JUDICIAL REVIEW SOUGHT TO QUASH PLANNING CONSENT FOR 25 HOUSES.
Cornwall Council finally issued planning consent to Coastline Housing Association in November 2011 for 25 “affordable homes” on land at Tresavean Farm, just outside the village boundary. In doing this, the planning authority brushed aside the views of the local community as reflected in the parish local needs housing survey, the parish plan, and direct representations from residents and the parish council.
The parish council has now resolved to apply to the High Court for a judicial review of Cornwall Council’s decision and to have that decision quashed.
We are not opposed to more affordable homes being built in Lanner but these should be the right number, on the right scale and in the right place.
The development site is on what is termed an “exception site”. This means that because it is outside of the village boundary it can only be for affordable homes for which there is a demonstrable local need. The parish council’s painstaking consultations and research have identified a need for no more than 12 new homes. We believe that the information provided to us by Cornwall Council reinforces this view and belies their stated position. This is because they have continually used headline figures from their Homechoice register without discounting people who are already suitably housed for their needs, financially able to operate in the open market, or who don’t even say they want to live in Lanner.
Cornwall Council has also acted contrary to its own policy which states that exception sites should accommodate “no more than about 12 dwellings”. By no stretch of the imagination is 25 “about 12”.
These are important points which are being flouted by Cornwall Council not just in Lanner but in other communities.
The parish council and the community have been subjected to a variety of scaremongering claims and disinformation on this issue but, with the one exception of our local Cornwall Councillor, we have received only support for our position from both the people of Lanner and across the county. Our legal counsel has provided an Opinion that our “claim has good prospects of success” and we will now put that to the test.