By Graham Smith
The politics of planning seem certain to feature prominently in the campaign for next year’s local council elections, with Cornwall’s Conservatives taking aim at County Hall’s proposed alternative to the government’s controversial White Paper.
Cornwall’s Tories have said they agree with 32 of the 34 comments submitted by councillor Tim Dwelly, the cabinet portfolio holder responsible for planning.
But the Conservatives say they are “appalled” by Mr Dwelly’s suggestion “that government should consider additional powers for local planning authorities to allocate small sites for housing development rather than require these to be considered through the local plan process.”
"We are strong supporters of local neighbourhood plans," one Tory councillor told Cornwall Reports. "We invented them. We're the only party which believes that local people should decide. You can't trust Cornwall Council."
The Liberal Democrat-Independent administration has said it wants to defend its current approach to so-called “affordable” housing and has described the White Paper as a “developers’ charter.” Definitions of what is "affordable" remain highly controversial.
The fact of the matter is that while developments of over 40 or 50 may be “reasonable” qualifying numbers for large housing sites that are close to major towns and services, this does not explain the full picture of planning in Cornwall. Instead, in our spread out county, the majority of housing developments in the planning system are for 1 -20 units either within or attached to small rural villages with very little in the way of services (shops, pubs, community centres, schools, medical facilities etc) and narrow shared-use roads unsuitable for the extra cars that each new housing development brings.
There needs to be a mechanism for rural villages to have a much lower threshold, as the impact on them is greater from a much lower total number.