A controversial plan to place 10 pods for homeless young people near Truro's Waitrose store and Duchy of Cornwall homes has been abandoned amidst political intrigue.
A Cornwall Council cabinet member, who is also the councillor for the area, claimed a previous cabinet member didn't want him to know about the scheme, even instructing officers not to inform him about it. This lack of engagement has ultimately led to the £2m project being withdrawn.
The council had intended to locate 10 modular units on Newquay Road, close to the Duchy's Tregurra Park estate and Waitrose store in Truro, for individuals aged 18 to 25 who would otherwise be homeless or at risk of homelessness. Many of these individuals would be transitioning from children's services after leaving the care system.
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Concerns were voiced that the proposed site - on council-owned land next to the entrance of Tregurra Park and Ride on the A39 - was not the appropriate location for the pods during a meeting of Truro City Council's planning committee in January. Approximately 20 residents living on the Tregurra Park estate attended the meeting, with many more expressing their concerns on the council's online planning portal.
The 101 properties on the development were constructed through a Duchy of Cornwall collaborative scheme with Cornwall Council, Waitrose, the Great Cornish Food Store and developer Zero C on Duchy-owned land. The city council ultimately rejected the homeless pods proposal.
Cornwall Council has now abandoned the scheme, with a spokesperson stating: "After careful review, it has been decided not to proceed with the Newquay Road scheme."
The council's new cabinet member for the environment and climate change, Cllr Loic Rich, said he was not consulted during the early stages of the plan despite being the member representing the Tregolls ward where the pods would have been situated.
He claims he was informed by a Cornwall Council officer that former cabinet member for housing Olly Monk instructed them not to inform Cllr Rich about the scheme, an allegation which Mr Monk refutes.
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Cllr Rich stated at the city council meeting in January that he had not been informed of the scheme despite being the local member. We have also reviewed emails which demonstrate that the scheme reached the Stage 3 design phase, just prior to planning application submission, before Cllr Rich was briefed about it.
He said: "There's a housing crisis in Cornwall and I know what it's like to live in Truro, be in a low-paid job and live in a really dodgy place. There are young people out there living that kind of life and need help and support.
"So I would probably be one of the last people to be against something like this. The problem I've had is I didn't know about this until recently. The whole scheme had been worked up without my knowledge. I had an email from a private consultant basically telling me about it and asking if I could get him planning permission. I was quite shocked.
"I was really shocked on behalf of the community I represent because they deserve to have their councillor fully informed of things that Cornwall Council are doing especially quite controversial schemes."
He has now revealed that a council officer explicitly told him that former Conservative councillor Mr Monk, who lost his seat at the May election, instructed officers not to inform Cllr Rich about the scheme. He claims this startling revelation came to light during a meeting about the proposal with the council's new cabinet member for housing, Cllr Peter La Broy.
"It slipped out at the meeting," said Independent councillor Rich. "I was trying to explain to Peter the back story that they'd worked the whole thing up to planning permission without telling me or involving me. One of the officers said, 'Well, actually, that's not quite true. Olly said not to tell you. He said don't tell Loic'.
"I wrote to chief executive Kate Kennally, strategic director Phil Mason, all the top people, saying I understand that happened and no one has denied it. I want to be fair to the officers though. I think if you're an officer and a cabinet member tells you to do something, you're in a really tricky position.
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"The trouble is he compelled them to deceive me because when I asked 'how come I didn't know about this', they said 'sorry, we forgot to tell you'. I had a public meeting where I repeated that misinformation to members of the public. A falsehood that they'd forgotten to involve me in a multi-million-pound scheme.
"What I'm disappointed about is that Olly, who I thought was a pretty straight guy to deal with, basically deliberately didn't want them to tell me about a really controversial scheme in the run-up to the election."
He added: "The reason it needs to be called out is that we're a new administration and want to be a lot more open and inclusive. If it was incompetence or a mistake, you could understand, but I'm really disappointed."
The project was withdrawn shortly after Cllr Rich made his complaints about how the project had been managed.
Mr Monk, who is no longer a Cornwall Council or Newquay Town Council member, completely denies Cllr Rich's accusations.
He told us: "It's absolute nonsense. It's absolutely ludicrous to think that any planning application that would be brought forward in a member's division that the member wouldn't be consulted on it.
"Loic was involved from the very start of the scheme and he always made his feelings clear that he didn't want Cornish youngsters who happened to be homeless to be housed in his division because he had quite a lot of well-heeled residents towards Waitrose.
"I think he actually said to me that if you go up Newquay Road out of Truro on the left-hand side, which was formerly social housing, none of the people there would be bothered about it, but on the right-hand side where the new estate is that they were all up in arms about it, and he was going to be against it on that basis.
"The accusation that I told officers not to tell him would be counter-intuitive because obviously people would find out about it anyway. How would you hope to sneak something like that by when it's in a councillor's division? The very first thing you'd do is mention it to the councillor to find out what their thoughts are about it."
Mr Monk, who now focuses on operating a renewable energy enterprise, continued: "I completely deny that I ever told officers not to tell him that we were trying to put a £2m scheme in his division without his knowledge. It's ludicrous to suggest that would ever float. You're just not going to do it."
Cllr Rich responded to the former Cabinet member's remarks, stating: "Everything he's saying that I said to him about the proposal is not the sort of language I would use. I wouldn't have described the situation like that.
"Olly's being disingenuous when he's saying I would have found out about it. Yes, he's right, of course I would as it would have gone to planning. I'm not saying he tried to get it through planning without me knowing. I should have known about it before that stage. The point is I was told by an officer that he told them not to tell me about it and that was really disappointing to hear.
"Why would an officer make that up and why would I want to do that? He lost his seat in the election, I've got no axe to grind against him. I'm not accusing Olly of anything, but an officer told me he told them not to tell me about the scheme. He's got every right to deny it, but I know what I was told. The reason why I'm speaking to you about this is I think it's in the public interest to know that's what happened. ".
Cllr Rich added: "I've supported many plans to help young Cornish people get homes – the scrapping of that scheme was purely down to their failure to properly engage."
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