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CPRE Cornwall's Policy on Transport

Saturday, 28 August 2010

Policy Statement on

Transport

Our Aim: CPRE Cornwall actively works to protect the countryside, coastline and communities of the county.

1. Introduction

1.1 Cornwall is predominantly a large rural county. Its population, towns, villages and hamlets are spread far and wide throughout the county. In addition the many facilities and services needed and used by the people of Cornwall are equally spread out. This includes not only housing and places to work but also schools, shops, doctor’s surgeries, hospitals, post offices, public houses, local shops, and major shopping centres etc. Therefore it is critical that the people of Cornwall are able to move freely between these facilities, services and land uses. Such movement is an essential component to normal everyday life in Cornwall.

1.2 Cornwall is also an important tourism destination. Once here tourists want to be able to enjoy the many attractions of the county. But to do so they also need to be able to move freely and easily around the county. However, enabling this can, in some cases, (for example widening narrow traditional Cornish lanes) damage the very environment that attracts the tourists in the first place.

1.3 Much of the movement around the county is reliant on the private motor car. Compared with other counties of England, Cornwall, in parts, appears to have a good public transport services. This helps reduce the reliance on the private motor car but more importantly allows those without access to a car to get to important appointments and enjoy life. Overall, therefore, public transport in the county functions well but it is far from perfect. However, there remains a heavy reliance on the use of private cars, especially away from the major towns, which in turn causes major environmental problems (which are fully documented elsewhere) such as congestion, pollution and damage to the environment. Also maintaining the infrastructure of the county, mainly roads, to enable private cars to move around is expensive and diverts funds which otherwise might have been spent on improving public transport facilities for all.

1.4 The former Government’ policies and determination to move away from the reliance of movement by private motor car has in reality failed to work. The fact is that rural areas rely, and will have to do so for the foreseeable future, on the private motor car for getting around and we have to accept this and work with it and around it

2. Getting the Right Balance

2.1 On transport CPRE Cornwall sees the challenge for Cornwall as one of getting the right balance for the people of the county and visitors. In getting the balance it has to be accepted there will be no major changes, no quick fixes and no overnight major improvements. What is requires is a clear policy which is followed and worked towards over a long period of years.

2.2 But the starting point has to be a realistic acceptance that like it or not the private motor car is an essential tool of rural life. Therefore we need to stop the constant attacks on its use and those who rely on it to effectively survive in Cornwall. Yes, we should all seek to cut down our use of the car but we should not feel guilty when we have to or need to use it.

3. Public Transport

3.1 The various types of public transport and considered below. Also considered is how the various public transport services integrate or not.

Railways

3.2. CPRE Cornwall proposes that the railway system, which operates reasonably well, should be utilised much more.

Buses

3.3 As previously stated, bus services are fairly reasonable – where they exist. The problem is that coverage is variable as is frequency. There is also a need for greater synchronisation between public transport companies to ensure an improved integrated service. Urban areas are well served by buses, but rural areas are less well covered by this form of public transport.

Air travel

3.4 Newquay Airport provides a key and important link for the remote county of Cornwall and its people with the rest of England and to a number of major airports with links to other parts of Europe. CPRE Cornwall supports the airport but is concerned about the impact of any associated development and expansion of the airport on the surrounding countryside. In addition, for the airport to be seen as truly serving Cornwall improved public transport links with Bodmin, Truro, Newquay and other areas are urgently needed.

3.5 Penzance Heliport provides an essential all year round service to the Isles of Silly, with regular flights to St Mary’s and Tresco. This vital link should be retained, and at Penzance due to its close proximity to the railway station and (in case of fog) to the Scillonian ferry link that operates out of Penzance Harbour.

Ferry Link to the Isles of Scilly

3.6 This essential link is ideally located in Penzance given the town’s role as a major transport interchange. CPRE Cornwall cannot see any economic or other benefits to its relocation and considers any such move will seriously harm the economy of the town and its role as a transport hub.

