Calling One and All, 25 September 2018, Newquay, for Housing & Construction Conference, organized by Cornwall Council – All welcome to hear the case for more mass urban development.
Whilst Cornwall continues to be plagued by ever rapid mass urbanisation, all carefully "planned" by an overpaid, complicit and inept Cornwall Council planning department, elected councillors are calling out against campaigners, despite holding the democratic power to step in, instead choosing to watch the destruction of Cornwall's social and environmental heritage under theirs and our very noses; a few of them - led by the over-development Trinity of:
Tim Dwelly (Penzance East) tim.dwelly@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
Mike Eathorne-Gibbons (Ladock, St Clement and St Erme/Trispen) mike.eathorne-gibbons@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
Bob Egerton (Probus, Tregony and Grampound) bob.egerton@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
- are welcoming ever more development, despite the complete collapse in our services, to meet some 5-7,000 net new arrivals to Cornwall every year.
Below is one recent email discussion between increasingly irrate campaigners for common sense and prudent planning, and one particular councillor, although decent enough, doing far too little to challenge the irrational mass development status quo; this is what we're up against, daily, and unlike senior council officers and councillors, at no cost to the taxpayer:
On 24 Sep 2018, at 10:58, kevin bennetts <kevin.bennetts@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dear Councillor,
I am in receipt of your email and note its contents.
Are you inferring that those of us fighting outside CC are not operating within the law?
If so that is a very serious allegation indeed!
You assure us that a campaign outside CC is needed, and that, to someone who does not mince my words, is a very garbled mixed message, while other councillors assure us that it is right to robustly challenge Cornwall Council when necessary.
There is emerging evidence that our cage rattling methods appear be generating considerable heat under multiple collars, this tells me something that you may not have noticed.
Whether Iwan is as alleged, an unreasonably persistent complainant, or whether he is not, is in reality immaterial because the evidence points strongly to the fact that the pressure being exerted on Cornwall Council is telling on many fronts, the bottom line being he is my friend and as such I will defend him with all means at my disposal.
Our campaign group members all have different styles, and by that very fact, those involved with our council who are patently failing us all are being struck by barbs of varying degrees from many directions; individually these barbs may not amount to much, but collectively, I wager they are beginning to tell in the classic manner viz. : firstly they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then we win.
I would suggest we are currently at the stage where they are fighting us; having discovered that fatuous threats do not work, they have resorted to moral outrage in the form of Councillors Dwelly, Tudor, Olivier and most surprisingly Nolan, boarding their high horses to scold us; I am nonetheless encouraged by even a negative response.
Fortunately some of us live too close to the woods to be frightened of or intimidated by owls hooting up in the branches!
As a counterweight, a heartening and growing core of good councillors are actually beginning to listen to what is being said, particularly by their awakening electorates.
As I see it, we are all stakeholders in our council, with elected councillors there to represent the best interests of their stakeholders guided by paid officers; if stakeholders are not happy, there is a democratic right (indeed a civic duty) to complain in a constructive manner, although unfortunately far too many are still afraid to do so; as a result the apparent lack of opposition is eagerly accepted by those within the council with an agenda, willing indeed eager to accept the status quo, that is in reality, far from acceptable.
When complaints made by more committed complainants are not addressed in a reasonable timely manner, this merely raises the stakes and wastes more time; we are passionate committed people who care deeply about our Cornwall, so the powers that be must realise some of us will never back off while things remain as they are.
As a former fisherman, I can curse with the best of them when necessary, but like to think that my senior years have taught me when not to, that said I fully understand and sympathise with (not condone) what Iwan says when confronted by the wall that has been erected around him in the hope of isolating and humiliating him; that is where the error has been compounded because isolating and humiliating one member isolates and humiliates us all, thus raising the stakes yet again.
The saddest fact being that you, Councillor, are one of the key blocks in that wall and you of all people should know better!
On Cornwall Council’s head be it, because none of this is going to go away anytime soon.
To sum up:
We are not against all development.
We are against the majority of current corporate development taking place for the following reasons:
A Houses are being delivered faster than the artificially increasing population can be assimilated.
