Sunday 13 November 2011

Meeting - November 2011

Falmouth 350
Congratulations were due to everyone who made the 350th anniversary celebration of the Charter such a success. Thanks to the team which drafted the New Charter; a way would be found to get this into all the schools in the town. Special thanks go to Robin Dunseath who had inspired the event.

Marine Conservation Reference Zone and Dredging
A new Reference Zone had been proposed, quite unexpectedly and to almost universal horror, for part of Carrick Roads. Any normal activity would be banned in, near or around the zone and it would effectively destroy the commercial business of the Docks and the Carrick Roads in general. Representations were being made everywhere and, although it was fairly certain that the proposal would be withdrawn, the proposal was wasting a great deal of potentially productive time and building distrust between local interests and conservation bodies.

Letters should be addressed to the minister, Richard Benyon with a copy to Sarah Newton MP.

As far as dredging was concerned
  • The Falmouth Harbour Commissioners had agreed with the Marine Management Organisation that they would carry out a £150k, 12 month study on a sample area. FHC would be seeking permission for this from Cornwall Council
  • FHC was pleased to report that the fishermen who had originally been against any dredging had been reassured now that they understood that it would not involve wholesale dumping of spoil at sea
  • The Docks company would not be taking up the option to develop the 290 berth marina until the future of the dredging project had been resolved
  • Oliver Cramp was convening a meeting of interested parties to try to unlock the impasse over permission for the dredging.
Seasides town regeneration bid
The BID-led proposal for £75k from the joint Cornwall Council and central government fund had not been successful. This was a great disappointment as an enormous amount of effort had been put into the bid and significant match funding had been committed, including from the Forum. The winners and losers, many of which sounded remarkably similar to the bid’s proposals, had been:

Winners: Par (beach nature reserve and the bike hub); Bude (sea pool development); Looe (seafront enhancement and walking route signage, podcast and leaflets); Hayle (improved visitor experience); Newquay (harbour regeneration); Perranporth (destination for people with disabilities); St Agnes (bolstering St Agnes).

Losers: Falmouth and Penryn (visitor hospitality and workforce development); Looe (low water landing stage and events kit); Newquay (street environment); Padstow (lobster festival); Perranporth (Perran trail); St Ives (Guildhall regeneration).

Church Street Car Park
Oliver Cramp had obtained support from Falmouth Town Council for his proposal to give up a few parking spaces and install seating on the edge of the car park. He felt strongly that some change was better than nothing in the car park. The task would now be to raise the necessary £100k. A possible source was the Sainsbury money.
Mike Varney reported that the contamination study on the car park was now available on the Cornwall Council website [Google cannot find it]

Planning issues
MV reported that the proposal, with the Section 106 proposals, would be going to the November Planning meeting. If agreed, this would release money which could be spent in Falmouth. Penryn could not benefit as its shopping area was not sufficiently developed to be hit by the appearance of the new store. A key project would obviously be a contribution to the walkway along the waterfront which could be on a larger scale than envisaged in OC’s scheme.

The nitrate zone around the Docks was being reduced and, as a result, the planning blight on the area was going to be listed, allowing developments such as the Lord Nelson site to go ahead.

Localism
There had been little progress since the presentation by Ray Tovey of Cornwall Council. Officers were elusive. There were opportunities for the local community to take control over services within the town. The Forum believed that it would be preferable for an arm’s length body, or bodies, to take these on rather than the Town Council whose priority appeared to be to take on little more than responsibility for the Town Hall. Alternative management solutions ranged from the Town Manager, to BIDs to newly created Community Interest Companies (CICs).

There appeared to be no appetite for a single comprehensive solution for Falmouth, it was therefore believed better to go ahead with smaller initiatives rather than wait for a single major devolution of activities. The Tourist Information Centre had already been devolved and King Harry Ferries were keen to take on the whole of Prince of Wales pier. There was an immediate imperative as building work was being done in the area and the builders had offered to help out with environmental improvements. There was talk of the possible devolution of responsibilities for car parks in the longer term. 

Falmouth Energy Partnership
The Partnership was going ahead well. They would be launching their draft report at a meeting at the Poly at 19:30 on 17 November. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the creation of an integrated renewable energy plan for local wealth and resilience. The Partnership welcomed engagement and information.

Cycling feasibility study
A surprising discovery had been the proposal by Cornwall Council to let a £30k consultancy study on the feasibility of Penryn as a cycling destination. This had already been commented on in the Forum’s response to the Transport Strategy and a new cycling route had already been opened linking Tremough, Penryn College and Penryn town centre.

