PROTESTERS have formed an alliance to oppose government plans to build 70,000 new homes in Cornwall.

Groups from across the county came together in Truro on Thursday to plan their fight against the South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), which sets development targets for the next 17 years.

Under the plans, which campaigners have branded 'disastrous' and 'unsustainable', the Government proposes 10,900 new homes in the former Carrick District Council area, including nearly 7,000 in Truro.

'Outlandish'

A further 15,700 new homes are envisaged for Restormel, 14,400 for Kerrier, 13,400 in North Cornwall, 7,800 in Penwith, and 6,000 in Caradon.

Truro councillor Bert Biscoe, who introduced the meeting on behalf of the campaign group Truro Concern, said: "The RSS is outlandish. We should be reducing the pace and volume of population growth, not increasing it.

"Independent movements from towns across Cornwall that are threatened by the plans need to come together to make a collective statement that the significant increases in growth rates prescribed in the RSS are simply unacceptable."

The RSS, which has also come under fire from MPs, is part of a wider plan to build three million new homes in the UK which has the personal backing of the prime minister.

Though the masterplan is facing a legal challenge in the east of England, those who attended last week's meeting agreed the local fight must go on.

Nicky Higby, who co-ordinates the national umbrella group Save Our Green Spaces, told the meeting: "If we make a co-ordinated effort to get attention we are stronger. We must be determined to get the RSS thrown out and a better plan in its place.

"Legal opinion is that no council should make any planning decisions based on the RSS until legal problems are resolved, but developers will always try to bully planners, saying the Government wants development to happen."

Affordable

Mrs Higby added there are currently 60,000 empty homes in the south west which could also be brought back into use.

Acknowledging that some new homes are needed in the region, which are truly affordable for people on Cornish wages, Mrs Higby said: "We are not against building the homes we need, but we are against developer-led greed and against developers who say they are building 'affordable homes' as an excuse to get through their plans."