Whilst councilors are quick to defend unelected and obviously completely unaccountable senior Council officers on rather inflated (usually six-figure) wages, we’re reminded of another monumental cock-up (corruption or lies, or ...?) by planning officers resulting in huge numbers of unwanted homes built in St. Austell: "Phil Mason told the meeting that sometimes a choice for confidentiality in pre-application advice is made by the developer." www.staustellvoice.co.uk/news/73/article/5991 Do you know your own Cornwall councillor? Does he know you? Does he care? Do you have any idea how he votes on planning issues, which might directly impact on the hyper-development which your town or village is currently suffering?? This petition has, in some cases, attracted up to 9 times more people than voted for some ‘winning’ Cornwall Councillors. So make sure they properly represent you, and if you’re suspicious, as many of us are, quiz them, as they must respond to you. This is the full list of 123 Cornwall Councillors (click this list): https://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1 Rather than spend millions on ridiculous "training" schemes in London, perhaps planning officers should simply watch this video, thus saving taxpayers' cash which it can ill afford to waste: http://flightsofthought.com/ethical-governance/ When a letter (below) was recently sent to each and every one, NOT ONE councillor bothered to respond: “AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL CORNWALL COUNCILLORS Dear Cornwall Councillor, The one thing I am sure we all agree on, regardless of other differences, is that we all want a better, fairer Cornwall, as a legacy to our children. For the sake of our Council and Cornwall’s future, please take the time to read and consider this email; if you agree with its contents, please lend your weight in stopping what is essentially a commercial gamble too far, in relation to the site in question. There is also the burning question of who actually runs Cornwall; do you, as an elected councilor, have any real influence over far-reaching decisions made arbitrarily by unelected, unaccountable officers? A prime example being the recent appointment by Cornwall Council CEO of former Consultant, Mr John Betty, as Strategic Director - Economic Growth and Development. This could easily be interpreted as an expensive duplication of the role of the mercurial Dr Sandra Rothwell aka Chief Executive - Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) from July 2014 – Present (3 years 3 months). Dr Rothwell’s mission statement is, in her own words: Initially establishing and now driving forward the Partnership to lead on private sector-driven economic growth and success in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Overseeing delivery of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Strategic Economic Plan. Securing early success through Regional Growth Fund and creation of an Enterprise Zone. Current priorities include delivery of significant Growth Deal programme, £500m EU programmes and Cornwall Devolution Deal. www.cioslep.com. Mr Betty’s mission statement in his own words: Maximising the potential for the Economic growth and development of Cornwall, our prosperity, including ensuring that sufficient housing is provided across Cornwall. “OUR PROSPERITY”?!! That is a bit rich from a Cornish person’s perspective, given that Mr Betty appears to be Bristol-based! TWO QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ASKED ABOUT MR BETTY’s APPOINTMENT: 1. In the light of this all embracing and comprehensive brief outlined above by Dr Rothwell (in her own words), why has it been deemed necessary by the CEO to appoint former Cornwall Council Consultant Mr John Betty (to what sounds remarkably like a duplicate role)? 2. The main question to individual councillors being: who authorised the creation of this post and were you, as individual councillors, involved in the decision, given that Mr Betty’s immediate function appears to be to push through the highly controversial Langarth development (with seemingly indecent haste) at any cost? COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE LANGARTH DEBACLE THAT NEED CONSIDERATION AND CLARIFICATION. 1 Inox and Langarth are synonymous with broken promises, missed deadlines and zero credibility; to compound this, Inox has a well documented track record of late submissions of its accounts to Companies House, highlighted by Councillor Egerton in 2013 (BUT POINTEDLY IGNORED AT THAT TIME!), which may not bode well for its current business standing in any dealings with a public body like Cornwall Council, where the absolute unquestionable probity of the other party should be a non-negotiable essential prerequisite. 2 The Langarth project, notwithstanding the already saturated local road, sewer, health and education networks, will require substantial financing, conservatively projected by Cornwall Council Officers to be circa £40 million for the first phase, allied with a heavy (unacceptable?) commensurate financial risk, given that Cornwall Council’s current indebtedness is allegedly already at an unprecedented level of circa £2 billion. 3 Is the proposed purchase in reality merely a Cornwall Council Senior Officer-led initiative to bail Inox out of an absolute mess of its own creation, and which appears to have resulted in the rumoured severe financial difficulties relating to possible foreclosure by Inox lenders (with the deadline looming)? 4 If so, why do Cornwall Council not just sit back and let the foreclosure proceed, then negotiate possibly more advantageous terms with the financier(s) concerned, who given the lamentable track record that Inox has accrued, may possibly be very anxious to cut their losses on a project so mired in ongoing and rapidly escalating controversy, as to render it highly unattractive to any other developers in the medium term? 5 Were this proposed commercial gamble with council tax payers money at Langarth to proceed then subsequently fail, the question of culpability will inevitably arise. This, given previous and current willfully ignored warnings relating to risks, both potential and actual, with Cornwall Council effectively having failed in its duty of care to council tax payers, it would then be wide open to charges of maladministration of council taxpayers’ money. 