COUNCILLORS in a North Cornwall town have issued an urgent plea to Cornwall Council to provide infrastructure before houses.

It comes as councillors representing towns and parishes across Cornwall have been asked for their views on sites which have been offered by landowners for mostly large-scale housing developments as the current government bid to build more homes, more quickly with planning reforms.

As part of this exercise, Cornwall Council invited submissions for potential land to be built on beyond that already allocated in their various local plans, which are currently being reviewed in light of the change of legislation.

At a meeting of Bodmin Town Council’s planning committee, the councillors present discussed each of the sites in Bodmin which could be the subject of more housing.

While supportive of the principle of more housing in the right places, councillors aired their concerns that while Bodmin had been the subject of several large housebuilding projects in recent years with several more going through the planning process, previously promised infrastructure had not transpired.

Former mayor and town councillor for Bodmin St Lawrence, Cllr Jeremy Cooper, said that if there were further developments to the west of Bodmin without some sort of traffic alleviation or capacity upgrade, citing a previously proposal for a ‘Northern relief road’ to circle the town, it would have the potential to bring an already congested town to gridlock.

He said: “The reality is that places such as Lanivet could potentially support more development than the west of Bodmin currently can because of their close proximity to the A30, whereas that part of Bodmin is gridlocked.

“In the original DPD site allocation plan, I recall there was an indication from Cornwall Council that if the town expanded by approximately 5,000, it would look at a northern relief road. We must now be close to that with the developments that have happened, and this latest potential allocation will surely take us over that.

“We (Bodmin Town Council) on behalf of our residents should enforce this concern to Cornwall Council because more development in the west of Bodmin cannot be sustained without it. It will lead to sustained pollution in an air quality management area on Dennison Road, it will create more traffic on the A389 and leaves getting to the A30 by Lanivet as the only sensible option.”

Cllr Cooper and fellow councillors, however, stated they were willing to be constructive on allocations for housing, adding that they would welcome development in the Callywith and Cooksland areas in the east outskirts of the town as its proximity to the A30 and other transport links without congesting the centre of the town was far more advantageous.

It was further suggested that the council insists that Cornwall Council allow parish and town councils better capacity to speak to developers at the earliest opportunity on CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) payments and Section 106 allocations in order to progress the work required for the infrastructure to alleviate the burden on existing facilities.