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 Retail Space

Sat at home last night in front of the computer, after a couple of meetings, a photograph of a document was posted on Twitter by @Tweet_Bus, for which I thank him. The document caused a little comment and some deal of surprise. 

The document has been produced for the group opposing the huge development planned at Coyte Farm, St Austell, @StopCoyteFarm .

What the document shows is the Total Occupied Retail Floorspace of major towns in Cornwall; this is then broken down into ‘Convenience Goods’ and ‘Comparison Goods’.

Convenience Goods are defined as ‘These are widely distributed and relatively inexpensive goods which are purchased frequently and with minimum of effort, such as petrol, newspapers, and most grocery items.’ To most people the stuff you tend to buy at a Supermarket regularly.

Comparison Goods are defined as 'non perishable' goods for retail sale which are often stocked in a wide range of sizes, styles, colours and qualities, including furniture, carpets, televisions, clothing etc.’

The surprise for many perhaps is that Penzance has the second largest amount of retail space in Cornwall, only Truro has more.

It should also be noted that on the list of Convenience Goods retail space Penzance comes forth (4) beaten by Truro, Newquay and Camborne and by some margin, so even with the soon to be built Sainsbury’s supermarket, Penzance will not move up this list.

For Comparison Goods, Penzance easily comes second, only beaten by Truro.

Interesting reading and a set of numbers I've not seen before.

Chapel Street, Penzance

I’ve written in the past about Causwayhead in Penzance (Here) and what a great shopping street it is, full of independent shops, its now the turn of Chapel Street in Penzance, what brought this on is the publication this week of its own guide ‘Historic Chapel Street’ and what a great guide it is.

Within it details the 39 yes, 39 Specialist Shops and Services it has to offer as well as a small section on Exploring the street and its many Historic Buildings, also a simple map, so a big well done to the Chapel Street traders for this fine publication.

I’m pleased to say that just before Christmas I brought a book from one of these Independent shops, written by a local author and published locally, now that really is shopping local.

http://www.chapelstreet.co.uk

Newlyn

The Town Council has now returned the renovated bench to its home at the bottom of Trewarveneth Street. Along with the benches alongside the War Memorial the council has now repaired all the benches in Newlyn requiring work, the town clerk and I took a trip around the village just before Christmas to identify any others requiring work and are pleased to say all the others looked ok. Although the benches in fact are the responsibility of Cornwall Council the Town felt that it would be quicker if we carried out the work and this was done in house by our handyman. If you know of any others requiring work please let me know. 

In the past few days a row of bollards have appeared alongside the War Memorial and Seamen’s Mission on a road under the control of the Harbour Commissioners, replacing the traffic cones that had been bolted to the ground a few months ago in the same location. I know what the Commissioners are trying to achieve, stopping cars parking here, but I'm not sure a row of bollards next to a row of bollards is the way forward.

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