Heartlands: black hole takes shape at the heart of Camborne-Redruth

The £35 million Heartlands project at Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, is set to open in the spring. Superb timing in a year when we have to be diverted from such distasteful reality as unfair austerity policies. The good people of Camborne-Redruth can joyfully join in a festival of flannel along with the Olympics and Royal jubilees.

Most people in Camborne-Redruth probably still struggle to see the precise point of this grandiose project. Not the local media and opinion-formers though who are getting very excited. We’ve already had the West Briton in November last year calling it a

breathtaking renewal project

It’s definitely quite tiring reading all the torrent of gushing hype. Carolyn Rule, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for economy and regeneration and chair of the Heartlands board enthused last August

Can you imagine how fantastic it will be to actually live at Heartlands?

Ms Rule lives at Mullion.

The project transforms a

wasteland

into a

self-sustaining community asset

Or so we’re told.

Actually it’s more about creating the infrastructure that helps ease the building of thousands more houses in the area. It’s all part of a ‘place-shaping’ exercise to make the area more attractive to incomers and thus ease the pressure on Caroline Quentin country.

Original Heartlands wasteland site

Heartlands apologists have never been too clear about the scale of their pet project. Originally their action plan envisaged 6,000 more houses in the district. In 2007-08 this was bumped up to 11,000. As there were only around 26,000 in the whole of Camborne-Redruth this was quite an increase. It would create 8,000 jobs we were told. Then someone realised that 11,000 houses was likely to bring around 11,000 job-seekers to the area.

So by April 2010 the plan had shrunk back to 6,000 houses, which would now miraculously create the 6,000 jobs. The latest wild guess is 5,500 jobs, thrown at the media last December.

Heartlands itself was projected to employ 50 people back in November 2009. By February 2011 this had changed to

20 jobs in total

With the senior management team in place we’re now seeing other jobs being advertised. These include

• a caretaker responsible for all repair and maintenance and supervising the cleaners – for the princely sum of £14,000

• visitor services assistants, hospitality and catering assistants and chefs – at £6.30-6.50 an hour. All these jobs require ‘experience’ even at this rate of pay.

• The only hope for local young unemployed people without the requisite experience is cleaning staff, also at £6.30 an hour.

The current minimum wage is £6.08 an hour.

Breathtaking.