Cornwall Council withdraws another service.

Tucked away in my briefing notes this week was a letter for information from the Highway Network Manager, the information being passed on was that in future the Highways Department would not be carrying out general weed treatment i.e. spraying with herbicide.

That’s the normally a pair of workers who you see about spraying the area between the road and pavement stopping the weeds growing in this area.

Now in the grand scheme of things, this may not seem that important, but if you just think about it, uncontrolled weeds lining every urban roadside, I fancy not the most pleasant sight.

If anything is guaranteed to insure an area looks rundown, uncared for, desolate that is going to be it.

Cornwall Council, go on to say if any Town or Parish Council wish to take on this service they can, but at the Town Councils own cost.

Currently some Towns do this work on an agency agreement with Cornwall Council who pay them £160.61 per km. these agreements will also end.

I do not know how many kilometres of urban streets there are in Penzance town councils area, but I am sure it’s a lot.

£160.61 per km at first glance seems a lot, but I’m sure that when Cornwall Council signed these agreements they did the sums and paid less than it was costing them. Taking on extra staff, training (have to be qualified to work within the highway), vehicles, risk assessments etc. I can see that this will not be a cheap operation. 

If Town & Parish councils want to take this work on or contract it out, and which wouldn’t, the money to pay for it has to come from somewhere.

Town & Parish councils are not awash with money, as more and more services are discontinued by Cornwall Council, whatever happened to ‘economy of scale’ on which Cornwall Council was formed, money available to do the things that people enjoy rather than just need will be eaten into, in Penzance budgets for the likes of Christmas Lights, Golowan, Art Gallery & Museum and many other events that make our town what it is, will be impacted upon and life a little sadder for it.

Planning Applications. Damned Again

Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece on a Planning Application for change of use from a retail shop to a take away. Read ‘Damned if you do Damned if you don't’ here

A bit like buses immediately along comes another one, (this of course does not apply in Cornwall, where the first bus would not arrive).

Again, this is for a change of use Retail to Fast Food Takeaway, this time located in Causewayhead. We also have a little more information it is to be a ‘Greek Fast Food Takeaway’ I think that means a Kebab Shop.

The Planning Committee will face the same issues as to the previous application. Anyone want to be a councillor on the planning committee?

One other application may be of interest, again a change of use, this time from a former fish stores to a two screen cinema, café, bar and accommodation in Newlyn Coombe, just across the road from the Meadery.

I went to an open day put on by the applicant a few weeks ago; it seems a very interesting development.

I don't think there was one person who did not mention where do you park?

Damned if you do damned if you don’t.

This evening (13 June 2013) there is a meeting of the Penzance Town Council Planning Committee, this will be the second meeting of that committee since the elections, of the 10 members on the committee, 5 are new members, some of whom were very critical of the Town Council planning committee before being elected, regarding development and retail shops within the town.

Tonight the members have an interesting application to consider.

No PA13/02516  

Applicant: Mr P. Jemmett, 3 Hanover Square, London

Change of use from A1 to A5 (Retail to Takeaway) 1-2 Market Jew Street.

At first glance not too much to worry about, just a change of use, not even the full planning application.

Things the committee will have to consider:

Loss of retail space on the main street, 1-2 Market Jew Street use to be Curry’s Digital.

Bringing an empty shop back in to use.

Number of Takeaways already in the town centre. Is this one different? Hard to tell, as the application does not say what type of takeaway it’s to be. This application is only for change of use, the applicants address is a branch of Citibank.

If the committee decide not to object, they will be accused of:

Letting the town centre go to rack and ruin.

Letting too many takeaways open in the town.

Destroying the town centre.

Selling out to big business.

Turning the town centre into a clone town.

If the committee decide to object, they will be accused of:  

Letting the town centre go to rack and ruin.

Failing to encourage business.

Not caring about the town centre.

Destroying the town centre.

Not encouraging a big business into the town.

As the saying goes, damned if you do damned if you don’t.

Conservative controlled Penzance Town Council

I wrote a blog soon after the elections, on the political make up of the new town council, (here).

I stated that looking at the list of those elected and the parties they represent at first glance no Conservatives had been elected, when in fact in the 10 independents there were at least 3.

I was wrong; it would appear that there are at least 4 and very possibly 5, if I'm correct, then the Conservatives make up a quarter of the council. This makes them the equal largest group on the Council, with the remaining independents, but not one of them stood for council under their true colours.

