RESIDENTS battling a proposed £10 million transport hub in St Erth are celebrating an eleventh hour reprieve after Cornwall councillors deferred a decision on its own plan pending a site visit.

Cornwall Council is proposing to build a 750-space park and ride facility across three car parks around the railway station off the A30.

But residents said the plan – being proposed by the council developers, assessed by council planners and then considered by councillors – was not right for the village.

They said it would create a hazard because two of the car parks would be accessed via the narrow road to the village where it passes under a small railway bridge.

The bridge is already used by more than 100 lorries a day visiting a sewage plant and a waste site in the village. Residents said wagons often have to drive under the bridge in the middle of the road.

Councillors were expected to approve the plan, on officers' recommendation, at a strategic planning committee meeting on Thursday.

But they voted to defer any decision until they have visited the site.

Cheryl MacLeod, of St Erth Residents' Association, who attended the meeting to speak against the plan along with chairman Derek Tilby, said: "I was pleased that the councillors listened to us and they seemed to have done their homework and were aware of the issues.

"I think the councillors have done some positive thinking and realised that the development would not be for the good of the whole of Penwith but more for the benefit of just St Ives.

"A site visit is preferable to a decision because we think that anyone who sees that bridge will understand the dangers.

"I am pleased with a site visit because I think the site will speak for itself."

Cornwall Council's application states it would involve putting traffic lights on the A30 at St Erth and developing three car parks – one already in use as the station car park and the other two on what is currently agricultural land.

The council said the "transport interchange facility" would provide 752 parking spaces for tourists, commuters and shoppers "visiting west Cornwall and in particular Penzance, St Ives and Hayle".

But councillors at last week's meeting questioned whether St Erth was the right place for a park and ride service for all of west Cornwall. Cornwall councillors from Penzance and Camborne questioned whether it would be used extensively to visit their towns. Many in St Erth say the hub would only be of benefit to traffic-choked St Ives – while dramatically affecting their village.

No date has been set for the site visit.