It was the Redruth & District branch of MK AGM last night.
There was a brief business part to the meeting where we received a report from the retiring chairman, Lawrence Molton, and then elected offides for the coming year.
Following the business part we welcomed guests to a social event - A Cornucopia of Cornish Cinema. We were treated to several short films all made in Cornwall. May thanks to Rod Toms for providing the show and for keeping this archive of films ranging from wing walking at St Austell to Will Coleman's award winnin, Horn of Plenty.
I was elected as chairman, with new officers Loveday Jenkin (vice chairman) and Chris Lawrence (treasurer).
Over the coming year I hope to coordinate our efforts to build on the sound economic position that the branch has been able to build over the last year and to increase our active mebership.
One of the most urgent tasks that faces us is the selection of a candidate for the Westminster elections in 2015 - a task that will be shared with our Camborne and Hayle MK neighbours.
Many thanks to Lawrence Molton for all the hard work that he has put in during a Cornwall Council election year.
If you live in or around Redruth, and would like to see a better deal for Cornwall, please get in touch.
Thursday, 29 August 2013
Friday, 16 August 2013
.... and so it begins
The poor global economic conditions have protected us, to a small extent, from the hyperdevelopment projects over the last few years. Many developers have simply not been building because they know that the ridiculously expensive prices that they would want to charge would mean that their houses would not get sold.
But recently that seems to be changing and the bulldozers and construction gangs seem set to return to a green field near you very soon.
Last Tuesday I attended a public meeting in Park Bottom. The meeting was both encouraging and frustrating.
It was encouraging because there were a large number of people who were prepared to get together to fight the concreting over of open spaces in their community. It was frustrating because, whatever the strength of feeling in opposition to the two latest schemes that are being mooted to blight Park Bottom and Illogan, you know that the odds are stacked very heavily in favour of developers and against residents.
This is ConDem localism. You can paint the colours of the front doors whatever shade of suburban homogeneity you wish - but you will get the houses - whether you want them or not.
Big national and global development organisations spend millions of pounds lobbying Westminster. They demonstrate the need to build hundreds of thousands of new homes and to provide 'affordable' houses for the hard pressed hoi polloi. At the same time the people of Park Bottom will find it hard to resist the leviathan of central government, convinced to act by the construction lobby groups, as it dictates that the concreting over of Cornwall should resume with even greater vigour.
Illogan is represented by a Conservative Cornwall Councillor, Terry Wilkins, and a Conservative MP, George Eustice. Both are on record as supposedly opposing development in their own back yards. George Eustice famously criticised the 'bonkers' housing targets of the now defunct Labout government Regional Spatial Strategy. Cllr Wilkins spoke with eloquence on Tuesday about how he was opposed to the developments coming forward in Illogan.
Now don't get me wrong. I will be grateful for any help that Messrs Eustice and Wilkins might be able to provide in resisting the destruction of our community's open spaces. I wil be grateful if they can hep to prevent the joining together of separate villages into a single suburban sprawl - but what we need is action and not rhetoric.
People tell me that there is no room for party politics in local politics.
I say that is nonsense. If our local political representatives, members of the Conservative party, were serious about combatting hyperdevelopment they would lobby their central office more rigorously. They would shout in the corridors of power that 'presumption in favour of sustainable [sic] development' is taking away the ability of people to shape their own living spaces. Instead they indulge in populist rhetoric at home while they toady obsequiously to their bosses in Lys Kernow and Westminster.
Of course they tell me you shouldn't have party politics at a local level - lack of opposition enables Westminster politicians to stand with feet firmly planted on both sides of the fence. To 'support' their local community with one breath in the village hall and undermine it with another at central office.
In the meantime what can we do to protect our towns and villages?
We need to get Neighbourhood Plans in place. Though they can't reverse development, or even stop it in its tracks, they can make it harder for developers to go over the the amount of housing alloted to us by Westminster.
And we need to become more savvy with the planning language and jargon of the local government officers and Westminster ministers. We need to learn how to play the game by their rules without relying on our local London representatives to do it for us. If our local Westminster politicians won't act to change the rules more in our favour then we can either accept our fate or develop a more potent arsenal. We can learn more about 'material planning conditions' and where to get the informatuion and data from to back up our fears and concerns and demonstrate the folly of hyperdevelopment.
Most importantly, though, we need to act now - tomorrow may be too late.
But recently that seems to be changing and the bulldozers and construction gangs seem set to return to a green field near you very soon.
Last Tuesday I attended a public meeting in Park Bottom. The meeting was both encouraging and frustrating.
It was encouraging because there were a large number of people who were prepared to get together to fight the concreting over of open spaces in their community. It was frustrating because, whatever the strength of feeling in opposition to the two latest schemes that are being mooted to blight Park Bottom and Illogan, you know that the odds are stacked very heavily in favour of developers and against residents.
This is ConDem localism. You can paint the colours of the front doors whatever shade of suburban homogeneity you wish - but you will get the houses - whether you want them or not.
