Sick as a Parrot – an open letter
Dear Sir,
Those who voted Conservative on the basis of statements by George Eustace and other Tories that the figures in the Labour governments regional spatial strategy were ‘bonkers’ must be ‘sick as a parrot’ over the announcement in the budget of new planning rules which clearly states ‘Decision-takers at every level should assume that the default answer to development proposals is “yes”, making it open season on the green fields of Cornwall.
Do not be fooled by the word ‘sustainable’, like ‘affordable’ it will suddenly take on a whole new raft of meanings you never knew it had before.
As these new rules make it much harder for planners to resist mass ‘for profit’ housing developments, they will open up our beautiful Cornish countryside to be concreted over to line the pockets of greedy up country developers who do not see green fields, just another piece of real estate and a few more bucks in their back pockets.
Many of our MPs both Con and Lib-Dem not only supported the budget statement, also signed a document called ‘Can do Cornwall’ or Cornwall’s been done as we call it which promises us the unremitting joy of 30,000 houses but only 15,000 jobs; just ponder those figures for a moment that’s half a job per household.
That s hardly the golden road to prosperity is it?
Meanwhile the Tory/Independent led administration at Cornwall council has had talks with the British property federation, a lobbying group which has not only lobbied the government over the budget but is also pushing for even higher levels of housing in Cornwall.
Yet, well known think tank Vivid Economics, says that the new planning act will ‘have little or no effect on economic growth’ but could ‘undermine public wellbeing’. So, we are going to have the quality of our life destroyed for no economic gain what so ever.
Who will benefit? Well, we don’t know. But, it has been revealed by the Daily Mirror that in the current ‘cash for access’ scandal that in the second half of last year £2,700/day was donated to Troy party coffers by construction companies.
A fish and chip supper to the first person to find the answer.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr. Stuart Cullimore,
Cllr. Mike Champion,
Cllr. Helene Cullimore,
Cllr. Alan Sanders,
Mebyon Kernow – the party for Cornwall
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