25 new houses are approved despite road safety fears

»»TWENTY five new houses in Redruth have been approved despite the local Cornwall councillor agreeing with the concerns of the town council about road safety and the loss of agricultural land.

Lifestyle Homes applied for planning permission to build the houses, seven of which will be “affordable”, on land at Treleigh, Redruth.

Permission in principle had previously been granted for up to nine houses on the site in 2021.

The application, which was recommended for approval by Cornwall Council’s planning department, was called for discussion by committee by the area’s councillor Connor Donnithorne due to his concerns.

Redruth Town Council had previously unanimously resolved not to support the application due to concerns over access, arrangements for pedestrian crossing and, in particular, the safety of schoolchildren using the route.

It also said the proposals were not in keeping with the emerging Neighbourhood Development

Plan and that it was “neither necessary nor helpful” to change agricultural land to residential.

Chloe Pitts, a chartered town planner for planning agent Laurence Associates, attempted to alleviate the concerns at a meeting of the council’s west sub-area planning committee on Monday, April 29.

She told councillors: “Concerns are raised about the loss of agricultural land. However, given that permission in principle was granted which is still valid, the land has already been lost in this regard. That said, we have still gone to the expense of commissioning an independent land classification report which concludes that the land is Grade 3b which is not deemed to be the best, most versatile land.

“Further, the land is contaminated which is verified by the soils report, meaning that the land being used for agricultural purposes is not a likely scenario.

“Regarding the concerns over highways, when the application was submitted the access point was via Park Rosmoren with associated pedestrian improvements. However, these plans caused concern for the residents of Park Rosmoren due to the increased use of the access and the pedestrian access not being adequate.

“Following feedback and a town council meeting, extensive work has been undertaken where the access is now directly off the site on to Basset Road with a pedestrian crossing island. As a result, the concerns of residents have been addressed as well as a highways officer being supportive of the scheme.”

The committee approved the plan.

Local democracy reporter speaks with Truro and Falmouth MP Cherilyn Mackrory about her work to help families cope with baby loss, social media criticism, fairer funding for Cornwall and defending her seat at the next General Election, with the lastest YouGov polls suggesting Labour may have the upperhand

DESPITE the latest YouGov poll suggesting she will lose her seat to Labour and only gain 27% of the vote, Truro and Falmouth’s Conservative MP Cherilyn Mackrory says she has plenty more to do but “if people don’t think I’m doing a good enough job then that’s fine, I’m out, and that’s democracy”.

Speaking to Mrs Mackrory after the Government recently announced that following her campaign on baby loss – which she has suffered herself – women who have lost a baby during pregnancy will be able to receive a certificate, which for many is a significant change as it allows them to have their grief recognised.

Sat in the Hall for Cornwall near her constituency office in Truro, she said: “In January 2019 we lost our second baby girl. She had a diagnosis of very severe spina bifida at the 20-week scan.

“This lovely kicking baby that I had inside of me was not going to have a life and so we had to opt to terminate the pregnancy and two days later I had to deliver her.

“That’s something that changes you completely. I had the best care possible at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, but when you get home without your baby you have all this energy that was supposed to go into your new baby and you don’t really know what to do with it.

“Becoming an MP was something I thought I might want to do, so I thought I’d put the application out there and see what happened.

“The October election was called and somebody asked me if I wanted to stand as I was already a Cornwall councillor and three days later I was in London being interviewed, and three days after that I was being selected, so I was catapulted into it, if you like.”

Mrs Mackrory added: “It’s quite an unusual story to go from thinking about being an MP to suddenly being there. One of the first meetings I went to – almost a year to the day we lost Lily – was the all-parliamentary group for baby loss. They were talking about the national bereavement pathway they’d introduced and done some good work on, but they were sort of patting themselves on the back as if it was job done. I knew from personal experience that while some things were working brilliantly, other things weren’t, particularly around counselling for dads.

“My husband didn’t get anything and he really struggled, and I wanted to see what I could do. I now chair that group. I meet parents all the time where their baby stopped moving at 38 weeks and they never know why or, even worse than that, somebody has made a mistake that has resulted in the death of their baby. It happens to more people than you realise.

“If I can help people by telling my story and engaging with maternity services to try and improve chances for families and babies all across the country I feel I’m doing my bit to help.”

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What else does she think she’s achieved since becoming an MP?

“It’s been a busy four and a bit years. We’ve had Covid, we’ve had sky-high inflation because of war and supply chain issues. Even with that we’ve managed to get money out of the Treasury for our new Women and Children’s Hospital which is huge – that’s going to be a real game-changer for Treliske.”

That’s been delayed quite a bit? Will it still happen?

“2028 is when they expect it to be delivered and I’m told spades in the ground very soon. People read about that and don’t realise all the conversations and slogging away that we’ve all had to do behind the scenes to make sure that stays on track.

“Obviously the A30 is going to be delivered – that was a project started after I became an MP and is going to be delivered later this spring, and Shared Prosperity Funding (SPF), the replacement for European Funding that’s £132 million we’ve received.”

On her latest leaflet it says that we’re receiving more money now than we were before Brexit but that’s not quite the case as Conservativeled Cornwall Council itself has said we needed £100m a year to keep on that trajectory, but we got £132m over three years with SPF. We’re still not getting the same amount of funding as when we were in Europe, are we?

“You need to take into account infrastructure projects, all the levelling up projects, the community funding projects, Town Deal money. There’s been a lot more money coming in than just Shared Prosperity Funding.

“Government is trying to look at different projects and help fund them. We’re sitting in one here at the Hall for Cornwall – significant funding came in from the Arts Council to get this building over the line.”

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What will replace the SFP in Cornwall as it’s coming towards the end of the line for that funding now?

“We’ve had a commitment that they aren’t forgetting Cornwall and they will keep going with this, whether it’s Shared Prosperity Funding or if it looks like something different. Nobody knows yet. I suspect that will come out in the next few months. As far as I’m concerned it’s worked really well and businesses have responded well to it.”

We know that Cornwall Council is facing a financial crisis and its deputy leader David Harris has written to Westminster on a number of occasions asking for fairer funding. Has she played her part in putting pressure on the Government?

“I’ve raised the flag a couple of times with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in round tables and also in writing. David Harris is an extremely competent councillor. If he can’t find money in the coffers down the line, there is no money to be found. He has raised it very early rather than on reaching a crisis moment. He’s saying ‘we’re fine now but three years down the line we won’t be, Chancellor what are you going to do about it?’ We’re waiting to see what comes back.

“Councils are being asked to do an awful lot more with the same

Lee Trewhela

amount of money, or even less money, and it’s just impossible. Demand on services is rocketing, particularly since Covid. We’ve got to change the way we fund councils or we have to change the way we deliver services.”

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What has she been doing about the housing crisis in Cornwall?

“I went to a surgery in St Agnes – 15 families came through the door all of whom were being evicted or their rent was going up exponentially because landlords wanted to flip it to a holiday let. Since that happened I’ve been making the case to Government.

“The consultation on planning so if you take a property out of primary residence into a holiday let it now has to go through planning is going to be key, and the Chancellor has announced rebalancing the tax advantage for furnished holiday lets.

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If you want real people to do this job you’ve got to allow us to make mistakes occasionally

Cherilyn Mackrory, Truro and Falmouth MP