EDWINA Hannaford, Cornwall Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, attended the Camelford Community Network Panel meeting on September 13 to give a brief overview on planning matters.

Cllr Hannaford, who is also the ward member for West Looe, Lansallos and Lanteglos, explained that Cornwall Council is the largest planning authority in England, with more than 8,000 actual planning applications, and heading towards 20,000 transactions.

The council has been carrying out some benchmarking with other areas of a similar scale, and Cllr Hannaford said: “We come up really strongly on all sorts of performance levels. It’s not just about the quantity, it’s about the quality. The better organisations can be better. We’re not sitting on our laurels. There’s always room for improvement.”

In a phase where the Local Plan could potentially be adopted in November, the council is focusing on planning for the future.

The meeting heard that the Cornwall Local Plan has taken a long time to develop. It has been examined and gone through a fact check process. The council is now waiting for the final report. This should be received by the end of September and then it can go through the council’s processes.

Cllr Hannaford said her emphasis now is to raise the quality bar, adding: “I want to have better developments and have better places for people to live. We want to create communities and not just big estates. We have the tools behind us but there is a lot of learning to do.”

The council is planning to implement autumn town and parish council training conferences to pass on advice and knowledge to these authorities.