Cornwall Council offices now stirred, not shaken

Next week's meeting of Cornwall Council's Corporate Resources Scrutiny committee should be interesting. Here is the list of "core" properties which officials now recommend should be retained:
Penzance (St Clare and Roscadgill Parc)
Camborne, Pool and Redruth (Dolcoath Avenue, Basset Centre, 24 Basset Road and Western Group Centre at Scorrier)
Truro (New and Old County Hall campuses but reduction in portacabins and temporary buildings. "The Carrick House complex is a special case and will require further reports in due course as options crystallise.")
St Austell (Penwinnick Road campus and Sedgemoor)
Wadebridge (Higher Trenant)
Bodmin (consolidate to a new site)
Liskeard (Luxstow House, Graylands and Westborne)
Other towns (to retain existing local offices)

My attention is drawn particularly to this part of the official report:

"The original proposal to create a new office in Bodmin as a single main campus to serve the East received considerable attention from local Members. To that end the vision has been reviewed such that the proposal is:
a) to refurbish Higher Trenant in Wadebridge;
b) prepare the feasibility report for a new office in Bodmin that could allow the current staff in Bodmin to be located on a single site; and
c) retain Luxstowe House in Liskeard."

This suggests Higher Trenant is now safe, even if Sainsbury's gets planning permission for a supermarket next to it. Bodmin, though, is not going to benefit quite as much as it might have expected from being the "hub" of all council activity north of Truro. And despite all the talk of cutting public services, the council is still advised to spend £8million on a refurbishment of New County Hall. The total cost of all major refurbishments over the next five years is estimated at £11.7 million - not counting any new buildings in Bodmin.

Do I hear the sound of gears being thrown rapidly into reverse? I wonder what former Corporate Director Peter Lewis thinks?