Penzance M & S Urban Myth

A few weeks ago in the Cornishman Dick Cliffe, the chairman of Penzance Camber of Commerce repeated what is probably the most common Urban Myth in Penzance,

‘Marks & Spencer tried to open a store in Penzance and it was turned down’.

Repeated in the letters page last week 21 March by Mr Winterbourne.

How can I say it’s an Urban Myth when we all know it’s true? Well as far as I can find out, it simply isn't,

I've been a councillor for over 14 years and lived in the town for nearly 40 years and I have heard this story so many times even I was beginning to believe it.

Its most recent incarnation was when the retail park on the A30 outside of Hayle was being built, ” M & S wanted to build in Penzance, but the town didn't want it. “

Rubbish, at no time did M & S approach the town with any plans to build in the town, the plans for the retail park were put forward by the then Penwith District Council and M & S was a key part of that plan from the start, at no time was it even considered to be built at Penzance.

The time before that was as the Wharfside Shopping development took place and the usual rumour mill swung into action “M & S” are going into the development, in truth it was talked about as a hope but no approach was ever made by M & S, the developer I'm sure approached them, but nothing ever came of it, I believe as the site was to small for what they would have required.

Now moving back before my time on the council I spoke with a fellow councillor of well over twenty five years, active on both  the town and District councils, and he confirmed that during his time M & S had never approached the council and no plans had ever been discussed or application made.

Going further back in time, I have spoken with a former councillor who was a member of the then Borough Council back in the 70’s & 80’s and once again at no time did M & S make any approach to the town.

So that’s the last 40 years covered I'm now looking into the 50’s  & 60’s but have so far found no evidence of any approach or application being made. 

There is also one other consideration that people should bear in mind,  Town Councils have no powers 'what so ever to' determine which shops open or close, if there is a retail shop premises in the town and you wish to move into it and open as a retail shop, there is no requirement for planning permission, no need to inform anyone, you just open (may be a requirement for planning permission to change signage). 

If every shop in Market Jew Street decided to become a Mobile Phone shop, that would be a commercial decision for the shop keepers. The town of Hay on Why, population 1500 has 35 bookshops. 

I should also mention that the same Urban Myth regarding M & S circulates in St Austell. 

St Erth Park & Ride Update

In other news from Cornwall Council on the day they removed the leader, I note that something I wrote about back in February has come back to the Council.

In February I blogged (read it here) about the most disorganised council planning application I had ever seen. The planning applicant was Cornwall Council, so you would have expected them to get it right wouldn't you?  

Today it was announced that the planning Ombudsman has recommended that the St Erth Park & Ride decision goes back to Strategic Planning, because Members were 'misled'.

The new leader has a difficult task getting the councillors on side but I believe he faces a bigger challenge getting the Chief Exec to control the officers.

A view from across the channel

I've just returned from a two week holiday in Brittany with the current Mrs Pz01 and some friends, and lovely it was too. I know Brittany quite well and visit at least once most years but you don’t want to know about that, this blog is mostly about how an area that is very similar to Cornwall and is facing many of the same problems is dealing with them.

Brittany Ferries and the Power of Twitter.
As I'm sure most of you will know Brittany Ferries had been having a few problems over the past few weeks. We were due to sail on the overnight ferry from Plymouth on Friday 21st Sept , that’s the day the staff walked out and the ferries were cancelled. No point in phoning them as I'm sure the lines would be blocked so I turn to the internet a quick glance at their website confirming that the ferry is cancelled, the recommendation is that passengers travel to Dover and cross to Calais, agreement having been made with the operators at Dover to carry Brittany customers on their existing tickets.
Now a visit to Brittany Ferries twitter page, lots of questions being asked and answered very quickly, I post that as I'm in West Cornwall and travelling to Brittany a trip to Dover/Calais is not very practical, are there any other alternatives, likelihood of a return to services in near future, its about this time that Brittany Ferries announces that it was suspending all services for the foreseeable future. Within a few minutes my tweet is replied too, agreeing that Dover/Calais was not a practical alternative and full refunds of the ferry cost were available. I then received a tweet from Condor Ferries, space available Poole to St Malo Saturday morning give us a ring, I did, two cars 4 passengers booked, ferry 08:00 Saturday morning from Poole, phone travelling companions in Devon and tell them, drive to Devon and spend night there before driving on to Poole. In the mean time Brittany Ferries phone us and arrange refund. Arrive at our holiday destination just a few hours later than planned. So holiday saved by the power of twitter, Brittany Ferries staff in Plymouth and some clever staff at Condor Ferries. Travel via Guernsey, so full duty frees on the ferry, bonus.
I also received a tweet from Radio Plymouth asking me to phone them for an interview, re ferries, this I did, I don’t know if it was broadcast, I was in France, but I suspect not, as I failed to condemn the striking staff and warned that I thought it was something that we would all have to get used to in the next two years or so, with many workers forced to take action in an attempt to maintain some form of quality of life.

Housing.
There is a fair bit of building work going on in Brittany, but not the large estate developments planned in Cornwall, most small villages and towns have small developments of up to 5/6 houses being built either in the town or on the edge.

Shopping.
On this trip I definitely saw more closed shops than I had on previous visits mostly in the larger towns, with the odd one closed in the smaller villages. But nowhere on the levels being seen in the UK, France is home to the independent trader with few large chains so no mass closures.

Out of Town.
Many of the smallest villages and all the towns have an out of town supermarket, to give you some idea the small town of Baud, Morbihan with a population of 5800, just a bit larger than St Just has two. The village of Bubry population 2300 has an edge of town Supermarket & filling station. These were a short drive from where I was staying so I use them to illustrate.

