PARKING ORDER

JUST A SHORT POST

Today I will be reviewing the new Cornwall Council Parking Order which will be very interesting reading because it affects a small number of towns plus Truro.   It appears that the cost of parking will be going up in many of the coastal resorts hitting our main industry and the local residents of the areas with council car parks.   I said this the last time they did a revision of parking charges "Added costs of parking does not mean that the council will get more from car parks".  They have about 56 car parks in Cornwall owned, repaired, lit and insured by the council that they do not charge for.   I will be getting the full list onto this blog soon.   

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Dear Reader,  I as a local councillor have campaigned for over ten years now with a number of submissions to enquiries into this subject and letters to the PM and MPs, but in all that time little notice has been taken.   Well not one to give up I again tried recently by e mailing 641 of the MPs with an idea, only two replied one to say I was not in his area and the other told me firstly to get the local authority to build more houses and then the Minister will look into it.    You may well wonder why they do not want to solve the problem that is costing the government £16.82 billion a year in the cost of supporting housing costs in both the private and social sector.   Well the reason is that a lot of people are getting very very rich in this sector and by not meeting the needs for housing in the country the costs of houses go up and the costs of rents follow.   Recently I had someone in my area tell me that they could not afford to take a Housing Association flat because they earned just over the benefits limit and the £500 per month was to much and would lead to her being in difficulties with money (i.e. poor).  This is a similar theme across the area with the working residents not earning enough to have decent housing and all the other bills that come with it, i.e. rates and utilities.   It has been said that Housing Associations made £3billion in profit last year and many of the chief executives earn more then the Prime Minister, not sure how that works but they now charge 80% of the local market rate.   This in a place like Looe means that the local rents are expensive because the open market is very limited and very expensive because being a tourist area homes can be let out for high prices and make better returns for owners.  

How do we solve this problem of providing homes for people without them being to expensive at local wage rates and reduce the amount of money going to private and social landlords and reducing the countries debt for this.   Well for many years i have pushed the idea of a semi social house which is for local people only who are on the social housing register that are working in the area but can't afford open market house prices and private rents.  Well i will try and explain;

Councils own a lot of land and this should be allocated to be used for semi social housing, the return for this they would receive an income of £20 rent per week per for each house built in this ground and if later sold to the tenant it would be at the local rate for housing land and without discount.   This gives a return to the council for the land and gains the full future value of the land to rate payer in the local area, this income can be used for future provision or supporting the rates.   Any lease should be 99 year for mortgage purposes

The services and utilities should be brought to site at cost proportioned across all the properties on the site by the size of property in relation to the costs of provision.   The home should be modular in design and fabricated off site to reduce the costs and for speed of build.   Looking at the costs locally it should be able to bring in homes and flats for between £60k and £90k thus affordable to many local families and at mortgage rates that are affordable to local people.  These homes should be sold at cost-plus 5% to cover council costs and future projects.

These homes would be a solution to the affordability problems we face in Cornwall without the council having to fund the costs of the build.   It would provide an income for the council from assets it already has and reduce the pressure of local social housing which will in its current form can not solve the housing shortage.   My final two pieces to make this work and not effect the local housing market,  the houses should be given a condition of sale that means it can only be sold to someone else on the local housing needs register and if they default on the mortgage the home must be sold back to the council.  

I must again state that this is only an idea but with the country with its financial problems it has it is the only way to meet the need without penalising the tax payer to solve the problem.

I LIVE IN THE PROMISED LAND

I know i have not blogged for some considerable time but i feel with the elections coming in about 80 odd days it about time to start again.   Having listened to all the promises that have been made by all the political parties that are not costed or will cost us in the future i make the following proposal.   There is a major problem with Health, Social Care and Education that needs to be fixed quickly as without health you have nothing and without education you fail the test for the future of the country.   So how do we pay for all these without effecting the public purse and without putting the costs onto the future or our children's generation.   Well perhaps we should look at what we give away in foreign  aid which currently runs at .7% of GDP far more the many other countries such as France which gives .45 % of GDP.   So my suggestion would take half of the current foreign aid and put £3 billion into the Health Service, £1 billion into Social Care and £1billion into Education.   The is less the half of the £11.3 billion we give away in foreign aid now and bringing down the aid bill to around that of France.  This would remove the burden of the country where we currently have hospitals, a care system and education are in crisis.    The national debt has increased substantially over the last five years and we need to control debt because that is the future of our children we are playing with.

Next blogg about housing

REPLY TO A QUESTION ON OUTER HARBOUR

This is a reply to a question asked about the outer harbour, hope you find it helpful.  Armand


Subject: RE: Looe Harbour flood defence plans and proposed new outer harbour

Dear Alice, Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you but after being away on holiday there have been a lot of issues to be dealt with from the recent flooding. These effected many properties in the area and there has been some damage to the infrastructure which needed to be attended to urgently.

