The RSS and Taunton School

Last week, I found myself at Taunton School as a representative of Restormel Borough Council – attending a meeting of the South West Regional Assembly’s Regional Planning Forum.

It was not an enjoyable experience – most of the speakers peppered almost every single sentence with the phrase ‘the region’ and it got to be pretty grating!

The issue up for discussion was the Secretary of State’s version of the Regional Spatial Strategy which is currently out for consultation. A number of topics were covered and raised local concerns about the extent of the house building (68,200 new properties over 20 years) being planned for Cornwall.

To a small degree they has already recognised that some of the targets were too high for rural Cornwall – in particular, North Cornwall and Penwith – and said they would be making representations. They seemed less concerned about elsewhere in Cornwall, such as Restormel, which is being expected to cope with the greatest increase of all.

I wonder why this is and whether it is anything to do with the undemocratic imposition of an ‘eco-town’ on Mid Cornwall.