Falmouth Enterprise Zone
At the meeting with the Chris Pomfret of the Local Enterprise Partnership, it had been suggested that Falmouth might develop a proposal for a Local Enterprise Zone of its own, following the Newquay model. The LEP was committed to help if it thought the idea had legs. There was a real need for development and grow-on space on the industrial estates to house the successful companies coming out of the new buildings on the Tremough campus such as AIR and TIC. Andy Coote would gather some like minds to discuss the idea and work up a proposal.

Falmouth by Design
Mike Jenks and others wished to update the work done by the Falmouth by Design group as a way of providing a better quality living and working environment in the town. There were now many electronic tools which could be used to engage a wider circle of consultees and to visualise the results. This was very relevant given the re-drafting of the Planning Policy Framework that was taking place. It also tied in with the proposals for Neighbourhood plans, falling below the core Strategy and Local Development Framework, and he would be discussing this with Sarah Newton MP. It was believed that the Town Council had similar aspirations.

Town and gown committee
A committee had been set up, chaired by Kevin Ayres, to discuss common issues. This brought together representatives of the educational establishments, town councillors from both town and student representatives. Current discussions included the need to raise standards in Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs). The committee met once a term.

Penryn River Study
A project was under way to look at the usage and development of the remainder of the Penryn river as a follow-on from the Port of Falmouth Masterplan. Led by CDC, the aim was to provide guidance on the usage of space both on and off the water.

Other updates:
  • Local Development Framework: a public consultation on the expansion options for the two towns was expected during November
  • Anyone who had travelled on the Maritime Line and suffered from over-crowding should write to Julian Crow at First Great Western as he was in the process of putting in a bid for more rolling stock
  • The Olympic torch would be visiting Falmouth on 19 May 2012
  • The BID team, with Richard Gates, had met Mary Portas at Westminster recently, as part of their campaign to improve high streets throughout the country
  • The Christmas edition of Fathom was now out with the programme for activities up to Christmas. Copies could be obtained from Richard Gates
  • Mike Varney is now Planning Champion as well as Chair of Strategic Planning, on Cornwall Council
Those attending the meeting:
Age Concern - Sally Stiles
Churches Together - Neil Tinson
Civic Society - Dick Stiles
Cornwall Council - Mike Varney
Falmouth Business Club - Andy Coote
Falmouth and District Hotels Association - Shaun Davie
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners - John Langan
Falmouth Rotary - Nigel Druce
Falmouth Watersports Association - Jackie George
Falmouth Town Council - Oliver Cramp
Fal River Links - Tim Light
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - Jonathan Griffin (chair)
RIBA - Chris Smith
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society - Mike Jenks
Transition Falmouth - Lorely Lloyd
Tremough Campus Services - Jilly Easterby

Thursday 15 September 2011

Meeting - September 2011

The Falmouth Visitor Information Centre (VIC) This is now open and operating successfully. This replaced the former Tourist Information Centre.

350th Anniversary of the Falmouth Charter
5 October is ‘Falmouth Day’ – the 350th anniversary of the granting of the Charter which created the town of Falmouth. An ambitious programme of activities is planned (see www.falmouth,co.uk). The Falmouth Art Gallery, the Poly and the Maritime Museum were all planning associated exhibitions. The Forum is contributing a new version of the Charter: something aspirational for the next 50 years.

Seaside Towns funding
The bid for £75k from the Seaside Town scheme has been produced by the BID with help from Cornwall Marine Network and others. The proposal will involve new signage and visitor management schemes in the two towns. The result of the bid will be known in late October. The Forum has contributed its ‘signage’ reserve of £3k towards this project.

Port Masterplan
The Masterplan has been approved by Cornwall Council Cabinet and work is going ahead on the development of bids for Convergence funding. There is some urgency here as the Convergence window of opportunity is closing.

As far as dredging is concerned, active lobbying was continuing. The recent announcements about marine conservation areas appeared restrictive with a ‘reference’ area having been unexpectedly identified for the St Mawes bank. A test project on the re-location of marl would be carried out shortly.

A second project is emerging: to do a similar, but simpler, study on the rest of the Penryn river, to assess the strategy for the water and adjoining land usage. This will be funded by Convergence. A project team is meeting on 29 September to work out a brief. 

Connecting Cornwall 2011 – 2105 Implementation Plan
The CC Transport Department has published the Implementation Plan for the next five years. No major schemes are planned for Falmouth and Penryn but there may be elements hidden away in the ‘general’ categories. CC has promised an analysis of the projects associated with the two towns.

Falmouth and Penryn, have been selected as one of two a ‘Cycling Demonstration Towns’ in the county. This was something of a surprise since the Forum’s response to the consultation had pointed out the cycling-unfriendliness (steepness) of the hills. We await further details.

