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 its future.

Does Penzance turn down development?

I have read much on social media and in the press claiming that Cornwall Council doesn’t care about Penzance and why is there no development going on in Penzance,  The reply most often heard is that Penzance turns every thing down. Just looking at the recent past this is obviously not the case,

Application to build Hotel, retail outlets and office space at old Gas Works Site.  PzTc in favour.

Application to build Supermarket at Eastern Green. PzTc in favour.

(There is no such thing as a planning application to close a business i.e. The Heliport, that is a commercial decision for the owner. As to the supermarket there are no planning grounds on which to refuse the application)

Application to build 60 retirement flats at Old Gas works Site. Not in Favour.

Application to build Route Partnership Harbour scheme. Not in Favour.

Alternative Harbour schemes. PzTc in favour.

Re-development of Truro & Penwith College. PzTc in favour.

Re-development of St Johns Hall. PzTc in favour.

Skateboard Parks at the Rec. PzTc in favour. At Wherrytown (own scheme) PzTc in favour.

With the exception of the 60 Retirement flats also opposed by Cornwall Council, Penzance Town Council has not opposed any large housing scheme in Penzance.

Alexandra Road, Ocean Blue, Lescudjack Heights etc.

If you believe that the Town Council turned down M&S please read Urban Myth Here.

As can be seen from the above it’s actually a bit of a mixed bag, tending more to development than against, so why are more developments not coming forward. Rather that the presumption that Penzance likes to say no, I think that’s more to do with the fact that Cornwall Council and developers don’t know what Penzance is or wants to be.

From Cornwall Councils point of view, it’s a big town, in the far West that can not be pigeonholed.

If you look at other large towns in Cornwall it’s easy to see what they are and possibly where they are going.

Truro, it’s the administration centre, the courts are based here, offices. Retail. Cornwall Council.

Falmouth, it’s the Docks, University, Boats & Sailing.

Bodmin, mid-Cornwall, distribution.

Newquay, tourism.

Redruth, Pool & Camborne. Manufacturing, industry, offices.

A little simplistic I know but these are the core activities taking place in these towns.

That leaves two large towns St Austell and Penzance both facing similar issues and problems.  Both are suffering from a decline in the core businesses that helped them grow, in St Austell it’s the decline in the China Clay industry, in Penzance its more complex.

Penzance was a large Market Town providing services to the far west of the county, it had the courts, Penwith district council, Hospital, HMRC offices, The Cornishman was printed here, sea & helicopter link to Scilly, Newlyn had the fishing, quarry, Mousehole had fishing and tourism.

But sadly many of these activities have now gone and the rest are much reduced. With the loss of these core activities, the secondary activities of the town also come under pressure with the courts gone there is no requirement for the solicitors and court staff, P.D.C has now become a One Stop Shop and staff levels have fallen from 450 to 190 with this number to be reduced further, West Cornwall Hospital is a shell of its former self, without these jobs the number of people needing the town centre has declined leading to the closure of shops and those business servicing them.

So what is the future for Penzance, it has much to offer, it has a very strong Arts & Culture industry, it is still the principle retail centre for West Cornwall with two streets of independent retailers any town should be proud to have in Causewayhead and Chapel Street. It has three leading public Art Galleries, a Public Park and Garden in the centre of town.

A further presumption is that towns such as Falmouth have overtaken Penzance in retail space, this is not true as can be read here.

Its cafes restaurants and night time economy are strong. It has a large modern College. Its location, architecture and (dare I say it) climate are all extras.

So what are the problems and solutions?

First I think it’s the message, its has to be one message from the same hymn sheet, facts over perceptions.

The town is open, it does want to take part, it is forward looking, it is a great place to be. It has to put out a positive message, not the constant knocking from some quarters, just read some of the election leaflets going around town. 

It must look to the new industries that it can serve and encourage those it has, it is ideally placed to be a centre for design, it needs to encourage and develop its leisure sailing and maritime industries, and by this I don’t mean a bit of a fiddle with the existing harbour, which in truth is too small for its current use, why not push for a brand new Harbour arm doubling the size of the harbour. Support the development of the Quarry into a new harbour space. Look at the positive elements of the town and promote those, think cup half full not half empty.

Does Penzance have problems? Yes it does, can it solve these? Yes it can, the biggest asset the town has is the people who live here, the vast majority of people here are positive, so stop knocking it, promote the Town, shop in its shops and look to the future.

