Work stopped on Penryn student block four years ago
The purple Studytel block in Penryn is now in a state of disrepair (Image: Lee Trewhela / LDRS)
Exactly four years after work stopped on what has been described locally as the ‘Kernick Carbuncle’, there could be good news for Penryn residents who are sick of seeing the empty purple block containing 528 student flats. The building has never been used, has attracted anti-social behaviour and is falling apart.
The developer of the Studytel building on Kernick Industrial Estate on the outskirts of the town has revealed that there could be much-anticipated movement on completing the works, eight years after Cornwall Council granted planning permission for the apartment block.
A spokesperson said that the developer is “currently progressing the necessary surveys and planning work to ensure the safest and most appropriate way forward to complete the works. As part of that process, a range of options are being considered, which includes partial or full deconstruction.
“No final decision has been implemented on site and the priority is to minimise disruption locally and to keep stakeholders updated as matters progress.”
They said there will be further details once the programme and approach are confirmed.
Cllr Dean Evans (Green Party, Penryn) told us: “The latest I’ve been told is they are planning to dismantle it and rebuild. They are finalising plans and making sure they have got all the permissions in place.
“They’ve been on site recently and they’ve cleared all the spoiled material from the old football field at the back of the building and put a new fence up, which the developer says is evidence of their intention to proceed.
“We want a conclusion and completion – it couldn’t just stay there like that. I’ve been pressing who I can to get some movement on it. We want to get it finished and used, and we want the football field back in community use too.”
Following a suspected arson attack at the site last September, Falmouth’s Labour MP Jayne Kirkham said: “Penryn Town Council and local residents have been tirelessly campaigning for action but very little has happened for three years.
“We need definitive action – to make the site safe, take it down or finish the build. I will be meeting with the building’s owner’s representative again and working with the councils to get the action local residents need and deserve.”
The huge purple building was abandoned four years ago without anyone ever living in its 528 units. Sondica, the company behind Studytel, says that work was halted due to the contractor going bust and that the huge block’s entire frame will now have to be replaced due to new changes in building regulations.
Permission was granted for the student accommodation block by Cornwall Council’s planning department in 2018. Isle of Man-based Sondica contracted Caledonian Modular Ltd to build the £40m project. However, the construction company went into administration and work stopped on the ‘purple cube’ in March 2022.
There seems to have been little if anything done to the building since then and it has fallen into a shocking state of disrepair. A public football field at the rear of the building was supposed to have been returned to community use, but hasn’t.
The empty purple Studytel building, Penryn(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Following last year’s fire, neighbouring resident James Clewett told us: “Hopefully this will create some impetus to actually return the field to the community. We have been pushing hard for a couple of years now to have the field put back as a football pitch. It was only rented as a depot for six months. That was five years ago, it’s time to give it back. The whole situation is a mess.
“My neighbours and I are desperate. Living next door to an increasingly derelict mess, that is attracting the worst kind of human behaviour, is becoming a genuine burden that we’re all carrying. I want to scream that from the rooftops – please give us our community back!”
Residents of the Trevance estate, which looks on to the back of what has been dubbed locally as the ‘Kernick Carbuncle’, also told us they’d had enough after high winds brought insulation and purple pieces of cladding flying into their gardens.
One neighbour, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s disgusting – everybody here thinks it’s the biggest eyesore going. We all believe it should come down down as it’s basically falling apart.
“As well as the fact that the football field at the back was supposed to have been returned to the community and hasn’t been, there are 528 units which have been empty for years, which could have been used by students or used to help during the housing crisis.
“We’re all fed up to the back teeth with it. We have to open our curtains every morning and see that. We can complain to the council all we like about it, but we feel ignored.”
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