Friday 24 March 2017

Truro City loses out to Council Incompetence

The news that the new ground for Truro City Football Club is not viable, sadly, comes as no surprise at all.

There has been a catalogue of incompetence on the part of the Council and greed tinted optimism by the developers promising two stadia funded by many houses and much retail development.

In 2015 I attended a meeting in Whitehall with all the stadia protagonists (including INOX, Truro City Football Club, Helical Bar, the Pirates, Truro College), the Minister for Culture Media and Sport, John Whittingdale and four of the Cornish MPs.  My aim was to get the Government to stump up money for the Stadium for Cornwall and to persuade the two clubs to share a ground to make the scheme more viable and the impact on Truro less severe.

But no. The developers assured the Minister that they just needed their respective planning permissions to be granted and then all would be fine. Their schemes were both viable - no problem. So, the Minister stood back and let them get on. Except that they couldn't and didn't.

Asda has walked away from the Willow Green Development opposite Threemilestone too. It is not clear whether the Council is now going to try and bale out one or more of these developments on A390 with taxpayers' money.  The Council's target for new housing looks unachievable and there will be knock on effects for all of Cornwall.

If the Council tries to 'help' then the Independent/Lib Dem administration must allow its proposals to be subject to proper scrutiny. The Council is currently itself undertaking a couple of residential developments at Tolvaddon and Bodmin. But being Bob the Builder involves more than just posing for photos with a spade or a digger.

Thursday 16 March 2017

Council Spends £143K on Trade Union Representatives

“No Money” Cornwall Council spends £143K [corrected figure £142,983] a year paying for its staff to perform trade union duties according to the Taxpayers Alliance.

Read the Taxpayers Alliance report HERE

Is this is a proper use of Cornwall's money?



Wednesday 15 March 2017

Agency and Consultant Figures

A direct answer to a direct question:  from Cornwall Council.



Friday 3 March 2017

Councillor Numbers - Final Submission

Final Conservative Group submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England .... Here