'Gulval to be consumed by Penzance Housing'

Today I was forwarded an e-mail from a colleague concerning yet another development being planned in Penzance & Gulval, as you can read below officers at Cornwall Council already think that enough consultation has taken place and that their plans are already in the public domain.

Not that public I fancy as no one I have spoken to has even heard of them.

So what are we talking about?

The land at Ponsandane is being seriously considered as being suitable for a housing estate and that Cornwall Planners have already conducted talks with developers to deliver a first phase of 100+ houses over the next few years. With further phases, to be developed at a later date.

This plot of land was protected in the original local plan as being the important green wedge of a high landscape value and preventing the coalescence of the village of Gulval into Penzance. At the consultation stage Penzance town council opposed development on this land, and a few years ago the planning inspectorate refused an appeal for just six houses on the land at Ponsandane because of the adverse visual impact and the fact that the B3312 formed a natural village boundary.

So why the Council  planners should now think it is appropriate to build on this site is beyond me, whilst I can appreciate that planning policy can become out of date, there is no way that a policy protecting an area for its important visual importance and role in separating the two communities of Gulval and Penzance can become irrelevant (Policy TV-2 of the local plan). 

Certainly this is not something they should decide for themselves; this is something the community should decide.   

The planning officer at Cornwall Council leading this plan has been approached regarding this development, Dave Slatter (Planning Officer, Cornwall Council, Camborne – whom I have been told has been going about the council offices rubbing his hands in glee at a development that as far as he is concerned is ‘in the bag’). Dave Slatter’s reply is as follows:

You are correct we have been in contact with the **********’ as landowners as we have been with other landowners whose sites have been identified as potential housing opportunities within the draft town framework.

The town frame is one of a number of frameworks that are being developed and used to ultimately inform an Allocations Plan for the emerging new Local Plan.

The potential for the site’s allocation has been in the public domain for some time now when it was identified within the Penzance options paper was published for public consultation in January 2012 as part of the West Penwith Community Network Area Discussion Paper.

This can still be downloaded by clicking on the West Penwith link on this page http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=32791.

The sites that were included in the plan were arrived at by using a robust Urban Assessment Methodology that examined the land around the existing urban area in order to discount the least sustainable land from further consideration. This approach was used consistently across all the towns considered and because of the sustainable development approach taken often resulted in challenging existing policies or even past decisions.

The assessment documents for Penzance were made available at the same time as the public consultation and can still downloaded fromhttp://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=30171

Since the publication of the Community Network Area paper the target housing numbers within the Local plan have changed and are likely to change again. We have been examining the original options in more detail, including speaking to landowners (some did not want their land considered further), in order ascertain which options are not only the most sustainable but also viable and capable of delivery, this work is ongoing.

We are hoping to consult on the Allocations document next year however that does not stop developers from pursuing their own initiative including submitting planning applications if they chose to do so. In these circumstances we make them aware they are progressing at risk from a local policy perspective and strongly recommend they engage with the local community.

I have huge reservations about the methodology used to undertake the sustainability appraisal anyway, which I wont go into now, and I do not believe the SA done for the Penzance sites could be considered to be sound as it is subjective, inconsistent and not backed up by a strong evidence base (particularly in regards to environment and landscape issues). 

Regardless of this I believe it is extremely arrogant of the planners to think they can get housing development in this site through the backdoor so to speak without fully consulting the community on whether or not this land is still considered to be the important green wedge which deserves special protection. 

I think it is vitally important for the local community in Gulval  (and also the wider neighbourhood) to be made aware of these plans, and also the plans for all development in and around the Gulval area, 

I have been told that the old pig fields by the School have already been cleared for development, and I would like to know how many houses are planned for that site and also what percentage are affordable. 

It surely is for the people in Gulval to decide what is important to them, not the planners.

Below is a map showing the planned development area.

From this you can see that the darker green areas are the phases in which the planners are expecting to develop, this site i.e. the whole of the site facing the approach to Penzance will be covered with housing except for the two fields which surround the telecom mast.   

It is highly important that local people are involved in any decision making at the earliest stages,  whilst the land at Ponsandane can at this moment still only be considered as an exception site, planning policy at the national scale still means that development in such types of sites should only be taken forward if they are deemed acceptable by the local community (and the only way for that to be known and understood is if the general public are made aware and consulted on, and that the Town & Parish Councils agree it will be needed).

Newlyn Railings. The right solution.

Nearly a year ago I wrote about some replacement railings that Cornwall Council planned to install in Newlyn.  Here……

On Friday, I received an e-mail from the contractor stating that following my intervention they had carried out discussions with local environmental groups and councillors, and that they now had a large amount of information and useful input, including images of railings historically used in Newlyn.  These have been invaluable in helping to select a more suitable railing system.

