At the risk of boring some of our readers with more (bad) news surrounding the new Truro Western Corridor development, and without wishing to minimise the current crises at Camborne, Wadebridge, Polzeath, Hayle, Bodmin, Camelford, St. Austell, Breage, Falmouth and Carne/Pendower, we must once again bring up the subject of Langarth, as this is where a potential £600m Cornwall Council loan from the Loans Board could add not only thousands of new cars daily between Chiverton & Treliske - once the first phase of 3,000 mostly unaffordable houses are dumped across five farms - but potentially add hundreds of pounds to already nationally excessive COUNCIL TAX bills in stressed homes across the Duchy, for many, many years to come. This is yours and your kids' money, that the council are gambling with!!
The entire Langarth saga was encapsulated in a remark made by a former Cornwall Council CEO to BBC Radio Cornwall that ‘’The Developers Own Us’’.
Many Cornish people openly speak of the developer involved in Langarth as being ‘’dodgy’’, given that the developer's track record thus far has done nothing to dispel that perception.
Cornish Solidarity have recently been involved in meaty exchanges with Cornwall Council, with regards to certain serious allegations against the developer in question, revolving around threatening and abusive behaviour towards elderly Langarth residents who refused to sell their properties to the developer in question.
If these allegations were to be proven to have substance, it could implicate Cornwall Council in criminal behaviour that would cause it further huge reputational harm, given the harm it has already inflicted on itself by being associated with this project.
In relation to this, there is also the unanswered question over who authorised the appointment of a former consultant to Cornwall Council, as a senior officer in charge of negotiations with the Langarth Developer, while appearing to run his property development consultancy in tandem with his council post.
Most reasonable people would probably see this as moonlighting and fertile ground for potential serious conflicts of interest, which Cornwall Council should never allow.
More seriously, the deal that appears to have been done, effectively bails out the developer with taxpayer funds, and rewards it for what has been perceived as highly irregular behaviour, over time.
This raises the question as to why the developer was not simply left to fail and the land then purchased more cheaply from the security holders?
This is a somewhat opaque situation, given that Cornwall Council has committed to hundreds of millions in borrowings (£600m) at the behest of the senior officer in question (in order to become a property developer in its own right), to create a ‘’Garden Village’’ at Langarth.
The weight of public opinion, evident in communications with our supporters, persuades Cornish Solidarity to say that ‘’Enough is Enough’’.
Therefore Cornish Solidarity calls on Cornwall Council and Sarah Newton MP to institute a public enquiry into the entire Langarth Project, in order to clear the air before it proceeds any further.
ANY LESS WOULD CONFIRM THE WIDELY HELD OPINION THAT CORNWALL COUNCIL IS NEITHER TRANSPARENT NOR DEMOCRATIC, RESULTING IN A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN IN CONFIDENCE IN THE COUNCIL.
Letter sent to:
Sarah Newton MP sarah.newton.mp@parliament.uk
bob.egerton@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
julian.german@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
kkennally@cornwall.gov.uk
phil.mason@cornwall.gov.uk
louise.wood@cornwall.gov.uk
Simon.Mansell@cornwall.gov.uk
laurence.reed@bbc.co.uk
David.Dixon01@bbc.co.uk
david.harris@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
fjdyer@cornwall.gov.uk
armand.toms@cornwallcouncillors.org.uk
sparker@westernmorningnews.co.uk
Photo attached shows the first phase of Development at "Fourmilestone" (aka Chiverton Cross!), where an estimated £600m Council loan will see the addition of up to 8,000 houses (some 20-25,000 people and cars) by 2030. The council already pays some £1.3 million bank interest to cover current debt levels (estimated at £2bn), so beware future council tax obligations to cover potentially more bad council debt!