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Wednesday 14 March 2018

"Cornwall is really up in arms" over planning

People are really not happy about the way 'development' is trashing the countryside - and yet very few houses that people actually need are being built:
Futures Forum: 'A greener home for all' @ Radio 4's Costing the Earth >>> Can we build lots more houses quickly and cheaply without destroying the environment?

As a commentator says, "Cornwall is really up in arms, as was shown at the Conference at Scorrier last Saturday":
Planning in Cornwall, for People or Profit? Tickets, Sat, 10 Mar 2018 at 14:00 | Eventbrite
Cornwall for Change Conference, Saturday, 10 March | Cornwall – a developers' paradise?

It was co-organised by the national CoVoP group:
Community Voice on Planning | A National Alliance to provide communities with an effective voice on planning, enabling them to protect their greenfield and green spaces.

Together with a very angry and focussed campaign:
Cornwall – a developers' paradise?

There's also a petition out meanwhile - with a report from the meeting of 10th March:

PETITION UPDATE

Scams, political donations, corruption, developer-bias, bribes and a flawed Cornwall Local Plan

Kevin Bennetts
Truro, United Kingdom
MAR 13, 2018 — From: kevin bennetts 
Sent: 12 March 2018 17:31
To: adam.paynter@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk ; kkennally@cornwall.gov.uk; illors.org.uk; laurence.reed@bbc.co.ukstrobes@private-eye.co.uk; The Spectator; tim.dwelly@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
Cornish MPs and Cornwall Councillors


Subject: COVOP CONFERENCE 10/03/2018 
STATEMENT BY CORNISH SOLIDARITY.

Cornish Solidarity was pleased to take an active role to demonstrate its support for Cornwall 4 Change and the Community Voice on Planning (COVOP).

We were able to join everyone in welcoming Cornwall Councillors Rob Nolan and Loveday Jenkin and a number of town and parish councillors along as observers.

It is clearly established that Cornwall is not alone in the huge planning issues it faces, as a succession of COVOP speakers from Yorkshire, Cheshire and Devon outlined their own similar issues.

Justin Haque, a South Hams based former investment banker, outlined how the problem has arisen from speculative developers making big donations to political parties, in order to effectively buy the opportunity to write planning policy to their own advantage.

He emphasised that our collective problems emanate from Westminster via Prime Minister Theresa May, down through Communities Secretary Savid Javid and the six local MP’s, the unelected unaccountable Cornwall Local Enterprise Partnership quango and Cornwall's planners, who almost invariably exhibit a positive bias in favour of Government sponsored hyper-developments, even when there is proof that such a development would be detrimental to Cornwall.

Justin Haque went on to dish the dirt from a banker's perspective, on how the entire property / development scam on such a grand scale meshes into place via massive political donations from the property sector which bribe compliant politicians to allow the increasingly powerful corporate developers to write their own rulebook in the form of the fatally flawed NPPF, which spawned the Cornwall Local Plan.

The simple bottom line being that the current practice of land banking and the forlorn hope that the UK can build its way to debt-financed prosperity is unsustainable.

Retired Circuit Judge Ian Mackintosh spoke with powerful authority of endemic corruption in high places that makes the current frenzy of house-building possible, detailing his own experience of it in East Devon where he lives.

It makes powerful listening when a gentleman of Mr Mackintosh’s standing and experience, talks openly of a problem we have always suspected to be the root cause of Cornwall’s current crisis of confidence in its beleaguered unitary council and six MPs.

The Local Plan is currently being ruthlessly imposed by Communities Secretary Savid Javid, who is a clearly identified political bully while elected MPs in the affected constituencies stand idly by, as the speculators run riot with total impunity.

Effectively within the terms of this scenario, politically divided Cornwall Council, its civil servants and its not fit for purpose planners are merely bottom feeding pond-life, terrified of making a stand against Savid Javid, when in reality they should be ripping into the Six Cornish MPs, as the local representatives of a Government that plays a pivotal role in what is taking place in their constituencies.

Proven bullies such as the Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government and Cornwall's Strategic Director for Economic Growth and Development should always be called out and faced down, all Cornwall Councillors must appreciate that it is no longer an option to do nothing; the people of Cornwall are relying on you as our elected representatives to make the required stand in order to protect our interests.

As a direct result of Government policy, democracy in Cornwall has come under a sustained attack that must be rebuffed at any cost.

Cornwall's MPs should also be clearly reminded by Cornish voters at every possible opportunity that their willful failure to act in the best interests of their constituents, given the current unpopularity of the Government they are part of, could have very serious consequences for them at the ballot box in any future General Election.

Everyone who is unhappy with the current status quo can help to drive the changes necessary by bombarding their councillors and MPs with their concerns, while refusing to be patronised or fobbed off by the usual generic claptrap responses that are the standard fall back position that MPs and some councillors resort to, to avoid inconvenient truths.

Sincere best wishes

The Cornish Solidarity Team


From: pauld@cornwallforchange.org 
Sent: 12 March 2018 18:21
To: kevin bennetts

Petition update · Scams, political donations, corruption, developer-bias, bribes and a flawed Cornwall Local Plan · Change.org
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