Town Centre Crisis & Car Parking

Living in Penzance as I do I consider myself very lucky, despite all the stories to the contrary, I believe that we still have a vibrant town centre, (for many years I was a town centre shop manager) yes, I know that there are empty shops, currently running at about 10%, but you have to be aware that in more normal times 5%-8% of shops would be empty, this in the trade is known as churn, and without it there would be no turn over, with no new shops opening. No opportunities for changes in use. 

So why has the number of shops closing in Penance stirred up so many headlines, new shops that have opened mostly being ignored, with the doom mongers claiming the town centre is in “crisis”, lists of closed shops proudly displayed in shop windows, cries for the council to do something. It should be borne in mind that the largest number of stores that have closed, so far, have been those that are part of national chains; these chains are being hit very hard by the many thousands that are being put out of work across the country as a whole, the true effects of this have not yet truly reached us, but I fancy soon will.

We do not have the large employers, where the laying off of hundreds from one factory has huge knock on effects, our future vitality is being undermined in a much less obvious way, jobs slowly being moved or lost, Penwith staff to Camborne, NHS staff to Treliske, Inland Revenue to Redruth, Remploy factory closing, death by a thousand cuts.

This summer, which seems to have started at last as I write this, will be the break point for many in our high streets; if the number of visitors coming to our towns fall significantly then we could very well have a true crisis. It is my belief that the one single factor that will influence the number visiting and the time they stay is car parking charges.

Car parking charges are in the control of the Tory led Cornwall Council, and what a cash cow they have found. In the year 2010 - 11 parking charges in Cornwall have raised Cornwall Council a surplus of £8,221,000. That’s a bit over £8 million and 2011 – 12 is set to be higher. To give some perspective to this, the Tory led Cornwall Council came seventh (7) on the list of 349 Authorities in England and Wales, only beaten by 6 London authorities and the city of Brighton & Hove, in the amount of surplus raised. West Devon is 210^th & Plymouth 215^th both raising a surplus of less than £500,000. Devon 283^rd raising £283,000. Figures are from an analysis of local authority accounts by the RAC Foundation.

So in one of the most rural areas of the country where a car is essential for most, where we have to attract visitors to our towns to survive, Cornwall Council with a policy of high parking charges is undermining every town centre and business in Cornwall.

So where is all this money being raised by Cornwall Council going?

Local authorities were warned by Mike Penning, the road safety minister, last year to stop treating motorists as an easy target to raise funds.

Town halls are supposed to use their powers to control parking to improve traffic flow and prevent gridlock on their streets.

They are prohibited from using these powers to bolster their income. 

Until Cornwall Council bring some sense to car parking charges, every town centre in Cornwall is under threat and then we will have a true crisis on our High Streets.

Later this year I will holiday in Brittany, two weeks, total cost of car parking £0.

Just some Railings

I’m not a member of the planning committee of Penzance Town Council so would normally leave the members of that committee to make decisions without the dubious benefit of my opinion. So what enticed me to walk the 5 miles into Penzance and back on a wet evening to attend a planning meeting?

Railings, that’s it a set of railings.

The town council received an email informing them that some railings  where to be  replaced in Newlyn (South Ward and my area) and that the plan was to install railings that matched some that had been replaced a little while ago, also that some narrowing of the carriageway was proposed .

Now you would think that this email would have been from Cornwall Council but you would be wrong, it was from the contractor, an international construction management organization, and it was the first we had heard about it. Very kind of the contractor to contact us, but what about Cornwall Council?

Well, you may be thinking its only some railings, what can be important about railings, as with most things its context, this part of Newlyn is a Conservation Area and the railings will run the entire length of the road alongside the harbour, this new set will run for approximately 200m joining up with the previous 200m of replaced railings, so in total nearly a quarter of a mile of railings, overlooking the harbour.

The earlier railings where installed with no consultation what so ever, leading to an outcry in the village, totally ignored by Cornwall Council, so what’s getting people upset.

Let’s start with the design of the railings, I have seen similar railings in Birmingham alongside the inner ring road, now I have no problem with Birmingham (well I do, but that’s another story) but this very urban environment alongside a dual carriageway is where these railing belong, not in Newlyn.

As stated before this part of Newlyn is within a conservation area, the road as it rises up overlooks the harbour affording views not only over Newlyn harbour but across the bay to Penzance and across to St Michael’s Mount, it’s also the main route for people making their way to Mousehole.

The railings already installed by Cornwall Council are very intrusive, right in your face and dominate the view, they are just not in keeping with the local landscape, the wrong materials for a maritime environment, urban in design in fact just wrong.

But perhaps even more importantly, Penzance is home to the world famous collection of Newlyn School paintings (Penlee House), people travel from far and wide to view these paintings and visit the sites where they where painted, and the harbour railings feature in many of these paintings, (Newlyn Fishwives, Old Newlyn Harbour etc). This is an area of great importance, its one of the things that brings visitors to the area, it’s our heritage so don’t go spoiling it, think about it.

So do the current railings need replacement?  Yes they do. Does it require some thought? Yes it does. So come on Cornwall Council, do your duty CONSULT.

The outcome of the meeting was that the planning committee objected to the railings and would write in the strongest terms to Cornwall Council over their failure to consult.