Church Street car park
The land under the car park is contaminated which is a significant barrier to re-development.

The results of the survey carried out by CC into the usage and attitudes towards this car park are still awaited (promised for November 2010). A separate proposal for a partial re-landscaping and re-arrangement of the car park with associated pricing changes at the Quarry, was welcomed. It suggested that a walkway could be created for the loss of only about a dozen spaces and recommended a pay-on-exit scheme. Its proponents were encouraged to be bold in their ambitions. The ideas would be going before the Falmouth Town Council to encourage them to adopt them as policy.

Local Development Framework
There had been much fuss in the newspapers recently about the ‘possibility’ that 4,000 new houses were to ‘be imposed’ on Falmouth and development would start with the pitch and putt course. Much of this coverage had been ill-informed and inaccurate.

CC Planners have been looking at possible expansion spaces around the town, for all sorts of uses: houses, schools, industry etc. In a careful study, they had identified a series of areas and looked at these from the point of view of such things as visual impact, accessibility, land usage, topography etc. Unfortunately discussions at the FTC Planning committee had brought this work into the public domain without any associated explanation.

A public consultation on the expansion options for the towns would take place in November. There are some who believe that expansion of the towns is inevitable given the need for housing (especially affordable)and the planned expansion of the university; others who refuse to accept this. The difficulty as always, will be in finding suitable sites which do not offend local sensitivities.

Discussions at a national level may influence this work. A revision of existing planning legislation will embody an ‘assumption in favour of development’. It will be interesting to see how this will impact the work of the Framework.

Meanwhile, the Civic Society was considering a revised version of Falmouth by Design, to help improve the quality of developments in the town.

Localism
CC has said that Falmouth is ‘not in the first wave’ for devolution of responsibility from CC to local bodies. The messages emerging from County Hall were very mixed. It was by no means clear whether devolution was simply a cost-cutting exercise, a shrugging-off of responsibility or a genuine desire to let go and allow local groups to run things themselves. It would be helpful if such questions could be clarified.

Locally, there was a considerable appetite to run everything, especially car parking, while the Town Council was focusing on management of its own building. Penryn was seeking to take back management of its own port.

The Sainsbury’s development
It appears that Sainsbury’s might be persuaded to make a significant ‘community benefit’ contribution to the town as part of a Section 106 agreement for the development of the site at Ponsharden. One estimate is that trade in the main street could drop by as much as 7% as a result of the new store.

FTC has already drawn up a list and is in discussion with CC Planning Control about possible projects. This list includes one-off expenditures, support for community projects and support for individual posts. The need for the money to be spent sustainably was emphasised with a possible model being an annual contribution based on something like the usage of car parking spaces alongside the superstore.

The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The LEP had been tasked with developing a single Economic Strategy for Cornwall. This was now the focus of their work. They were also convening a business stakeholder group.

Education developments
Falmouth Marine School had just spent £200k on refurbishments and had around 300 students aged 16-18, 50% of them coming from outside the county. They were developing their research threads with the aim of working towards HE accreditation.

The CUC building developments were advancing well with the Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC) and the Academy for Innovation and Research (AIR) due for opening in Spring 2012. Tremough has also been spending money on re-painting and reviving its existing buildings. There are now some 4,000 students at Tremough and 800 at Wood Lane (UCF).

Shorts
The Falmouth Progress School was designed for small businesses, offering 2 hours a month self-directed business-helps-business support. More details from Andy Coote.

Falmouth Business Breakfasts take place every Thursday at 07:30. £8 a head for a cracking breakfast and inspiring speaker

Source FM is now back on FM 96.1 and covers local business matters every Friday morning between 08:00 and 09:00

The Trescobeas play site re-opens on Saturday 17 September at midday. 

Those attending the meeting:
Mike Reynolds – A&P Docks
Sally Stiles – Falmouth Age Concern
Paul Wickes - Cornwall Marine Network
Dick Stiles - Civic Society
Richard Wilcox - Falmouth BID
Andy Coote - Falmouth Business Club
Jeremy Edwards - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
John Langan – Falmouth Harbour Commissioners

David Stedman – Falmouth Marine School
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Mark Williams - Falmouth Town Council
Richard Gates – Falmouth Town Manager

Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Mike Jenks – Royal Cornwall Polytechnic

John Bottomley – Transport Working Group
Jilly Easterby – UCF,  University of Exeter and TCSG

Thursday 14 July 2011

Meeting - July 2011

Localism Bill
Ray Tovey, Cabinet member for Localism at Cornwall Councillor joined the meeting to discuss the Localism Bill and its implications for Cornwall and Falmouth. Ray is well known to Falmouth and Penryn, having written the Community Plan.