Parking
FREE, that’s it really, except in the centre of the largest towns, it’s free, but even in the larger towns it would seldom be necessary to pay to park, the yellow line is rarely seen. On the one occasion I did pay to park it threw up an interesting concept, I choose to park in a car park, Mrs Pz01 asked how long to pay for? I reply 2 hours should do it, it’s 11o/c we pay the 1 euro (80p) on looking at the ticket we have parking until 3o/c, strange, I mention this to a French friend who explains, 12 to 2 is lunch time, you don’t pay for lunch time, how else would people working on the industrial estates be able to drive into town for lunch if they had to pay, what can you say.

Lunch time/Sunday
Unless you work in a café or restaurant you close down from 12 to 2 that’s it. Having worked for people who believed that leaving your desk to take your ½ hour unpaid lunch was a criminal offence, it’s a joy to see. Sunday once again unless you are a café or restaurant you are closed.

Just a quick ad, on my last two visits I have stayed in the most fantastic accommodation, you can view it yourself here.  Brittany Thatched Cottages

Members Register of Interests

I have been quiet for the past few weeks due in part to internet problems, a major garden project, nearing completion I'm pleased to say and a bit of ill health.

But something has been troubling my mind over the past few weeks also, “Members Register of Interests”, doesn't sound to interesting does it, but I do know that it has been troubling a lot of councillors and locally at least two I know of have decided to resign over it, with a further one refusing to complete the form, so what’s going on?  

The background, as a councillor you have to complete a form detailing how you earn any money, who you work for, any land you own or have an interest in, companies you hold shares in, companies you control, all good stuff. This form is then filed away in the clerks’ office and is available to anyone who wishes to see it. I have never heard of a councillor having a problem with this and indeed you can’t serve as a councillor after an election until the form is complete.

But, and it’s a big but, the rules have changed, under the Localism Act, the form has to be completed as before but must also include the same details for your partner, this seems to be the area that has raised most concerns with other councillors and I can understand their position. 

This really does raise a few concerns for councillors, myself included, firstly the current Mrs Pz01 is not very happy about this, is not a elected member of a council and derives no benefit from my being a councillor, I should also point out neither do I, in 12 years for my work as a councillor I have received £0 in expenses and £0 in any other way, I did receive a small allowance for my two years as Mayor.

This information then has to be published on the Town or Parish website (if the Town or Parish have one) along with being published on the appropriate unitary authorities’ site (in my case Cornwall Councils).

This is the area that raises the most concerns for me, firstly the current Mrs Pz01’s employer is not very keen at all on employees detailing who they work for on the internet and due to the very nature of the job neither is Mrs Pz01, I have been told that her name can be removed if the monitoring officer agrees, all very well if your name is Richards or Smith perhaps but it doesn't work too well with ours.

No, it’s the very act of publishing this information on the internet that I have a problem with, I'm very careful as to what information I publish on the internet, having spent many years working in IT I'm very aware of the risks, once its on the internet it is available for any casual observer anywhere in the world to access this information, whereas in the past if you genuinely felt that I or any other councillor had broken the rules you had to make the effort to go to the office and ask for the information, thus dissuading the casual observer.

In the spirit of we are all in this together I thought that I would look up my MP’s register of interests, I suggest you give it a try and remember many Town & Parish councils are dealing with sums of money that are less than a single MP’s allowances and expenses.  

In conclusion will I be complying with this? The honest truth is I don’t know, I’m not very happy with the way council work in Cornwall is going at this moment, dealing with Cornwall Council is like mud wrestling a tank full of eels and I'm not sure I want to continue, this may well be the stone.

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. 

Causewayhead Penzance- Probably the best Independent Trading Street in Cornwall

On Saturday as a Jubilee treat for the current Mrs Pz01, we popped into Penzance for a bit of retail and Causewayhead it was.

Iv’ heard it all over the past few years as a councillor, Penzance is dead, there are no shops and it’s a mess, why don’t you do something.

Well something has been going on and a lot of it in Causewayhead, it’s new automatic bollard is now in place (more about this later), as part of the “Cornishman” Go to Town campaign, traders, councillors, members of the public and members of the Penzance Community Flora Group all turned up on a Sunday morning and gave it a bit of a spring clean, read more about this here…..Go To Town

So the street has had a weed, street furniture painted and flower beds filled, but what about the shops, well how many shops do you think are in Causewayhead?

Take a guess …. 40, 50

You’re wrong in fact there are over 90, yes 90 and the vast majority are Independent   

90 Independent shops, most towns would be pleased to see this number in their town let alone one street. Soon the revived Charter Market will be back at the top of the street so even more reason to visit.

So back to our shopping trip, the sun was shining and Causewayhead was busy, but for a change busy with people, no cars, no vans just people and it was great. Talking to the traders the much maligned bollard was the reason, cars no longer use the street as a short cut,  no delivery vehicles on a Saturday, just room to walk and enjoy and enjoy it we did, the whole street looked a picture, fruit and flowers outside shops, shop doorways with plants either side, after a haircut, new earrings for Mrs Pz01 and a few other bits and pieces we sat down in the excellent Waves and had a coffee.

So next time you want to take a pop at Penzance, take a walk up Causewayhead and

look around.

So congratulations to The Causewayhead Traders Association, Penzance Community Flora Group and all those who helped make Causewayhead - Probably the best Independent Trading Street in Cornwall

Ps. I notice that the old Threshers is being refurbished new tenants moving in soon.