I am writing to complain about the way the planning meeting for Shrubberies Hill on Saturday, August 3 was conducted and the subsequent decision taken. The chairman asked Mr Gundry to leave the meeting for interrupting, Mr Gundry only interrupted because the chairman was not factual or correct in his comments and was obvious to all concerned biased towards the application and had his own agenda.

The chairman insisted that only the planning committee could speak but then invited Andrew Wallis, who is not on the planning committee, to speak regarding the 106 agreement that would be put in place regarding affordable housing. Why could he speak when others were asked to leave?

This was obviously rehearsed because Mr Wallis had all the details in front of him and what does affordable housing have to do with a planning application, the meeting was to decide whether a development should take place on this land not affordable housing which is a separate issue.

The council postponed their planning meeting until after the public meeting to gauge public opinion before making a decision. The overwhelming majority at the public meeting were against this development and the same large majority on the county council website comments section. Porthleven Town Council then completely ignored public opinion and approved the application.

I could understand the decision to go against the people of Porthleven if the council had a mandate from them, but the truth is they don’t, most of the council possibly all of them were not elected they were co-opted on to the council. This week two councillors have resigned because of the decision the planning committee have made, it is not them who should resign, it is the three who have made a decision with total disregard for the majority of the people who should resign.

W J Tearney