The Kremlin's got it wrong yet again so fasten your seat belts everyone:
They are back in Private Eye, not long after the previous ''Thinking Places'' fiasco, obviously having learnt nothing from that cringe-inducing episode.
This time they have called in another gang of expensive consultants to oversee deep cuts to the social care budget (with the lure of a potential £4 million consultants' payday).
Given the number of (semi-)retirees being imported to fill all the new retirement homes appearing everywhere, is it any wonder that the strains on social care, which should have been easily predicted, are causing even more stress to the system?
And here we were, innocently thinking that the voluntarily agreed ring-fenced council tax supplement for social care would solve the problem.
Once again, it seems the wool has been well and truly pulled over the eyes of us all here in Cornwall in the name of the great god of growth, as the 'Kremlinistas' get yet another simple sum seriously wrong.
Meanwhile, CORNWALL:- DID YOU KNOW:
Due to horrendous traffic levels, there are now 9 AQMAs in Cornwall; that’s Air Quality Management Areas where NO2 levels are toxic - including one of the worst in the country, St. Austell, as well as Bodmin, Camborne-Pool-Redruth, Camelford, Grampound, Gunnislake, Launceston, Tideford & Truro.
The Local Plan for Cornwall (2010-30) adopted last year, calls for 52,500 new homes, including 5,000 to accommodate second homes; the proposed Sajid Javid formula will raise that by another 5-10,000.
Treliske is on 24-hour black alert and struggling to cope with everything and anything.
Southwest Water is the most expensive water supplier in the country. The combined water and sewerage bills per house this year are £491, the highest in England/Wales/Cornwall.
Council tax in Cornwall is one of the highest in the country, and has seen back to back inflation busting increases in the past nine years, or +26% since 2009.
The council currently faces a £2.4 billion deficit, including bank debt and pension shortfall. This is costing council tax payers in Cornwall around £1.3 million per week in bank interest.
Yet the Council has backed officers’ calls to borrow an additional £600 million to develop a new town at several farms around Chiverton Cross and elsewhere in Cornwall, eg. Newquay: +4,000 new homes. Whilst it slashes services, the council is now becoming a developer and speculator.
Supermarkets walked away from the deal two years ago due to a complete lack of road and sewerage infrastructure and the developer that remains has now reneged on the “Free” stadium so again, council tax payers will partly foot the bill.
The Truro northern access road (NAR) promised by the council (due to be funded by government) before the new mass development will now be paid for by council tax payers via the new loan.
The council has no money for schools hence why they are all joining academies.
GP & dentist surgeries are full and difficult for anyone to join, anywhere. No NHS spaces left.
Deaths in Cornwall outnumber births, yet the council’s plan is to increase Cornwall’s population by roughly 130,000 or +25%, between 2010 and 2030, despite an infrastructure already overloaded.
Thousands are self employed and / or underemployed - where are the careers/jobs coming from?
Wage to property multipliers (for bank mortgages) have risen from 3.5 to 10-15 since 2000.
There are around 17,600 people on the housing register awaiting a home in Cornwall. There are around 32,000 empty homes in Cornwall.
The council wants to welcome 4,000+ new residents in Cornwall EVERY YEAR to 2030 (and beyond?), to live in these new sub-standard homes; they do not believe this will necessarily generate more traffic because “people drive cars, not houses; and they can use public transport and bicycles”.