CROWDFUNDER UPDATE: JUST 14 DAYS TO GO

Thanks to everyone who has pledged to the Crowdfunder appeal for my General Election campaign in the St Austell and Newquay constituency.



We are now up to £1,410 and I have also received a further £350 of cheques through the post.

Though we passed our initial target quite quickly, we do have a “stretch target” of £3,000. Every penny that we raise will go towards getting MK’s message out across the St Austell and Newquay seat.

If you haven't pledged yet, please consider helping MK's campaign in Mid Cornwall. With your help, we can produce extra leaflets as well as window posters and poster boards (see below) which we can spread across the seat and show that MK means business.



All support is much appreciated and the Crowdfunder appeal can be accessed at:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dick-cole-mk-candidacy-in-st-austell-and-newquay

Incinerator latest

The incinerator at St Dennis is in the news again when, on Monday, with one of the two 100m high chimneys began to sway. Concern is rightly being expressed by local people, who are extremely worried and know that the final height of the chimney will be further 20m higher.

In the meantime, Rod Toms had the following letter published in the Cornish Guardian.

About 250 years ago, a French Chemist Antoine Lavoisier discovered the truth about the process of combustion. There is no magic stuff called Pholgiston, he discovered that when things burn they combine with oxygen to produce ash and gaseous products that escape with the smoke.

Now in the 21st Century another bunch of Frenchmen called Sita are denying the truth of this research. Until they were banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, their first advertising booklet said "Nothing comes out of the chimney"!

There are two reasons for telling you this, the first is that shortly the ghastly twin stacks of the incinerator will rise to an incredible 400 feet over a major European Special Area of Conservation on Goss Moor ready to release 22 tonnes per hour of combustion products over the landscape and farms below, and secondly to point out that some of the Political Parties who played a key role in forcing this monstrosity on the public are now asking for support in the coming election.

The Liberal Democrats controlled Cornwall County Council in the days before Unitary and hatched up the idea, and in the first administration of the new Cornwall Council the Tories were hell bent on making sure that it could not be stopped. One of their candidates even chaired the committee that refused to challenge the contract. And of course the wonderful "Environmentally Green" Coalition Minister Eric Pickles put his rubber stamp on it after the Public Inquiry. The Labour party are fully backing Incinerators (I think on the misguided theory that they bring jobs) and I don't think UKIP can find the fag packet they wrote the policy on as they probably burnt it.

During the Public Inquiry (which went on for over six months), the Greens were conspicuous by their absence, but there was one man who was present every day. He stood up and spoke for the local people and took flack from QCs on £1,000 per day without flinching and defended the Community, the countryside and the livelihoods of the farmers. That man was Dick Cole the Leader of Mebyon Kernow.

So when you see those two fingers going up to Cornwall, and when you realise that waste will have to be trucked into Cornwall to keep the fires burning, remember on May 7th. who put it there, and who tried to stop it.

Thank you for your kind words, Rod. I am extremely proud of the role I played in opposing the incinerator and was privileged to be able to produce the 33,000 word “proof-of-evidence” and represent the local community. But for the record, while I did attend the vast majority of days at the Public Inquiry, because of other commitments, I did miss a few days.

So much for democracy in Coalition Britain

My article in today’s Cornish Guardian looks back at the recent “County Hall” debate on the “Case for Cornwall.” It is as follows:

On Tuesday 20th January, the leadership of the unitary authority put forward a document, titled the “Case for Cornwall,” to a meeting of all elected councillors.

We were told that, following the Scottish independence referendum and the heightening of discussions about devolution for all parts of the UK, it was important for Cornwall to set out “ambitious” demands for more powers.

But I was greatly disappointed, because the “Case for Cornwall” is not actually that ambitious at all. It did not make the case for a far-reaching new democratic settlement for our area, as was delivered in Wales and Scotland in the late 1990s. It simply sought a few limited extra powers for our one principal local authority.

The document did not even seek to combat the influence of the growing number of unelected groups and boards, which are taking political and economic power away from those who have been elected democratically.

And to look at the example of planning, the document sought some additional controls over renewable energy developments and an “infrastructure planning and delivery mechanism” – which I interpreted as yet another unaccountable “board.”

I told the meeting that we needed to bold and that we should be going much, much further. Surely we should be making the case for all decisions relating to planning to be made in Cornwall, which would include the right to produce our own Cornish National Planning Policy Framework and the right to set our own housing targets – without interference from central government – and to ensure that the planning appeal process is also Cornwall-based.

I did move an amendment that the document be strengthened and the option of a Cornish Assembly be included, but this was not supported at the meeting.

Soon after this vote took place, the Prime Minister was in Cornwall promoting an additional allocation of funds to Cornwall’s “growth deal” – though critics said most of the money had already been announced.

David Cameron had a lot to say about “giving local communities the power and the money,” and described the funding announcement as being about “genuine devolution.”

But the reality is that responsibility for the “Growth Deal” will fall to the unelected and unaccountable Local Enterprise Partnership. And it was also around this time that the Coalition announced it had done a U-turn, and was centralising administrative control over the next programme of EU funding away from Cornwall.

So much for democratic devolution in what presently passes for Coalition Britain.

MK campaign meeting - St Austell and Newquay

The next Mebyon Kernow meeting in the St Austell and Newquay constituency will take place at ClayTAWC, St Dennis, on Friday (6th February). The meeting will start at 7.30.

