It would appear that Cornwall Council planners believe the answer to Falmouth and Penryn’s chronic parking crisis is to reduce the number of spaces on student developments.

What kind of logical disconnect is happening between these people’s ears, as they tell developers to remove all parking from student accommodation as it ‘undermines’ their own pet plans for travel?

This blatant disregard for reality will not stop students bringing their cars, but simply push the problem elsewhere, and now it seems planning officers see the displacement of cars onto residential streets as official council policy.

Instigating an already failing policy then covering their eyes and singing ‘tralala’ as students drive their cars onto residential roads simply won’t work.

Developers at certain sites are offering an actual workable solution to a problem which is inevitable when you put students in a place with so many attractions and so little public transport – and the council is turning its nose up at it. Moreover, it is not doing anything to offer any real alternatives.

So what if parking at a new student village might encourage ‘overflow’ from Penryn Campus? That’s the opposite of a problem. Better than flowing into Mabe or Penryn.

Students bring cars, that is not the problem. The problem comes when those in power refuse to accept it, or knock down those offering a solution.