Hollywood actor Cate Blanchett has sparked another row over the building plans for her controversial holiday home in the South West. The star was one of the first to catch wind of the beautiful town in Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, and has bought a clifftop site for a stunning home.
However, the star's intention to build a modern ‘eco-home’ has caused some upset with the locals, reports CornwallLive. Cate, 54, has been building a spacious, three-storey, four-bedroom property in the coastal village for months, but reportedly is planning to extend into the neighbouring field for a new access and parking area.
The Hollywood star and her playwright husband have been accused by Cornish locals of a “blatant land grab”, with some people accusing the couple of purchasing a second plot solely to prevent another home going up next to theirs.
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The Australian star has also been accused of causing huge disruption in the town with heavy construction traffic, earth-moving diggers and noisy hammer drills during the home’s construction. The town of Mawgan Porth has been dubbed ‘Hollywood-on-sea’ due to the influx of celebrities that have looked at or bought property there. Action film star Jason Statham, Aquaman Jason Momoa and Devil Wears Prada’s Stanley Tucci are just some of the huge names who have reportedly been seen around the village.
Cate is not the only star who has ruffled the feathers of the locals. The people who live in the town of Mawgan Porth all year round say that their once sleepy, beautiful village is being changed at an alarming rate.
Land Registry documents show that Cate and her husband bought an old cottage in Mawgan Porth for £1.6 million in December 2020 and acquired another £1.25 million plot of land directly adjacent a year later. Now a second planning application has gone in for that additional plot.
The building work on the two plots has allegedly annoyed neighbours, who have accused the star and her husband of damaging a delicate coastal wildlife habitat. They demolished the original cottage and replaced it with a much larger so-called ‘eco-home’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, former military medic turned dog walker Emma Keelan, 45, told how she had lived in Mawgan Porth for almost 20 years. That was before she was forced out of the village and into temporary accommodation during Covid when her landlord decided to turn the long-term rental property into a holiday let.
She said: ‘It’s unbelievable how all these celebrities and wealthy people behave. How much is enough? They’ve bought the houses for crazy amounts of money but they just want more and more. If they get permission for this what next? Normal people already can’t afford to live here any more, look how it is in the winter, it’s a ghost town."
Another resident who has lived in Mawgan Porth for 18 years but didn’t want to be named said: "The whole situation with that road is a mess. It’s the lorries coming up and down, it’s a never-ending building site."
They said Blanchett has been active in the community and described her family as "really sound people" but still described the area as a "non-stop building site". "But how much more do you need?" they said. "She got permission for what she got but now wants more."
This references Blanchett's latest application to Cornwall Council for a 'change of use' of the field to turn part of it into a new access and parking area for four cars. Blanchett’s proposed new driveway and car park would give her and her guests level access into the hilltop pad from the rear.
In a statement, her planning agent said: "The proposed redevelopment of [the house] and its replacement was driven by the desire to make a more efficient use of this unique site, and to provide a sustainable dwelling that can be enjoyed by the applicant's multi-generational family.
"The applicants purchased the field site separately and subsequent to the purchase of [the house] specifically to ensure that the land was not developed with housing that could potentially encroach upon the amenities of their new home, which is sat within a comparatively constrained plot area when compared with others in the area.
"The driveway and parking area has been designed sensitively to minimise visual impact from surrounding vistas, helping the wider field to remain as a key landscape feature with every attempt made to blend the access seamlessly into the landscape.
"Within the wider landscape, the proposed access and parking area would not have a significant landscape impact and would not result in an unacceptable change in character of the land."