6 It is noted that a public question to the recent cabinet meeting relating to potential culpability in the outlined scenario was referred to the council solicitor present who refused point blank to give an answer. Could this refusal be indicative that Cornwall Council, at Senior Officer level, is fully aware of, and ultra sensitive to, the public exposure of potential commercial risks which senior council officers (more specifically the CEO, the Chief Planning Officer and recently appointed Strategic Director for economic Growth and Development) are prepared to take in order to impose this inherently flawed project on council tax payers at any cost? 7 There must be better, cheaper, easier sites to develop for the vital provision of essential affordable social housing in the Truro catchment area that are not as blighted and controversial as Langarth has been allowed to become due to Inox style casino planning policies. Inox, having created their own unique brand of planning chaos, then have the gall to expect to be bailed out with council tax payers’ money, after having failed to deliver a single affordable home, despite being handed such a potentially lucrative planning permission. 8 As a Cornwall Councillor, it is to be sincerely hoped that you give this crucial issue - relating to legitimate public concerns – re. Langarth’s commercial viability in the manner being so forcefully promoted (which actually smacks of desperation on the part of the senior officers behind it) your early and earnest consideration. 9 Hopefully having done so, you are further urged, as individual councillors who are naturally assumed to put Cornwall first, to exercise sound judgment and perseverance in order to establish beyond all reasonable doubt, what the unseemly rush to purchase this block of land from Inox is really about, before you cast your vote at the next full council meeting in November.” Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2017 12:42:47 PM To: martyn.alvey@cornwall; david.atherfold@cornwallcouncillors; candy.atherton@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; stephen.barnes@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; john.bastin@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk ; chris.batters@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; dave.biggs@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; Bert Biscoe; geoff.brown@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; malcolm.brown@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; jackie.bull@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; neil.burden@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; richard.buscombe@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; michael.callan@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; nicky.choak@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; graham.coad@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; RICHARD COLE; jeff.collins@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; john.crago@cornwallcouncillors.or.uk; nick.craker@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; gary.davis@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; sharon.daw@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; philip.desmonde@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; paula.dolphin@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; joyce.duffin@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; tim.dwelly@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; john.dyer@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; mike.eathorne-gibbons@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; martin.eddy@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; bob.egerton@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk ; david.ekinsmyth@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; barbara.ellenbroek@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; simon.elliot@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; geoffrey.evans@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; dominic.fairman@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; jade.farrington@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; john.fitter@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; jim.flashman@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; mario.fonk@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; jessie.foot@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; hilary.frank@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; tom.french@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; leigh.frost@cornwallcouncil.org.uk; jacquie.gammon@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; julian.german@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; pauline.giles@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; fred.greenslade@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; edwina.hannaford@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; roger.harding@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; david.harris@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; adrian.harvey@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; sally.hawken@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; helen.hawkins@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; robert.hendry@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; john.herd@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk. Meanwhile, here’s one person’s on-going sagas with the council’s endless powers of job creativity; it is a shame really, that having employed 35 lawyers, and an army of highly paid planners, the council is so afraid of developers’ appeals so as to put through almost every planning application, despite any and every local warning: https://lauraedotthomas.wordpress.com/author/cornwallcouncilcorruption/ https://lauraedotthomas.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/cornwall-council-corruption-part-2/ https://lauraedotthomas.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/cornwall-council-corruption-part-4/ https://nosanctuary.net/2015/11/29/a-bent-cornwall-council-nhs-trust-and-police-force/ https://justiceforalison.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/cornwallcouncils-cllr-andrew-wallace-so-much-for-transparency/