Moreover, boy have they been busy, getting themselves voted in as Chairman of two of the committee’s, one vice chair and deputy mayor.

Normally politics does not play a big part on town and  parish councils, certainly that has been the case on Penzance Town Council, this always changes once the Tory’s get a few members, one way or another, they become very controlling.

Penlee Quarry

Last week (15^th May 2013) I was asked if I would write a piece for the Cornishman newspaper regarding the revived proposals for the development of Penlee Quarry, headlined in the paper last week, with the paper proposing to publish a piece both in favour and against. Knowing how people on social media like to be ahead of the game, I publish below the full text of my piece below.

As a ward member for Newlyn & Mousehole on Penzance Town Council, the Marina plans for the quarry in Newlyn that are again in the news, will I fancy be a issue over the coming years. The question is am I in favour, after some thought the answer is a guarded yes, guarded because as yet I have not seen the plans and no planning permission has been applied for. In principle I am in favour, I can remember when the idea first came to the town council what must be over 8 years ago and I was then in principle also in favour.

I have lived in Newlyn long enough to remember the quarry as a working quarry, with lorries rolling though Newlyn and white quarry dust covering everything on the road between Newlyn and Mousehole. The up side being the numbers employed, I would like to see a return of that employment, to that end, I think this could be the most important development in the area for decades.

In the early stages of the development there will be the employment generated by the building phases and as long as the workers for this are employed from the local area, where possible, as was part of the contract for the Olympic park, then this phase alone will bring a lot of work to the area over many years.

The one thing that Mounts Bay lacks is a true marina and the benefits that one would bring to Penzance and Newlyn are manifold. Yachting has been likened to ‘ripping up twenty pound notes in a cold shower’ and I would like to see those notes spent here, sailing boats bring a lot of jobs, real jobs, boat repair, electricians, sail repair, mechanics, riggers the list is endless. On top of this is an even longer list of secondary jobs in shops new and old, restaurants, hotels etc.

Marinas are themselves tourist attractions drawing visitors to an area. Mounts Bay is one of the finest sailing areas in the UK but walking along the prom on a summer’s afternoon the one thing you are unlikely to see are the sails of a fleet of yachts in the Bay as the facilities are not available in the Bay to support them.

Development in Penzance and Newlyn is constrained by the geographical layout of the towns so it makes sense to use what is available and there is nothing more brownfield than a quarry.

I also realise that the development faces areas that it must overcome before the go ahead is given, the major issue of concern I’m sure will be that of traffic, but I do believe this can be overcome. Others will complain about the housing to be built, second homes, in comers etc, the way that many people holiday has changed, we must also change to accommodate that, the building of what I thing will become a almost purpose built holiday village could be the way forward. 

The New Penzance Town Council

Well that’s it then, the people have spoken, the votes have been counted, Penzance Town Council has its councillors for the next 4 years.

Of the 20 councillors who make up the Town Council 8 are new to the job replacing 6 who stood down at this election and 2 who lost their seats.

Although in the past the political make up of the council has never been a factor in decision making, the make up of this council is quite interesting being a bit like Noah’s Ark we have 2 Liberal Democrats, 2 A Future For Penzance, 2 Greens, 2 Labour, 2 Mebyon Kernow and 10 Independents, what no conservatives you may ask? Trust me there’s at least 3 in there.

Of the 8 new councillors I really only know 2 of them, with a nodding acquaintance with 2 of the others. None as far as I can tell have ever held political office before.

I have read all the leaflets and the Facebook pages of those candidates that have them and sadly some are in for a bit of a shock when they actually get down to the work of being a town councillor.

Town Councils have limited amounts of money and even more limited resources, we are not free to do what we want or even what the Town may need, sadly a lot of our time over the past few years has been spent trying to get Cornwall Council to do the right thing and this has been getting increasingly harder as budget cuts bite ever further into spending.

Planning, is probably the area new councillors have the biggest problem getting to grips with, but fundamentally if there is not a ‘Planning Reason’ for objection you can’t object, well you can but it wont get you anywhere.

All in all I'm looking forward to working with the new councillors who will I'm sure bring new ideas to the council, I just hope that their enthusiasm does not get smothered by the rules and regulations within which we do have to work and of which so many people are blissfully unaware.

Penzance Harbour Where are we now.

What is happening to plans for Penzance Harbour? You may well ask.

