A CONTROVERSIAL masterplan which gives Government targets for the number of homes to be built in Cornwall over the next 17 years is set to be reassessed for how sustainable the proposals are.

The South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) has come under fire from councillors and MPs in Cornwall as well as thousands of local residents after it detailed plans for 70,000 homes to be built across the Duchy.

The document, which is supposed to span 20 years from 2006 to 2026, has been put on hold several times, most recently after a successful legal challenge was made against the RSS for the east of England.

A High Court judgement ruled that the sustainability appraisal of the east RSS had failed to test alternatives to two proposals.

As a result the Government has approved plans to carry out a further appraisal of the south west RSS and whether the proposals are the most sustainable way forward for the region.

The south west RSS has already attracted one of the largest responses to public consultation on such a document with about 35,000 representations being made after the draft publication in July 2008.

Stephen Gilbert, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Austell and Newquay, welcomed the review of the RSS.

He said: "Cornwall doesn't want or need another 70,000 homes. Across the area there are examples of planning applications coming forward for major developments that are unwanted and unneeded but are being justified and promoted by the ridiculous numbers in the regional spatial strategy.

"These applications are motivated more by developers' greed than by the local community's need. In areas like ours, with high housing need and development pressure, the planning system has to be tamed to allow our local needs to be given a higher priority. Cornwall must be allowed to build what is necessary to meet local need, not what the Government tells us we must have."

Under the current plans in the RSS the Government proposes that 15,700 new homes should be built in the Restormel area, 14,400 in Kerrier, 13,400 in North Cornwall, 10,900 in Carrick, 7,800 in Penwith and 6,000 in Caradon.