Dear Supporter,

I wanted to share with you a 2018 comment by a Cornish town councillor re. his Cornwall Council colleagues:

“Generally I think that online petitions are pretty ineffective and a bit of a waste of time. However, this petition has content which is of overwhelming importance if you believe in preserving Cornwall’s green fields and even its culture and way of life. Please sign if this is important to you too. It goes way beyond protesting about building houses which will encourage inward migration rather than solving Cornwall’s internal housing needs. It inherently addresses local democracy and questions whether people who have been appointed to public office should serve the people of the community that they are making decisions about or whether they should serve an establishment that is based 300 miles away and which either has little understanding of the effect of their impositions - or has a full understanding and is determined to serve its own purpose anyway.”

He was referring to this petition. Over 10,000 people have now signed!

Despite Cornwall Council policy saying that organisers of petitions with 5,000 signatures can request the subject matter to be debated by full Council, they refuse to do so. The Council can now be in no doubt that, right across the whole of Cornwall, and beyond, people are dismayed, shocked and increasingly angry at the devastation that is being visited upon Cornwall by Phil Mason and the Council's travesty of planning. The word 'planning' suggests a carefully considered process, including the intelligent and responsible analysis of its consequences. The ravages of unfettered hyper-development that Cornwall has been subjected to since Mr Mason and the Unitary authority were inflicted upon us does not meet any sane, rational definition of 'planning'.

The damning comments made by people signing this petition cannot be brushed aside any longer and are irrefutable evidence that the Council's approach to the custodianship of Cornwall and its communities is held in contempt from the Tamar to Land's End.

We are very grateful to, and encouraged by, all those that have taken the time and trouble to sign this petition and help it gather momentum. We will be keeping you all informed of the next steps in this campaign and inviting you to join us in further action. In the meantime, please keep promoting this campaign in any way that you can, and continue to encourage others to sign - we intend to increase signatures well beyond 10,000 as more and more people grow increasingly angry and horrified at the desecration unfolding around us daily.

From Facebook:

"I see Cornwall Council has achieved fame in Private Eye "Rotten Boroughs" with their £12 million into Newquay Spaceport - in effect subsidising tax exile Branson who's only chipping in £2.5m!"