Big national and global development organisations spend millions of pounds lobbying Westminster. They demonstrate the need to build hundreds of thousands of new homes and to provide 'affordable' houses for the hard pressed hoi polloi. At the same time the people of Park Bottom will find it hard to resist the leviathan of central government, convinced to act by the construction lobby groups, as it dictates that the concreting over of Cornwall should resume with even greater vigour.
Illogan is represented by a Conservative Cornwall Councillor, Terry Wilkins, and a Conservative MP, George Eustice. Both are on record as supposedly opposing development in their own back yards. George Eustice famously criticised the 'bonkers' housing targets of the now defunct Labout government Regional Spatial Strategy. Cllr Wilkins spoke with eloquence on Tuesday about how he was opposed to the developments coming forward in Illogan.
Now don't get me wrong. I will be grateful for any help that Messrs Eustice and Wilkins might be able to provide in resisting the destruction of our community's open spaces. I wil be grateful if they can hep to prevent the joining together of separate villages into a single suburban sprawl - but what we need is action and not rhetoric.
People tell me that there is no room for party politics in local politics.
I say that is nonsense. If our local political representatives, members of the Conservative party, were serious about combatting hyperdevelopment they would lobby their central office more rigorously. They would shout in the corridors of power that 'presumption in favour of sustainable [sic] development' is taking away the ability of people to shape their own living spaces. Instead they indulge in populist rhetoric at home while they toady obsequiously to their bosses in Lys Kernow and Westminster.
Of course they tell me you shouldn't have party politics at a local level - lack of opposition enables Westminster politicians to stand with feet firmly planted on both sides of the fence. To 'support' their local community with one breath in the village hall and undermine it with another at central office.
In the meantime what can we do to protect our towns and villages?
We need to get Neighbourhood Plans in place. Though they can't reverse development, or even stop it in its tracks, they can make it harder for developers to go over the the amount of housing alloted to us by Westminster.
And we need to become more savvy with the planning language and jargon of the local government officers and Westminster ministers. We need to learn how to play the game by their rules without relying on our local London representatives to do it for us. If our local Westminster politicians won't act to change the rules more in our favour then we can either accept our fate or develop a more potent arsenal. We can learn more about 'material planning conditions' and where to get the informatuion and data from to back up our fears and concerns and demonstrate the folly of hyperdevelopment.
Most importantly, though, we need to act now - tomorrow may be too late.
Friday, 9 August 2013
Mebyon Kernow - Cornish Assembly Policy (update)
I have had quite a few responses to the members consultation paper.
There seems to be a consensus around most of the main points with some different ideas coming forward in a small number of areas.
The first stage consultation ends in September when a draft policy will be produced for further consultation.
The plan is to produce a final draft for our conference which will incorporate various options for members to debate on the day. The debates will be around the few areas where there have been substantially differing views expressed.
If you are a member of MK and want to have a say in your party's policies then get in touch before the end of the consultation period. We are a party of democracy. We don't employ 'thinktanks' or expensive consultants to create populist policy which has electability as its main priority rather than political principle.
This newly configured policy will be the first step in a codification of our policies and principles for use by our branches and individual candidates.
There seems to be a consensus around most of the main points with some different ideas coming forward in a small number of areas.
The first stage consultation ends in September when a draft policy will be produced for further consultation.
The plan is to produce a final draft for our conference which will incorporate various options for members to debate on the day. The debates will be around the few areas where there have been substantially differing views expressed.
If you are a member of MK and want to have a say in your party's policies then get in touch before the end of the consultation period. We are a party of democracy. We don't employ 'thinktanks' or expensive consultants to create populist policy which has electability as its main priority rather than political principle.
This newly configured policy will be the first step in a codification of our policies and principles for use by our branches and individual candidates.
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Cornwall Council 'how to approve a planning application' training
Last night I went to a Cornwall Council 'basic planning' training session for councillors.
I was disappointed really.
Parish and Town councils are statutory consultees. We have three options when we receive a planning application. We can approve, not object or object.
The majority of applications that we see are fairly straightforward and make sense so are approved quite quickly.
However, there are often applications that just seem wrong. This is where, I feel, that town and parish councillors need help. We need to be shown how to make an effective objection to something that appears to be wrong for our community. The training provided is hopeless for this.
We are told that the only way to object is to cite 'material planning considerations'. The problem is that these days anything may or may not be a MPC. Last night we were given two convolouted definitions that needed to be met in order for something to be a MPC. We were told that there was no definitive list as to what was or was not a MPC (though we were then, confusingly, given a list of things that were or were not???)
We also looked at three scenarios based on real life applications from outside Cornwall. In each case the parish council had objected and been ignored by the planning officers. The subliminal message seemed to be that "it's no good objecting - you won't get anywhere anyway".
Another worrying fact that emerged was that where a town or parish did make an objection, that objection needed to get the support of the local Cornwall Council member before the application went to committee. This is the very reverse of localism. CC members may, as we have seen in May, have very littke local knowledge and may not even live close to their ED. Why is it that they have more say on an issue than the people on the ground in the community?
I was disappointed really.
Parish and Town councils are statutory consultees. We have three options when we receive a planning application. We can approve, not object or object.