The Bill will provide a mechanism for decentralisation and will encourage the devolution of activities to local town and parish councils as well as, potentially, to the private sector or not-for-profit operations. It would also challenge the Council on its structures and working methods including things like the Cabinet structure and the Community Network structure.
The process of transfer would require a major culture change at the Council. For a start, it would require a joined-up approach to areas, rather than a functional one and the whole tone of voice would have to change form parent-child to partnership working. The Council would be initiating discussions and working with local partners to improve their bids to the stage at which responsibilities could be devolved.

There are some 213 parish and town councils in the county. The Localism team could not engage with all of them at once and so they were working with 4 towns or parishes, piloting Neighbourhood Development schemes and another 10 pilot projects. The next stage would be place-based budgeting in order to assist these discussions.

There was a range of concerns. Would this lead to increased bureaucracy with agreements being bogged down in minutiae? Each agreement would be used as a template for others, to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Would there be consistency between different places? There would be no one-size fits all philosophy. Would local parishes be responsible for planning? Only at a strategic level. The decisions would still lie with the formal planning authority.

As far as Falmouth was concerned, the existence of the Community Plan clearly made a big difference. A ‘shopping list’ had been assembled a year or so ago. The Town Council had given priority to the transfer of the Town Hall and discussions seemed to have drifted from there. There was therefore disappointment that, despite the early initiative, Falmouth had not been included in the first wave of pilot schemes. This raised questions about the quality of communication about the opportunity.

Two other schemes were Prince of Wales Pier which was seen as a liability by the Council but an asset locally and could be a good and very visible quick win. Or Church street Car Park, another intractable problem, could be transferred to a a Community Interest Company (CIC).

Ray emphasised the desire of the Council to work with the Town Council or other partners and suggested that Falmouth was well-positioned to capitalise on the opportunity. He emphasised that the Bill has not yet been enacted and the exact meaning and consequence were yet to become clear. He would circulate a layman’s guide to the Bill.

He was thanked for his openness and clarity.

Port of Falmouth Masterplan
This has been published and has been endorsed by the Council’s Cabinet. A new Port Masterplan Delivery Partnership was now in place to make things happen, chaired by Mike Varney.

Tourist Information Centre
Following protracted discussions, the building would now become the Fal River Visitor Information Centre, opening on 1 August and running throughout the year. Staff were being recruited.

350th anniversary of the Falmouth Charter
Chris Smith had produced a first draft of some headings for a new 50 year Charter. A working group would be convening to finalise these.

Fal Energy Plan
Three students from Exeter University were working on collating data on current energy and transport consumption and the potential for generating renewable energy. They are aiming to produce a report in early October which would be incorporated in the Charter celebrations. The Forum was pleased to be engaged as a partner in this work.

Over the period 24 September to the end of October, we would all be encouraged to record the amount of human energy that went into cycling, rowing, walking etc as a measure of the human contribution to add to the recorded consumption of energy.

BID Update
This had been circulated in advance. The ‘Save the High Street’ campaign was getting good coverage, emphasising the problems of car parking, business rates, VAT and out-of-town developments.

The Visitor hospitality/signage project was something included in the original bidding document. The team was putting together a bid to the Coastal Towns Fund (which contained £400k) for money to support this, including money from the Forum’s account which had been earmarked for signage several years ago. The new map boards were examples of the team’s existing work.

Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The LEP had now appointed its Chairman (Chris Pomfret) and Board. It was, as yet, unclear what the LEP would be doing as consultations were still taking place. Cornwall Marine Network had been commissioned to bid for money to help the LEP to engage with businesses. The Forum was in touch with the LEP administration with a view to a joint meeting of the Mayors’ Regeneration Group and the LEP, probably sometime in September.

Cornwall Council
Scott Sharples was moving on to new projects and Charlotte Chadwick was taking over as our Community Network Manager.  She would be working two days a week on our network and two days on her existing Helston network.

Transport matters
There was still no news on the outstanding transport issues – traffic in the main street, Church Street Car Park, Car Parking policy and the local Transport Plan - although the Council’s Transport Department had promised to send someone along to the next meeting of the Regeneration Group.

Business development
A successful event had been held on 19 May which had brought together local businesses to look at the opportunities offered by three main initiatives: the developments at Tremough, superfast broadband and the Port Masterplan. Further such events were being planned including the possibility of a business accelerator scheme.

A regular slot on Source Radio was commended to all: 8:00 – 9:00 on Fridays.

A recent project by some tourism students from Plymouth university had produced no useful outcomes. 

