We live on seaside estate built by King Charles where we can’t put bins out & dogs must be silent… parking’s a nightmare

LOCALS have revealed what it’s like to live inside the quirky housing estate founded by King Charles – where slamming doors, being drunk and visible washing lines are banned.

Families moving into the 540 acre Nansledan estate on the outskirts of Cornish seaside surfing mecca Newquay must abide by a strict 36-page rule book – named the Design and Community Code.

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Rules include making sure your washing line and bins can’t be seen from the street, not having a satellite dish, and no unnecessary noise by arguing or slamming doors.

Homeowners are also “strictly forbidden” from installing plastic blinds, bubble skylights, solar panels or external lights, and must seek permission to repaint their house and choose from a list of approved colours.

Barking dogs, causing offence through drunkenness, ball games and prostitution are all also specifically banned in the rule book. 

Nansledan was the brainchild of the then Prince Charles and built using traditional Cornish methods in 2020.

The estate is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, which is now run by Prince William. The rules are set by the Duchy, not the Prince himself.

To “protect the character” of the estate, Charles ordered all stone and slate to be from a West Country quarry – with no red bricks allowed.

Log burners are also banned as they aren’t environmentally friendly, and the chimneys on the newbuild homes are made from wood and fibreglass.

And the rules don’t stop inside the house; hedges can only be “appropriate indigenous species” and paths must be made of gravel, cobble, stone or brick.

Parking dilemma

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Other rules include not leaving your bin out, and restrictions on where you can park your cars.

On a residents’ Facebook group, one local griped: “We don’t have any allocated parking space. Not one!

“That’s for a five-bed, five-person family. Apparently Prince Charles wants everyone to use their garages to park in.”

Another wrote: “I am absolutely sick to death of this estate. Someone has taken all the ornaments outside of my house again.

“Second time this has happened. Can’t keep nothing nice anymore. Let me catch you, that’s all I’m saying.”

We don’t have any allocated parking space. Not one! That’s for a five-bed, five-person family. Apparently Prince Charles wants everyone to use their garages to park in

Aggrieved Nansledan resident

And a third resident added: “At some point between Friday and Sunday our black plant pot has gone walkies from Stret Ewyn… if it turns up in your garden, can you let me know. Cheers.”

Another posted a long list of activities banned from a park and asked: “Not one for moaning but… What is this green space actually for?”

While some may see the rules as overly strict, other locals told The Sun they have no issue following them as it keeps the estate looking pristine.

‘Stop moaning’

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Leigh Mayor, 45, who runs Nansledan Stores, said: “It’s not as bad as people make out. I’ve lived here for six years and had no issues with the Duchy whatsoever.

“If you want to do anything to the outside of your house or the structure of your house, like an extension or change the colour of the door, you just need permission… but I haven’t known anybody who the Duchy has said no to.

“The extensions have all got to be a certain height and built a certain way to keep the look the same.

“Some people like to moan about everything but I think it makes everything look much nicer.

Some people like to moan about everything but I think it makes everything look much nicer

Leigh Mayor, 45, Nansledan local

“You go to some estates where there is a pink house, next to a green house, next to something horrible – here it’s all well kept and if you walk around you can see how nice every house is.”

Emma Smithson, 43, who has lived in Nansledan for two years, said: “I heard about the rules at first but we have one [clothes line] in the garden and we’ve never fallen foul of them.

“I have nothing against it, but I would still like to buy out of Nansledan.”

Nansledan hit the headlines last week when the Prince of Wales announced £3million funding to build 24 new homes on the estate to help the county’s homelessness crisis.

‘Sense of community’

Gaye Strudwick, chair of the Nansledan Community Association, said: “I love the pretty properties.

“I love the fact it looks like you’re walking into a bowl of Haagen Dazs ice cream, that it’s really attractive.

“I like the fact that the designs are all slightly different. It’s not the same old, same old across the whole of the estate.

“I love the independent shops that are coming. I like the sense of community that is beginning to develop as it grows.”

I love the pretty properties. I love the fact it looks like you’re walking into a bowl of Haagen Dazs ice cream, that it’s really attractive

Gaye Strudwick, chair of the Nansledan Community Association

The rules appear to have paid off, with Nansledan quickly turning into one of the most sought after areas in Cornwall. 

A four-bed house on the estate will set you back £556,000 while the cheapest house available on Rightmove will still set you back £275,000 for a two-bed semi detached house.

The move was welcomed in the town, but with 27,000 on the waiting list for council houses in Cornwall, few believe this alone will have a major impact on the most vulnerable.

‘I was forced to live in a car park’

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Among them is Maddie Tyers, 54, who slipped into homelessness following the death of her mother in 2020.

After selling the house they both lived in, Maddie tried to rent a flat in Newquay but was turned down, despite offering a year’s rent up front, because of her low income.

She said: said: “At my lowest point I was living in a car park in Wadebridge and I nearly took my own life.

“If it wasn’t for my uncle calling me up that evening and the dogs I wouldn’t be here.

“With the money from the house I bought a caravan for £42,000, but after a year I was told I couldn’t stay there and had to sell it back to them at a £10,000 loss, and I ended up living in my van.

At my lowest point I was living in a car park in Wadebridge and I nearly took my own life

Maddie Tyers

“The council put me in homeless accommodation over Christmas but they wouldn’t let me stay there with the dogs, so I stayed in the camper van outside because I wouldn’t give them up.

“When you’re living in a camper van you can’t make any connections because you’re constantly moving, it’s hard to find a job and the hole just keeps getting bigger. It’s horrible.

“I have spoken to a lot of people going through the same thing, when one thing happens it’s like a snowball.”

Figures show homelessness is getting worse in Cornwall – with nearby Newquay experiencing more than its fair share.

Last year charity St Petrocs supported 695 people sleeping rough — up by more than a third compared with 2022.

A Cornwall Council spokesman said: “We are sympathetic towards those who are finding it difficult to find somewhere settled to live as Cornwall continues to experience extreme and unprecedented pressures on housing due to an imbalance in housing supply and demand.     

“Nationally there has been a significant reduction in the availability of homes to rent and a matched sudden escalation in rental costs exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.  

“In the last three years the number of households in need of emergency accommodation has increased by around 224 per cent to around 850, while the number of households on our social housing register has more than doubled to around 27,000.    

“There is a high demand for accommodation which includes our own housing stock, properties that we rent, or other accommodation. 

 ”The steps we have taken include the provision of emergency temporary accommodation so that fewer residents are housed in B&Bs or hotels.

“But we’re also working to provide housing through investment in our own stock of accommodation – recent projects include new modular homes, buying and refurbishing disused properties and providing dedicated ‘move on’ accommodation to support former rough sleepers to help people find settled, permanent, homes. 

“We are reviewing our offer to private landlords to help keep people in their homes in the private sector.     

“We’re building more ‘council housing’ to add to the stock of 10,300 council houses in Cornwall and have bought open market homes to convert into affordable housing for local people in need.

“We’re also working with developers, local communities and partners to identify suitable sites. ”

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