REGIONAL PLANS FOR LOCAL HOUSING "TOTALLY UNSUSTAINABLE" SAYS JULIA

1.00.00pm GMT Tue 28th Oct 2008

Local MP Julia Goldsworthy has spoken out against regional plans to build over 10,000 homes in the Camborne-Pool-Redruth area, in her response to the "Regional Spatial Strategy" (RSS).

The RSS consultation, which closed last week, has proposed over 11,000 new houses in Camborne, Pool, Redruth and Illogan alone. According to Julia Goldsworthy, meeting this target would turn then entire area into an "urban sprawl" that would destroy the distinct identity of the separate towns and villages.

The proposals put forward the creation of 4,700 jobs - the equivalent of only one new job per 2.4 dwellings, when many homes in the county require two incomes to support the cost of a home.

Commenting, Julia said:

"The regional plans for housing in Camborne, Redruth, Pool and Illogan are totally unsustainable - and demonstrate how little regional quangos understand our communities. There is a shortage of housing in the area, but any development needs to support our towns and villages, not destroy them. Once again it seems that the government are using the fig leaf of a so-called 'consultation' to ride roughshod over the views of local people and our local councils.

"In Cornwall, high house prices mean that most households need two incomes to pay a mortgage. The proposals recommend more than two houses per job created - a reversal of the reality on the ground. It's completely ridiculous, and while local responses have pointed this out, there is no indication that any of their views have been taken into account.

"In these difficult economic times, local people need to be in control of what action is needed to keep our communities socially and economically sustainable. Instead the draft RSS shows the extent of the government's centrally controlling tendencies."