Truro & TMS

4. TRURO CONCERN hosted a meeting of delegates from TA, Cornwall Towns Association, SoGS, SOUL and members of the public. The objective was to unite independent groups across Cornwall who are threatened by overdevelopment as a result of the RSS plans and to publically announce that the plans were unacceptable to Cornwall residents.

TA explained its history and structure at the meeting and subsequently have agreed that a united front to the RSS should be the adopted policy.

The press attended this meeting and it was reported in last weeks West Briton.

Whilst maintaining its right to oppose local plans as appropriate, TA has written to other groups accepting the basic proposal of unity of purpose. 

3. Have your say now on city plans for 6,400 new homes, WB, Wednesday, November 12, 2008

IT IS time the people of Truro had their say, according to council chiefs considering the development blueprint for expansion over the next 20 years.  The wide-ranging Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan (TTAAP) outlines the preferred options for fulfilling government demands for 6,400 new homes and 9,500 new jobs.  Now CarrickDistrict Council has agreed to spend months seeking the views of the people who live and work in Truro.  Planning officers and councillors said it was needed to guarantee local people had a say over where development takes place.  Once accepted it would be used to guide development. The fear is that without it, developers could submit plans to build anywhere, including ‘greenfield’ countryside sites, and win permission on appeal to the Government if rejected by Carrick.
For More:  http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/westbriton/say-city-plans-6-400-new-homes/article-469285-detail/article.html

2. Truro & Threemilestone Area Action Plan
Last updated: 14/04/2009
Introduction
The Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan will set out the framework and proposals for growth in Truro and Threemilestone up to 2026.
Truro has become a natural focus for growthwith a mixture of retail and other employment. Sites like the Hospital, Truro College, and County Hall have all added to the city centre in providing an economically vibrant city. The challenge for Truro and its community is to manage growth in a way that adds value to the city.

Truro and Threemilestone Draft Area Action Plan – December 2008
Consultation has recently been undertaken on the Draft Area Action Plan, the City Centre Proposals Map, and the City Wide Proposals Map (between 6th December 2008 and 2nd March 2009).  Work is underway on the process of collating and scanning all the responses received, and these will be available to view online once this process is completed.
Other documents have been prepared as part of this process
Facts about the preparation of the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan
Growth Points Funding and the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan?
Carrick District Council has received funding to undertake detailed work developing the evidence base for the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan (TTAAP) from the department for Communities and Local Government. This work will assist the ongoing appraisal of options available for development in the Truro and Threemilestone Area.
This work needs to be undertaken anyway but this extra funding means we can involve specialists in their field to work alongside local expertise.
New Growth Points status is not a statutory designation but is about a relationship between Central Government and local partners. It is built on four principles:
Early delivery of housing as part of the growth plans
Supporting local partners to achieve sustainable growth
Working with local partners to ensure that infrastructure andservice provision keep pace with growth
Ensuring effective delivery
Levels of growth will be subject to comprehensive testing and public consultation through the regional and local planning processes to ensure that individual proposals are sustainable, acceptable environmentally and realistic in terms of infrastructure.

What is the need for growth?
The draft Regional Spatial Strategy sets out how the nationally agreed needs for new housing will be delivered in the South West over the next 20 years. The document will be finalised in 2008 with approval due in December 2008 
The Cornwall Structure Plan was adopted in 2004 following consultation with the community and an Examination in Public. It gives broad guidance on the location and opportunities for growth through out the county. It set the number of new houses to be provided in Truro up until 2016 and recommended a direction of growth to the west of the city centre.
The Balancing Housing Markets Development Plan Document – sets out the Council’s policy approach to seeking a better balance in the local housing market by providing a mix of housing and, in particular, affordable housing to meet the community’s needs.

What are the aimsof the Truro and Threemilestone AAP?
Increased affordable housing
Better and more sustainable transport infrastructure
Sustainable growth
Supporting a flourishing and dynamic economy
Ensuring the natural environment is protected and access to the countryside is improved

What would happen if we don’t deliver a robust Area Action Plan for Truro and Threemilestone? 
Truro will not cease to grow if we do not produce an Area Action Plan. Without an AAP it will simply continue to grow on an ad-hocbasis with less local control on where development goes and less benefits to those already living and working in Truro. It is only by setting a long term vision for Truro and Threemilestonethrough the Area Action Plan that we can establish with the community and users of the city where it is appropriate to develop and set the boundaries for the limits of growth.

How do we work out the options for the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan?
A robust evidence base is essential to ensure all options are properly investigated.  Consultants were commissioned to carry out seven studies aimed at assessing Truro’s capacity for growth. These studies are:- 
Masterplanning
Landscape Strategy
Sustainable Urban Drainage, biodiversity and access strategy
Contributions Strategy
Sustainability and Energy strategy
Conservation Area Management Plan
Leisure facilities strategy
Copies of the above studies will be made available on this website with the exception of the Contributions Strategy which is still an emerging document.

Are the Community being consulted?
The community have been consulted throughout the process to date and continue to play an active and critical role in determining what Truro options for growth are.
Following preferred options consultation on the AAP in spring 2007 members of the community that made comments on the plan were invited to a series of  Visioning Workshops. These workshops have helped the process of assessing options for growth and will feed into the strategies being prepared by the consultants and the Area Action Plan.
Future Events?
Event dates, times and locations for the current consultation are contained in the ’shape your place’ downloadable leaflet on the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan front page.

