Isn’t it wonderful to see that developers casting their long-taloned shadows over Falmouth and Penryn have decided to go easy on our two towns? Taking on board comments from locals and scaling back their housing in favour of green space.

Or is it? Does anyone really believe that concessions granted in recent planning applications aren’t just concealing the thin end of a long grey wedge driving through the green shield which surrounds our communities?

Last week, councillors in Penryn showed open disbelief at the idea that Richard Walker will stop with just 150 homes poised on green fields over the town.

Instead, it seems clear to many - or inevitable to some on the council - that he will build his homes above College Hill, then infill the corridor that leads into the heart of the Glasney Valley.

Meanwhile, the Planning Inspectorate has upheld an appeal by Midas, which will allow it to build on land below Budock Church as the developers have conceded a sliver of green land to the west of the site.

In his adjudication, the planning inspector agreed that building these homes would definitely be detrimental to the setting of grade II* listed St Budock.

But it’s all alright really, because the harm arising would be “less than substantial.”

However, “less than substantial” developments, once taken together, add up to quite some substance.

Taken in-and-of itself, 94 homes do not amount to much. But add potentially hundreds of homes at Menehay, an extension to Bickland Industrial Estate, more opposite Falmouth Football Club, and those on the former Falmouth School fields, and it all becomes pretty substantial. At least the developers will be offering us lots of lovely “on-site public open space” in exchange for our green fields.

At Penryn’s planning committee, councillors said you can’t reject plans based on possible future applications, but planners need to start looking at a bigger picture when it comes to saving our countryside.

Moreover, you can indeed fight potential applications. The Dean Quarry protestors in Coverack thought developers were pushing plans through piecemeal, and successfully won an appeal. Perhaps Penryn can fight Walker and his ‘salami-sliced’ approach?

Sadly the Budock appeal was their final hurdle. The only advice I can offer councillors is to put the first graves in any new cemetery as close to their boundary as possible.