Two Green Party candidates standing for vacancies on Penryn Town Council have been talking to business owners along Commercial Road who want better parking for staff.

Good luck with that one! Aren't they aware that Cornwall Council, the authority with almost all the actual power concerning planning, has already disregarded petitions, pleas from businesses, another Green Party councillor and the town council as a whole to retain spaces in the car park behind the job centre?

Cornwall Council is taking away parking spaces in order to house, temporarily, homeless people - a commendable action but one that will be detrimental to Penryn's businesses and residents.

Written objections, a protest at the entrance to the car park held last year and a comprehensive set of data showing how well used the car park is at present were all ignored.

The Green Party candidates say they have also written to Cornwall Council planners about the unfinished student block on the Kernick Road Industrial Estate.

Good luck with that one too! The last I heard, another company will complete the work once paperwork, lost in the ether, has been signed off; and plans have been also been submitted for another similar block to go up not far from the ugly, purple one.

Residents should also brace themselves for more of these types of multiple occupation monstrosities as Cornwall Council planners seem to be unable to say "no" to anything the universities based at Tremough want.

No matter how many Green, Red or Blue councillors sit on Penryn Town Council, Cornwall councillors, who don't live here, have the final say - unless a tribunal in Bristol overrules them as in the case with houses overlooking Swanpool.

I don't think it will take very long for whoever is elected to the town council to realise that anything they have to say on planning matters carries little or no weight.

However, one thing the Green Party could do to help the environment, and employment, locally is to have their election publicity material printed closer to home. The leaflet that came through my door was produced in Bolton!

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