He came, he saw, he conquered… Oops, I forgot, then he quickly left again, with the prize money.

When Kate Kennally, from London’s Barnett Council, took on the role of Cornwall Council CEO just three years ago, she was quickly joined by development guru, John Betty, as Director for Strategic Planning & Development.

With the Langarth development going nowhere fast, as Sainsbury’s and other developers pulled out, mainly due to the lack of sewerage infrastructure, but also balking at the potential future costs involved with the Northern Access Route to Treliske and the cost of building a “Free” Stadium for Cornwall, among other costs, only one developer was left behind, Ian Saltmarsh of Inox. He was already overcommitted and couldn’t pull out.

Act III, Scene 1: enter (Truro) stage left, John Betty… with a plan. Despite several rumours, protestations and accusations that Mr Betty was closely linked to Ian Saltmarsh in past developments, he nonetheless successfully oversaw the passage of the developments in the so-called Truro Western Corridor, over several farms, including Willow Green, Maiden Green, Ivydene, Langarth and West Langarth.

But instead of the developers paying for more totally unsustainable, unaffordable and unnecessary mass profit-generating (and generally syphoned out of Cornwall) housing and supermarkets – rather than another hospital with free car parking, surgeries and schools which should surely be the council’s priorities?! – the tax payers will pay… and they and their children will pay for a very, very long time as part of the Betty-Kennally plan to transform Phil Mason’s self-confessed “mess” into more urban chaos, thanks to the council’s visionary decision to take out another loan worth £600 million.

Given council tax payers already fork out some £1.4m per week on bank interest for other loans (the council has around £2bn debt already, according to their website), it’s fair to assume that this further loan to overdevelop the Treliske Hospital to Chiverton farmland west of Truro, will cost Cornish tax payers for many years to come; let’s hope inflation doesn’t come back as this would surely be the final financial, social and environmental nail in the coffin of a unique part of this island.

Some recent comments re. Cornwall Council’s attitude towards large national and corporate developers:

“Not forgetting Punch Taverns, Cornwall Council's lack of action on evidence of abuse of planning.  Various other cases of inaction against evidence-based reports.  Changes where the general public have to do all the form filling, and elected Councillors have to book to go through plans in the planning department (including elected planning portfolio holder).  Council not informing residents of proposed planning, etc…”

“See that local TV news this morning highlighted Persimmon Homes and their appalling contempt for Building Regs and human life by leaving out fire-breaks between properties.  The figure of 1,000 houses was mentioned, especially in Exeter and Truro. But this complaint has come from purchasers, and NOT from Building Control whose inspectors should have been checking it all, which is, after all, their job.  Why have they missed it, time after time?  Is there more going on between Persimmon and Councils than meets the eye?”

“Dear Mr Mason

Thank you very much for writing back to me.

I do still have some questions about all this though, because with the best will in the world, all your talk of growth and wages and good quality homes for locals has failed to materialise for most people I know in the town for quite a few years now, so I don’t know how long you’ve been working at the council, but your stated strategy doesn’t seem to be working, for Falmouth at least.

I’ve looked at your Local Plan link below, so can you please tell me exactly how this Plan is “protecting and improving our environment”, when all evidence around me seems to be pointing to the exact opposite? 

Also, why isn't the Council planning for a sustainable economy, rather than “growing it” which inevitably consumes finite resources and produces more car journeys, pollution and congestion?

The only growths I’ve noticed in Falmouth in recent years are: cars, housing estates, students, house prices, traffic, roundabouts, non-Cornish folk and supermarkets, but certainly not wages or decent jobs.

And on that note, you seem not to have addressed my point about damaging local communities. 

There’s a lot of new homes going up everywhere, yet few of these seem to be aimed at local residents, and especially not our local kids. So can you please tell me why our residents do NOT have access to 'affordable homes', if that is the aim?

Reading the Local Plan document you have sent me, there seems to be a gap between what it says and what is actually happening in our town, as many of these new homes causing all this traffic are simply not going to Falmouth people.”

“From a personal perspective, I have and continue to put my head above the parapet when I see the millions wasted, irresponsible development being progressed or our social support and communities being destroyed. I don’t think I am very popular at County Hall and am certainly not on Sarah Newton’s Christmas card list.

Although I head up the largest private sector business development network in Cornwall, I/we do not represent the member businesses. Why – because the 8,700 of them in Cornwall will have 8,700 differing opinions.

I have also tried to contribute personally to organisations like Cornwall4Change, which started with the single agenda to make sure housing development is controlled to satisfy local need and if possible is made truly affordable. My experience of this however, is that the agenda spreads to other topics (political and structural) and you are quickly associated with things you do wish be involved with and with people who have a less than dignified way of dealing with issues. Anger is fine, but it needs to be harnessed and directed to be productive.

So far there has been hardly any successes when taking on the master civil servants at county hall or in national government. They put themselves into positions where they are both unelectable and unaccountable, to ensure this is the case. Then ignorant politicians hide behind them, as you pointed out. Locally to me, I do a lot to help my community, because I can make things happen. I am getting tired of banging my head against brick walls on the larger stage, although I am not afraid to voice my opinions, I doubt whether they will make any difference.”

“With regard to development and mining, I’ve been out of the loop too long to have much inside knowledge, but I have had deep suspicions about recent development proposals in the Camborne-Redruth-Pool area.  This, as we all know, is an area that is riddled with more holes than a gruyere cheese.  Have mining surveys been done?  Have some been ignored?  Or have applications been dealt with without requiring a mining survey?  Certainly some have, and that rankles with me, as I’ve designed three or four houses in my own village and mining surveys were insisted upon, despite the fact that no underground mining occurs within 2 miles of the place.”
Flood plains are another consideration.  Take Halgaver Moor, Bodmin. A flood plain, and yet there was a serious housing proposal there which should have been rejected out of hand.  I have no idea what happened to that proposal, but I wouldn’t put it past this disastrous Unitary Authority to have at least entertained it.
Then we’ve had at least three applications where the level of objection was deliberately downplayed to councillors by case officers.  The first (wind turbine near Terrace, Newlyn East) went to court which ruled malpractice against the Council.  The next was the appalling footbridge for “English” Heritage at the Tintagel ancient monument.  Official complaints went in from at least two objectors, which were simply waved away, although the other objector received legal threats from the Council. The third was the mega-egg farm at Pengwedna but this time, the planning committee had got wise to the officers’ dishonesty and rejected the application which, I understand, has now been resubmitted.”

More damning comments from sometimes very experienced members of this beleaguered community. When will the council and its elected members LISTEN?!!