Penzance Town Council took on the job of trying to bring forward a plan for the harbour after the failure of the Route Partnership scheme promoted by Cornwall Council. This is not a job that a town council would normally take on but with the support of the DfT the town council along with others worked up a scheme that had a broad consensus, met the funding criteria, met the time scale required for funding, this scheme was then submitted to Cornwall Council who would have to take it forward from here as the Harbour & Transport Authority and what did Cornwall Council do? They used every delaying tactic they could to ensure the whole scheme missed the funding timetable.         

On Friday 8 March 2013,

The Mayor, Town Clerk, Councillor Pender and the Project Consultant attended, at the request of Cornwall Council, a meeting regarding Cornwall Council's draft Business Plan requested by DfT in respect of Penzance Harbour. Also at the meeting were representatives from DCLG Convergence Programme, Cornwall Council, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the Duchy and Consultants employed by Cornwall Council to draw up the Business Plan on their behalf.

Along with detailed plans for the Harbour at St Marys, works for Penzance were discussed.

These works put forward by Cornwall Council are as follows,

•         A Capital dredge to 1.65m below chart datum to allow not only the Scillonian

           but potential replacement vessels to operate at 2 hours either side of high tide.

•         A study into 3 options surrounding Rock Armouring of the South Pier these being

1.              No rock armour

2.              Partial rock armour; and

3.              Continuous rock armour

•     Highway improvements to include a pull-in lay-by for coaches.

The Penzance Town Council representatives strongly advised that the proposals for rock armour were those arising from Cornwall Council alone and reiterated their previous decision that an engineering justification would need to be forthcoming before any further position could be taken by the Town Council. Cornwall Council advised that the Minister for Transport would be making any final decision on the need for rock armour.

The Penzance Town Council delegation expressed their disappointment that their fully worked up and widely consulted scheme was not being taken forward.

Cornwall Councils view on this was that they were taking forward a scheme that would protect the viability of the link within the funding envelope from Convergence funding.

Given this response, the Town Council delegation requested a commitment from Cornwall Council to implement their scheme incrementally when new funding was available from Europe.

This draft Business Plan is currently with DfT for feedback and comment and any developments will be reported to the Town Council in the future.

Update: 27th April
Cornwall Council have so far failed to submit its Business Plan to DfT, again missing a deadline and thus delaying further any development.

Update: 30th May
Cornwall Council have now released their draft Business Plan as submitted to DfT, the full document running to over 300 pages, unfortunately the links to this document, supplied by Cornwall Council are currently not working, the Key message document can be read here....... St Mary's & Penzance Harbour proposals - key messages - Cornwall Council - Revision 2 - May 2013

Update: 17th June

On Monday Penzance Town Council held a Special meeting  to discuss the Town Councils response to Penzance Harbour plans put forward by Cornwall Council. The recommendation put to the council is that laid out below.

Response to Cornwall Council’s submission to the Department for Transport in respect of the Isles of Scilly Link.

It was Recommended that:

1. Penzance Town council fully supports the development of the proposals at St Mary’s Harbour.

2. Penzance Town council fully supports the Capital Dredge of Penzance Harbour as proposed by Cornwall Council.

3. Penzance Town Council supports the initial highways improvements as proposed by Cornwall Council.

4. Penzance Town Council would not object to limited protection of the South/Lighthouse pier if proposed by Cornwall Council and should the Minister of Transport deem the works operationally essential. Any such should not jeopardise the future development of the harbour specifically the placement of a breakwater.

5. Penzance Town Council does not support full Rock Armouring of the South/Lighthouse pair.

6. Penzance Town Council welcomes the opportunity presented to it by Cornwall Council to continue to work together on the development of the Harbour and specifically improved passenger and freight handling facilities.

Six recommendations for the Council to consider, well no, only one, as the Mayor acting as Chairman stated it was a single recommendation. There was no vote on this, and councillors were told they would be able to speak only once.

I think it reasonable to assume that most people would not object to No’s 1, 2, 3 or 6. But what about No’s 4 and 5?

I think it is wrong to lump a group of recommendations together, forcing councillors to vote against something they are in favour of, if they are opposed to something else in the recommendation.

There was a limited debate all concerning Rock Amour.

I am against rock armouring, full or limited, as, so far, I have seen no engineering justification for it, the latest report on the Harbour commissioned by Cornwall Council, also doubts its value. Recommendation 4 hands the decision to Cornwall Council (It was they who proposed Rock Armor in the first place) and so takes it out of the Towns hands.

Even limited Rock armour will stop any maintenance in the areas of the pier against which rock armour has been placed, or add to the cost of that maintenance massively. Rock Armour is also without doubt the ugliest solution. 

