Cllr Rob Nolan, LibDem, Truro Boscawen and Redannick

Cornwall Council had a plan. It was called the Local Plan, and at its heart it said we would build 2,707 houses a year up to 2030, and detailed where we would put them.

It took four years to put together and involved a lot of difficult meetings and consultation with residents. I know because I was there.

We say 2,707 houses, and it doesn’t mean much. Conversations get harder when you ask: “What about building on this piece of farmland?” But we did it, and we have a plan.

Or we did. With minimal consultation, the government has said we have to build 4,300 houses a year, starting from now. That makes our Local Plan invalid - we have to start again.

It’s fair to say our planners are dismayed. Planning involves, well, planning. What the government has done is a whim. Build 4,300 houses a year from now on. Decide where to put them and find people to do it.

Worse than that, it ushers a wild west into the orderly world of planning. If you refuse an inappropriate development, the developer takes it to the planning inspector in Bristol. The first question s/he asks is, do you have an up-to-date Local Plan? If the answer is no, the developer is more than halfway to winning the appeal. The second question is, do you have a five-year land supply allocated for housing? We did, but don’t now. At this point, the developer is smiling happily.

If the government had given or helped us borrow money to build social housing or affordable rentals for our young people, I’d be getting on with it because there’s a desperate need. But to say build 1,500 more houses a year is madness.

Where will they go? The coast is mostly protected, the farmland being swallowed up by solar panels (a whole other article). That leaves the edges of larger towns and villages. And that’s when it will get hard.

The council is putting out a Call for Sites. Once they’re in, we’ll sit down with residents and try to sort it out. Meanwhile, developers will be queuing up.

I asked a planner: “How will we do this?” His answer: “Higher density - we’ll have to go up.”

High rise buildings and solar parks: is this the Cornwall we want? There are some difficult meetings ahead.