They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

It is usual for Cornish people to watch their duchy ruined for the benefit of those who do not live here, but I am new, and I am still surprised by it. I shouldn’t be. There is a repulsive apartment block above Porthcurno; a white, desolate thing that looks as if it were designed by someone without eyes – and it is already peeling, shabby and unloved.

Who put it there, and why? How did it get planning permission? Why not build in granite, the local stone? Every seaside village is sprouting bungalows, holiday cottages and second homes, all designed by people with no eyes, each one an argument for the next. I wouldn’t mind if they were solving the housing crisis, but they’re not. They are for visitors.

To further assist visitors – and wealthy locals – charming things are torn away. Last week, I noticed a grassy field at Marazion had been pulled up. It overlooks St Michael’s Mount, and it is used as a car park. Now it will be a more lucrative car park. I had hoped the St Aubyn family, who live on the Mount and own the field, would be less greedy, but they aren’t. I wonder how they would feel if the lawns in their gardens were pulled up. The men who worked in the car park have been laid off, and machines will charge all year (it had been free in winter). Not all locals can afford to pay London prices for parking. Now they will have to.

In St Ives, the Carbis Bay Hotel, which is to host the G7 in June, is being investigated for a possible breach of planning laws. Last week, a wooded area by the sea was torn up to build meeting rooms. Planning permission was denied before on this site; so they do it without it, and hope for retrospective permission, owing to its new importance as hosts of the G7. Locals are furious as the “eco-hotel” overwhelms its surroundings, and takes away what is lovely, and unique. Why visit Cornwall if it is ruined? Still, they do it.