Anyone interested in finding out more about how they can help out with our General Election campaign would be very welcome to attend.

You can also support the campaign financially through our crowdfunder appeal.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dick-cole-mk-candidacy-in-st-a…

Thanks.

Opposing the eco-town

It is well-known that I have been a persistent critic of plans for an eco-town near St Austell. This can be demonstrated by looking back through the pages of this blog.

The application for 1,500 houses has now been submitted and I will, in the coming weeks, be having a lot to say about the proposal.

But for the time being, I have looked back at some of my previous blog entries to “set the scene.” Here are few extracts, with links to the full blog entries:

Restormel’s view of the eco-town

“As the Chairman of Restormel’s Policy and Scrutiny Committee 4, I wrote a draft response to the Government’s document ‘Eco-towns – Living a Greener Future’ with the support of my Vice-Chairman Tim Jones. It was modified, and in some ways improved, with the support of the officers of the Council.

“It was then presented to the Council’s cabinet on Monday evening.

“Five pages long, it is quite a hard-hitting document. It criticises the likely imposition of yet more unsustainable housing on the district, it raises concerns about the impact of the proposals on existing communities, it objects to the ‘top-down’ and undemocratic manner in which central government has handled the whole process, it notes how the eco-town proposal may conflict with local economic regeneration strategies and how the Council has seen no evidence that the development will be an exemplar of environmental technologies. It also raises a considerable number of more detailed concerns and site-specific issues.

“Sadly, the Liberal Democrat dominated cabinet and officers decided that they wished to ‘water down’ this one section of the document.

“Instead of clearly objecting to the proposal, they preferred to say that the ‘Council must be satisfied that the proposed eco-town does not commit the Borough Council or prejudice its position in respect of the objection to the higher levels of housing growth in the panel report … and will only accept the proposition for an eco-town if it helps deliver the employment-led regeneration and all of our other objectives for the area set out in our emerging strategies’.”

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/restormels-view-of-eco-town.html

Objection by Restormel Borough Council

“I can report that the cabinet at Restormel Borough Council has backed the call of Policy and Scrutiny Committee 4 (which I chair) to raise objections to the proposed ‘eco-town’ development around St Austell.

“I am especially pleased because the Liberal Democrat dominated cabinet watered down the comments in an earlier committee report which objected to the eco-town.This time around, Policy and Scrutiny 4 had met on 6th January to discuss the new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on eco-towns and the Sustainability Appraisal of the St Austell proposal. A detailed report on the Imerys proposal, written by myself and Cllr Tim Jones (vice-chairman) was presented to the committee and unanimously endorsed.”

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/criticism-of-eco-town-bid.html

The eco-town announcement

“The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) today confirmed that Imerys’ proposal for a 5,000-property eco-town (spread over six different sites around St Austell and the China Clay Area) has been given the go-ahead.

As a prominent critic of the whole process, it will surprise no-one I consider that the undemocratic and top-down nature of the decision undermines the integrity of the local planning process.

”It remains my view that it is wrong for central government to decide development priorities in Cornwall. Local people and their democratically-elected politicians should be able to decide how much housing is built, where it is constructed and what sites are redeveloped for employment land.”

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/eco-town-announcement.html

Eco-town update

“It has been interesting to note the comments on the eco-town from my political opponents in recent weeks.#

“Lib Dem PPC Stephen Gilbert claimed that the “eco-town could bring the Clay Area back to life” (I didn’t know it was dead) while Conservative Caroline Righton welcomed the proposals which she described as “ambitious and brave.”

“Labour’s Lee Jameson meanwhile said that “Labour has come though for the people of Cornwall” before criticising the Conservatives and Lib Dems for opposing the scheme. He clearly hasn’t been in the area much in the last few months – if he had been here, he would have seen David Cameron photo-opportunities with Imerys and the Lib Dem Executive of Cornwall Council backing the scheme.

“Matthew Taylor MP is also backing the scheme, which he believes is an alternative to “large-scale piecemeal low quality estates over the next few years to meet the housing needs locally without the jobs and facilities these communities need.” I believe this to be an ill-considered position. Accepting top-down diktats also runs counter to the ‘campaign’ by the MPs against the Regional Spatial Strategy.

“It seems that I have a distinctive position from all the other PPCs and I will endeavour to make sure that I remain true to these principles.”

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/eco-town-update.html

SITA / Eco-bos / Eden Greenwash
“On the 2nd August, I blogged about the most recent days at the Public Inquiry into the incinerator proposed for St Dennis. I focussed on the fact that SITA were claiming the proposed eco-town developments at Drinnick/Nanpean and Blackpool could potentially take the heat from the incinerator.

”This week, the Cornish Guardian featured the links between the eco-town development and its associated company Eco-Bos (74% Orascom, 25% Imerys and 1% Eden Project) and the incinerator on its front page.”

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/sita-eco-bos-eden-greenwash.html

Other pages which may be worth a viewing are:

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/week-in-my-life.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/what-future-for-clay-country.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/mr-brown-in-cornwall.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/for-heart-and-soul-of-st-austell-and.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/eco-town-vision-and-principles.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/incinerator-eco-town.html

http://mebyonkernow.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/i-have-just-completed-my-article-for.html