Those attending the meeting:
Ray Tovey - Cornwall Council Cabinet Member
Sally Stiles - Age Concern
Mike Varney - Cornwall Council
Paul Wickes - Cornwall Marine Network
Anne Bright - Churches Together
Dick Stiles - Civic Society
Tim Light – Fal River Links
David Pollard – Falmouth Ambassadors
Nigel Carpenter - Falmouth BID
Richard Wilcox - Falmouth BID
Andy Coote - Falmouth Business Club
Jeremy Edwards - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Mark Williams - Falmouth Town Council
Jackie George – Falmouth Watersports
Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Lorely Lloyd - Transition Falmouth
Jilly Easterby – UCF & the University of Exeter

Thursday 12 May 2011

Meeting - May 2011

Town Framework Study
A small group has been working with Cornwall Council planners on the Town Framework Study. This identifies areas for expansion of the two towns based on criteria such as available land, access to transport links, schools, neighbourhood centres and landscape issues. Most of the sites idnetified are in the halo around the towns. This is due to go out to consultation in June and will inform planning policy.

Port of Falmouth Master Plan
The consultation was now over and had proved informative. There were few major surprises but there were some issues still to resolve. The partners are now working on their final proposals which will be completed by 19 June and will go CC Cabinet in July for endorsement.

All we need now is permission to dredge even though there were many other projects in the Docks would be going ahead anyway.

Cruise ships
A very successful cruise ship visit had taken place on 7 May: 3,000 passengers who were delivered by shuttle boats to the town. A record 31 tour coaches were used. The Ambassadors were appreciative of the help of the BID and other partners. If only she had been able to moor alongside ...

Future of the Tourist Information Centre
This had now closed although it wa sunderstood that a post-midnight attempt was still being made to re-open it. A private sector alternative might yet emerge. The discussions around its closure had been confused, slow and drawn out which had not helped a smooth transfer to a new model.

Traffic in the main street
There has been no further progress on discussions with CC about partial closure of Church Street Car Park. Their traffic survey started in Augsut 2010 was still too secret to be discussed or even shared with anyone in the town. It was highly likely, therefore, that another summer season would go by without any meaningful discussions or experiment of alternative traffic management.

The CC report on contamination has also not been published or, apparently, acted upon.

The BID team and Town Manager were discussing a number of ideas to encourage greater use of the town for shopping, including possibly paying to open all the car parks free of charge for a series of key days.

Town issues
Much work was being done by the BID team and Town Manager on:
  • Dressing the town with flags and baskets
  • Producing a new version of the map and a poster of the major events
  • A full range of festivals was planned for the year (see the Falmouth website for details)
  • A new shopper bag
  • A new bench to be sited in the Market Strand area
  • Public relations 
Seaside towns funding
Twelve Cornish towns have been invited to bid for money from a joint government/CC fund of £400k which is available to support a range of improvements. It was agreed that the BID team was ideally suited to lead this. Possible matching money might be obtained from other sources such as Convergence. Expressions of interest are due by 29 July.

350 Anniversary of Falmouth Charter
Work is progressing on a programme to celebrate this event which would be officially launched, along with a suitable beer, on Monday 16 May. The bid to the HLF had failed on a technicality but was being revived.

The Forum was committed to helping develop a vision for the next ten years and Chris Smith would be leading on this.

BIDs on the Industrial Estates
The idea of developing BIDs on the industrial estates had been dropped because the business case did not look sound. Instead, a proposal for another piece of work looking at the rest of the waterfront in the Port area (including all the Penryn river), coupled to the industrial estates, in order to highlight opportunities and  develop a strategy.

Connecting Cornwall 2010 - Local Transport Plan
The Forum had responded to the consultation on the Implementation Plan. A final version of the Plan had not been published and it was thus unclear what was being planned in Falmouth over the coming three years. Rumours were that the outstanding road repairs in Arwennack Street were to be started 'soon'.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency
The Forum had responded to the consultation about the Falmouth MRCC and had received a long, if tangential reply.

Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
Chris Pomfret had been appointed as chairman. It was expected that the other directors would be named soon. There would be six appointees from CC and seven private sector ones.

Cornwall Council
CC is going through another re-organisation into a series of Arms Length Organisations (ALMOs), allowing the Council to be a more strategic body. Over £1bn of planning applications were being discussed which suggested that investments were still being made.

