Bodmin’s £350k infrastructure fight ends in developer U-turn

Nearly £350,000 earmarked for Bodmin’s stretched schools, GP surgeries and roads came close to vanishing from a housing scheme this summer. Now, after weeks of pressure from the town’s MP, its town council and local Cornwall councillors, it isn’t going anywhere.

A £348,798 gap in Bodmin’s infrastructure

The money was agreed as part of the planning obligations attached to a 58-home development on Bodmin‘s Ponderosa site, built by housing developer Wain Homes. The £348,798 contribution was intended to support local infrastructure including education, healthcare and transport in the town. Wain Homes applied to remove it from the agreement, a move that alarmed residents and local representatives alike.

The letter to the Housing Minister

North Cornwall MP Ben Maguire raised the case directly with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. In a letter to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook dated 25 August, he set out concerns about “the growing infrastructure crisis facing the town of Bodmin, and the wider implications this crisis will have on public services in North Cornwall.”

The letter described a town with “enormous potential and a growing population” where “thousands of new homes have been built and more are planned – all without new schools, healthcare facilities like GP surgeries, roads, or other essential infrastructure keeping pace.” It said hundreds of residents had contacted Ben feeling that developments were being imposed on them without the investment needed to support a growing community.

On the Wain Homes application specifically, the letter argued that developers “should not be able to secure planning permission from our local authority on the basis of clear commitments to building vital infrastructure, only to seek to remove these commitments later on ‘viability’ grounds,” while acknowledging “the genuine pressures affecting housing delivery and the difficult position local authorities can face.” It called for any funding no longer needed for one project to stay in the town for other pressing needs, and pointed to Bodmin’s long-running need for a new GP surgery as another sign of the gap between population growth and the infrastructure meant to support it.

Raised in the Commons

Ben also raised the case with Matthew in the House of Commons this week, during a debate on new housing infrastructure.

The exchange is recorded in the official Hansard record.

Wain Homes withdraws its application

Wain Homes has now officially withdrawn its application to remove the infrastructure contributions, citing the concerns raised during the process and the strength of local opposition. The withdrawal follows sustained pressure from Ben, Bodmin Town Council, and Bodmin’s local Liberal Democrat Cornwall councillors.

‘A huge, landmark win’

Ben called the outcome “a clear and vital win for Bodmin, and a landmark moment for North Cornwall in our campaign to make sure new development comes with the infrastructure our communities need.”

“I want to pay tribute to local residents, as well as Bodmin Town Council, who have got behind this campaign and made their voices heard loud and clear,” he said. “I have been pushing this case with Cornwall Council, Ministers in the House of Commons, and developer Wain Homes, because my constituents should not be left picking up the bill for infrastructure that developers have already committed to provide.”

Ben was clear the win is only a first step. “North Cornwall is facing an infrastructure emergency,” he said. “Thousands of new homes are planned while our roads, schools, healthcare, sewage systems and other essential infrastructure really struggles to keep pace.”

Bodmin’s councillor: ‘a major boost for the town’

Cllr Chris Batters, who represents Lanivet, Blisland and Bodmin St Lawrence, the ward covering the Wain Homes Ponderosa site, welcomed Ben’s intervention. “As the Cornwall Councillor for the Wainhomes development on the Ponderosa site in Bodmin, I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to our MP Ben Maguire for his strong statement in the House earlier this week, against Wainhomes removing £348,000 Section 106 money from the planning agreement,” he said. “That money is a major boost towards the infrastructure development of the town of Bodmin in the future and could not be allowed to be withdrawn.”

Ben says the fight over Section 106 funding in Bodmin will not be the last. He has been raising the wider issue “relentlessly” in Parliament, he said, and plans to bring forward legislation “shortly” to tackle North Cornwall’s infrastructure emergency, along with further meetings with Housing Ministers “to push the Government to fully get behind these proposals.”