Not only are the proposed railings more suitable for the location, but they are manufactured locally.  This will ensure that they are both readily available if damaged, and, are fabricated using local Cornish labour.

The new railings will look something like the ones pictured below, from the same manufacturer. Although, the photograph shows a three rail system it does gives a good idea of the appearance. The proposed system for Newlyn will only have two rails with the lower rail being closer to mid-height.

I would like to thank the contractor and Cornwall Council for listening to the people of Newlyn and working to a solution that achieves the highways requirement, but also retains the historic appearance in this area of Newlyn.

Shock, I've not been a Councillor for South Ward for the past 10 Years.

I’ve just got back from Town where I had gone to do a few jobs, whilst there I popped into the Town Council Office, which lead to a bit of a shock (not good in my condition, no I’m not pregnant).

In the office are the candidate packs for the upcoming town and parish elections and talking to the staff I discovered that I’m not a South Ward Councillor for Penzance Town Council.

Now before everyone rushes off to read the various website postings to see what I allegedly have voted for or against, (funny how so many seem to think they know what I said or didn’t say all without the benefit of ever going to a meeting), over the past 14 years in the hope of getting the decision overturned, I’m still a councillor only not for South Ward, as much to the surprise of the office staff and I’m sure councillors, South Ward changed its name over 10 years ago. I’ve been a councillor for the Newlyn & Mousehole Ward.

As a councillor I will be honest some things slip past my attention, not much and never anything of importance, but you would have thought I might have noticed that my ward had changed its name? All my paperwork still arrives with South Ward printed on it, Cornwall Council refers to it as South Ward, the maps refer to it as South Ward only its not. Back in 2002 in a consultation it was decided to change its name, so there we are.

Now the more serious reason for this post, from the election papers the Town council have received we have discovered that some changes have taken place, that genuinely no one knew about, Newlyn & Mousehole Ward (South Ward) has had its number of councillors cut from 5 to 4, and this is the very first anyone had heard of it and its not just this ward, Promenade Ward has an increase of 1 as does Central Ward with the East Ward  also losing 1 but Gulval Ward which has had a boundary change doubling the number of people in the ward remains with only 1 councillor. These changes are apparently the result of the Boundary Commission report, at no time was the Town Council ever consulted or any contact made with the council during the preparation of this report, no contact from the Commission or Cornwall Council what so ever. I wonder how many other Town & Parish councils got a surprise when they received the Election Packs.

PS I didn’t pick up a pack. 

Just some Railings

I’m not a member of the planning committee of Penzance Town Council so would normally leave the members of that committee to make decisions without the dubious benefit of my opinion. So what enticed me to walk the 5 miles into Penzance and back on a wet evening to attend a planning meeting?

Railings, that’s it a set of railings.

The town council received an email informing them that some railings  where to be  replaced in Newlyn (South Ward and my area) and that the plan was to install railings that matched some that had been replaced a little while ago, also that some narrowing of the carriageway was proposed .

Now you would think that this email would have been from Cornwall Council but you would be wrong, it was from the contractor, an international construction management organization, and it was the first we had heard about it. Very kind of the contractor to contact us, but what about Cornwall Council?

Well, you may be thinking its only some railings, what can be important about railings, as with most things its context, this part of Newlyn is a Conservation Area and the railings will run the entire length of the road alongside the harbour, this new set will run for approximately 200m joining up with the previous 200m of replaced railings, so in total nearly a quarter of a mile of railings, overlooking the harbour.

The earlier railings where installed with no consultation what so ever, leading to an outcry in the village, totally ignored by Cornwall Council, so what’s getting people upset.

Let’s start with the design of the railings, I have seen similar railings in Birmingham alongside the inner ring road, now I have no problem with Birmingham (well I do, but that’s another story) but this very urban environment alongside a dual carriageway is where these railing belong, not in Newlyn.

As stated before this part of Newlyn is within a conservation area, the road as it rises up overlooks the harbour affording views not only over Newlyn harbour but across the bay to Penzance and across to St Michael’s Mount, it’s also the main route for people making their way to Mousehole.

The railings already installed by Cornwall Council are very intrusive, right in your face and dominate the view, they are just not in keeping with the local landscape, the wrong materials for a maritime environment, urban in design in fact just wrong.

But perhaps even more importantly, Penzance is home to the world famous collection of Newlyn School paintings (Penlee House), people travel from far and wide to view these paintings and visit the sites where they where painted, and the harbour railings feature in many of these paintings, (Newlyn Fishwives, Old Newlyn Harbour etc). This is an area of great importance, its one of the things that brings visitors to the area, it’s our heritage so don’t go spoiling it, think about it.

So do the current railings need replacement?  Yes they do. Does it require some thought? Yes it does. So come on Cornwall Council, do your duty CONSULT.

The outcome of the meeting was that the planning committee objected to the railings and would write in the strongest terms to Cornwall Council over their failure to consult.