It is the latest sequel in the long-running saga over the luxury ecohome Cate Blanchett is building in a picturesque seaside town in Cornwall once dubbed “Hollywood-on-Sea”.
Neighbours have accused the actor of destroying family holidays with the building noise from the property in Mawgan Porth, it has been reported.
Blanchett and her husband, the playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, bought the cottage in 2020. The original structure has since been demolished to create a five-bedroom ecohome after Cornwall council granted planning permission in 2022.
In the latest instalment, the couple now want to build a new entrance to the property and a car parking area to an additional plot of land purchased in 2021.
Karen Burgess, a holiday let owner, argued there had been a “total disregard” over the noise that had “destroyed the family holidays” of her guests last year, Cornwall Live reported.
She wrote in an objection lodged to Cornwall council in January: “The losses are more than £60,000 last year and still we are having to advertise … as a property [affected] by building noise.
“We thought the [work on the property] was finally over and now there is a new application for groundworks.
“This work should not be permitted during the holiday season. Never before in the bay have we ever experienced such a blatant disregard for the people who flock here for their holidays and residents’ enjoyment of the area during the holiday season.”
Watershedd, the London-based architects’ firm behind the build, has denied the claims and stated that the noise must have come from other developments. It said: “[Burgess] cannot be referring to our clients’ property, where there were no noisy works during the peak holiday period last year. Once again, our clients’ property has been mistaken for other works going on in Mawgan Porth.
“We have been in regular communication with friendly and accommodating neighbours to ensure that they are aware of works starting, and to alleviate any concerns regarding usual or anticipated construction noise or disturbances.”
Watershedd added its contractor was “always on hand” to address residents’ questions about the building process.
Another neighbour, Helen John, previously described the couple’s latest application as a “blatant attempt to erode an environmentally important piece of land by stealth and incorporate it”.
Situ8, the planning consultancy that made the application on behalf of the couple, said in response that the loss of green space would be “minimal”. Cornwall council will decide on the latest application.
In 2022, Blanchett, 54, released a climate crisis podcast with the clean energy entrepreneur Danny Kennedy.
Kennedy came to stay with the Lord of the Rings actor and her family in Cornwall and they took him to the Eden Project.
The entrepreneur told the Observer they visited “these old mines that are engaged in modern, clean-energy transition minerals and materials production – I’m a geek, I love that”.
