Newlyn Railings. The right solution.

Nearly a year ago I wrote about some replacement railings that Cornwall Council planned to install in Newlyn.  Here……

On Friday, I received an e-mail from the contractor stating that following my intervention they had carried out discussions with local environmental groups and councillors, and that they now had a large amount of information and useful input, including images of railings historically used in Newlyn.  These have been invaluable in helping to select a more suitable railing system.

Not only are the proposed railings more suitable for the location, but they are manufactured locally.  This will ensure that they are both readily available if damaged, and, are fabricated using local Cornish labour.

The new railings will look something like the ones pictured below, from the same manufacturer. Although, the photograph shows a three rail system it does gives a good idea of the appearance. The proposed system for Newlyn will only have two rails with the lower rail being closer to mid-height.

I would like to thank the contractor and Cornwall Council for listening to the people of Newlyn and working to a solution that achieves the highways requirement, but also retains the historic appearance in this area of Newlyn.

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.

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.