FAMILIES in Porthtowan are being told they cannot move into new low-cost homes on the edge of the village because of confusion over the district boundary.

The homes have not yet been built, but there are already queues of people "desperate" to sign up for them because of the chronic shortage of affordable housing in the area.

Yet the development has been stalled by Kerrier district council planners, who have turned down applications from local people because Porthtowan lies within Carrick's boundary.

Barry Lewis, managing director of the Housing Foundation, which is developing the site, described the situation as "unbelievable."

He said: "This scheme has had planning permission under the Government's exceptions policy for some years, but restrictions have now been placed on it. We have got lots of people waiting to move in but their applications have all been turned down by Kerrier."

Mr Lewis said the impasse could only be resolved now if Kerrier granted permission to the Porthtowan residents.

John Pender, a Kerrier planning officer, said that under schemes such as this, the council was not allowed to consider residents from outside their district. He said: "The Housing Foundation or the original landowner will have signed an agreement with us which states that his is a local needs scheme for affordable housing and people who have it are people from parishes in Kerrier."

Mr Pender added that the scheme would be extremely welcome in Portreath, where a recent housing needs survey had identified a huge demand for low cost housing.