Sadly I could not vote for this recommendation, even though in favour of all the recommendations except Number 4. The recommendation was passed.

   

The work of a Parish Councillor

I've read a lot over the past few weeks about encouraging more people to stand to become Councillors and it makes interesting reading.

Cornwall Council have just held an event for people wishing to become Cornwall Councillors and a few people have written about the event. Here’s one Robs Cornish Blog.

Penzance Town Council has also held two events recently to encourage people to stand.

As reflected in Rob’s Blog there is a lot of interests in councillor allowances and you only have to read some of the comments on Social Media sites to get the impression that a lot of people think.

‘ all councillors are only in it for the allowances,  the free food and what they can get out of it’

In fact, certainly at the Parish Council level nothing could be further from the truth.

I have said this before and will say it again Parish Councillors (In general) do not get an allowance, and certainly not on Penzance Town Council. Limited expenses are available, in 14 years I'm unaware of any councillor claiming them. So in the 14 years as a councillor I have received £0 for my work as a councillor.

We do not get free lunches and the only thing we get out of it is the satisfaction of doing something for the community in which we live.

At Penzance Town Council we do not have, tea, coffee or biscuits at meetings, the last time I had a ‘free lunch’ was from a development company/Cornwall Council at a all day consultation, which was open to all, you only had to turn up at 9:30 and be there until 4:30 to get your free sandwich and cup of tea.

As a Parish council we have no statutory duty to do anything, with the delivery of all services the duty of the principle council, in our case Cornwall Council.

We are only consultees on planning issues (often very late in the day), with our comments only taken into consideration.

Anyone who thinks we can stop or conversely start planning applications is very much mistaken.

Penzance Town Council meetings work on a cycle of 6 weeks, in that the 4 standing committees, General Purposes, Finance, Penlee House & Park meet every 6 weeks, with the Planning Committee meeting every 3 weeks, at the end of this cycle there is a full Town Council Meeting, in addition we can also have Special Town Council meetings as required to discuss single issues of urgency. All these meeting are open to the public, why not come along and see what we really do. A list of meetings is published here…

As a councillor you sit on two of the standing committees of your choice, so an average councillor would be expected to attend 3 meetings every 6 weeks, it’s these meetings which make up our attendance record.

But only a few councillors are average, we also have working groups, small groups of councillors who meet, very often with groups and individuals from outside the council, to organise or progress town projects.

Let me give you an example:

Penzance Christmas Lights Switch On and Market

This was an initiative brought to the town council by me two years ago, to create an event around the Lights Switch On, we had a small sum of money from the Christmas Lights budget.

The working group for this consisted of two town councillors, me and Cllr Jan Ruhrmund with a member of staff from the Town Council doing the admin.

Also invited to join the group where:

Brenda Lemon : Penzance Farmers Market.

Penzance Chamber of Commerce.

The Cornishman

Causewayhead Traders Association

Wharthside Shopping Centre

Andy Hazlehurst : Golowan

Rotary Club

This group met 6 times on the build up to the event, discussing what could and couldn't be done, how we were going to organize what was required.

On the day Cllr Ruhrmund and I were in attendance for the whole day to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

Other working groups of councillors meet to deliver less obvious projects around the town.

In addition to the above Councillors are asked to become the Town Councils representative on numerous other groups/organisations in the area, attending their meetings, assisting them to progress their ideas and reporting back to the council on the work of these groups.

From the above you can see that being a Town Councillor can be quite busy, but also very satisfying, in fact all we are is a group of unpaid volunteers but unlike most people who join a community group, say the Rotary Club, every four years we can be asked to leave, mostly by people who have no idea of what you do.

Penzance Mayor Choosing

Penzance Mayor Choosing

The recent Mayor choosing in Penzance this year has raised a few questions after I and one other councillor voted against the election of the Mayor. This is the first time this has happened for a good many years and was not a decision which I took lightly. Prior to this formal meeting of the council, a meeting is held where all nominations for the post of Mayor are debated and a vote taken. This year, two nominations were received, so the nomination’s are put to a vote, the outcome of the vote was tied at 10 – 10, the vote was taken a further two times with the same outcome, there is no casting vote. This impasse was only overcome when one of the nominees stood down. The mayor elect is then formally voted into office at the Annual Meeting of the Town Council.

