By Rashleigh MacFarlane

Several thousand people appear to have “tuned in” yesterday evening (Wednesday) for a live question-and-answer session with Cornwall Council’s two leading politicians responsible for housing.

Cabinet members Peter La Broy and Tim Dwelly, backed by chief planning officer Louise Wood, spent just over an hour on Facebook having invited viewers to “ask us anything.”

There were inevitably many more questions than answers.

One question asked “should we ban all second homes?”  The two cabinet members turned to Ms Wood for help.   She explained that the council did not have the power to ban second homes.

Councillor Dwelly added that second homes and holiday lets were not the same thing (this month’s budget might abolish the distinction - Ed.)

Councillors La Broy and Dwelly started by again refuting false allegations that councils from outside of Cornwall buy properties to meet their own needs rather than for locals.

Councillor La Broy said there had once been a scheme, in the 1960s, to build housing estates for people being moved out of London (eg the Berryfields estate in Bodmin - Ed) but that there had been no similar projects for more than 50 years.

Ms Wood insisted that County Hall does still build a small number of council houses for local people.

Councillor Dwelly used the event to promote his idea of taking publicly-owned farmland and turning it into housing estates.  His “Homes Cornwall” project is already behind schedule and no business plan will be produced this year.

Councillor Dwelly revealed that of the 400 acres identified by County Hall (but whose locations remain secret – Ed) only 100 might see construction start during the remaining 2.5 years of this council administration.

The projected housing densities described by Homes Cornwall imply large homes with large gardens.  Councillor Dwelly again insisted that these large private market homes for sale would be reserved exclusively for “local” people – but he stopped short of explaining how “local” would be defined or how he would stop instant profit-taking by those wealthy enough to buy quickly.

He added that there is a school playing field in Cornwall – he would not reveal where – which he now wants to use for housing.

Councillor Dwelly also said he wanted to stress that his enthusiasm for “affordable” housing stemmed from his understanding that despite offering only a 20% discount, most "affordables" were for rent rather than sale.

He also insisted that the term “affordable” included some social housing.

The council’s critics point out that the 25,000 households on County Hall’s Homechoice waiting list need social housing specifically, and that talk of “affordable” housing is simply a politically-convenient sticking plaster – spin - to avoid meeting Cornwall’s needs.

The two cabinet members relied heavily on Ms Wood to answer detailed questions but the initiative – to sit down for an hour and engage with the public – was well received.

In terms of “open government” the live Q&A was a considerable improvement on County Hall’s bunker mentality of recent years.  But it did not tell us anything we did not already know.

If there are to be future attempts, a greater effort needs to go into combing questions to avoid repetition.  There will also be suspicion that “difficult” questions were deliberately ignored.

With nearly 150 questions filed online there was never any chance that all would be answered.  Among those which councillors La Broy and Dwelly were unable to deal with in the time available were:

Ed Crossley

Peter and Tim you have recently floated a proposal to build around 400 houses on a County Farm adjacent to Threemilestone, literally opposite the Langarth Garden Village development, which is already planned to deliver approximately 3,800 homes.

When Langarth was being promoted, the public were told that construction of the first 300 homes was expected to begin in 2023/24. That timetable has since slipped, with the latest published plans pointing to construction beginning in 2026 and the first residents moving in during 2027. This raises a reasonable question: why is further greenfield land being considered for housing before the existing development has begun delivering homes?

There are also important questions about agricultural land. Government planning policy requires the quality of agricultural land to be considered and states that, where significant development is necessary, poorer-quality agricultural land should be preferred over higher-quality land. What is the agricultural classification of the proposed County Farm site, and has the Council assessed the impact of losing this farmland?

Infrastructure is another major concern. It has been suggested that new school provision is linked to the delivery of a certain number of homes. Meanwhile, Threemilestone Primary School's own admissions information says that some year groups are already full. What assessment has been made of the cumulative impact of Langarth and this additional proposal on school places, roads, GP services and other local infrastructure?

Residents deserve clear answers before further development is pursued. How can the Council justify bringing forward another proposal for hundreds of homes without first demonstrating that agricultural land has been properly assessed and that sufficient infrastructure will be in place to support the existing and proposed developments?

Andrew Nixon

What is the current financial strategy on reducing the current debt of £2.0 Billion pounds, bearing in mind that housing company Treveth is owned and subsidised by the council?

Alan Needham

Why not just build at Langarth and nowhere else until it's finished?

Stuart Roden

What is the current position with the Pydar street development?  Do you have any timescales?

The council is due to publish, in early December, the latest business plan for its 10-year-old 3,800-home Truro New Town project at Langarth.  That document, currently being written (at a cost of £295,000) by London consultants Ernst & Young, will tell us far more about the true state of housing in Cornwall than any well-intentioned (but ultimately clueless) Q&A on Facebook.

rashleighmacfarlane@cornwallreports.co.uk