Article by Cllr Dick Cole published in the Cornish Guardian newspaper (18th September 2024)
On Tuesday 10 September, I attended another meeting at the unitary authority at which councillors considered how best to secure a devolution settlement from central government. In one of my contributions, I spoke about the importance of securing Cornish control over all aspects of planning, planning policy and planning appeals.
At that time, I was unaware that the UK Government had just classed the Cornish Lithium project at Trelavour, St Dennis, as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. The press release came out on the Tuesday afternoon. This means that the main application(s) for the site will no longer be dealt with by Cornwall Council, but the decision will be taken by the Secretary of State, based on a report from the Government’s Planning Inspectorate. The unitary authority will be a statutory consultee.
As the councillor for St Dennis Parish, I am more than a little taken aback by this recent news. And this has nothing to do with the merits of the proposal for lithium extraction/processing or otherwise, it is a point of principle for me that planning decisions for Cornwall should be taken in Cornwall.
As a councillor, I would add that I am under no illusions about how the present planning system works and how the UK Government can and often does overrule planning decisions taken by councillors. That is why I continue to campaign for all aspects of planning to be reserved to the west of the Tamar.
In recent years, it would be an under-statement to say that there has been an increasing centralisation of planning through Westminster’s National Planning Policy Framework and, of course, there was the recent decision from Westminster to impose a housing target on Cornwall of 4,545 housing units per annum, up from the Local Plan target of 2,625. Such an increase is not sustainable and, even if it was, it is not achievable.
In terms of winning more powers for Cornwall, I must note that proponents of a so-called “Great South West” region [covering Cornwall and the counties of Devon, Dorset and Somerset] congregated at Exeter at the end of last week.
I object most strongly to Cornwall being submerged into such an amorphous construct. It is my view that politicians to the west of the Tamar need to actively oppose the “Great South West” project undermining Cornwall achieving greater powers for itself.
In Westminster, there is an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the “Great South West.” Surely now is the time that MPs and members of the House of Lords came together to form an APPG for Cornwall.