In brief:
  • The Community Alive event would be held in the Poly on 21 May. More details
  • The Tremough Culture Festival would also be happening on 21 May More details
  • Following cuts in their budgets, Falmouth Befriending were looking to raise £20,000 a year and needed help, ideas and money More details
  • The short version of the Community Plan had been produced and coies were in the post
Those attending the meeting:Sally Stiles - Age Concern
Mike Varney - Cornwall Council
Scott Sharples - Cornwall Council
Dick Stiles - Civic Society
Tim Light – Fal River Links
David Pollard – Falmouth Ambassadors
Richard Gates - Falmouth Town Manager
Malcolm Farrar - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
Shaun Davie – Falmouth and District Hotels Association
John Langan - Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
David Stedman - Falmouth Marine School
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Jackie George – Falmouth Watersports
Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Michael Jenks - RCPS (The Poly)
Nigel Druce - Rotary
Lorely Lloyd - Transition Falmouth
Jilly Easterby – UCF & the University of Exeter

Thursday 31 March 2011

Non Meeting - March 2011

We cancelled the March meeting at the last minute because of the number of people away and the clash with the MCA Consultation on the possible closure of the 24 hour operations of the the Falmouth MRCC. Members of the Forum attended the MCA meeting and have since written an impassioned letter to the MCA objecting to the proposals.

The next meeting of the Forum will be on Wednesday 11 May.

The following is an update on a number of issues which would have been covered at the March meeting.

Convergence activities
The major Convergence expenditure in the two towns has gone  towards the production of the Port Masterplan which has now been published for consultation. The Forum has responded to this along the lines of 'Well done; what is not to like'.

Some more Convergence money had been set aside to assist the development of the industrial estates around Falmouth and Penryn. Cornwall Development Company (CDC) had suggested that this might be best spent on developing new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). The level of income raised would be insufficient to make these viable and the existing town centre BID is reluctant to extend its boundaries at the present time. The Falmouth and Penryn Regeneration Committee is now working with CDC on alternatives which will help to stimulate improvements in the economic activity at the various industrial estates.

The Chamber of Commerce is organising a Business event for the morning of 19 May which will contribute to this work.

The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The creation of the LEP has not been smooth. Sir John Banham has now been installed as President and a new chairman has been found. Chris Pomfret comes from Unilever although he lives in Cornwall. A biography can be found at CV. We await news of other Board members and some idea of what the LEP will actually do. It will have no dedicated resources unlike SWRDA which, in a sense, it replaces.

The recent Budget mentioned that LEPs can apply for areas to become Enterprise Zones within which planning will be relaxed (some of us are old enough to remember the same scheme in the early 80s). This may be a target for our LEP.

Cornwall Council studies
There are two important studies taking place at the moment. The Town Framework Plan is a bottom-up look at the two towns and looks for areas  where expansion might be encouraged  based on things like available land, access to transport links, schools and neighbourhood centres. This work has been going ahead well and has narrowed down possible expansion sites. It will be submitted to Councillors for approval in due course.

The second study is the Core Strategy which is top-down and looks at the needs of the county for new housing. The figures are big: we will need between 2,000 and 2,850 new houses a year for 30 years (much the same as the present level of growth) but where should they be?
  • Option 1: Cornwall towns - concentrate growth on existing major towns
  • Option 2: Dispersed - spread growth across all towns 
  • Option 3: Economy-led – align housing growth with economic investment
This will define the sort of county we live in. There is more about this at Core Strategy There is a deadline for responses at the end of April and we will be trying to contribute one  on behalf of the Forum. If you are interested in contributing then please contact the chairman.

The recent news about the rejection by local people of expansion at Rame and Longdowns does not suggest that developing new housing is going to be easy.

350th Anniversary of the Falmouth Charter
Work is progressing on a programme to celebrate the 350th anniversary. We are awaiting news on the Heritage Lottery Fund bid. The Forum is committed to developing a new vision for the next 10 to 20 years and is looking for members to help develop the ideas.

Sainsbury’s Planning application
The new Sainsbury's development is rumbling on but seems likely to go ahead. The Cornwall Strategic Planning Committee recently held a consultation session which threw up few major issues.

Connecting Cornwall 2030
Cornwall Council consulted on its Local Transport Plan (LTP3) in two parts: with an initial Strategic document which covered the whole period, and then with an Implementation Plan which covers the three years starting April 2011. The Forum commented on both of these. We have heard no response to the second and therefore have no idea what the Transport Department is planning in our town for the coming three years. The last time this happened (LTP2), you will recall, we found ourselves with a reversal of flow which we were told 'had been consuilted on' and which was later rejected by the community.

The bollard: the implementation of the 24 hour ban on driving in the main street has passed without notice as the bollard is still operating on its old schedule.

Car Park usage: the CC Transport Department is carrying out a study of all car parks in Falmouth to assess the financial and transport impact of closing Church Street Car Park. Apparently this is too confidential to be discussed before it is seen by Councillors.