Who is overseeing, guiding and managing the process?
Local Councillors, Stakeholders and Carrick Officers
Single Issue Panel-  A single Issue Panel has been set up consisting of Carrick, Parish and County Councillors that represent Truro and the surrounding area. The panel meets monthly to review progress on the Area Action Plan and discuss topics affecting Truro and Threemilestone. The panel does not directly make decisions but reports their findings to the Council’s Cabinet.
Partnership Delivery Group – A group of Stakeholders, Officers and Consultants meets monthly to discuss current issues and issues relevant to their organisations. This provides regular feedback on project progress and enabling stakeholders to ensure that decisions and infrastructure investment plans are properly coordinated. The group provides a project steer for the AAP.
Stakeholder Workshop – these workshops are carried out prior to the community workshops to ensure that all the relevant statutory and strategic bodies can have an input into the emerging plan.
Community Workshop – Three community workshops have been carried out to date with community members who made representations to the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan Preferred Options.

Where will this process take us? 
The current work forms part of the Evidence Base for the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan which will be taken forward as a Development Plan Document under the emerging County wide Core Strategy. The purpose of the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan is to provide robust planning policy guidance for the location of new development up until 2026.

What Happens Next?
Following consultation on the draft Area Action Plan between December 2008 and March 2009, the representations will be considered and will inform the preparation of the submission draft.  This will be consulted on in November 2009 before the Area Action Plan is submitted to the Secretary of State in February 2010.
Related Reports and Documents
Please use the links on the right to find further information on the following:-
Balancing Housing Markets
Cornwall Structure Plan(2004)
Regional Spatial Strategy

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=17581
Further info Wednesday, April 22, 2009:
Group forms to fight redevelopment

1. A GROUP formed to fight plans for the expansion of Truro and Threemilestone over the next 20 years has published an alternative vision for the area’s future.

Truro Concern said Carrick District Council’s blueprint for the area’s development, the Truro and Threemilestone Area Action Plan (TTAP), is “planning for failure” and urged the new Cornwall Council, which is taking the plan forward, to think again.

The action group was set up by county and Truro city councillors Bert Biscoe and Armorel Carlyon two years ago, when plans were first announced to provide 6,400 new homes and 9,500 new jobs locally to meet central government requirements.

Since then residents’ associations in Penweathers, Gloweth, Calenick, Greenbottom, Rosedale, Malabar, Trelander and Newbridge, as well as the Truro Transition group, have joined Truro Concern and added their name to its rival proposals. Truro Concern said the level of growth envisaged in the TTAP is too high and does not have the backing of local people

Cllr Biscoe said: “The TTAP seems bent upon imposing extraordinary levels of population growth, built development, loss of farms and farmland, reduction in accessible amenity and recreation spaces, deterioration in economic conditions and a net increase in carbon generation.

“This is not simply bad planning for a future in which climate change, new technologies and the shift to post-oil, social strategies all require different, innovative approaches to land use – it is also demoralising for the existing community.”

In its alternative proposals, “Planning for Failure”, Truro Concern argues the target for new homes should be 3,000. But it warns Truromay have reached its peak as an employment centre, with public sector organisations reducing staffing levels and rural areas providing more opportunities for growth, for example in tourism, food and farming.

Development

It says any development plan should pay more attention to helping the area reduce its carbon footprint and protect agricultural land to sustain the local population.

It adds that the blueprint should include plans for waste handling and renewable energy generation, promote rail and maritime transport, and reduce reliance on private cars and the road infrastructure.

Truro Concern believes Truro should remain the main retail centre and the trading environment should be improved, but does not support the scale of retail development envisaged in the TTAP.

Cllr Biscoe said: “The TTAP is a blueprint for over-exploitation, social decline and environmental degradation.

“Cornwall, Truro, Threemilestone andthe farms, hamlets, villages around the town deserve more care and respect. We believe our rival document shows how this might be achieved.”
Copies of Truro Concern’s “Planning for Failure” document are available from Cllr Biscoe who can be contacted by telephone on 01872 242293, or Cllr Carlyon on 01872 274491.
Alternatively see the West Briton’s website thisiscornwall.co.uk from where the document can be downloaded.
Truro Concern’s alternative plans for the Truro and Threemilestone area include:

● 3,000 new homes, including in the city centre, on land to the south east of Threemilestone, north of Treliske industrial estate, at Highertown, and on the Kenwyn caravan park site;
● creating additional employment areas, including for food processing near Treliske, extending employment space in the Newham area, and providing live-work units at Moorfield;
● the protection of open spaces which would be maintained as sustainable community assets, including at Coosebean and Higher Newham;
● protecting Tolgarrick Farm, as well as neighbouring land south of the A390 as a ’safeguarded rural sustainability area’ for food and fuel;
● planning for renewable energy schemes, including a wind farm at Higher Newham, a tidal barrier scheme, and a community recycling centre at Newham to assemble commercially viable cargoes of recycling for transport by ship.

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/westbriton/Group-forms-fight-redevelopment/article-923506-detail/article.html


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