The role of Mayor is a complex one, on one hand you are the public face of the town attending public functions on behalf of the town, representing the town at civic ceremonies, meeting and supporting other groups within the town and further a field, this very public role is an important element of the job.  On the other hand, the mayor is the chairman of the council, chairing full town council meetings, as mayor you are also a member of all the councils committees.

The supporters of the mayor elect have stated in the press that it was his turn, this is a phrase I have not heard before in my twelve years as a councillor, certainly regarding mayor choosing, the mayor is not chosen on the basis of turn and never has been, I have also read that the role had become too political, again from an unnamed source, strange then that the elected mayor is a member of a political party and the other nomination very much an independent.

So how do I judge who should be mayor, firstly I look at their ability to carryout the required roles of the mayor, basing this on what I have seen of that person acting as a councillor over their time as an elected member.  I do not care if I agree or disagree with them politically. Normally they would have been the chair of one of the committee’s, how have they conducted themselves in this role? Have they done well.  What working groups have they volunteered to be members of, what has been their contribution? Is this a person who I feel will represent the town well and finally I look for that indefinable extra that would make them a mayor.

In the past I have not always been in total agreement with those elected to be mayor, but on balance have felt that it could just be me and have been happy to vote for them at the Annual Meeting, sadly on this occasion I could not, I looked at all the factors detailed above, considered my own prejudices and after much thought decided that I could not support their election. I will continue to work as a councillor and continue to offer support to those holding office and hope and trust I'm proved wrong.

Penzance Town Council Meeting Part 2

Penzance CCTV

This was the other item that raised passions last night, and a right good old ding-dong it was.

A bit of background, at the moment the CCTV in Penzance is not active and has not been for a little while, various reasons for this, cost of an upgrade, no monitoring contract in place, move from district to County.

A group of West Cornwall town councils (St Ives, Hayle, Camborne, Helston & Redruth) have now got together to form a new partnership, with County paying for the upgrade. The question is does Penzance wish to join this group.

This has been discussed in committee over the past few months with various questions being asked regarding cost, contracts and so on and meetings held with the other towns.

The item came to the General Purposes Committee, of which I’m chairman, for a final time in this cycle of meetings.

Now I should state at this point that I’m not a fan of CCTV, I question it’s usefulness as a crime prevention measure, I have issues over right to privacy, displacement of crime, that it can lead to lazy policing i.e. less on the beat as we have CCTV, cost, an over reliance on CCTV etc.

At the General Purposes Committee, questions where again raised and a recommendation passed that, following receipt of the information requested, consideration of the issue be deferred to the next Full Town Council meeting.

There where five questions to which we had asked for further information, two where a bit technical the other three where:

1. Information regarding the number of recorded crimes in the period that the cameras where not in operation compared to the previous year.
2. An assurance that CCTV footage was not sold or used for television purposes.
3. Availability of police resources to follow up on reported incidents covered by CCTV.

The debate starts, and first to his feet is yours truly, starting with the replies given to the above questions.

1. There was no answer, this is the norm, I have never been able to establish any real data for CCTV’s effectiveness, not even in the limited scope of this question.
2. Cornwall Council will remain the data owners and controllers. All data will be subject to the guidelines in the Code of Practice and CCTV Operations manual. This covers the use of data and restricts its use for specific purposes – these do not include media use.
    
   I’m not sure what this answer means, restricts its use so can’t be used in the media or does not cover the use of the data by the media. Our town clerk was not sure either when he received it, so he asked for further information and got a lot of legal jargon for his trouble, from this it would appear that Cornwall Council can very possibly sell the data to a TV company. Well the argument goes do nothing wrong and you have nothing to fear. Consider this, lady in Market Jew Street falls through railings on the Terrace, shopping goes rolling down the street, great fun, sold to TV station so all can join in the fun. But in the background is yours truly, on the pavement having a laugh and a joke with Alec Robertson (Leader Cornwall Council), that could well be the end of my political career and/or marriage, and I’m sure it would not do a lot of good for his political career either.
3. A Sergeant and other officers have received training and are able to interrogate recorded images for evidence and down load it.
   
   This was not what was being asked. Personal experience has shown me that if an incident takes place, in this case a broken shop window, that may have been caught on CCTV, unless it was seen at the time by the sole operator monitoring the CCTV from the six towns, then the police do not have the resources to review the CCTV images. So even if CCTV catch the offence, unless it is a major incident, which very few are, CCTV is worth nothing.     

