Be aware that to date, not one of our 123 Cornwall Councillors has supported this petition, despite some 3,000 of their constituents decrying the current perverse planning culture and over development befalling Cornwall. And only a handful of parish councillors have done so, many dismissing this as pathetic, misguided nuisance. They’re all obviously doing much better at fighting this concrete rain. For the record, in May 2016, at the regional planning inspector’s Examination in Public, where Phil Mason seemed very supportive of developers’ lawyers and agents - even sitting among them and drinking & laughing with them (not a crime, obviously, but…) – there was less than half a dozen councillors of any type to speak up against the ludicrous developers’ plans. Now finally, we have managed to eek out a small apology from the planning department, in the form of an admission of guilt from Phil Mason himself: The planning strategy for Threemilestone has been mistake!! Comments from supporters: “This website petition was arrived in my email box and I read through it. This is horrific and yes, Mr Mason must go. I know of someone who worked for Cornwall Council. Their life was made hell and they left. I think I still have his details but I remember him being too afraid to speak out. We have a monster on our hands. It's becoming common knowledge. If I thought we could all act together, as one, I would hold back my council tax in protest. Has this been considered please? A co-ordinated effort? We are seeing prime farming land being destroyed and who is going to live in these houses? No one here can afford them. So, incomers buy them. But where's the work, the infrastructure? Our roads are chaotic, the hospital broken, the police non existent, waiting lists at the doctors, no dentists available. The side roads are choked with weeds. Yes, I sign with pleasure but we need to hit them where it hurts. Hundreds and more refusing to pay. They could never manage to take us all. Just set their corporate lackies on the old dears probably.” “We need to encourage those that have been mistreated by CC to come forward and expose the truth. What really needs to happen is that a media outlets such as Channel 4 properly investigates the failings within Lys Kernow.“ Meanwhile, one Councillor writes, of Mason’s apparent U-turn: "Since 3rd November my mind is racing from one problem to another - desperately trying to find the one that matters most. So what have we learned over the past week? 1- The planning permission given to Langarth has been a disaster and Cornwall Council “got it wrong” - well what a surprise! - so said the Director of Planning, Mr. Phil Mason, recorded on webcast on 3rd November 2017, at a Briefing for Members; 2,500 houses on a road which has already reached capacity, separated by a dual carriageway from Threemilestone, and at the far end of the development some 4.5 miles from the centre of Truro, with NO FOUL DRAINAGE OR SURFACE WATER RUN OFF PLAN. In my hand I have the statutory document entitled Land North of the A290 Truro/Threemilestone Development Brief - at the foot of the document (RHS) is the Cornwall Council logo. On the left hand side are the words “ Adopted by the Council’s Cabinet on 25th January, 2012, for use as a material consideration in the determination of relevant planning applications in the area north of the A390.” It is my opinion that Cornwall Council “rushed through” this document ahead of the Truro/Kenwyn Neighbourhood Plan which took almost five years to complete - all other developments in Truro received the same treatment. Remember that the Local Plan has to be completely in accordance with the NPPF and the Neighbourhood Plan has to be in complete accordance with the Local Plan. In essence we are being dictated to by Westminster and they have complete control as to what is happening in Cornwall. Any developments which received planning permission before the Local Plan had been approved, are not subject to CIL. So let us turn to the first page - a smiling photograph of Cllr. Kaczmarek - Cabinet member for Housing and Planning who explains that the Brief is intended to complement the emerging Neighbourhood Plan, which when complete should take into account any decisions that might be made on planning applications within the area covered by the Brief…. apparently there was strong public agreement that the Brief will help ensure that any development on this site is cohesive and well planned. But then we turn to p20, where we are informed that there are at present no public sewers within the site and there is little or no remaining capacity in existing sewers serving Threemilestone... and then there is a summary on p31 of constraints. In among all this is the Stadium for Cornwall. The Strategic planning committee agreed this on 17th November 2011, with all matters reserved on a site 4.5 hectares adjacent to the Park and Ride. “The Stadium is proposed to provide a top quality venue for rugby and football teams as well as acting as a sports hub for Cornwall and a venue for major entertainment events. It would have initial capacity of over 10,000 with approx. 4,500 seated. The access and detailed proposals for the stadium that remain to be approved under reserved matters applications will need to accord with the wider provisions of the Development Brief.” So here we have a document approved by Council and drawn up by the Planning Department, which is now declared to be NOT fit for purpose by Mr. Phil Mason - Director of Planning, and this statement was made in public and broadcast for the world to hear. 2- Since the CC Planning department have apparently made many mistakes over the years - in spite of them drawing up legal documents in the form of s.106, NOW EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED and it would be good to borrow some 600m to enable this department to go forward and build as many houses as possible - which would enable them to become private developers - the estate roads would become better - the housing design would be better - everything will be better!! The vision seems to be to build all 52,000+ NOW, to enable the maximum benefit to be felt as soon as possible from the sale of houses and rent income. … creating lots of jobs! 3- Then we have the problem of keeping locals in low paid work which is essential if the Council are going to continue to prove that Cornwall qualifies for European Grants… 4- Staff morale at Cornwall Council is very low - I believe that the staff are not being treated well. The CEO has been appointed to two outside bodies. 5- Building as many houses as possible brings in a considerable income from the Government - there is a formula called "New Houses Bonus Scheme" which pays the equivalent of six years' Council tax for each house built. Maybe a question needs to be asked as to how much money has been received from this source over the past 2 years? 6- At the same time as we were listening to Mr. Phil Mason, there was a meeting taking place in the Trelawney room - the Leaders Board. This can be watched at: Google - Cornwall Council - webcasts - scroll down the page to Archives - 3rd November, 2017 and listen - as advised by Dave - to Mr. O’Brien from Launceston, the CALC representative, and his opinion of Parish Councils. 7- It seems to me that we have Mr. Betty (72, who commutes from Bristol) orchestrating much of the above. 8- What control have the elected members over CORSERV and its activities? Are we getting value for money for all the roadworks which are taking place and who exactly is in charge of the expenditure? A decision has to be made on Wednesday as to where our priorities lie. I think we need to arrange a meeting with Mr. Phil Mason, the CEO and anyone else we think is relevant - just to let them know that we are still around and that what is happening is not acceptable…." Another Councillor added: “This Guy (Mason) is no good to himself or anyone else. The problem is the chief executive, as they say the buck stops at the top. There are more problems than most know. She must go.” Meanwhile, another supporter sent this letter in, on hearing of Mason’s Threemilestone U-turn: “If not out and out corrupt, many of the dealings at Cornwall council's planning department, between officers and developers, seem certainly morally bankrupt, misleading and/or highly questionable, given some of the press readings that are currently surfacing from every corner. And today, we witness a council webcast during which our chief of planning openly admits that several years of strategy re. Threemilestone development have been a mistake...! Really??!!! Just ask any commuter, resident or Treliske user and I'm sure they could have provided that information for free several years ago; in fact, I've heard councillor John Dyer publicly question the sanity of Mr Mason's plans for his own area, at meetings at least twice. And how many millions has this failed strategy already wasted? And to top it all, he (Mr Mason) would now like us to trust him to borrow a further £600m to change course!! Anything else Mr Mason has on his Christmas wish list, now that he's finished playing with his other expensive and broken toys?!! This is not play school or even college; it's real life involving the lives of over half a million people and with multi-billion ££ budgets. Isn't it about time Cornwall Council put its house in order, cut the fat, the spineless, the vision-less, the time-wasters and the delusional, in favour of coherence, efficiency and service? I used to think that's what councils were about...."