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
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 in 2016, called for 52,500 new homes, including 5,000 to accommodate second homes; the proposed Sajid Javid formula has raised that by at least 7,500.
Treliske Hospital/A&E is on 24-hour black alert and struggling to cope with everything and anything.
Southwest Water is the most expensive water supplier in the UK. The combined water and sewerage bills per house in 2017 were £491, the highest in England/Wales/Cornwall.
Council tax in Cornwall is one of the highest in the UK, and has seen back to back inflation busting increases in the past nine years, or +26% since 2009. They’ve just announced another +4% for 2019.
The council currently faces a circa £2 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. The council recently voted (by 62-40) to borrow another £600 million, so the prospects for bankruptcy are high.
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 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. And 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 a totally overloaded infrastructure today.
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 17-18,000 people on the housing register awaiting a home in Cornwall, and around 32,000+ empty homes in Cornwall. Last year, 3,500 second homes were sold in Cornwall.
The council currently welcomes 5-7,000 new residents in Cornwall EVERY YEAR, to live in these new sub-standard Persimmon & Wain 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”.
In other news:
Saint Ives: Cornwall planners ignore locals and logic… again
Saltash: Complete road meltdown due to two crashes
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/string-crashes-cause-delays-a38-2243736
The future is safe for Truro, Newquay and Falmouth as that great employer and food provider, KFC, squeezes more from local kids:
www.cornwalllive.com/news/business/kfc-open-new-restaurants-truro-2242836
As Cornwall Council and developers try to mass profit from urbanization, the reality across the Tamar, in Plymouth, new homelessness hotspot in the UK:
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/plymouth-named-homelessness-hotspot-shocking-2243014
Penryn & Helston: One glitch by Vodafone and it’s more traffic nightmares for unsuspecting locals
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/vodafone-fined-roadworks-a394-between-2242406
Newquay: It would be good to launch a spaceport before Cornwall Council sell the land for Persimmon & Wain Homes; the trick will be reaching it when traffic gridlock hits…
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwalls-spaceport-moves-step-closer-2242342
Torpoint: Sad that our roads are now so dangerous, we don’t allow our kids to use them, when many of us lived on our bikes, on all of Cornwall’s main roads, just 15-20 years ago; meanwhile, Bob Egerton advises us that we should all get on our bikes. But Bob, all of your new 60,000 homes have car ports and garages!!
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cyclist-still-hospital-three-weeks-2242084
Scorrier: One pony and the ensuing traffic chaos is horrendous; rural Cornwall is really gone as cars and traffic fumes/heavy pollution take over our towns and villages; thank you Cornwall Council for some great planning!
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/pony-running-loose-a30-causes-2241960