Plans in place to bring Cornish hotel back to life

Plans have been submitted for the regeneration of a beachfront hotel in Cornwall.

PBHH Ltd, owner of the former Pendower Beach House Hotel, affectionately known as the ‘pink hotel’, has submitted plans for the regeneration of the disused and largely derelict former hotel located on the Roseland Peninsula.

Scaled back from those submitted in the original 2020 planning application, the new plans are 25% smaller in size and reflect feedback from stakeholders, the general public, the Parish Councils of Philleigh, Gerrans and Veryan, and Friends of Pendower Beach organisation.

The proposed destination aparthotel will create employment for 12-15 staff who will be on site at any one time, with 2-4 staff on site at all times.

Consisting of a two-storey scheme, the regeneration encompasses 23 two and three bed family self-catering holiday-let suites, a public café and restaurant with 40 internal and up to 40 external covers, a shop for use by self-catering visitors and beachgoers, and on-site accommodation for staff.

Designed to attract year-round visitors, including families with younger children, groups of couples, mature families, and retirees, the aparthotel has a key role to play in bringing valuable spending power to the local area.

Benefiting local businesses, shops, pubs, cafes, outlets, and attractions, as well as services that supply the aparthotel, the hotel will become a net contributor to the local economy.

Requiring approximately £1m of necessary stabilisation work to protect road access to Pendower Beach and its slipway, the regeneration of the hotel will also future-proof Rocky Lane against coastal erosion for future generations to come.

Johnny Goldsmith, local businessman and founder of PBHH Ltd, said: “Over the past 17 years we have listened carefully to the views of the local community, revising and reducing our plans to take account of feedback, while ensuring that the future of the hotel remains viable in a way that enhances the Roseland Peninsula.

“Bringing income into the wider economy, creating jobs, and both protecting and enhancing the environment, we hope that the new and significantly scaled back plans will be widely welcomed.”

Dr David Mlynski, who has recently joined the PBHH Ltd team as an investor, and has a PHD in ecology, added: “Having been brought up in Veryan, spending much of my youth diving for sea urchins, or out on the boat catching crab and lobster with my father, I’ve witnessed the hotel fall into a sad state of dereliction.

“The plans that we are putting forward are designed to sensitively breath life back into the site, regenerating and transforming the former hotel into a valuable local asset that will not only attract affluent visitors, bringing money into the local economy, but also enhance amenities for locals and users of the beach through the restaurant, café and beach shop.

“In particular, the plans pay special attention to the ecology of this site, which is my particular area of interest. Measures such as bat and bird boxes, bee bricks, and the introduction of a new purpose-built bat roost building – designed to support populations of lesser horseshoe and common pipistrelle bats – will all help to generate an ecological net gain. Combined with actions to enhance canopy levels by 15%, measures to remove invasive species, and activity to safeguard the ecological designations on site, we are confident that the regeneration of the hotel will play an important part in enhancing the natural environment.”