'Good Life' family furious at road threat to smallholding

A TRURO couple's dream of living the Good Life is facing ruin amid shock plans to re-route the proposed city relief road through their smallholding.

Steve and Angela Hills, who grow vegetables and rear chickens, have discovered the district council is investigating diverting the controversial bypass of the congested A390 further south.

Speaking from his tranquil four-acre property at Newbridge, retired teacher Mr Hills, 57, said: "I could not speak for two days – I was absolutely devastated. It would run through my vegetable patch 60 metres from my cottage.

"Lorries and buses are going to make a lot of noise and fumes, not to mention losing the land I was going to develop for the business. People won't want to buy local produce if it is grown next to the road."

Servicing the 5,000 new homes earmarked for Highertown, the £34 million single-carriageway was to set to run from the new Richard Lander School at Threemilestone through the valley to Treyew Road.

But after widespread opposition, including from the endangered Truro Lawn Tennis Club, Carrick planners are now modelling another route to instead cut in a quarter of a mile south at Besore Farm. It would plough through at least four properties in what was deemed "biodiversity corridor" under the original Truro and Threemilestone Action Plan.

The council was aiming to go public in October but the confidential information was revealed after prospective buyers of a neighbouring Newbridge home researched the area.

The bombshell was delivered to the Hills and their four grown-up children the week after they were given council certification to realise their lifelong dream of selling organic veg boxes. If the scheme goes ahead they could be forced to sell part of their land under a compulsory purchase order.

Mr Hills added: "If the whole of Truro thinks this is a good idea we could be accused of nimbyism but it literally is in my back yard so we will counter this every way we can."

He said that when he and his wife bought the four-acre property five years ago they were assured by planners that the road would not impinge on their cottage as set out in the Truro and Threemilestone Action Plan.

However, when he contacted the council last week, he was told the scheme had changed and a planning consultant was to report back to Carrick at the end of August.

Their neighbour, who wished not to be named, said: "Instead of being surrounded by fields, wildlife and tranquility, our home may well be blighted and, until the road is built, it may be impossible to sell.

"As it is, we had a very low offer for our house in the last month which we accepted, but when the new routes were explained to the people interested, they pulled out.

"Our problem is we need to sell now – the road won't be built until around 2013 and the uncertainty and worry and potential loss of value of our home is causing us great stress and anxiety."

Council planning chief David Edmondson told The West Briton: "There is an alternative route but at the moment there is some modelling work going on to see whether this would work or not.

"What's being looked at is to find the most environmentally sensitive option."

He said the only people told were officers and councillors on the basis it was confidential information.