Integrated transport links and defined transport hubs

3.7 There appears to be a major problem in the county with both integrating public transport services and identifying and protecting transport hubs. Such things might appear insignificant or superficial but they are in fact very important. Penzance currently acts as a near perfect transport hub and interchange, perhaps the best in Cornwall. The former North Cornwall area is less well serviced and this demonstrates the need for a far more Cornwall based approach. CPRE Cornwall considers that more attention should be given to persuade different forms of public transport to work together. Greater integration will lead to greater use of public transport.

Park and Ride

3.8 Park and ride can play an important role in the interchange from the use of the private car to other forms of transport as well as reducing the need to take cars into town centres. It has been successful in Truro. Normally park and ride schemes only operate in larger towns but CPRE Cornwall believes there may be a case and opportunity for smaller scale or mini-park and ride schemes to operate successfully elsewhere in Cornwall.

4. Road Improvements and New Road Building

4.1 While there remains a reliance on the private motor car for getting around the county and beyond, there will on occasions be a need for new road building. CPRE nationally has a general policy of not supporting new road building. However, CPRE Cornwall supports limited road building, upgrading and improvements when, for example, the quality of life for local residents or the environment of historic market town and villages will be improved through the relief from heavy lorries and major congestion or when there are other wider benefits to the residents of Cornwall as a whole. This is on the condition that the proposed solutions have placed into the planning and design process measures to ensure the least possible adverse impact on the environment and that environmental protection is a prerequisite and major objective, including the selection of any preferred route, for any new road.

Examples of where CPRE Cornwall supports limited road building or upgrading are:-

· A by-pass for the town and centre of Camelford;

· The dualling of the remaining sections of single carriageway on the main A30 from Penzance to the Devon border;

· The A391 from the A30 at Bodmin to the north of St Austell to connect with the already upgraded road that joins the A390; and

· A western-by-pass for Truro (A39) that would extend to the Falmouth and Penryn by-pass.

5. Freight movement in Cornwall

5.1 Most of the freight in Cornwall is moved on lorries using a road system which is not suitable for them and which suffers damage as a result of so much traffic. This will not easily or quickly be changed. CPRE Cornwall believes that there should be action to encourage greater use of rail freight utilising the existing rail system in the county. Combined with a series of rail freight distribution depots, the use of rail transport could reduce significantly the number of heavy lorries on local roads.

5.2 It is also possible to move freight around the coast in ships, in a process called transhipping. Again this could have a significant impact on the number of heavy lorries using local roads.

6. Conclusions and CPRE Cornwall’s Four Principles

6.1 Given the above CPRE Cornwall believes that the following four fundamental principles should guide transport policy in Cornwall in the future:-

1. The development of a policy strategy to retain and then improve public transport facilities and widen their availability to a greater proportion of Cornwall;

2. Greater emphasis being given to integrate transport services and facilities especially in the east of Cornwall;

3. A clear commitment to identify, retain and develop major transport hubs and interchanges such as at Penzance, where the road, bus, rail, ship and helicopter facilities are all fairly close to one another; and

4. Action to encourage the use of public transport and minimise the use of the private motor car.

24^th August 2010

The Battle for Trevalga

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

The Battle for Trevalga

Sample Image

The village of Trevalga

Trevalga is a small and compact village situated on the north coast of Cornwall, between Tintagel and Boscastle (see OS map below). Many of the properties in the village are Grade 2 or Grade 2* listed, with one farm and one house having medieval origins. Arthur Mee, in his 1937 book entitled “Cornwall” describes the village in the following way:

“Trevalga. Its little street runs off the road from King Arthur’s Hills at Tintagel to the old harbour of Boscastle; we can stand by the graves of old village folk and look across the gardens and see the ships go by. We sat in the gardens of the manor house where they (village folk) stood breathlessly and watched a German submarine sink a little ketch (presumably during the First World War).

