A councillor has called for greater transparency and openness over the use of planning enforcement.

Mark Formosa, Cornwall councillor for Newquay Treviglas, put forward a motion at full council yesterday asking for a new group to be set up to examine the council’s planning enforcement procedures.

Cornwall Council used to publish details of planning enforcement cases that it was looking into but stopped the practice last year saying that it believed that in making the information public it was breaching data protection laws.

However Cllr Formosa claimed at the full council meeting that other councils were still publishing the information.

On the council using data protection as a reason not to publish he said: “I feel it is being misinterpreted by this authority in an overzealous fashion.”

He said the issue was about public access and letting the public know what the council is doing.

The Conservative councillor added: “Other councils around the country can publish these details so why on earth can’t Cornwall Council?”

The motion was not debated at the full council meeting but was instead passed to the Cabinet for consideration due to there being “potential resource implications”.

Speaking ahead of the meeting Cllr Formosa said he felt that the council was displaying “Kremlin-style secrecy” which he said did not fit with open democracy.

The councillor said he expected that the motion would be passed to Cabinet and a “hope it will fade away, but I can assure them that I am not going to let this matter rest”.

He said members of the public had been unable to attend a meeting where councillors were receiving evidence and deciding what to do.

And he said councillors had also been told they could not discuss enforcement cases with local residents.

He added: “Currently, we are making a mockery of open government with our ‘top secret’ labelling of enforcement inquiries and even gagging councillors like myself to stop us from speaking about cases.

“We have a long and well-understood legal tradition in this country that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty, so I cannot accept that the public should be kept in the dark when a planning allegation is made.”

Cllr Formosa said he tabled the motion after a series of complaints about a housing development in Porth Way in Newquay.

He said: “It is a scheme which received consent in an unsavoury manner and which clearly has not been carried out correctly, causing immense distress to neighbours with its impact on their day to day lives.

“Cornwall Council’s response to their complaints was to try to resist their complaints at almost every step, to act in seemingly the slowest way possible, to collect evidence in total secrecy, and then not only decide to do nothing about the issues but to actually take that decision behind closed doors.

“It is completely scandalous and now looks likely to result in a legal challenge to the council or a Local Government Ombudsman complaint.

“I never want to see this kind of planning disgrace again which is why I, with the support of many of my fellow councillors across Cornwall, want to force the council’s leaders to make the process more open.”