EXCLUSIVE Don't look up! Inside Cate Blanchett's never ending Cornwall saga after neighbour gets planning permission for TWO new mansions next door

Daily Mail​

25-05-2025

Building works on Cate Blanchett 's California-style mansion on the Cornish coast have sparked years of commentary and criticism from locals.
But as new pictures show the two-year-long construction of the actress's five-bed eco-home is nearing completion, MailOnline can reveal her neighbour has secured planning permission to build two luxury homes right next door. They have also put the site up for sale for £2.3million.
Cornwall Council has given the go-ahead for the existing property on the site in Mawgan Porth to be demolished and replaced with two four-bedroom homes.
This was despite the local authority concluding it was in a 'sensitive location due to its proximity to the coastline and its elevated position which means it can be seen from various vantage points in Mawgan Porth'.
The ultra-modern homes boast luxuries including a private sauna and spa, ensuite bedrooms, games areas and wrap around balconies offering stunning sea views.
They also boast environmental credentials with eco friendly green roofs, solar panels, ground or air source heat pumps and locally sourced stone and timber.
The application attracted one local objection from a resident who commented: 'These are two sizeable four bedroomed houses.
'One must assume therefore that each will accommodate the equivalent of four couples i.e. eight cars will need to be parked on that land.
'The plans, as shown, do not demonstrate this level of parking and, in reality, the landscaping will be given over to car-parking.
'The site is a very prominent one, sloping as it does towards the village. If two houses on this scale are allowed, the plot will resemble a carpark and the outlook of the village will be worse as a result.'
Applicants Chris and Fiona Heritage had previously tried to replace the bungalow with a home double its size but councillors voted down the 2019 application.
Ms Blanchett, 56, and her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, 59, did not comment on the application.
The Lord of the Rings actress and Mr Upton bought and demolished a cottage in the village in 2020 to make way for their luxury eco-home.
Their arrival led to an influx of celebrities visiting the village located a few miles along the coast from Newquay.
Stars including David Beckham, Kate Winslet, Noel Gallagher, Jason Statham and Jamie Dornan have been spotted in the village in recent years.
While movie actors Imogen Stubbs, Jason Momoa, Stanley Tucci and Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely have all been linked with the area.
But building works quickly led to rocky relations with locals who complained their picturesque area had been 'ruined' and turned into a 'building site' with prices being hiked to 'unaffordable levels.
Cate later applied to turn an additional plot of land into a driveway and parking for the home, leading to accusations of a 'blatant land grab'.
And a holiday home owner accused her of having a 'total disregard' for neighbours with the renovations.
Karen Burgess, who owns a nearby holiday let, alleged that 'noise' from the construction has 'destroyed' the holidays of her guests across the past year.
She claimed to have lost £60,000 in rental revenue due to the construction.
Ms Burgess said she is still having to advertise her holiday home as being impacted by construction noise, but architect firm Watershedd insisted the noise is coming from another development.
The company told Cornwall Live: 'She 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.'
However, locals previously told MailOnline the demand for a chance to rub shoulders with celebrities had got so out of hand her mother has had people walk by her house and offer £2 million for it.
NHS worker Kim Emmett, who has lived in the village since 1987, said: 'It has always been a popular holiday destination as it's between Newquay and Padstow and near a National Trust hotspot.
'It's become more and more popular every year. The locals have sold up here and the properties have been taken down and there's modern complex, cube-shaped, Californian-style buildings instead of your 1930s bungalows.
Residents of the village have become increasingly frustrated by the constant building work
'There's a lot of posh cubed modern buildings. Those properties are now going for over a million. You can't buy a property here for under one million. Not one local can afford to buy anything here.'
Another upshot of the vast expanse of second homes is that in winter Mawgan Porth becomes a ghost town.
A local said this week: 'I've barely seen another soul walking around, it would be spooky if we weren't so used to it.
'In summer you can barely move for people, it does bring the year-rounders closer together and there's a nice little community and we support local businesses as much as we can but having such a stark difference is not ideal.'
Former military medic Emma Keelan, 45, who now works as a dog walker lived in Mawgan Porth for almost 20 years but was forced out of the village and into temporary accommodation during Covid when her landlord decided to turn the 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.
'When I first moved here in 2002 there was livestock grazing the fields on that clifftop, now there's just big houses that are empty for most of the year.
'I'm sorry but I get so emotional about this.'
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.
'It's pretty grim to be honest. In the time I've been here it's changed 100%. It's not on really, especially when she doesn't live here year round.
'None of them live here full-time but it's a non-stop building site, it's not really fair to the people that do.
'Cate does support the community, her and her family go to the surf school and they're actually really sound people.
'But how much more do you need? She got permission for what she got but now wants more.