The owners of a Carnon Downs holiday park who want to replace caravans with 50 holiday cottages have denied suggestions it could become a village within a village.

Keith and Julie Horsfall, who have run the Ringwell Valley park, in Bissoe Road, for seven years told the Packet this week that their scheme would lead to a "prettier and more in-keeping with the surroundings" holiday site.

Caravans had to be replaced and they felt it better to replace them with cottages would, in their opinion, attract a better class of visitor and enable the season to be extended to take in Christmas and the New Year.

"We have built this site up since we have been here," said Mr Horsfall. "It was very run down and is now a five-star site but the market is changing and unless we change we well go backwards again.

He hit out at claims there had been a lot of objectors saying there had been only eight.

On Monday it was the turn of Feock parish councillors to hear from Mr Horsfall who told them he and his wife were "100 per cent confident" they could control use of the homes to the 11-month occupation being sought.

Consisting of 16 three-bedroom units and 34 two-bedroom units the cottages could accommodate 230 people, whereas current capacity at their site was for 480, although they did not choose to utilise that maximum.

The new homes would be in the Cornish vernacular and totally holiday orientated. "We will ensure they are only used for holiday accommodation," said Mr Horsfall. "There is no way we want people living on that site - full stop."

The reason for selling them to customers was to make sure the park stayed "top notch" in the event that they themselves ceased to run it.

Mrs Horsfall said she and her husband had to make the change for financial and personal reasons.

The Horsfalls had backing from John Slaughter, of The Forge, Carnon Downs, and a former chairman of the Falmouth Town Centre Forum.

As someone involved in tourism he said he welcomed the benefit the homes would bring to small businesses in the village as well as job opportunities, particularly as a number of hotels in Falmouth had closed in recent years with a resultant loss of accommodation.

"We are very keen to encourage anyone willing to invest in year-round tourism," he said.

Brian Gardiner, who lives opposite the caravan park, said that while the site was a good one when it was 100 per cent controlled as now, the Horsfalls would have only 20 per cent under the new plan and he feared it would go downhill.

"I reject the idea that people who can afford holiday homes are a better class of people," he said. "This is a village through the back door. It cannot be policed.

The parish council has asked for a site meeting and an open public meeting in the village to allow the community to take part.