The moronic behaviour of out-of-touch and totally unaccountable senior officers at Cornwall Council continues unabated.
CEO Kate Kennally has only been in the job for around 6 years, since the hapless Council brought her down from near-bankrupt Barnet Council in London (where, quite appropriately, she was CFO!), yet in that short time, she has wasted literally tens of millions of tax-payers' cash on white elephants, worthless schemes, unethical or badly planned housing schemes, and of course, utterly failed in the biggest Cornish farce of the century: the FREE Stadium for Cornwall, or, how the government themselves put in when sent the "business plan" from Cornwall Council: more holes in it than Gruyere cheese, and totally unprofessional. This for a body costing us millions in wages and expenses each year, let alone the generous retirement benefits and dodgy gold and silver handshakes; a council that seems to spend more time cutting the very thing it's in existence for: Services to the population of Cornwall.
This morning, we saw another sewage-laden story at Perranporth:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6p17p1g8leo
Sadly, this seems to be a recurring theme for Cornwall over the past 30 years, as Cornwall Council "works with" SWW/Pennon, to add as many houses as possible (anywhere and as quickly as possible), as this translates into a little extra cash from central government, irrespective of the damage done to local communities, or the complete lack of infrastructure.
People from every walk of life have been screaming for decades for "another Treliske", let alone for more dental and doctors' surgeries, but all we have is more houses.
But remember this famous quote from then Cornwall Council Chief Planner, Phil Mason (now promoted to Director of Strategy - you couldn't make it up) and his friend, Bob Egerton, then head of the Council's cabinet:
"Houses aren't the problem, because houses don't drive cars"
Priceless.
But also depressing because we pay these morons to run our council with our money!
So the Council were six years late in getting the Cornwall Plan through, finally approved in 2016 at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay (with an additional 5,000 homes to accommodate second homes), by Bristol-based Planning inspector, Simon Emerson - who shortly after, left his government post to become... a developer's advisor/consultant. Hmmm, how convenient.
Why did councillors and rather inept council planners spend an additional six years on a (2010-30) plan for 47,500 new homes (+5,000 for Mr Emerson's holiday homes), when, seven years ahead of that deadline (2030), we have already nearly doubled the number of units, at more than 85,000 permissions by 2023?! Utterly grotesque.
Simply because dumping cheaply-made and poorly constructed units all over Cornwall's woodland, greenfields and farmland is good for business... if you're a Persimmon, Linden, Taylor Wimpey or Wain Homes.
But guess what? All these new homes have to be connected to the sewerage infrastructure by... SWW. You know? That ethical company that is really quick to replace leaky pipes (not), allows sewage overflows into every Cornish beach, river and cove, takes monstrous profits for doing so, and whose CEO,Chris Loughlin, has outrageously personally called SWW customers himself, in the evening to warn them to back off complaints!! (We have evidence of this in Par & Hayle, where SWW & Cornwall Council's corruption and ineptitude is well documented by house-owners whose homes are subsiding due to SWW's appalling negligence.
Wild, wild west here we come!
And let's not forget Grand Strategy Wizard, Phil Mason, spending £36m on land at Chiverton Cross (the four farms at Langarth), after the clever speculative agent (Ian Saltmarsh of Inox), quickly bought it then sold it to us at 100x (yes, one hundred times) its actual value of £360,000. More Council money well spent, right there!
And as for white elephants, here's another interesting one, to add to the millions already wasted by Cornwall Council on so many failed "projects", it makes you want to cry, especially when you have an elderly family member needing urgent care, or for days waiting with a broken hip, on the floor, in the back of an ambulance or a bed in a Treliske corridor; or you have a child needing help, but there isn't any, and the list goes on and on. The story below is symptomatic of the gross waste, ineptitude and completely uncaring and out of touch people running Cornwall Council:
Train don’t stop at Camborne: demise of £35 million Heartlands project after only 12 years turns spotlight on Cornwall Council’s priorities, by Julia Penhaligon at Cornwall Reports (https://cornwallreports.co.uk/
Friday’s announcement that the Heartlands’ visitor attraction at Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, is to close has been met with an outpouring of anger and dismay.
Opened as recently as April 2012 with £35 million of public funds, much it from the European Union and the National Lottery, the 19-acre former mining site was at the time hailed by County Hall as Cornwall’s first “free cultural playground.”
The project had been planned since 1998, following the granting of European Union “Objective One” funding.
Developed on the site of the former South Crofty tin mine’s Robinson’s Shaft, the revenue side of the Heartlands “business plan” always looked suspect.
It now stands alongside the £20 million Newquay spaceport and the £25 million Saints Trail cycle path as another example of why Cornwall Council’s “build it and they’ll come” approach to economic development is so fragile – particularly when reliant on imaginary numbers associated with tourism.
County Hall’s critics have been quick to point out that the £60 million Mid Cornwall Metro railway project appears to have been designed around a business plan which thinks tourists from Newquay want an hourly shuttle service to Falmouth. Even Great Western Railways, which will have to run the service, thinks this is improbable and wants a continuing annual taxpayer subsidy of up to £4 million.
The new railway will go via Par but will not deliver any increased passengers to the Camborne-Redruth area.
A County Hall statement said of Heartlands: “Despite its popularity, recent economic conditions have meant that utility costs have considerably increased and income from operations has decreased.
“All of the funding options currently available have now been exhausted and Cornwall Council is not in a position to be able to step in and provide ongoing financial support for the current operation.”
The council’s Facebook page has already received more than 175 comments, nearly all of them negative. “The council has poured finance into white elephant projects such as Newquay air and Spaceports for wealthy individuals and businesses, but disregards a facility which is actually used and beneficial to local residents. Disgraceful,” said one.
Another said: “The whole concept was always a flat balloon and it never helped itself charging people to park their cars.”
Many commentators suggest the site could have been better used. “Where were the regular farmers markets or local produce markets, arts and crafts fairs, open air cinema, beer/cider festivals, car boots sales, autojumble, car shows, community events, opening of the engine house to the public, organising and hosting sporting events for example being the start and end of bike races or runs?” asked one.
“The circus would have fitted nicely on the green instead of squeezing itself onto the gravel of Pool Market.”
Several commentators lament that, after Brexit, there is no-one to ask for more money.
“Sad news but was, alas, inevitable. £28m of EU money on an ill thought out but well meaning project. It was never broad enough in its appeal to be commercially successful. Feel so sorry for those losing their jobs.”