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Stoke Climsland new Homes - Please find copies of e-mails we have received. Our aim is not to edit e-mails, so you can see any comments in their full context. However, there may be occasions when we have to, in which case we will indicate this.

Please note that we do not give out full names (unless asked to), as we want to promote and encourage open discussion, and not label individuals by their comments.

Stop the development of Stoke Climsland. Have your say by e-mailing

Mandy@stop-it.co.uk

Seeing the current economic slow down recently, yes, practically it would be fantastic to have new homes for people who are less economically stable but that comes at a price.

Stoke Climsland is a wonderful small community with a lovely village feel and this potentially could be ruined by such developments. Kelly Bray which is just up from Stoke Climsland has recently had affordable housing erected. As mentioned earlier, there used to be a lovely village like feel about it but that is now not so true with the vast quantities of housing being erected.

Stoke Climsland primary school already very full could not cope with this growth in population.

This could be the make or break of Stoke Climsland.

from: R(3) - (27/08/08)

In the current climate it seems to me that protecting our environment should be our main concern and further development of "green sites" is totally against our national aim which is to make better use brown field sites. Given that the proposed housing in Stoke Climsland would be affordable for local people then someone would need to convince me that the jobs in this area are there to support this proposed additional housing in Stoke Climsland and that this is not just a ruse to develop more land by the back-door. In order to justify the affordable housing the aim of the developer would quickly become focused on building more higher priced housing to offset his lower profit margins.

Additionally our infrastructure of schools, health care, roads and security are currently dealing with all they can handle. Further development would mean lower quality of services for us all.

Rural village communities are becoming ever more under threat of losing their way of life and if it is not stopped then all of us will eventually be worse off. Stoke Climsland is already developed enough and further development is neither truly needed or wanted by the majority of the people living here.

I think that this housing would very soon become a hot topic for those wishing to house groups other than local young people and the objections then would frankly be too late. We need to stop this now! 

I would like to add my voice to the long list of dissenters.

Regards

I have just looked at the website.  Who owns the areas marked by red/yellow boundary markings? (as far as I know, 95% Duchy).

There is already a lot of traffic running through our small village at the moment.  We are bounded by small Cornish lanes and a problem in walking or driving to the church, the post office, the primary school and the college because of more traffic.  You cannot knock down some parts of the village so more cars and lorries will be even more dangerous.  Only the college or the post office can offer employment in the village so what work will young people find here?  If young people are needing to find work surely most will either live on our farms or go to Plymouth?  Why do we need more houses in the village.  I have read the articles about Callington but Callington is a town, Stoke is a Village, there is no work here so why stuff people into a place where there is no work and they will have to drive off somewhere to find work, make more cost and traffic, unless of course they don’t want to work?

More houses mean more cars, and the costs of diesel and so on are getting bigger.  There is no work in Stoke.  Who is going to make a profit from more houses, who owns them,  who sells them, and how do we keep our village  - and we live right in the village, a steady, kindly place for real residents to live in.

The only places I can think of where people might get jobs are the college and the post office.  So who is going to make a big profit by getting excited about something which can be done in a town, where there is work.  Why to we want money people using our village to ruin it with lots of clever reasons and just let them all run off doing their own thing.  I really do not want to look back in a few years or tell my children, well that’s what we were told we had to do.  If my children cannot afford to live in the village they will have to find somewhere else to live we have all had to face that that problem through our lives.  There are lots of young people from the college who come through to the post office. And that helps to keep the post office alive for all of us.  The last thing is services.  If we have more houses we will need bigger and more roads, AND MORE, please not!!!  LIGHTS in the village.  We will need a bigger water treatment, drainage system at the bottom of Stoke Hill.  If we have that made bigger the college and the duchy will jump in and build more and more.  We might then get even more planning and building and this village will become another ruined shell pulled this way and that by outsiders.

This computer website thing is a good idea and I will now try to get a look at it often.

S(1) - (07/05/08)

Well I have lived in Downgate all of my life, which is 39 years I went to school in stoke and my children go there now.