The majority of applications that we see are fairly straightforward and make sense so are approved quite quickly.
However, there are often applications that just seem wrong. This is where, I feel, that town and parish councillors need help. We need to be shown how to make an effective objection to something that appears to be wrong for our community. The training provided is hopeless for this.
We are told that the only way to object is to cite 'material planning considerations'. The problem is that these days anything may or may not be a MPC. Last night we were given two convolouted definitions that needed to be met in order for something to be a MPC. We were told that there was no definitive list as to what was or was not a MPC (though we were then, confusingly, given a list of things that were or were not???)
We also looked at three scenarios based on real life applications from outside Cornwall. In each case the parish council had objected and been ignored by the planning officers. The subliminal message seemed to be that "it's no good objecting - you won't get anywhere anyway".
Another worrying fact that emerged was that where a town or parish did make an objection, that objection needed to get the support of the local Cornwall Council member before the application went to committee. This is the very reverse of localism. CC members may, as we have seen in May, have very littke local knowledge and may not even live close to their ED. Why is it that they have more say on an issue than the people on the ground in the community?
Thursday, 20 June 2013
Illogan School Crossing Patrol
Apologies for not blogging much recently - I am in the throes of moving house at the moment (deeper into Illogan :-) ) and so I am dreaming about boxes and putting stuff in them!
I have been working with a group of Illogan residents recently to try and get a School Crossing Patrol put in place at 'the Platt' in Illogan.
The Platt is a conjunction of 5 roads and for parents who wish to take advantage of the walk through Manningham Wood down into school it is a hazardous place.
Quite often there are cars parked close to the junctions which, when added to busy traffic and a lack of footpaths, makes it very hard to cross the road for parents with puschairs and primary school age children in tow.
At the meeting of Illogan Parish Council on Wednesday we got a unanimous vote in favour of supporting the action group and we have received initial suppport from Illogan School.
We will be taking the campaign to Cornwall Council next - hopefully we may get a patrol in place for the new academic year.
I have been working with a group of Illogan residents recently to try and get a School Crossing Patrol put in place at 'the Platt' in Illogan.
The Platt is a conjunction of 5 roads and for parents who wish to take advantage of the walk through Manningham Wood down into school it is a hazardous place.
Quite often there are cars parked close to the junctions which, when added to busy traffic and a lack of footpaths, makes it very hard to cross the road for parents with puschairs and primary school age children in tow.
At the meeting of Illogan Parish Council on Wednesday we got a unanimous vote in favour of supporting the action group and we have received initial suppport from Illogan School.
We will be taking the campaign to Cornwall Council next - hopefully we may get a patrol in place for the new academic year.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
IPC PLanning Committee
It was the first meeting of the new IPC planning committee tonight.
The first agenda item was to elect a new chairman. A few minutes later I was taking the chair having been elected - a total surprise.
I am very proud to have the opportunity to serve the committee and so the council as a whole in this role and would like to thank the other Members for showing faith in me to be able to do the job.
IPC planning committee also looks after the coulcil's amenities and with the stated aim of the council to meet the challenges of devolution head on and to be proactive in taking on community assets the members on this committee will be seeing a lot of work.
I also hope to be able to help with setting up the process for Illogan to create its own Neighbourhood Plan - which will clearly be in close association with the planning committee.
The first agenda item was to elect a new chairman. A few minutes later I was taking the chair having been elected - a total surprise.
I am very proud to have the opportunity to serve the committee and so the council as a whole in this role and would like to thank the other Members for showing faith in me to be able to do the job.
IPC planning committee also looks after the coulcil's amenities and with the stated aim of the council to meet the challenges of devolution head on and to be proactive in taking on community assets the members on this committee will be seeing a lot of work.
I also hope to be able to help with setting up the process for Illogan to create its own Neighbourhood Plan - which will clearly be in close association with the planning committee.
Monday, 27 May 2013
A great day
Cornwall 26 - 35 Lancashire
So near .....
What an amzing day.
Cornwall almost created an upset by beating Lancashire at Twickenham yesterday.
Unfortunately the Cornish team gifted Lancashire a couple of easy tries in the first half which proved too difficult a moutain to overcome depsite a passionate performance from the heart in the second period.
We almost made it - getting back to within a couple of points with a few minutes remaining - "... with one and all and hand in hand and who shall tell us nay"
The 10,000 or so Cornish supporters were right there, almost tangibly on the pitch with the team, willing Cornwall on the whole way - but it wasn't to be.
A proud day for Cornwall.
So near .....
What an amzing day.
Cornwall almost created an upset by beating Lancashire at Twickenham yesterday.
Unfortunately the Cornish team gifted Lancashire a couple of easy tries in the first half which proved too difficult a moutain to overcome depsite a passionate performance from the heart in the second period.
We almost made it - getting back to within a couple of points with a few minutes remaining - "... with one and all and hand in hand and who shall tell us nay"
The 10,000 or so Cornish supporters were right there, almost tangibly on the pitch with the team, willing Cornwall on the whole way - but it wasn't to be.
A proud day for Cornwall.
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