Andrew Motion lays into second homes

The President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, has laid into second homes saying that "townies in the countryside" were "gutting" rural communities.

In an interview in the Times, Sir Andrew says:

"I think there's a question about whether second homes mean you have inert dormitory communities in the countryside through most of the week, very often lived in by people who scoot down in their cars, see their smart friends, don't join in the life of the community and don't feed into it. They're townies in the countryside, they make sure they're back in London in time to catch the 10 o'clock news on Sunday night. That means rural communities are gutted."

The CPRE is backing changes to the tax regime to make second homes much more expensive to buy and run.

Coincidentally, Sir Andrew is the star guest at this year's Charles Causley Festival in Launceston. He is appearing at 4pm on Friday 7th June. The festival runs the entire weekend from the 7th to the 9th.

Note - Link is to the BBC story rather than the Times which site behind a paywall.

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Woburn Green granted 'village green' status

This evening I got home to find a letter from the Planning Inspectorate giving me the fantastic news that the application for village green status for the open land off Woburn Road has been granted.

Huge congratulations are due to Phil Wagstaff and Dave Shadrick of the Woburn Residents Association who took the lead on the issue, together with town councillor Paul O'Brien. Alongside ward councillor Sasha Gillard-Loft, I helped them out and gave them support along the way.

This issue arose because Cornwall Council was seeking to sell off the land for housing development. Not only would such a development be wrong for the area, but it would also mean the loss of the open space which has been used by local people for many tens of years.

So the Woburn Residents applied for village green status which protects the area against all future development. They had to demonstrate that local people had used the land lawfully for recreational activities for more than 20 years. At a hearing over two days in the New Year they did so and the judgement was published today.

I'm very happy for the residents as it means that one more bit of green space has been saved for residents to continue to enjoy. I hope that Cornwall Council will learn the lesson that they cannot seek to sell off land willy nilly to the detriment of local people.


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Cornwall council's tax bill problem

Cornwall Council has admitted that many of the council tax bills they have sent out contain the wrong barcode on them. As a result, residents are finding it impossible to pay at their local post office.

Whilst the majority of residents pay their bills by direct debit and are not affected by this problem, it is still causing a concern for those who do pay in person and for the businesses where they pay. For post offices, being able to offer the council tax payment service is a way of drawing customers into the shop. In short, it helps them stay afloat. If bill payers start losing confidence in the system then the post offices will suffer.

The fault appears to lie with a contractor who printed and sent out the bills. As such, the cost of putting it right (which could be as much as £50,000) hopefully won't come back to local taxpayers. New bills are being sent out to the 81,000 households and businesses affected and will be with residents by the April 1st deadline for first payments to be made.

But it appears that many people affected have been kept in the dark about the problems and what is being done to put them right. Although a statement was put on the council's website, it seems post offices have not been kept up to date and so they are unable to advise their customers to wait until the new (corrected) bill arrives on their doormat.

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Cornwall Liberal Democrat pledges in graphic format

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Council votes no to Western Road development

I'm very grateful to my colleagues on the council's planning committee for voting this afternoon against an application to build two three bedroom homes at the junction of Western Road and Carboth Lane.

The application would have seen the excavation of huge amounts of soil, the construction of a massive retaining wall and two houses being built up against the wall.

The two concerns I expressed to the committee were:

- that the construction of a retaining wall would threaten the safety of the main road into the town. I know that the council's highways department had concerns and were asking for a separate application before work could begin. Although I am sure that both the council and the applicant would have made sure the desperate problems of Looe would have been avoided, there is always a concern when large excavations are carried out;

- that the properties would have little or no amenity space (planner jargon for garden). The proposal would have seen no back windows on the ground floor of the houses and a 14 foot wall as close as 4 feet behind the houses on the upper floor. The amount of sunlight reaching the terrace at the back could have been measured in muted per day, even in summer.

The committee is not saying 'never' to the concept of any development on the site, but this application was refused on the basis of bad design and lack of amenity as well as concerns over structural security.

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Launceston set to become centre for disabled powerlifting

Launceston is set to become a local centre for disabled powerlifting after a town gym became the first in Cornwall to house a specially adapted bench.

It's all thanks to the generosity of Gold medal winning Paralympian Anthony Peddle who donated his disabled bench to town resident Jade Farrington after he retired from powerlifting. And to Crunch Gym on the Scarne Industrial Estate offered to host the facility to give as many people as possible the opportunity to try the sport.

Jade, who holds six able-bodied powerlifting records, had her left femur replaced with a metal prosthesis aged 9 following bone cancer and has competed and trained with the British Weightlifting Association for the Disabled.

She said: “I can’t thank Anthony enough for giving me his bench and bar. Crunch Gym owners Mark and Merwyn Quick travelled up to Chesterfield to collect them and I’m really grateful that they’ve found room for the bench in the gym.

“Cornwall gets a raw deal when it comes to sport, and disabled sporting facilities are practically non-existent, so to have this on the A30 where it’s easily accessible to so many people is fantastic. I hope making it available to the public will encourage disabled people to give powerlifting a go, and hopefully take it up on a competitive basis.”

Anthony Peddle is a Paralympic legend having competed in seven games. He won gold in Sydney in 2000 where he set a world record of 168kg which stood for seven years. He lifted 140kg in the under 48kg bodyweight category at London 2012 before retiring.

Jade said: “I hope the opportunity to lift on the bench he owned and trained on will encourage people with disabilities to try powerlifting and hopefully get a taste for it.”

Able-bodied powerlifting sees athletes compete at the squat, bench press and deadlift, while disabled lifters carry out the bench press only on a specially designed long bench which supports their entire body.

Crunch Gym member and wheelchair user Kyle Jordan, 16, was thrilled to see the bench delivered. He said: “It’s wider and allows me to feel stable and secure so I can focus purely on lifting. When I use standard narrow benches it’s difficult to get my balance so I can’t lift as much. Now I don’t have to worry and I can get the full benefit.”

Merwyn Quick said it was great that Crunch had become the first gym in Devon or Cornwall to offer a disabled bench.

“This is just the start of preparations to make the gym more accessible to all,” she said. “We’re just so privileged to have this facility.”

The bench is now available for disabled and able-bodied use. For details, call 01566 248252 or visit Crunch Gym.


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The one where Sarah 'On Message' Newton comes unstuck

This afternoon I was in Plymouth to record the South West segment of the Sunday Politics Show. One of the other guests is Truro and Falmouth Tory MP Sarah Newton.

In the green room before the recording, we were discussing the fears that the new Home Buy support scheme could end up helping to subsidise the purchase of second homes - as I blogged yesterday.

Sarah declared that this was definitely not the case and that ministers had ruled it out. I agreed with her that there had been statements made by ministers that they would seek to exclude second home buyers, but that these had only come after the flaw in their original plans had been spotted.

Sarah declared that the Chancellor had been quite definite on this issue from the start. She could even prove it by showing me in the Budget Red Book (the official Treasury document with all the budget details) where it said that the scheme would only be for primary residences.

The trouble is that no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find anything in the Red Book to prove her point.

So she declared that the statements were in accompanying guidance that was issued at the same time and was on her iPad. Strangely, she didn't attempt to show me that...

In other news, Sarah declared that the whole pasty tax shambles in last year's budget was spotted immediately by ministers and wasn't corrected straight away simply to set up a campaign so that the government could give ground. Hmm.

There is another 'Newton-ism' to blog about from the recording itself, but I will leave that until after the broadcast on Sunday morning at 11am.

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