Much debate now follows, one of our dual hatters (Penzance Town and Cornwall Council councillors) even managing to get comments about the comfort of the new children’s swing seats, into the debate, in a previous blog I did mention she can be a bit random, others speak in favour expressing the view that the cameras will increase safety in the town and if not safety, the fear of crime would be decreased, then reading my briefing notes I notice this paragraph:

Within the next two years, Cornwall Council would be providing a centrally monitored service from a new purpose built building.

   What for CCTV? No for everything Fire, Police, Ambulance is this true?

Now we come to the tears & laughter I promised in part one.
I’m on to my feet at the first sign from the Mayor that I can speak.

With tears rolling down my cheeks, not sure if they are of fear or laughter I should say, the very thought of Cornwall Council even contemplating a joint control room is just too much for me, I’m sure there are some very good officers at Cornwall Council, as I’m sure there are some very good civil servants, but the record of government bodies and IT is not good to say the least, as today’s news only confirms Cost of control room(strangely, I even mentioned £500 million, not a bad guess)  and demand that should Penzance enter into a contract for CCTV it ends before the centrally monitored service is introduced , with the town making no commitment to continue.

After all the above we come to the vote, does Penzance Town Council join the CCTV partnership, and this could be close, and it is 8 – 8.

This should now go to a casting vote of the Mayor, this is not a good place to be in, in two terms as Mayor I had to use my casting vote only once and you can never win.

Town Clerk to the rescue, there had been a second proposal earlier, to not join the CCTV partnership, as this was a direct negative to the first vote it would have fallen, if the first had been in favour, as it was not in favour it still stood to be voted on, second vote, not to join, vote  8 – 7 against 1 abstains (saves Mayor).

Penzance joins CCTV partnership.

What a night.

Penzance Town Council Meeting

In truth Full Town Council meetings can be pretty dry affairs, just ticking off resolutions passed in the committees, where most of the work is done, but last night we had a Full Town Council that had it all, tied votes, some of the finest pre election manoeuvring, tears & laughter.

So what could have brought about all this, on the face of it very little, yes the main item did concern the link to the Isles of Scilly, but not anything too controversial, some background.

 After the collapse of Cornwall Council’s funding bid, Andrew George and Penzance Town Council along with other groups got together to rework a new bid, Cornwall Council where invited to join but declined, this bid will be lead by the Town Council, to this end a committee was set up, of which I was a member, and within this a working group.

Meetings have been held, work done and on the 1^st September a meeting was held, attended by the Mayor and Deputy, reps of Penzance Seafront Forum, The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company with DfT and the Department for Communities and Local Government. Meetings have also been held with the Isles of Scilly council and chief executive.http://www.scillytoday.com/2011/09/20/council-building-bridges-with-penzance-over-route-plans/

We now move to the next stage of the bid process which is the formation of the Penzance Harbour Scheme Management Board, this is what was under discussion last night, it should be noted that there is broad agreement within Penzance Town Council for this to go ahead, but who was going to be on the board, that was the question?

The proposed make-up of the Board was the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chairman of the Finance/Property Committee, Chairman of the Planning Committee and one other councillor, three members of the Penzance Seafront Forum, a representative from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, one rep from Cornwall Council(if they wish, officer or councillor), a representative from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

So five members from Penzance Town Council (as lead body), three from Penzance Seafront Forum (a wide based community group), Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, one rep from Cornwall Council and a representative from the Department for Communities and Local Government (funding body).

Now we come to the problem, one other councillor, straight to her feet is one of our two dual hated councillors (Penzance Town and Cornwall Council councillors). Proposing that she should be the one, not sure of the reason given, it was a bit random and I was losing interest, and that the Deputy Mayor should be replaced by her colleague (the other twin hatter), who had graced us with her presence for the first time for some while, that woke me up, I should have known something was up, a two pronged attack, but why the sudden interest ?

Then it hit me, this should nicely be coming to an end in an election year, now call me a cynic if you want, but I’ve been doing this for a good few years and I can spot a bit of pre election manoeuvring a long way off. Our two County Councillors are going to save the harbour.

Well this kicked off a right old debate, during which I managed to keep my own council, should the Chairman of Planning be a member as he’s also the chair of the Civic Society, (probably a third of councillors are involved with other groups, certainly the active one’s), and so on.

How did it end? Well councillor one, got part of her way and got the seat, the Deputy Mayor retained his seat, her comrade in arms talked her way onto the group also, but non voting, sure that won’t be mentioned in the election blurb.

I admire their cheek, but I am still not sure, whatever their motives that having two councillors from County on the board is such a good thing.