Latest news on so-called eco-town

This afternoon, I attended a meeting in St Austell, which updated Cornwall Councillors and other invited guests about the planning application for the 1,500-property eco-town near Penwithick.

The meeting was addressed by Samih Sawiris of Eco-bos, who lead the hard sell! He informed the meeting that he would once again be taking an active role in the promotion of the eco-town proposal.

We were told that, from this point forward, Eco-bos would be formally taking on the lead in terms of the planning application from Cornwall Council. I am not sure how this could be done in terms of the present application and I guess that the Cornwall Council application may have to be withdrawn and a fresh application submitted.

I am following up on this and will report when I know more.

At the meeting, I reaffirmed my opposition to the plans. I raised a number of points including (i) the extent of local opposition to the scheme, (ii) the already high levels of housing growth in the China Clay Area, and (iii) the low number of affordable homes offered as part of the present application.

It was all very different to last week’s meeting of the China Clay Community Network Panel, made up of Cornwall and parish councillors for the area, when it was unanimously agreed to seek the removal of the eco-town housing allocation in the Cornwall Local Plan!