Earlier this year, a housing campaigner from Truro wrote to Cornwall Council Chief Executive, Kate Kennally, with an inquiry about the Local Plan. In her reply, Ms Kennally stated that "the agreed Cornwall Local Plan has identified that we need to build 52,500 new homes in Cornwall by 2030 in order to meet local demand."
This astonishing and clearly ridiculous statement led another Cornish campaigner to email Ms Kennally, asking her what she meant by 'local demand'. Her PA replied that Ms Kennally was "looking into the issues" and to expect a reply "in due course". Quite why Ms Kennally had to "look into the issues" was itself rather mysterious, as one would naturally expect that she knew what she meant when she wrote the email. It was necessary to send two reminders in order to eventually get a reply - not from Ms Kennally herself, unfortunately, but from one of her minions. Although this did not answer the question directly, the generic response did indicate that the Local Plan target figure was arrived at from "estimates of current (local) housing need/demand within Cornwall and net migration figures/trends".
So, one of her own officers had contradicted Kennally's fatuous claim that all development in Cornwall is to meet 'local demand' by admitting that at least some of the houses were aimed at accommodating in-migrants! Questioning this officer further to identify the ratio of local housing to in-migration targeted housing was like getting blood out of a stone and, as you might guess, a direct answer was never received. Instead, a fairly inpenetrable Council report was used as a fob-off. Nevertheless, it was possible to work out that the vast majority of housing is aimed at, and aggressively marketed to, people outside Cornwall, contrary to Kennally's wildly disingenuous statement.
Time and again, mealy-mouthed officers, and councillors of dubious integrity, have tried to justify dangerously high levels of development by stating that anything between 80 - 100% of development is "to meet local need." However, when challenged, they have never been able to evidence this in any way and it is very clear that they are deliberately trying to mislead the public on this issue. It is a shocking indictment on their lack of integrity, and their contempt for the public, that they are prepared to do so without hesitation, and continue to peddle these false claims.
The photo shows former Lord Falmouth-owned Tolgarrick Farm, for generations a dairy farm serving Carrick communities. Now another ugly and cheap Persimmon-inspired urban disaster, which despite failing to meet all four conditions, was passed by the regional inspector without he Council batting an eyelid, or attempting to enforce the conditions it set down in the first place. Absolutely disgusting and another green belt breached under Phil Mason’s watch.
Towns & villages # of Supporters
Penzance-Newlyn-Helston-St Ives-Hayle 965
Redruth-Pool-Camborne 908
Bodmin-Liskeard-Wadebridge-Launceston-Bude-Saltash 734
Truro-Threemilestone-Roseland-Chacewater 732
St Austell-Clay Country-Lostwithiel-Fowey-Par 620
Newquay-Quintrell Downs-Perranporth-St Agnes 614
Falmouth-Penryn-Mawnan-Mylor 450
CORNWALL 5022
Cornish expats / Others: 2198
(of which)
Plymouth/Other Devon 282
West Country 100
London 96
Cardiff/Wales 77
Edinburgh/Glasgow/Scotland 62
USA/Canada/Anzac 117
Other Europe 97
Total (05-12-2018) 7220