B The style of building is aesthetically unsympathetic to the Cornish environment where the style of building should feature granite and slate, not ghastly yellow bricks.
C There appears to be an unacceptably cavalier attitude to building control, evidenced by the unacceptably high number of serious faults being reported by the already hard-pressed buyers of these houses.
D Despite the proven desperate need for truly affordable social housing for key workers in the right locations, the responsibility for its delivery is being delegated to housing associations which are proving to be yet another money-grabbing racket.
E These reasonable concerns have been repeatedly raised and pointedly ignored by all concerned at Cornwall Council.
That is why individual protagonists find themselves in the line of fire; it is nothing personal, even if they take it as such; but if they choose to occupy a public office, they should not be unduly surprised if dissatisfaction with their performance is expressed in bright primary colours which may not be to their liking; after all, like the trawling trade, it is a tough old game, when all is said and done.
Our deepest concerns with regard to corruption of the entire development process and resultant growth agenda remain unaddressed; a travesty is being perpetrated in our name, while we remain convinced that the truth will emerge at some future point that may be too late for Cornwall, due to the currently appallingly inept stewardship of those who, if they chose to and were brave enough, could stop it.
Yours very sincerely
Kevin Bennetts
From: Loveday Jenkin <loveday.jenkin@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2018 8:40:10 AM
To: kevin.bennetts@Hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Status as an unresonably persistent complainant
Dear Kevin
Whilst you are entitled to your opinion, I can assure you that things would be an awful lot worse if MK was not in Lys Kernow fighting Cornwall’s corner at every opportunity within the law. However a people's campaign outside is also required.
Oll a'n gwella
Loveday
On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 23:03 kevin bennetts, <kevin.bennetts@hotmail.com> wrote:
I add my voice to that statement and resign my life membership of MK in absolute disgust at the limp wristed lily livered pretence of being ‘’the party for Cornwall’’ while cosying up on a daily basis to the regime that is destroying the Cornwall I love so dearly.
I betrayed a vow to myself that I would never be a member of a political party to support MK spiritually and financially in the sincere belief that it would become something worthwhile, how wrong I was, but I am older wiser and deeply saddened by my own stupidity for supporting such an ineffectual non inclusive group of people who politically will never amount to anything but will continue to let us all down.
Cornwall has no party.
More in sadness than in anger we will fight on with all legal means at our disposal.
KBV!
From: Iwan
Date: 23 September 2018 at 20:38:24 BST
Thanks for your support.
Shame it seems only to work one way...
Why do you think some of us are blowing a fuse?!!!
Take a look around you, for God’s sake! What would your folks think of the disaster unfolding in Kernow today?!
Egerton, Gibbons, Dwelly, Olivier, Pollard, Paynter, Fitter and some others are just imposters, common thieves, mercenaries and profiteers.
I don’t really care what the rules are, the gloves are off as these people are now robbing our kids of their Cornish birthright....
Stop sitting on the fence and playing nicey, nicey with these people, as they’re playing you, MK and the Cornish for fools...
A quick reminder of some of the issues: Air Quality
There are currently nine official AQMAs in Cornwall, where your kids and elderly relatives are being gradually poisoned on a daily basis:
Redruth, Camborne and Pool
Bodmin
Camelford
Grampound
Gunnislake
Launceston
St Austell
Tideford
Truro
Towns & villages # of Supporters for this petition:
Penzance-Newlyn-Helston-St Ives-Hayle 910
Redruth-Pool-Camborne 836
Truro-Threemilestone-Roseland-Chacewater 694
Bodmin-Liskeard-Wadebridge-Launceston-Bude-Saltash 686
St Austell-Clay Country-Lostwithiel-Fowey-Par 601
Newquay-Quintrell Downs-Perranporth-St Agnes 540
Falmouth-Penryn-Mawnan-Mylor 418
CORNWALL 4685
Cornish expats / Others: 2055
(of which)
Exeter/Other Devon 130
Plymouth 126
London 91
Cardiff/Wales 70
Edinburgh/Glasgow/Scotland 58
USA/Canada 61
France/Spain/Italy 46
Australia/NZ 49
Total (24-09-2018) 6740