8.0 Issues, matters of concern.

8.1 Planning policy

8.2 The Golden Days of Planning

8.3 The Traditional Appearance of The Point

Sight Lines. The vital application of safe sight lines to vehicular entrances previously passed from the County Council to the District Council now the direct responsibility of Cornwall Council.

The preservation of the verges, previously passed from the County Council to the District Council, now the direct responsibility of Cornwall Council.

The lack of direction to implement the introduction of double yellow lines to the western end of the Cornwall Council Highway.

The lack of refusal to the construction of dwarf stone walls and paviours to vehicular crossings within the ownership of Cornwall Council, now the direct responsibility of Cornwall Council.

“No Through Road”. A resident of long standing, suggests the  introduction of a direction sign adjacent to The Clock House, to read,  “No Through Road”. Many visitors to the area, unfamiliar with the locality, expect to travel directly from the Point to St. Mames, Falmouth, the Pandora, or Restronguet, to name but a few. The responsibility of Cornwall Council.

The repainting of the road white lines to the three way junction adjacent to The Clock House. The responsibility of Cornwall Council.

The undergrounding of  the services. Although, following the recent survey, only 14 of the 80 households supported the proposal. The introduction of high speed broadband within five years, in underground ducts may force and resolve the issue once and for all. The responsibilities of the  Services authorities.

The provision of a Heritage  Sign at Marble Head to commemorate the original Restronguet Ferry.  The present proposal is for the sign to be in the form of a slab of granite with the information hand cut. The original proposal was for a high quality comprehensive information sign including text and photographs produced in colour, designed by a professional graphic designer. The sign would have provided information to the visitor of the history of the area, being a World Heritage site, former alluvial tin mining, former barges, former boat building, the former deep anchorage for 30 schooners travelling to all corners of the world, the derivation of the name Restronguet and Marble Head Quay, the straffing of the Ceek by German bombers during the war, a location map, pollution from Wheal Jane Mine, former rowing races, and the Pandora Inn, to name but a few. The responsibility of the FRP.

The lack of control  of speeding vehicles on the Point, by the Police and Cornwall Council.

The former Cornwall County sign at the western end of the CC Highway at the end of the Point clearly defined the access to the foreshore as a Footpath. The sign was stolen, now recently replaced. A serious accident could occur to the occupant of the adjacent residence by a passing motor vehicle illegally using the pedestrian only footpath. The replacement sign is half the area. The original sign design, which read, "PUBLIC FOOTPATH, NO VEHICLES", was much larger in area with a graphic of a pedestrian, and an arrow pointing left. The new sign is much smaller, with only the words "Public Footpath" and an arrow. The sign is set parallel to the footpath and difficult to see. The former CCC granted the footpath at the end of The Point official status. There are opportunities not only to improve this pathway but also to improve the areas from which and to which it leads. The access to the rocks and foreshore at the end of The Point could be made safer, the boat storage areas more accessible and the approach to The Point more attractive.

Climate change. The Met office is to warn gardeners to plan for a warmer summer by cultivating drought- tolerant plants such as palms, olives and Mediterranean herbs and to resign themselves to the death of the traditional lawn. The Met Office has Issued the warning at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Hampton Court Palace flower in 2009 “If you are planting long- lived plants like trees then you might want to choose a species that can cope with hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters said Vicky Pope, the Met Office’s head of climate change. “Gardeners face big challenges. There is a good chance that the next few years will include some of the hottest on record. That will mean big changes In wildlife too, possibly Including challenging new Insect species. By 2040 such summers are likely to be commonplace.”Such warnings are backed by a survey from the Waste and Resources Action Programme, in which 56% of gardeners reported a longer season for grass cutting  (Jonathan Leake, Environment  Editor, Sunday Times, 4.05.08)

The provision of a bus shelter at the junction of the lane to Harcourt with the CCroad along The Point.

Congestion at the end of The Point in the allocated “Turning Only, No Parking” area. The unsatisfactory and unsightly parking situation at the end of The Point requires resolution.

CCC tree felling on verges.

As far as the felling of trees is concerned, we generally resist the temptation to remove them unless they constitute a danger to user or adjacent landowners. We always seek the opinion of our forestry officers in determining the level of danger before taking action. Clearing verges for cosmetic reasons is outside the scope of my maintenance budget at the present time.
(Peter Tatlow, CCC Divisional Surveyor, December 2005)

A policy as regards the provision of adequate public car parking on The Point is urgently required.