Parking charges: we are none the clearer on what is planned for parking charges in Falmouth. The Transport sub-group is responding the recent proposals, pointing out that having unification of prices across the county is hardly imaginative and does not recognise the different needs of different towns; and that to have the same prices for Church Street Car Park and the Quarry makes little sense.

Pedestrian crossing: it is good to see the new pedestrian crossing being installed on Melvill Road.

Future of the Falmouth Tourist Information Centre (TIC)
The existing TIC will be closing at the end of March as planned, despite attempts by a number of people to develop a replacement, but different service. CC was unable to agree to aspects of the latter. The closure has been caused by a dramatic cut in the budget for Visit Cornwall which will mean that Falmouth loses some £350k per annum of tourism support that it received under Carrick. This is a major blow for those businesses that rely on visitors.

Cornwall Council
Those of us who deal with officials at CC will know that the council is in the middle of yet another re-organisation which is causing a predicatble amount of chaos: different people having radically different expectations on what will happen next and the nature of current policies; and consequent delays in decision-making.

Falmouth Town Manager and BID update
There is not enough room to list the activities that the two Richards are making happen in the town. All of them are positive. Many of these are covered on the Falmouth website The most notable has been the recent successful Spring Festival.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Port Masterplan Consultation

The Port of Falmouth Development Initiative Steering Group invites everyone to come and see, and give their views on the Port of Falmouth Draft Masterplan
  • On: Friday 18th March 10am - 7pm or Saturday 19th March, 10am - 7pm
  • At: Falmouth Watersports Centre, The Boat Park, Grove Place
In 2008, the Port of Falmouth Development Initiative (POFDI) was formed to prepare and progress proposals for the development of the Port, particularly focussed on proposals for the Docks area. The POFDI included representatives from Cornwall Council (CC), Falmouth Harbour Commissioners (FHC), A&P Falmouth (A&P), Pendennis Super Yachts, World Fuel Services, South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Cornwall Development Company (CDC) and Government Office for the South West.

A Steering and Working Group from the above representatives was established to drive forward the Initiative, with a key element being the development of a Masterplan for the port. The Masterplan will consist of a strategic level action plan identifying a medium to long term programme of investment opportunities which will make a long-term difference to the economy of the Docks, Falmouth and Cornwall.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Meeting - January 2011

Membership
Pam Faulkner has resigned from the Falmouth and District Hoteliers Association to be replaced by Shaun Davie who was welcomed to the Forum.

Rotary International
John Pearce, Director General for the county described the work of Rotary and of the 41 clubs in his district. Rotary had supported major initiatives around the world such as polio eradication and disaster support of which Shelterbox was the shining example. Local priorities had included literacy – helping with reading in Falmouth schools – youth programmes, fundraising and help for the disadvantaged. The Youth Leadership scheme had involved apprentices from Pendennis Shipyard.

Student accommodation
The CUC/UCF accommodation strategy had now been presented to both Falmouth and Penryn Town Councils. The strategy had served to calm many of the fears and had been welcomed as a framework for the future. It was now due to go before Cornwall Council. If agreed by them then it would help enable developments in the towns.

Convergence and the Strategic Investment Framework (SIF)
The latest iteration of the SIF had now reported. Four projects had been agreed and were completed or in process:
  • Truro - Falmouth rail link
  • Watson Marlow Bredel factory extension
  • Falmouth Harbour Masterplan
  • Oyster card pilot project
Five more overlapping schemes had been agreed in principle and needed to be ‘oven-ready’ by the end of March:
  • Marine workshops (incl CHP) Building projects in the Docks
  • New quayside buildings in the Docks
  • Kernick estate BID 
  • Commercial Road BID 
  • Bickland Water BID
It was important that some effort was put behind the last three to achieve the deadline. A meeting was being held on 28 January to give some impetus to them and champions were being identified.

Five projects had been transferred to other funding programmes:
  • Bickland Water Business Park extension 
  • Large diamond drilling company
  • CUC Grow-on space on Kernick industrial estate
  • Falmouth Business Park extension 
  • Falmouth Marine School
All other projects had been put on hold until funding was available.

Port of Falmouth Masterplan
Negotiations to finalise the plan are still taking place. Once agreement has been reached, the proposals will go to public consultation, probably by the end of February. It was likely that some money would be available from Cornwall Council to help fund the dredging.

News was still awaited from the Marine Maritime Organisation on the proposal to dredge. Their decision would be taken on the basis of the potential impact of the work on the Special Area of Conservation. This decision had already taken seven months but was now due at the end of January. There were routes for appeal including Over-riding Public Interest (OPI).

Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The LEP is the new ‘private sector-led’ public-private partnership to stimulate regeneration. Sir John Banham had produced some initial proposals which were available on limited circulation. He was proposing six special delivery vehicles which would be profit-making businesses pursuing themes of:
  • Cornwall Real Estate Investment Trust (affordable housing)
  • Cornwall Green Energy (fuel cells and combined heat and power)
  • Falmouth Marine Developments
  • Cornwall Small Business Services (support)
  • Cornwall Village Life (Post Offices and mail deliveries)
  • GP Management Services (the elderly)
Two issues arose from this. Firstly, there was something of a power struggle going on between the various fora around the county as to who best represented the views of the private sector; secondly, the question as to whether the ideas proposed were the most likely to stimulate economic activity. There were some concerns about the cost of the initial study and the profit-making nature of the proposals especially as two of them were essentially social projects not business ones. The inclusion of a specific Falmouth project was welcomed.

The main things that business wanted were:
  • Measures to address the chronic shortage of finance for small businesses
  • Freedom from restrictive process-driven legislation
  • The ability to hire and fire people
  • The inclusion of tourism and agriculture in the list of projects for Cornwall
Meetings are being held with stakeholders: Cornwall Business Partnership on 17th, Chambers of Commerce on 21st and CC Cabinet on 28th.

Connecting Cornwall 2030 – Local Transport (Implementation) Plan
The Strategy document had been published and the 3 year rolling Implementation Plan was now available for consultation.
This included a number of helpful items such as a proposal to dual the A30 near Temple, as well as a number of cycle and walking ways. The largest item in the area appeared to be £7.5m for the Truro east Park and Ride scheme.

A sub-committee would meet to respond in more detail direct to Cornwall Council before the deadline of 23 January.

Other transport issues
The 24 hour traffic management scheme had been introduced in the main street although the bollard would continue to operate only between 11:00 and 16:00.

Oliver Cramp had carried out a survey on the use and possible replacement of Church Street Car Park. This had confirmed views that the car park should not be closed until there was a suitable replacement near the centre of town. The work would be put together with the survey work being carried out by Cornwall Council Transport Department which was expected shortly.

A recent study by Cornwall Council Transport Department had recommended new parking charges across the county. These had not been unanimously welcomed and their implementation had been delayed because of this, and a number of other factors. The Parking Panel would be meeting on Friday 14 January to review further.

Future of the Falmouth Tourist Information Centre (TIC)
The existing TIC will be closing at the end of March. Although some imaginative proposals for a replacement service had been made by a group convened by Nigel Carpenter, these had not yet managed to obtain funding. This was a significant loss and reflected a massive reduction in public sector commitment to the promotion of tourism in the town.

350th Anniversary of the Falmouth Charter
Work is progressing on a programme to celebrate the 350th anniversary, led by Rotary and Robin Dunseath. The main week of celebration was due to be 2nd to 8th October when a series of dinners and events was planned.

The Forum agreed to support the celebrations and had been asked to lead on the development of a new ‘Charter’ for Falmouth: a series of aspirations for the coming ten years. The beginnings of this would come with a Community Alive event on 21 May to which all were invited; the annual theme being energy.

Community Plan (Lite)
The handy version of the Community Plan is in its final draft and would be available directly.

Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council was due to meet with representatives of the MCA to discuss the proposed closure of the 24 hour Falmouth MRCC. There was unanimity that this was an unnecessary and undesirable step.

Cornwall International Male Voice Festival
This Festival, happening between 27 April and 2 May, would be the largest such festival in the world. Concerts would be held across the county and in Falmouth.

Town Manager
Christmas festivities: the new Christmas lights had been welcomed as had the expanded programme of events. Trading had been mixed with some retailers reporting better than average sales, others lower. It had certainly been a difficult December because of the poor weather.

Spring festival: plans were going well for the new festival which would start small but was likely to grow over time.

Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber was going through some soul-searching on it future and activities. There was a call for new members.

Those attending the meeting:
Mike Reynolds - A& P Docks
Mike Varney - Cornwall Council
Scott Sharples - Cornwall Council
Tim Light – Fal River Links
David Pollard – Falmouth Ambassadors
Richard Gates - Falmouth Town Manager
Jeremy Edwards - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
Shaun Davie – Falmouth and District Hotels Association
John Langan - Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Mark Williams - Falmouth Town Council
Jackie George – Falmouth Watersports
Neil Tinson - Falmouth and Penryn Churches Together
Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Christopher Smith - RIBA
John Pearce – Rotary
Nigel Druce - Rotary
Lorely Lloyd - Transition Falmouth
John Bottomley - Transport Working Group
Jilly Easterby – UCF