LAST month, I wrote about how the UK Government has imposed a higher housing target on Cornwall and how, as a consequence, council officers have taken the view that we no longer have a “five-year land supply”. This means that they are arguing housing policies in the Cornwall Local Plan, and most Neighbourhood Development Plans [NDPs], agreed by local communities in referendums, should therefore no longer be given weight in the deliberation of planning applications.

I am continuing to challenge the view of council officers and I referred an application for four open-market houses off Heather Meadow in Fraddon (PA25/03870) to a meeting of the Central Planning Committee on September 22. The proposed scheme was in a location which the St Enoder Parish NDP said should be an exception site – with at least 50 per cent affordable local-needs housing.

I spoke at the meeting, while Cllr Ross Wimberley represented St Enoder Parish Council. We expressed concern at how the policy team at Cornwall Council had misrepresented the local NDP, and I also challenged why the housing policies in some NDPs were protected but not those of St Enoder Parish. I suggested a deferral to review the policy position, but I was unsuccessful and the application was approved.

Another application (PA23/09094) for open-market housing off Pit Lane, Indian Queens, was refused by Cornwall Council back in April 2024. It was in an area which the NDP sought to protect from development, but a Government planning inspector has just overruled that decision and granted consent. He agreed with most of the reasons for the refusal, stating that the site was neither infill or rounding-off, but allowed the appeal anyway as Cornwall doesn’t have a “five-year land supply” based on the unsustainable and undeliverable new housing target.

It is all so, so frustrating. Recently, council officers suggested to me that St Enoder Parish needs to deliver 120 new properties over the next five years (to meet our share of the new target), but the reality that there are already extant planning permissions for over 300 dwellings in the area is being ignored. Open-market housing is being promoted where there should be affordable housing, and areas that the local community sought to protect from development are now seeing insensitive applications come forward.

I am continuing to oppose these planning changes and asking that MPs and others challenge central government to think again on its top-down changes.

If I can be of assistance to anyone, please feel free to get in contact with me: [email protected] or 07791 876607.