Welcome to Cornwall's AONB and Heritage Coast area, in Saint Just in Roseland, where, if you have loads of money, good contacts in Westminster and a complete lack in taste, respect, sensitivity and community skills, you can leave your mark for future generations, especially Lego loving ones.

With its questionable standards and practices, EVEN Cornwall Council objected... but then reverting back to form, failed to properly defend its decision.

How do these people get away with it?

What 's the point of an AONB?

Where's the Cornwall Council planning officers who are usually so good at talking to inspectors?

Did they even go to the appeal?

Did they present a case or once again forget the case files for the meeting, as they did for the dubious Persimmon development at Arch Hill, Truro?

Why does it take ten years for four local families, who've bought a small plot in the village for £1 (one pound), to self-build their own cottages, but some egomaniac with waterside plots in in the same village and in Restronget (watch this space), is able to obtain planning from a Bristol-based inspector and the Secretary of State, approved in months? 

Tracey Smith for the Secretary of State (Greg Clark) wrote in November 2015, whilst backing the appeal to build:

“The proposal is small in scale and not complex or of a sensitive nature.”

“…in the opinion of the Secretary of State… would not be likely to have significant effect on the environment by virtue of factors such as its nature, size or location.”

What planet do these politicians live on???

When quizzed about a Grampound resident re. planning and development issues in Cornwall, Sarah Newton MP wrote:

From: Sarah Newton <sarah.newton.mp@parliament.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 1:43 AM
To: perlemon@hotmail.com
Subject: Housing in Cornwall (Case Ref: ZA61515) 
Dear Per Lemon, 

Thank you very much for copying me into your e-mails to Cllr Egerton and Kate Kennally and for sharing your concerns regarding over development and air pollution in Cornwall. Please accept my apologies for my delayed response. 

Whilst recognising that we need more truly affordable housing in Cornwall, I do share your concerns regarding both infrastructure and air pollution. Over development is threatening our Cornish countryside and is putting much more pressure on the Royal Cornwall Hospital, surgeries, dentists, schools and our roads. Despite significant improvements in air quality over recent decades, air pollution continues to have an impact on people’s health and evidence shows that poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK.  

I do appreciate you taking the time to write to share these concerns but unfortunately due to Parliamentary protocol I am unable to assist you on this issue as you are not my constituent. Your MP, Steve Double, will be able to assist you. You can contact his constituency office on 01726 829379 office@stevedouble.org.uk or his Westminster office on 0207 2194408 or via email at Steve.Double.mp@parliament.uk 

Thank you once more for writing. 

Kind regards, 

Mrs Sarah Newton MP
Member of Parliament for Truro and Falmouth
Office 7
The Palace Buildings
Quay Street
Truro
Cornwall TR1 2HE
Tel: 01872 274760
website: www.sarahnewton.org.uk
email: sarah.newton.mp@parliament.uk

This was Mr Lemon's reply:

From: PER <perlemon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 4:04 AM
To: Sarah Newton
Cc: steve.double.mp@parliament.uk; bob.egerton@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk; adam.paynter@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
Subject: Re: Housing in Cornwall (Case Ref: ZA61515) 
Dear Mrs Newton,

Thank you for your email in which you kindly repeat my concerns.

You also talk about pollution levels getting better in the UK, without addressing the fact that it’s become far worse in Cornwall - and specifically, in your own constituency - in the past 9 years. That also coincides with your term as a conservative MP for Falmouth and Truro. 

It’s disappointing in the extreme, that you’ve been an MP in Cornwall all that time, with access to both the PM and to a number of Secretaries of State responsible for planning and the environment, and yet, on your watch, things have deteriorated so much in Cornwall.

Your email seems to prove only one thing: that while you write nice letters agreeing with residents about serious concerns locally, you do very little to alleviate or improve the conditions of locals despite your power and influence, over nearly a decade.

I feel that my sentiment is widespread, and with the council again and again pointing the finger of blame at central government (we watched in horror, last year, when your then SoS, Sajid Javid, ridiculed, mocked and attacked the Cornish as a CoE-recognised ethnic minority under the FCPNM), I expect that our Cornish MPs, who wear all the right ties and colours in front of the right cameras, may soon find that their complete lack of serious action in helping their beleaguered Cornish communities, will be severely punished at the ballot box.

I’m sorry that you feel more passionately for a UK-wide political party than you do for your supposed home, Cornwall, and its people, your constituents.

Yours sincerely,