S.A.R Privatisation

Privatisation is not some thing I am generally in favour of and is an area that I would not normally write about but some of the comments and reporting about the privatisation of the UK’s Search and Rescue helicopters is so badly informed and sensationalist I felt I would add my two pence.

It is an area I have a little knowledge of, having served in the Fleet Air Arm and worked in the aviation side of the oil industry for nearly twenty years. This post also has a relevance to the helicopter service that use to operate from Penzance.

The main driver for the privatisation of the Search and Rescue helicopters are the helicopters themselves, since the early 1970’s the helicopter used for S.A.R work by the military in the UK has been the Sea King, the S61 that flew to the I.O.S was the civil version, the Sea King was also throughout the 70’s 80’s and 90’s the helicopter used by the military for a large part of its helicopter flying, but sadly the days of the Sea King are coming to an end, most of the airframes themselves are nearly 40 years old and any one who owns an old car knows how much they cost to maintain.

As the Sea King leaves service and is replaced by the Merlin (that’s the one at the end of Sky Fall) the crews are retrained in flying and maintaining these new aircraft, but there is no S.A.R variant of this aircraft, so if the military wished to continue with the SAR role it would be forced to purchase a helicopter type just for this role, then air and ground crew would have to be trained to work on this type but military personnel are moved to new postings every few years, so you would be trapped in a constant training cycle, as both air and ground crews have to be licensed for each aircraft type they work on. This is not really a practical solution.

Bristows, who have won the contract to supply S.A.R services are very experienced in this type of work, between 1971 (even before the S.A.R came to Culdrose) and 2007 Bristows flew SAR helicopters on contract to H.M Coastguard in 2007 this contract was awarded to a Canadian company. It will surprise many that Bristows also trains all military helicopter pilots and SAR crews. Alan Bristow who founded the company was a Fleet Air Arm pilot himself.

The new service will use Sikorsky S-92 and the AgustaWestland AW189 helicopter, these are very modern and there capabilities far exceeds the old Sea Kings, flying further and faster.  

I'm very sorry to see the old Sea Kings go, they where a big part of my working life but cold logic tells me that this is the only practical way forward.

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.

   

St Johns Hall Penzance

There has been a lot written over the past week about Cornwall Councils £5.6 million investment in St Johns Hall in Penzance.

With headlines in the Cornishman veering from “Is £5.6m on hall a sensible spend?” to “Council Services and Iconic Building saved.

Now from the start I will state that I’m very pleased that money is being spent on St Johns Hall, it is an important building in Penzance and Grade 2 listed and has been much neglected for many years. The West Wing that has been owned by The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall being in a very poor condition.

The acoustics in the main concert hall are so bad that many groups will not appear there thus further undermining the viability of the Hall.

 It’s the spin that’s being put on this so called investment that really gets me down, Cornwall Council do nothing for nothing and as far as I know the building was not under ‘threat’ so probably did not need saving, some work yes, saving no.

 To get this ‘investment’ Cornwall Council will be selling its site at St Clare (the old Penwith Offices), York House a grade 2 listed building, the Library and the Registry Office.

The spin is that that offices are only worth £2m and require a lot of work and are ‘inefficient’ and so will be sold, but of course they will not be sold as a suite of offices requiring work, but as a development site along with York House that is also on the site, which will probably be converted into flats. The whole site is marked as a development site in the Cornwall Local Plan.

Cornwall Council can sell off these offices as over the past 4 years the staff numbers at St Clare have dropped from 450 to 190 with Cornwall Council transferring staff and jobs to offices in Camborne and Truro with many jobs also lost. This has ripped the heart out of the old offices, the remaining staff have to be housed somewhere and its cheaper to do this in a building you already own and will be required to do work to in the near future anyway.

But the old Penwith site is not just the offices on the site, it’s the site itself and it’s big and was last valued at £11m for Penwith District Council,

Add into this the value of the Registry Office, a large Georgian House with its own parking in the centre of the town, more flats?  The Library in Morrab Road will also be sold, there is already a buyer for this site, the building last valued at £1m, is being sold for £100,000 as there is a backlog of repairs. In addition there are all the other associated costs being saved, the selling off of 3 sites and moving all operations to one you already own brings considerable savings.

Add this altogether and I fancy it comes to a fair bit more than £5.6m, so I am  pleased that St Johns Hall is to be refurbished, but please don’t try to tell me you are doing it out of the goodness of your heart or as proof of investment in Penzance.