Charming it is to come upon these homely gardens on this wild coast of immemorial time. From them we look out on rocky islands which are the home of innumerable sea birds, along the coast up to Bude and Hartland Point with Lundy facing us, and below the ancient trackway which seems to us about the finest walk in England.”

John Betjeman also loved Trevalga. In his Shell Guide to Cornwall (1964) he says:

“Trevalga. An unexpected oasis off a busy tourist road (the B3266) - with old slate cottages, a farm, a manor house and a church; all forming a group at the end of a lane with a sense of the sea nearby. The church (St Petroc) with a western tower of three stages, nave and north transept, is weatherworn outside but hard and new-looking inside because of a violent ‘restoration’ in 1875. Some bits of the old roof survive. A gorse covered valley leads to the sea and the grand sheer slate cliffs curving round to Lady’s Window Head. From the top of the head one can see Long Island, which is 300 feet high and level at one end with the headland. The stratification of the slate along these cliffs is horizontal. Inland in the parish are Elizabethan manor houses at Welltown and Redavallen and a mid-eighteenth-century house at Trehane with bits of an older manor house in its out-buildings. The parish is spared modern villas.”

This is obviously a delightful village - and unspoilt! The village was so loved by the last Lord of the Manor of Trevalga, Gerald Curgenven, that the village was left in trust to Marlborough College in 1959 so that it could be preserved and protected for all time. This Will has ensured that the working community of Trevalga continued to exist as it always has; and some residents have lived in the village for over 40 years. However, following the recent compulsory purchase order that allowed South West Water to obtain land for a sewage works near the village, the Will has been disputed, and as a consequence Marlborough College has put the village up for sale - either as a whole or as individual lots. As the tenants were promised life-time tenancies, the thought of eviction by new owners is too devastating to contemplate.

The sale of the village is proceeding alarmingly quickly and is to be launched on Friday the 13^th of August. Although the village is advertised for sale as a complete entity, each individual property will be offered for sale. The residents at Trevalga are asking Marlborough College to slow the process down to give them more time to challenge the legality of the decision to set aside the terms of Gerald Curgenven’s Will. Villagers are also asking that the Manor (village) is sold as a complete entity to ensure that the character of the village and its community is not destroyed for ever. Efforts are being made by the community at Trevalga to find a buyer who would honour the wishes of Gerald Curgenven in his Will; and again more time is needed to achieve this objective.

CPRE Cornwall is very concerned over the implications of any sale of this sleepy, but incredibly beautiful hamlet. Trevalga has a character that is linked to the rural environment and with the past. It should be treasured as an unspoilt part of the Cornish landscape, and strenuous efforts should be made to preserve that character. It would take only one modern dwelling to be built to destroy a unique part of Cornwall. The views of Arthur Mee and John Betjeman (above) are as important today as when they were written. In the hectic lifestyle that many people have to adopt in the early part of the 21^st Century, it is vital that villages such as Trevalga are preserved so that everyone can benefit from the link with history and natural beauty.

Anything that anyone can do to either avoid the sale or to ensure that the village is sold as a complete entity to someone who cares for its preservation will be most welcome - particularly by the residents of Trevalga. All enquiries and comments can be passed to CPRE Cornwall for onward transmission to the community at Trevalga that is battling to save its existence and way of life.

Ted Venn

10^th August 2010

Trevalga Local Map

Letter sent to Sarah Newton MP - 13 07 2010

Sunday, 08 August 2010

Letter from CPRE Cornwall to Sarah Newton MP - and copied to Cornwall's Five other MPs

The Planning System

1. Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule to meet with Ted Venn and myself in Truro on Friday 2^nd July. I found our discussion most helpful.

2. You asked specifically at the conclusion of our meeting that I write to you, and the other Cornwall MP’s, regarding structural changes CPRE Cornwall and I suggested are needed to the Planning System. I have set these out below and hope that you will be able to take up the suggestions with the Planning Minister.