In saying the above the project that you wish information becomes even more important for the town and it's residents. Back in the 90s the EA did some tests in the harbour to construct some form of flood defences for the town, probably lock gates which was strongly apposed by the towns Harbour Commission and Fisherman. It was thought that what was proposed would make entering the harbour dangerous, as an ex trawler owner and skipper i can confirm this. This idea was dropped and no further work was done in respect of any flood defences until a chance meeting early one morning with a member of the EA and myself (as a local councillor). When we discussed the continued flooding in the town its affects on the businesses and residents and the potential for serious damage to the infrastructure. We talked over the past schemes and the possibility of moving something new forward. After a meeting with the towns Harbour Commissioners the EA promised to put in a substantial sum of money if any community solution would elevate flooding. Since then there has been a series of meetings with the EA and even a meeting with Dan Rogerson the flooding minister who supported this approach. The basic idea is that the town develops its own plan for flood defences that will include elements of regeneration to bring more visiting craft and renewed vigour to the fishing indistry. This is being lead by the Harbour Commissioners who have so far got outlined permissions to used Duchy, Crown Estates and Cornwall Council land for any scheme that comes forward. The next stage is for the Commissioners to get down some basic ideas on paper and take them to the towns organisations and residents so that any plans for the future development of an outer harbour, breakwater etc come form and with the agreement of the town. Any plan must be put forward as part of the Town Plan which will be voted on by the town.

This is just a brief outline of what is happening

Regards



Armand Toms cc
Looe East and St Martins
01503 264823

A NEW WEEK MORE PLANNING APPLICATION

Dear All,   Some new planning applications to be considered, antsy comments to atoms@cornwall.gov.uk or 01503 264823.    Armand

Looe

(Looe East

Electoral Division)

Tremayne House Sandplace Road St Martin Cornwall

Construction of domestic garage with workshop over

(Resubmission of application PA13/08415) - Mr K Eason -

PA13/11021 (Case Officer - Davina Pritchard)

Looe

(Looe East

Electoral Division)

8 Rame View East Looe Looe Cornwall PL13 1DR

Loft conversion and construction of new rear dormer with

balcony. - Mr And Mrs Keith Bonaker - PA14/00246 (Case

Officer - Sarah Stevens)

Looe

(Looe East

Electoral Division)

Unit 1 Fish Quay The Quay East Looe Looe Cornwall PL13

1DX

Change of use from B1/B2 business/general industrial - marine

engineering unit to A3 fish restaurant and A5 hot food

takeaway. Alterations to entrance steps and provision of

kitchen extract. - Mrs T Hicks (With Tanners Holdings & Tamar

View Fruiterers) - PA14/00336 (Case Officer - Jonathan

Luker)

NEW PLANNING APPLICATION

Dear All,   Below is a new planning application, any comments to atoms@cornwall.gov.uk or 01503 264823.  Regards Armand

Looe

(Looe East

Electoral Division)

Chough Rock Plaidy Lane East Looe Looe Cornwall PL13 1LF

Demolish existing house and erect new house set down lower

into the cliff - Guild Of St James - PA13/11294 (Case

Officer - Jonathan Luker)

New Planning Applications

Dear All,   New applications in this week, have resolved problems with getting these now.   If you have any comments let me know at 01503 264823 or atoms@cornwall.gov.uk.       Armand

Looe (Looe East Electoral Division)
Land At Shutta Hill Shutta East Looe Cornwall
Redesign of dwelling to existing approval, installation of new
access, driveway and associated works. - Mr G Stevens -
PA13/10143 (Case Officer - Davina Pritchard)

Looe (Looe East Electoral Division)
Adjoining Looe Comprehensive School Barbican Road East
Looe Looe Cornwall PL13 1EU
Construction of 22 dwellings constituting a partial re-plan of
Phase 1 (99 dwellings approved by planning permission
reference PA12/04367) - Mr N Lush - PA13/10664 (Case
Officer - Mr Stephen Kirby)

Looe (Looe East Electoral Division)
Land Adjacent To Glebelands Looe Cornwall PL13 1NP
Residential development to provide 13 affordable rented
dwellings, public open space and a children's play area on
vacant land. - Ms Michelle Richards - PA13/10810 (Case
Officer - Victoria Regan)

Looe (Looe East Electoral Division)
Barratt Homes St Martins Road East Looe Cornwall
Screening opinion for the construction of 22 dwellings
constituting a partial re-plan of Phase 1 (99 dwellings approved
by planning permission reference PA12/04367) - Mr N Lush -
PA13/11093 (Case Officer - Mr Stephen Kirby)

1.