Having been involved with the College Valley development as a Penryn Town Councillor, I feel that Cornwall Council are showing utter contempt both towards the residents of Penryn and to any democratic process.

To state that the senior planning officer will make a decision on the application without going to full planning committee beggars belief. The reason given - that there have been few or no objections to the application - an outright lie. From the time this proposed development was known about there have been public meetings with huge turnouts from the public (the majority of whom were stating their opposition to the scheme), a protest march with around 250 people (a good proportion of the Penryn population) and a petition with a large number of names on it - also against the development.

There has also been a great deal of scientific evidence provided to Cornwall Council as to why this scheme shouldn't go ahead. Notably the ecological report that was commissioned for the application stated that the woodland surrounding the scheme was ancient woodland - yet this and the rest of the evidence seems to have been put aside in a top down decision to make this development happen.

There seems to be no willingness from Cornwall Council planning department to challenge any decisions or legislature from government and this makes them a weak and poor department as a result.

In terms of actual objection - there is no way that the traffic that would be created can be catered for by current infrastructure. I cannot believe that highways have made this decision unless they have only carried out a desk study.

What would result from a development are bottle-necks, jams and dangerous roads for any pedestrians or cyclists. It's not safe as it is now.

Rich Mitchell,

former Penryn Town Councillor,

via email