Isn't nimbyism strange? With all the fuss about the future of the "rec" in Falmouth, the action group have been so lucky with the position of the "rec" itself as there are so many people that live in the proximity of the actual site.

I don't want to put a downer on the whole situation, but we had a similar fight on our hands in Penryn a couple of years ago when a company initially had planning permission for 50-odd bungalows on a site and after our local council rejected the proposals to build 80 houses and three storey flats on the land, we proceeded to Carrick planners and had the support of all our local councillors at the hearing and the plans were thrown out.

The really sad part was the advice given by the chairperson at the time. She advised the councillors to accept the proposals next time as they couldn't justify the council tax money spent on our case. So when we turned up at the next appeal the whole atmosphere had changed and, of course, the vote was passed, and since then the developers have added even more properties to the ridiculously over-developed site.

The trouble was we were only a very small bunch of "nimbies" and the same problem has happened to the site at Andrewartha Road in Penryn. The same can be said about the ridiculous access to the new site in West Street, Penryn (too few nimbies). A while ago Falmouth had a bigger more publicised Nimby fight at GoldenBank which after months of meetings and protests the developers won and it has just been forgotten.

So to the "rec." As I said earlier in my letter the amount of nimbies will help this fight by getting publicity. But I am afraid that when it comes down to the final decision money talks and the developers will repeatedly appeal until the might of Carrick councillors will crumble.

I used to laugh at these "nimbies" in the past but when it happens to you and you feel so alone in your fight against the power of money I can understand the frustration of these people and I have just got to warn the "rec" protestors: you have a long fight on your hands and I don't know of one of the "nimbies" crusades to have won.

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