Low carbon Cornish development gets underway

Construction has begun on a low carbon “urban village” development in St Austell, Cornwall.

The 19 unit development, which is being built by Swan Country Homes, is designed to minimise carbon wastage and get to near carbon neutral status without using “questionable micro-generation” techniques.

John Massey, design construction manager, said wind turbines and even PV generation was often ineffective and not properly future-proofed.

“We want to build homes which people could live in not for 60 years, but double or even treble that,” he said.

There isn’t any point in any of these technologies when people have the heating on with the window ope

John Massey, design construction manager, Swan Country Homes

The Restormel Borough Council development uses greywater from rainfall for car washing and plant watering, plus a shared biomass boiler for hot water and heating for all of the units.

It also makes use of reclaimed Cornish slate for the roofs and timber from local sustainable woodland.

“We will use these technologies plus other ones like dual flush WCs and taps which control flow level, but a lot of what we are planning is about educating the residents,” he said.

“There isn’t any point in any of these technologies when people have the heating on with the window open.”