On Friday Cornwall councillor Andrew Wallis posted a very interesting blog about gypsy and traveller camps.
Andrew has got hold of some notes from the working group which was set up to examine "issues and options" for eventual inclusion in a Travelling Communities Development Plan. When complete, this document is due to go to Cabinet in July, after further refinement at meetings on 13th May and 10th June.
Three months ago I asked the council for details about how this working group was to go about its business and I'm still waiting for an answer. But according to the notes which Andrew has, there are some very specific sites likely to figure at these forthcoming meetings - including land near Wheal Jewell, near Truro, and Davidstow in North Cornwall.
The council's official response was to dismiss Andrew's notes as "old news" coming from a document written in 2006.
But it should not surprise anyone if sites on a 2006 list should again come under consideration in 2010. Nor should it come as a surprise that a council working group is trying to deal with a sensitive issue before a statutory deadline at the end of the year.
What is surprising is any idea that the Travelling Communities Development Plan can reach Cabinet without attracting some attention. It's also surprising, and a little worrying, that it should fall to an Independent, back-bench councillor to do the "Roman" thing and tell us what's going on.
What chance that the agenda and supporting documents for the 13th May meeting will be published, in advance, and that the meeting will be held in public? Neither the 13th May nor 10th June meetings appear in the council's published calendar. Yet.
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