Housing Land Supply and Targets

3. CPRE Cornwall welcomes the decision by the Planning Minister to abolish the RSS and targets within it. Those for housing were clearly unrealistic for Cornwall and based on a top down model.

4. However this leaves a major policy vacuum. This will remain the situation until the Local Development Framework (LDF) Core Strategy nears adoption. It is unsure when a consultation version of this will be published by Cornwall Council. In the mean time, in Cornwall, the policy vacuum is now being exploited as developers turn to the specific requirements of the Government’s Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3) which requires Local Planning Authorities (LPA) to maintain a five year supply of deliverable housing land in their area at all times. If the supply of deliverable housing land falls below five years developers can argue that one off planning applications should be approved even though they may be contrary to the Development Plan and other policies. In Cornwall we now have this precise situation. It is most evident from a case at St Austell where Wainhomes is trying to get planning permission for 1,300 dwelling as part of what has become to be known as the northern expansion. This is in addition to the 5,500 other houses the previous Government announced under the St Austell Eco-Villages proposal. Steve Gilbert MP will be able to brief you on this. There are similar cases at Truro and Bude.

5. What is required is the temporary suspension of the PPS3 five year supply requirement by the Minister thus allowing Cornwall Council and local communities to decide both the level and location of future housing growth via the LDF process. This would be commensurate with a Plan Lead System. It would offer much needed breathing space in the County. It would also importantly allow Cornwall Council to switch planning resources for dealing with large speculative planning applications from housing developers exploiting the policy vacuum with the long and time consuming appeals to help deliver the LDF more speedily. That is where limited resources must be used and focused.

6. It is not for me to suggest ways the Planning Minister might temporarily suspend the five year land supply requirement and it might not need to be done for the Country as a whole as other LPAs are well advanced with their LDFs. But Cornwall being a new Unitary Authority needs urgent help and I would have thought that either a Cornwall specific Statutory Instrument or Circular could be issued by the Planning Minister before the recess to the effect of saying that the requirements of PPS3 shall not apply in Cornwall until the LDF Core Strategy is adopted.

Reserve Powers for the Planning Minister

7. We discussed CPRE Cornwall’s and my concerns regarding the way that the planning system is administered in Cornwall at the present time. It is clear that all outside Cornwall Council agree it is highly unsatisfactory and needs changing and substantial improvement. The situation is unfortunately getting worse. I urge you to speak with other Cornwall MPs on this important issue.

8. CPRE Cornwall suggests that in any new Bill relating to Planning the Minister should seek reserve powers to enable him in the future to promptly and effectively deal with situations such as those we now find in Cornwall. He should at the very least be able to send in a team of experts to deal with problems, suspend the powers of the LPA in all or some cases/applications and be able to hold to account those responsible for an unsatisfactory service. While we agree totally with the policy of localisation in the case of planning, the granting of more planning powers or decision making authority to Cornwall Council would not receive local support in Cornwall.

9. I hope, Sarah, this letter is helpful and of assistance. I do also hope that you and the other Cornwall MP’s can either individually or collectively feel they can contact CPRE Cornwall and/or myself for help on how the planning system operates at a local level. It is important that as changes are devised to the Planning System a full and comprehensive understanding and assessment of their local impact is known and CPRE Cornwall is well placed to provide you all with that understanding.

10. Finally can I take this opportunity to remind the Planning Minister that the original Planning System and Act of 1947 recognised in its title the differences between town and country? We had a Town and Country Planning Act and system able to respond to the different problems and needs of large urban areas as well as the countryside. CPRE Cornwall and I hope any new Bill making changes to the current Planning System may again have regard to the differing needs of cities and the rural areas of the country. Such a recognition would I am sure receive wide spread approval.

Letter written by Richard Ward, CPRE Cornwall's Planning and Development Manager, on July 13th 2010

NOTE: Cornwall Council's Case Officer for the Wainhomes application stated his report on the application that the area around St Austell has over 17 years' supply of land for housing, and without including land ear-marked for the eco-villages proposal.

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