Caradon's planners have again put off a decision on the future of Liskeard's former Passmore Edwards Hospital and its ground – despite a threat to take the matter to appeal. Members of the Planning Control Committee (West) on Thursday voted to delay consideration of the application by the North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust for a further month to enable a meeting of interested parties to be held the following day, Friday, to discuss alternative uses for the site. The PCT is seeking outline planning permission for the demolition of the hospital building and its replacement with housing. But the proposals have angered local people who say the hospital was provided for the town by Cornish-born philanthropist John Passmore Edwards and that it should continue to provide some form of community benefit. Residents also oppose the site's redevelopment saying the additional homes will cause traffic problems and result in overlooking of existing properties. On Thursday, the application was recommended for approval by the council's planning officials and members were told by PCT spokesman Philip Sanders that if the matter was not approved that evening the trust would lodge an appeal with the Government's Planning Inspectorate on the grounds that the council had failed to determine the application within the specified target time. Mr Sanders said the trust had been surprised by the previous decision to delay the matter as the reasons given by councillors were relevant only to a future detail application. 'The trust will not be the developer but will be selling the site on the open market,' he said. 'Any further delay will cost the PCT more money in looking after the site.' Councillor Roger Jones told the meeting he had been led to believe the application was going to be put back a month to enable a meeting set up by him involving interested parties to discuss the application the following day, Friday. 'I was not aware of the pressure to decide tonight,' he said. Cllr Nick Mallard, referring to the comments by Mr Sanders, said he did not like threats and was disappointed with the planning officers's acceptance of the applicants' responses to the concerns raised by members. Mr Mallard said it was also appropriate that some form of community benefit be achieved from any development on the site for the people of Liskeard. Planning officer Mark Andrew said he and his colleagues were aware of members' aspirations for the site and said high-level meetings had taken place over the last month in an effort to promote them. However, the applicants wanted the council to consider the application as it stood and believed it would be unreasonable and unfair to base a refusal on those aspirations. The committee voted to defer the application until next month's meeting. Mr Jones said Friday's meeting had gone ahead and it had been made clear that the local community wanted to achieve the most benefit for Liskeard. A further meeting is due to take place in April, prior to the next planning meeting, which would involve the PCT, local authorities and other interested parties.

--------------

THE name John Passmore Edwards is familiar to many people living in Cornwall. His generosity in providing facilities for local people has resulted in him being heralded as a darling of Cornish history. Liskeard has particularly benefited from Passmore Edwards' gift of both a library and a hospital. The recent application from the Primary Care Trust to demolish the hospital at Barras Cross and sell the land with the potential for building 35 flats has caused a stir among local residents and historians keen to see the preservation of this and other Passmore Edwards' buildings. The hospital building has been dormant on the site since October 2002 when it closed in the wake of the opening of a new community hospital in Liskeard. The future of the former hospital site itself remains in the balance after the latest meeting of the full Caradon District Council put off making a decision. Passmore Edwards' name has, therefore, come to the fore, with many people keen to prevent the first demolition of a building bearing his name in Cornwall. His motto 'Do the best for most, without there being an inference to the word "gain"' is a poignant message today as much as at any time in history. It was a tale of rags to riches for the man who started life as the son of a carpenter, living in Blackwater between Redruth and Truro. John Passmore Edwards was born on March 24, 1823, and lived with his parents and three brothers. After leaving school, he worked as an under clerk to HS Stokes, a lawyer in Truro, and earned £10 a year. Passmore Edwards was sacked just over a year into the job, and started a new career in newspapers. A chance conversation with a representative of the Sentinel, a new weekly paper based in London, saw the young Passmore Edwards offered a job as an agent, plugging the paper in Manchester and sending reports to the paper's headquarters. Fifteen months after starting work with the Sentinel, the paper collapsed as it was deemed a commercial failure and only paid Passmore Edwards a fifth of his £40 annual income. His fortunes changed slightly as a freelance journalist in London, where he became involved in political movements including membership of the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment after witnessing, as a youngster, the public execution of two men accused of murdering a Cornishman. A career as a manager and owner of magazines, newspapers and periodicals followed in the 1850s. By the mid-1870s, Passmore Edwards began a 12-year stint as editor of the Echo, the first daily half-penny paper printed in London. Passmore Edwards' political career started as a 19 year old when he was not only an apprentice lecturer, but an amateur propagandist. In 1868, Passmore Edwards unsuccessfully bid to become MP for Truro where his manifesto included making education available for all children and getting rid of capital punishment. The Cornishman's next venture into the political arena didn't come until 1880 when he successfully stood for Parliament in Salisbury. Despite a petition from fellow candidates accusing Passmore Edwards of corruption and bribery, he kept his seat in Parliament. But Passmore Edwards soon fell out of love with the lack of passion in the House of Commons. In 1889, he built a lecture and reading room in Blackwater where he was raised, followed by a school and meeting-room at St Day. Passmore Edwards funded 24 buildings in all, eight in Cornwall, one in Devon and the rest in London, mostly in the East End. He put his name to 19 buildings in Cornwall, one for each of the letters in his name. He tried to attend either the laying of the foundation stone or the opening of each building and in one week, in May 1895, he attended five ceremonies in Cornwall. On the Monday he was at the laying of the foundation stone at the Liskeard Hospital, on Tuesday, the Newlyn Art Gallery, Wednesday at Camborne Library, Thursday opening the Redruth Library and Friday at Truro Library.