PS. Cornwall Council also wish to sell the Town Council Office, across the road and have the Town Council move into St Johns Hall, something I’m personally against, not wishing the Town Council and County to be even more connected in peoples minds. 

Shock, I've not been a Councillor for South Ward for the past 10 Years.

I’ve just got back from Town where I had gone to do a few jobs, whilst there I popped into the Town Council Office, which lead to a bit of a shock (not good in my condition, no I’m not pregnant).

In the office are the candidate packs for the upcoming town and parish elections and talking to the staff I discovered that I’m not a South Ward Councillor for Penzance Town Council.

Now before everyone rushes off to read the various website postings to see what I allegedly have voted for or against, (funny how so many seem to think they know what I said or didn’t say all without the benefit of ever going to a meeting), over the past 14 years in the hope of getting the decision overturned, I’m still a councillor only not for South Ward, as much to the surprise of the office staff and I’m sure councillors, South Ward changed its name over 10 years ago. I’ve been a councillor for the Newlyn & Mousehole Ward.

As a councillor I will be honest some things slip past my attention, not much and never anything of importance, but you would have thought I might have noticed that my ward had changed its name? All my paperwork still arrives with South Ward printed on it, Cornwall Council refers to it as South Ward, the maps refer to it as South Ward only its not. Back in 2002 in a consultation it was decided to change its name, so there we are.

Now the more serious reason for this post, from the election papers the Town council have received we have discovered that some changes have taken place, that genuinely no one knew about, Newlyn & Mousehole Ward (South Ward) has had its number of councillors cut from 5 to 4, and this is the very first anyone had heard of it and its not just this ward, Promenade Ward has an increase of 1 as does Central Ward with the East Ward  also losing 1 but Gulval Ward which has had a boundary change doubling the number of people in the ward remains with only 1 councillor. These changes are apparently the result of the Boundary Commission report, at no time was the Town Council ever consulted or any contact made with the council during the preparation of this report, no contact from the Commission or Cornwall Council what so ever. I wonder how many other Town & Parish councils got a surprise when they received the Election Packs.

PS I didn’t pick up a pack. 

A Letter to Dave

Hi Dave,

Had a nice chat with the chaps in the club the other night, thought I would bring you up to speed about the hols this year. You are going down to Rock this year aren't you? Spose you can’t do the Maldives with the newspapers watching.

It’s a bit of a mixed bag of news really, don’t know how you are going down, but the train may not be such a good idea this year, they are going to cut the number of trains from London by a third down to six from nine, mind you should still be a bit of room in 1^st. Watch out if there’s a bit of rain about, the line keeps ’falling in the water’  Lol.

If you decide to take the old Chelsea Tractor down, top tip, fill her up before you leave, can you believe the spivs down there are charging £1.43 £1.49 for the diesel. Still should be able to get there a bit quicker soon, can you chase them up on that road thing, any chance of a bit of Motorway, wouldn't mind if it’s a Toll thing, keeps the plebs off, give us a shout on who’s going to get the contract, get a few shares, win, win. Lol.

Bit of really good news, that woman that comes in to do, don’t know her name, lived in that really nice cottage with her disabled son, the only one with the flowers in the garden,  family been there for years, they've had to move out, something about an extra bedroom only used twice a week so the carer could stay over and can you believe it the local council want her to pay more Council Tax, can you believe the cheek of these local Johnnies, oh yeh you may be able to help here, can you believe these local Johnnies  are going to build lots of houses, a few are called ‘affordable’ now we don’t want any of that on our patch, anyway had a chat with the guys at a meeting on Tuesday in the new job, by the way thanks for putting in a word for me, can’t believe they asked me to leave the last one, just for letting a few mates buy those shares just before you gave the company that contract, thanks for that tip by the way. Still the new job’s great just 2 days a month and loads of money and info, will let you know (wink, wink), anyway where was I, oh yes asked the boys and they said that they could ‘afford’ any of the places that they would want, so there you are, but if these local Johnnies, I think they are your lot, want to build any over our way can you have a word with the planning chaps.

Nicks, had a bit of luck over in St Ives, got himself a parking spot, can you believe it only £55k, says we can borrow it if we pop over that way, he only uses it for a few weekends.

Any news on a ‘Waitrose’ yet?

Well that’s about all for now, don’t work to hard, see you in the summer, is the Met Office one of yours? Have a word, LOL.

Keep the money rolling in.

Yours

Rupert.

Ps Stephen’s managed to buy the empty cottage, so he will be down this year.