Thursday 9 February 2012

St Erth Park and Ride

Today I watched the Strategic Planning Meeting from Cornwall Council on its plans for a Park and Ride at St Erth. (Planning officer favourite for the year)

Whatever the merits of this plan, my overriding impression was that not enough, well planning, had gone into it.

Remembering that the applicant is Cornwall Council, you would have though the officers would have some idea of what was going on outside of their offices, public meetings etc. But no.

The officers did not seem clear as to what the park and ride was for, one saying it’s to relive traffic in St Ives, then it’s Penzance and later still Penwith, it’s for tourists, no commuters, to take traffic off the A30.

How many cars will use it, we don’t know. 
How will it be funded once in place, don’t know. 
Can you buy a parking ticket and train/bus ticket, we haven’t looked at that.
How much will it cost to park, we don’t know. 
Which busses will serve the park & ride, the bus companies have indicated that they have no plans to divert busses to the site. Park and no Ride?  The 300 will go to the site, (the 300 is the open top circular route, summer only service).  
How will you address access to the site, lights on the A30, will this not cause congestion, we don’t know. 
What about the narrow bridge? 
How will a pedestrian get to the site?
And so on, you get the idea I'm sure.

Cornwall Councils bacon saved by late intervention of legal suggesting a site inspection, stops what looks like  a refusal. Decision deferred. 

Now a bit of a rush to do some planning and issue Hymn sheets before the next meeting. 


1 comment:

  1. I thought Ruth Lewarne was the pick of the CCs there, but was actually impressed that there was some debating going on, and that the obvious holes in this application well laid bare for all to see. She got scolded for her end comments, but she was absolutely right; they were scared of refusal so thought of something else. What's with these stupid recommendation things before they even discuss something? That should be abolished.

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