As momentum builds to double the new housing stock initially agreed in the 2010-30 Local Plan (52,700 now nearer 75,000, nine years before the end of the “Plan”), Cornwall council CEO, Kate Kennally, and her council sidekick, director of “strategy”, Phil Mason, are working against the clock to deliver tens of thousands more new homes so they can plug the council’s financial holes with new council tax receipts before “we” go bust!
They have taken the term “cosying up” to new levels of disgusting, as national developers continue to have a completely free reign over every acre of Cornish green fields, with seemingly zero resistance from the voices of reason, concern, logic and anger rising across the Duchy.
It seems the California-style gold rush for green Cornish gold has no boundaries and no end in sight, as the hapless Kate and Phil show rolls out the red carpet for anyone with a concrete truck or a piece of Cornish land registered in their backpacks... or limousines.
Cornwall is a “mess”! Not our word, but ironically that used by Phil Mason himself a few years ago to describe his own fiasco: the “Truro Western corridor”.
He’s since singlehandedly overseen the successful conversion of every town and village green belt into colourless, lifeless, Cornish-less, usually distant landlord-owned mass estates for extortionate rents, destroying the integrity of almost every market town, village and hamlet across Cornwall.
There must surely be a prize or trophy we can hand this man for survivability in his (very tenable) position at Restormel and Cornwall councils for some 30 years?!!
“The Langarth project lacking completely in transparency and accountability should be of interest to us all; after all, it is our money and debt millstone.”
On 5th August 2021, Graham Smith
(theboss@cornwallreports.co.uk) writes:
EXCLUSIVE: Cornwall Council spent more than £750,000 per acre for Langarth farmland
The 67 acres of farmland to the west of Truro, bought by Cornwall Council for the construction of a new town, have cost taxpayers more than £50 million, an investigation by Cornwall Reports has established.
The deal works out at more than £750,000 per acre. The land is currently in agricultural use, mostly high-quality pasture, where land values typically are less than £10,000 per acre.
The council’s return on its investment depends on it granting planning permission - to itself - for the construction of thousands of houses, later this year.
A Freedom of Information answer provided by County Hall identifies the land referred to in the council’s press release as concerning three parcels known as Langarth, land to the South West of Langarth, and Penstraze.
Two of the deals each cost taxpayers £23,354,000 and the Penstraze deal cost £7,797,500. The total spend on these three parcels of land alone is £50,505,000.
County Hall’s total spend on the project has previously been estimated at £159 million. A more up-to-date estimate would be fascinating.
The FOI answer identified three entries on the Land Registry which you can download here:
RegisterPlanCL356793
RegisterCL202018
RegisterCL85703
Curiously, the land appears to have been already in the ownership of the council since April 2020 but there are new entries on the register, dated January 2021, concerning rights and easements. It is not clear why the council pro-actively announced the purchase of land which according to the Land Registry it already owned.
What is clear is that the council’s announcement, dated 23rd July, confirmed that the recently-elected Conservative administration is now firmly tied to the same course as its Liberal Democrat-Independent predecessor.
In April, during the council election campaign, the Conservatives had promised a “reassessment” of the whole Truro New Town project. But by July, the Tories were fully on board, welcoming what they said was “another important step in the council’s plans to deliver Langarth Garden Village.”
Another curious aspect of the council’s July announcement is why it did not identify the land in question, or reveal how much it had paid.
Last year, when in Opposition, the Conservatives criticised the Lib Dems for their lack of transparency, even taking legal advice over whether any rules had been broken.
The Land Registry entries read like a “Who’s Who” of Cornish farming families. From the 1920s, names such as Grylls, Scoble, Eva, Batten, Ledger, Dunstan, Chivers, Rickard and Stephens have all at various times owned and sold the land over the past 100 years.
Rich in wildlife, the rolling countryside, with its wooded valleys, a patchwork of once family farms is about to undergo an historic change – becoming home to more than 8,000 people, with associated infrastructure, built around a new road.
It is more than ten years ago that property developer Inox moved in, promising to build a sports stadium and buying options from the farmers, further dividing the land and introducing new complexities – and then, thanks to the council, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. The stadium remains an unlikely dream.
A hybrid planning application, which includes outline planning permission for the Garden Village and full planning permission for the Northern Access Road, was submitted to council planners in November 2020.
Work is currently taking place to respond to queries and comments from the initial consultation. This is expected to be completed by September, with the planning application then being considered by the council’s Strategic Planning Committee in late autumn.
If the Conservative-controlled council then refuses planning permission, it will have simply bought farmland at more than 75 times the market price. The pre-election promise of a “reassessment” of the project therefore now seems highly unlikely.
grahamsmith@cornwallreports.co.u
Telephone: 01208 841466 / 07836 719384
Separately, in Hayle, more development woes for the harbour town:
“This should be of interest to all who have memories and feeling for our beloved Duchy, which is slowly being taken away from what we used to know and treasure. Some of us are not prepared to stand by and just let that happen; in this case, Mr Derek Elliott:
Dear editor,
Today the North Quay in Hayle, Cornwall is a sorrow site. This new promised coastal quarter for people to live, shop, eat and stay to enjoy the stunning waterside locations is a complete abandoned mess. This promised striking development benefiting from World Heritage status, a beautiful sandy beach and a working harbour has now been abandoned for the last 9 months; the three cranes are motionless and the workforce now non-existent.
Yet last week when I rang the estate agent about potential dwellings available, I was quoted that new homes are available from £500,000 to £1.4 million although no-one appears to be available on the “Sales at North Quay” number 276524.
I was told that the plans include luxury homes, a mix of retail units, well designed open spaces, water sports facilities, additional parking and expansion of moorings; this sounded wonderful, BUT, when I then checked out the Corinthian Homes web site, the Corinthian Homes Group and the Corinthian Pencoed Ltd sites, they all stated that they are now dormant companies with total assets of £100.
I may have clicked on the wrong tabloid keys but I was then informed that a further 14 companies such as Sennybridge, Hayle holdings, Corinthian Access, Hayle SPv2 to SPV 12 also existed. I attempted and failed to contact Corinthian Homes construction director David Speight; architect Rob Helbblethwaite of FCB studios; Richard Scott structual engineer with WSP and Simon Wright, who I believe is the Developer of Corinthian Homes and based at Mulberry House, Pen Y Pound, Abergavenny, but to no avail.
I have read that John Pollard and Graham Coad are still both supportive of the plans even though ICOMOS raised concerns on behalf of UNESCO.
Is there anyone out there that can give us an update on the destruction of our beloved waterfront?
Regards,
Derek Elliott, Penzance
Some more interesting articles if you’re not by now feeling too sick with the whole Cornwall council mass planning fiascos:
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/padstow-newquay-see-sharp-rises-5792657
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/holidaymaker-cuts-newquay-holiday-short-5760180
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/family-anger-locals-after-parking-5761389
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1477512/Cornwall-tourism-hotels-review-The-Times-travel-critic
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/thousands-sign-petition-second-hospital-5777569
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/sky-high-cost-visiting-cornwall-5396862
www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/st-ives-resident-horrified-state-5775992