'Think again on St Erth hub plan'

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Cornishman

 

AN INVESTIGATOR appointed by the Local Government Ombudsman has recommended that Cornwall Council "reconsider" its plan for a £10 million St Erth Transport Hub after finding councillors were "misled" about the status of the land to be used.

The news, which came as The Cornishman went to print will be celebrated in St Erth and Ludgvan.

Campaigners vehemently opposed the plan for three large car parks and a traffic control system linking St Erth to the main A30.

Many felt it was unfair that the scheme, the brainchild of Cornwall Council engineers, was then recommended by Cornwall Council officers and voted on by Cornwall Councillors.

After the plan was passed, the St Erth Residents' Association (SERA) took a list of complaints and concerns to Cornwall Council and then on to the local government ombudsman.

"We are pleased that the ombudsman has upheld the complaint and we hope that Cornwall Council does the honourable thing," said Cheryl MacLeod, a local resident and member of SERA. "We will keep fighting this."

Now one detail could see the whole plan brought back before councillors for a recount.

The ombudsman's investigator, in a provisional response to SERA's complaint, has agreed that councillors were given the impression the land to be used was not high grade agricultural land.

Councillors thought the land had been recently downgraded but it appears no such official downgrading had occurred and was merely a surveyor's opinion.

In the preliminary report, the investigator says that they have studied webcast footage from the key council meeting in March and feel there should have been "a greater debate on the agricultural land issue with a potentially different outcome/decision" because members "were misled".

In the ombudsman findings, the investigator wrote: "The investigation identified that members in March clearly understood that the land had been reclassified ... but this was not the case. I have to therefore conclude that members were misled on this point.

"I cannot say whether this made any difference to the decision on the application but, as the council is the applicant and promoter of the scheme, I consider it has the opportunity to reconsider the matter.

"I suggest that an appropriate way forward would be for the council to reconsider the application with the correct information on the classification of the land before members."

When Cornwall Council's own investigation into SERA's complaints led to an apology over the agricultural land classification issue, the authority insisted there was no mechanism for reconsidering the issue. The ombudsman seems to disagree.

Welcoming the report, former chairman of Ludgvan Parish Council Nigel Honess said he was pleased there would be more debate on the subject: "I think anything that revisits the whole planning application would be good," he said.

"This may mean the application goes from three car parks to two but I don't know how far Cornwall Council will go to put it through again or if they just leave it as it is. But they have got to recognise the report."

A Cornwall Council spokeswoman said: "The council is aware that the ombudsman is investigating this matter and it will be responding to him in due course in relation to his provisional findings."