed outfall.

The pipe would have run from the property to cliffs overlooking the beach at Booby's Bay.

To combat the drainage issue Mr Nixon is now looking at submitting new plans to build a two-storey house on the site instead.

Mr Nixon's spokeswoman said: "During  the planning and design of the Little Polgarron project we have undertaken a substantial amount of due diligence work, consulting with geotechnical engineers, Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Marine and Fisheries Agency.

"In addition, we have always been fully committed to taking into consideration the concerns of the local residents.

"This has been a lengthy process, the outcome of which is that we have decided to revise our approach and investment into Little Polgarron.

"We have asked our architects to work on designs for a two-storey house to the same high standards and environmental specifications as before, but one which will not require an outfall pipe to protect the property from flooding." In response to the withdrawal of the application local businessman Adrian Phillips said: "This is a huge relief and an encouraging example of the fact that the general public can make a difference.

"Local people still believe that the original plans for Little Polgarron constitute an eyesore in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and should never have been approved. Now we all need to watch very carefully to see what happens next."

Cornwall councillor for the area Stephen Rushworth said: "It was always going to be a contentious application but I am glad that common sense has prevailed.

"I will be interested to see any new plans that are submitted."