Following the deferral of the planning applications for the biogas plant at Higher Fraddon – partly to explore an alternative access to the site from the A30 – a meeting was held with Highways England at the Cornwall Council Offices at Bodmin on Monday.
Present at the meeting were two representatives of Highways England (Alexis Field, Sally Parish) and one from their contractors Kier (Dave Ewings), three representatives from Cornwall Council (Nigel Doyle, Jeremy Edwards and Jim Holt) as well as Steve Double MP and his wife Ann, Dan Johns from the pig farm (plus a planning consultant for JMW Farms Ltd; Russell Dodge), David Manley (Greener for Life) and two representatives from the Higher Fraddon Residents Group; Anne Woolcock and Bella McCarthy.
Anne and Bella are pictured below, just before the meeting, with a petition of over 700 names calling for a new access off the A30.
Some good news for Christmas … The High Court has ruled that the unitary authority will be allowed to scrap its contract with BT to run IT, human resources and other services.
There will be much to read and digest in the coming weeks, but Mr Justice Knowles has apparently ruled that BT “faced problems of its own making” and did not provide “the service it had promised to the standard it had promised.”
I am proud of the fact that all MK councillors on Cornwall Council opposed the outsourcing in 2012 and recent events show that we were clearly right to do so.
More comment to follow.
But for those interested in recalling what happening three years ago, please visit: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/cornwall-council-privatisation-compromise
On 23rd November, I wrote about how three representatives of the “Local Government Boundary Commission for England” (sic) came to Cornwall and informed councillors that we had to undertake an immediate boundary review (ie. number of councillors and ward boundaries) for the 2017 council elections.
This was in spite of the fact that the so-called “devolution deal” between Cornwall Council and central government included the following:
“Cornwall Council will take forward a council boundary review. The boundary review is expected to reduce the number of local councillors and will be taken forward by the Boundary Commission. This review will commence in 2017.”
At Tuesday’s Full Council meeting, it was agreed to set up a cross-party panel to undertake the work and I will be MK’s representative on the body.
Councillors across the chamber are extremely upset about the rushed review that will no ensue.
And I am also saddened at the initial wave of press coverage, which is factually challenged and very demeaning of the role and work of Cornwall Councillors.
Graham Smith writing in the Cornish Guardian made the ridiculous statement that: “The size of Cornwall Council, which has 123 councillors, has been a cause for concern … the Welsh Assembly has only 60 members and the Scottish Parliament is not much bigger than Cornwall Council, with 126 (sic).” There are actually 129 MSPs.
First, this is a ridiculous comparison as the unitary authority is most certainly a parliament or an assembly, and the reality is that Cornwall (population 535,000) has less councillors than most other areas.
Prior to the creation of the unitary authority, Cornwall had 331 councillors on principal local authorities. It now has only 123.
Scotland (population 5.3 million) has 1,222 principal authority councillors, while Wales (population 3.1 million) has 1,254 councillors on its 22 unitary authorities.
The contrast with the local government arrangements in the neighbouring English counties of Devon and Somerset is also very stark. Devon (population 1.4 million) has 492 councillors, while Somerset (population 913,000) has 425 councillors.
The future of the Sky Tip has been well covered in today’s local newspapers (Cornish Guardian and St Austell Voice), following a splurge of publicity from Eco-bos – the firm which wishes to build the so-called eco-community at West Carclaze and Baal.
Eco-bos have “confirmed” that the Sky-Tip is safe and will not be removed as part of the development.
To be exact, a spokesman for the firm actually said:
“I am aware of the speculation around the future of the Sky Tip but to be absolutely clear Eco-Bos has never proposed removing the Sky Tip so its future is not in doubt … Sky Tip is and always has been staying as part of the West Carclaze regeneration – not only to reflect the area's mining history but as the focal point for our exciting proposals for a major new heritage park."
To state that Eco-bos has “never proposed removing the Sky Tip” is untrue.
In 2014, there was a consultation about the “eco-community” from Cornwall Council and Eco-bos. There were three scenarios which included the “modification or relocation of the Sky Tip.”
Scenario 1 stated: “Sky Tip removed, and new sculpted landscape feature located on top of West Carclaze Mica Dam; becoming land sculpture public open space.”
Scenario 2 stated: “Sky Tip retained, transformed to improve safety for ease of public access and sculpted to provide a new viewpoint.” To translate – this meant that it would be levelled and a landscape reprofiled so that the Sky Tip would not be recognisable.
Scenario 3 stated: “Sky Tip removed, and new sculpted landscape feature located on top of West Carclaze Mica Dam; becoming land art integrating a recreation hub and viewpoint.”
To see for yourselves, why not visit: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/7070268/Panels-all-cropped.pdf
It is probably more important to remember that Cornwall Council has agreed, as reported recently, to modify its Local Plan to ensure that the “provision of eco-communities at West Carclaze & Baal and Par Docks [will be] led by a masterplan and design code” to include the “retention of the Sky Tip and other distinctive landscape features as part of the green infrastructure of the site.”
