Local protestors who have spent 17 years campaigning against dumping of waste and the infill of an area of harbour at Gweek have demanded action from Cornwall Council.

Campaign group Change for Cornwall is attempting to apply pressure to John Pollard, head of Cornwall Council, over the unitary authority's "consistent failure" to enforce planning and restore Gweek Creek to the state it was in before 1997, when protests started.

The group estimated that more than 6,000 tons of unregistered and unknown waste has been dumped into the Creek over the past 17 years, and accused Kerrier District Council, Cornwall County Council, and most recently Cornwall Council, of "wilful inaction" over the issue.

Tristan Mackie, a local parish councillor, said: “There have been serial failures across the planning department, the enforcement department, the legal department and the finance department of Cornwall Council through the course of this case.

“Despite the best efforts of our local Cornwall Councillors Hatton and Sanger, we have been treated with contempt by successive councils and their officers. This is completely unsatisfactory and has not delivered fair and transparent governance to our village."

John Pollard, leader of Cornwall Council, said he and deputy leader Jeremy Rowe met with the group twice, in March and April, and were joined on the second occasion by Edwina Hannaford, portfolio holder for planning.

He said: “We made it clear that we would not respond to each of the studies but would take forward any of the generic issues where relevant.”

He added: “A specific response would not be made as I felt it essential we concentrated on the future of planning rather than historic matters which had already been decided.”

Regarding the case highlighted by Cornwall for Change, the council said an enforcement notice was issued in May 2007, which referred to harm to biodiversity areas in Gweek Creek and to the character and appearance of the area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

In 2010 an appeal was lodged and the inspector upheld the notice, requiring removal of tipped material used to form extended quays, with a period of 30 months to comply.

The council said that since 2010 other options to remove the harm from the planning application had been found to be acceptable, and in 2013 permission was given for the recovery of formerly tipped material and infill of an adjacent harbour area for restoration of inter tidal habitat and associated site works, with support from both Natural England and the Environment Agency, which would remedy the harm that was previously identified.

The planning permission requires the development to be completed by the end of 2015.