Opposition to any further development of the three fields at the eastern end of The Point adjacent to Harcourt and Porthgwidden.

 

8.1 Planning policy

Feock Councillors pioneer local planning revolution

By PHILLIPPA SPACKMAN

West Briton,Thursday, August 272009

A PARISH council in mid-Cornwall is one of only five in the country to trial a project which could put planning decisions in the hands of local people.
During the next year Feock Parish Council will develop the framework for a Local Development Order (LDO) which would allow its councilors to decide minor planning applications rather than them going in front of Cornwall Council planners.
The project will look first at applications in Carnon Downs for such things as conservatories, extensions, garages, hedges, trees, and any other development for not more than one house.
Parish clerk Alan Truan said: “The project is to create the framework for the LDO and if it is successful, the council has said they will implement it.
“We receive around 800 planning applications a year in the parish, of which 100 are from Carnon Downs. If this is successful it could lead to minor applications being- decided much faster and at much less expense.

 
Advantages
“Anyone would still have the right, if they prefer, to seek planning permission by the usual route of a formal planning application to Cornwall Council.
“Another advantage would, be it would free up some of Cornwall Council’s planning officers time, leaving them to concentrate on major applications. ’

Feock Parish Council won permission to trial the scheme, after Cornwall Council put in national bid to fund the project with the help of £15,000 from the Government’s planning advisory service.
Mr Truan said: ‘When we bid for it, we didn’t expect to get it, especially as much larger councils such as Looe and St Ives were in the running. But we’re very excited and pleased to be able to take the project ahead.
“Planning is an absolute priority for us and we have done a lot of preparatory work already in developing our parish plan and parish design and character statement.
“We’re looking forward to working with Cornwall Council officers to develop this, make the LDO happen, and hopefully roll it out across the county

Enabling
Mr Truan added: “It’s really about localism and the empowerment of parish councils - what we’ve always been promoting. It’s enabling decisions to be made locally by people who live locally, and know the local area.
“To make It work we will have to develop a rigorous framework for the order, and a rigorous design code, and parish councillors will have to be trained. The order will then have to be registered by the planning authority and we will have to be given a certificate to allow us to do the work.”
The time scale for the project is for a design code to be formulated and published by April next year If the new order is adopted by May, it should be in operation by October.

8.2 The Golden Days of Planning

 

In 1962, Mr H. W. J (Jim) Heck, the then South West Regional Planning Officer for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning with offices in Bristol was appointed the first Cornwall County Council Planning Officer.

Mr and Mrs Heck were residents of the Point and built the original Mariners, later Malojo, later demolished.

He was the national President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Following his considerable experience at national level he moved to Cornwall and set up the new department at Old County Hall, Truro. He appointed a team of highly qualified planners and architects within the newly formed planning department. The architects were very highly qualified and quickly earned the respect of their private architect colleagues. They were experienced in architectural design, colour theory and graphic design. Mr Heck encouraged the approval of high quality modern architectural design, landscape design and town planning. The planning architects were positive in their approach to design and encouraged private architects to be innovative and imaginative. Cornwall received more architectural awards in his time than all the other areas of the South West put together.

Whilst writing this short article I realised that I may be one, if not the only architect from the early fifties still involved in the planning process in Cornwall, as the present Vice Chair of the Truro Civic Society, and I may be one of the last architects to have experienced high quality planning control in Cornwall.

Innovative Planners have long since departed, official architects have been made redundant, or have moved to private practice. Building Regulation control, Health and Safety Regulations and computer technology rather than the innovative use of a 2B pencil, all serve to dumb down the fine art of architectural design.

During the fifties, the few architects then practicing in Cornwall, no more than twelve firms, won more architectural awards than architects from all the other areas in the south west. Due I believe that to the encouragement of the planners to produce high quality results. Jim Heck, was an extrovert, he took risks, he made mistakes but he produced high standard design and innovative results.

During the 1960’s I designed houses for the County Clerk, the County Treasurer, the County Surveyor and the County Planning officer. The officers were located off one corridor in Old County Hall. The County Treasurer, quietly put away £1M, now valued at a little over £14M, without the knowledge of the members, to finance the building of the new County Hall. I understand that under the new Cornwall County reorganisation, all senior officers will share one open plan area!  Results remain to be seen! The County Treasurer, Mr Woodward, also lived on The Point at Mariners, later sold to Mr Heck.