Over the years I have not been in the position to be able to afford any thing local, ( I actually rent a house, which is being sold). Because such a lot of the houses get snapped up by people who are not local to the area, which in turn pushes the prices sky high.

The council houses in Stoke and Downgate are a joke, I tried years ago to get one, but got offered one in launceston.

Some people just don't want to move on with life, you cant stay still and stagnate for ever, what annoys me is a lot of the people against this are not even what I would call locals.

This to me would be the answer to all of my worries and what will be will be, you cant say what if more properties are built, there are a lot of what ifs in life.

M(2) - (06/05/08)

I have been reading that almost half of all sales are now falling through. With this rapid decline in the property market, allied to the mortgage problems, the sale of the starter homes will more than likely fall through and we shall be left with the Housing Association taking them over. The result will then be 16 Housing Association properties let to anyone, regardless  of their connections with the village, on a 106 basis with those with the highest points taking precedence.

Section 106 sates that qualifying persons will have a local connection as specified, but goes on to point out that LOCALITY means the Parishes of Stoke Climsland, Lezant, Calstock, Linkinhorne and South Hill.

Farthing - (05/05/08)

Is there really such a need for housing as we are led to believe? There may be need on a national scale in certain places but this has to be balanced against the fact that the birth rate of UK nationals has slowed up considerably over some years- hence many areas have seen school closures even in Cornwall (such as Lanreath). There has been recognition of housing overcrowding because of immigration and temporary labour from Poland and elsewhere but our economic conditions are already showing a reverse in this trend. I cannot help but wonder whether this is once again an example of ill timed and poorly thought through political decision making.

The Callington picture is more pertinent perhaps as a local picture compared with the national one. The article in Callington news so clearly describes overstretched resources for health in particular as well as a lack of employment opportunity. We have not even got a full time fire service to cater for this area 24 hours a day- a situation which is so third world it does not bear contemplating. How can this project makes sense when any additional funds for the area are reduced by the proportion of affordable homes(Ref:see the Callington article) quite apart from the sad fact that Truro thinks we are in Devon anyway!

M(1) - (05/05/08)

I agree that unless a clear need for affordable housing in the village for youngsters that come from and wish to live here is proven then we should say no to any further development. I believe this is driven by government directive to look at the problem nationwide but has been taken up and  pushed by people who have a vested interest in making money out of further development rather than any actual need in this village. At the last meeting one of the parish councilors stated that in Callington these affordable houses had been built but they could not find enough people to fill them so I doubt there is a need in this village.  My wife and I will be at the meeting.

Kind Regards

R(2)   (address removed) - (02/05/08)

I will not be able to attend the meeting on Tuesday 6th May. I have lived in the village now for almost 20 years.

I would like to have my vote of AGAINST recorded at the meeting.

Thank You.

W    (address removed) - (01/05/2008)

Stoke Climsland Affordable Homes Project

Thank you for providing a lively,informed and considered opportunity to debate what is a most important issue for local inhabitants, particularly those who reside in the main village area, rather than in isolated hamlets.

While we would not wish to prevent locally born youngsters from finding affordable homes it is highly unlikely that they would be the beneficiaries of this project. In no time at all others would be profiting from these new homes.

Moreover, it is more than obvious that the lead group on this project have taken this forward without proper local consultation. This village is one of the few which has been least spoiled by rashes of low quality development over the last few decades. It would be regrettable to spoil this record by rushing into unsuitable ventures now. One of the main influences has but a temporary capacity in this village,has demonstrated little commitment to it and can leave it all behind  and move on in due course, leaving us to suffer the consequences.

It seems inappropriate to have such a large number of properties relative to the size of this village. It is disproportionate to legitimate local needs. We do NOT want more traffic nor rapid expansion.

Just as it seems now in a national context that political correctness is being recognised for contributing to blind decision-making , it seems it has only just arrived here in Cornwall. Councillors need to consider their position carefully and represent the real benefits to this village rather than being taken in by the notional and with misrepresented outcomes. Perhaps we need fresh leadership on the council if they are so easily swayed against real local interests. Bring on the elections!

from: R(1) - (30/04/08)