Since then a handful of major national architectural awards have been awarded to Cornwall, all the buildings designed by architects from beyond the Tamar. The Tate of the West, The National Maritime Museum, The Truro Crown Courts, The Eden Project. No RIBA Awards have been awarded to architects practicing in Cornwall over the last seven or eight years.

 
In 1974 the responsibility for planning was devolved to the newly formed district councils. Later the planning department and the architects department were incorporated within the Department of Planning, Transportation & Estates. At County Level the Architects department was closed down a few years later.

The Friends of Restronguet Point was established some seven years ago. Although the members of the committee meet at regular intervals they can only comment, influence and refer matters of interest and concern to their councillor representatives serving on the Feock Parish Council and Cornwall Council. The Constritution sets out the responsibility of the members of the committee of the FRP.

The Parish Council and Cornwall Council are fortunate to have qualified Chartered Architects serving on their committees as private members but at the time of writing there are very few appointed Chartered Architect Officers serving on the Cornwall Council planning staff. Private architects serve the planning committees on a voluntary basis to assist the members on a limited number of occasions.

Planning decisions at Parish level are referred to Cornwall County level for a final decision.

The minutes of the committee meetings are posted on the website.

There have been many social events, boat trips, lectures, barbeques, and annual general meetings which have brought the members together.

The members of the Committee, at August 2009, were;

Derek Reed, (Chair), a Barrister,

John Brock, a retired farmer and former chairman of the Feock Parish Council, and now Chairman of the Feock Village Facilities Group, Alan Brownscombe, Chairman, Winter Rule, Chartered Accountants, (Hon Treasurer),  Jonathan Dean, Chartered Accountant (retired), Wendy Gladwyn, Charles Hancock, former Vice Principal University College Falmouth, Sivaraman “Kumar” Kumaravel, eye surgeon and consultant ophthalmologist, and Tom Rouncefield, former teacher and historian, (Hon Secretary).  

Several members of the committee have experience in the commissioning of architects for buildings of quality. The design standards of the residential houses on the Point continues to rise. Present day designs are more readily approved by the recently formed  Cornwall County.

The following matters have been influenced by the members of the committee.

 

• A mobile radio mast was opposed and successfully rejected,
• a modern post box replaced the previous box with a small aperture
• and a section of the Cornwall County  Council verge to Stoneybrooke was reinstated with the assistance of the owner and the former CCC.

The award winning website,

http://www.restronguetpoint.co.uk/ designed by Creative Edge of Truro, edited, managed and financed by resident John Crowther continues to reflect the history and development of The Point. It is understood thet the Cornwall Council will formally add the website to the CC list of consultative reference documents. 

The area covered by the website approximates to one third of a square mile, 40,000 words, 200 photographs and diagrams, 180 equivalent pages. The site is monitored by Google Analytics.

(JBC, 22.08.09)

8.3 The Traditional Appearance of The Point

The traditional appearance of The Point has been and continues to be spoilt by inappropriate development. Whereas the old PPG1 told planners to refuse bad design, the new PPS1 tells them to accept only good design. CABE has declared that “Now mediocre is not enough”.

It is felt that planning and architectural control standards are demonstrably in a state of decline through the establishment and use of precedent. It is also regrettable that the Design Review Panel, a specialist consultative body, is not consulted by planning officers for domestic design quality assessments. Developers need to be made aware of the environmental value of their sites; architects of their professional responsibilities to prepare designs of the highest quality and case officers need to have at least a basic understanding of architectural appreciation. Councillors need access to highly qualified architectural advice; the views of local residents also need to be sought by councillors at parish and district levels.

A case officer holds a very important position in the chain of planning responsibility and should be encouraged by councillors and senior officers to implement the planning principles. The Point is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and as such must be protected. High‑quality design must be encouraged. Housing development to near‑saturation level has taken place during the last half century and planning permission has been granted with little apparent attention to detail or quality of design. The ultimate authority in the county for planning decisions is the Cornwall Council planning authority. Both parish and county councils are available to act as consultees.

Mr Karl Roberts, CDC former Head of Development Services, suggested that the Friends of Restronguet Point becomes an internet/email consultee in respect of planning applications on The Point. This has been agreed by the FRP and the FRP’s Honorary Secretary was nominated to represent the FRP as consultee.   Nothing further was heard from Mr Roberts. who has now left due to the reoganisation of the Councils. (JBC).

© Friends of Restronguet Point. Every reasonable care has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this Statement. If any have inadvertently been overlooked, the Friends of Restronguet Point would be glad to hear from them and make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.