Meeting - July 2012

Events
It has been a busy period for Falmouth events. These started with the Fal River Festival, went on through the Finn Festival and Olympic Torch Relay, past the Shanty Festival and into the J Class yachts regatta and Pendennis Cup. All of these have helped to give the town a high profile and have helped to make it come alive. Congratulations to all those involved.

Planning is now progressing on the new Splash event between 7 and 16th September which will slot in between Falmouth Week and the Oyster Festival in October.

Urbanism award
The town has been shortlisted for an urbanism award and judges are due to visit shortly. Richard Gates is coordinating the visit. Our two resident architects offered assistance with the jargon.

The Town Framework, the Community Plan and a Neighbourhood Plan
The Town Framework is nearing a conclusion. The final consultation is expected to be published in September. The form of the final document is not yet clear.

There was a general feeling that the town could do with a Neighbourhood Plan below the Framework but a recognition that this would be costly. There is no budget currently available and the Town Councils would be required to provide around £25k each. Such a Plan would have to go to referendum whose outcome would be in doubt especially as there is much confusion in the community about the different levels of plan: the Core Strategy, the Town Framework and the Neighbourhood Plan.

It was agreed that the best way forward would be to see what the actual Framework document looked like and try to ensure that as much detail as possible was incorporated in that, thus avoiding the need for a separate Plan. If a Plan were needed then the Forum was happy to help with the content.

Local Transport Plan 2030
Work on the Town Framework has produced a new plan which seeks to cover transport issues up to 2030. At first sight this was not very impressive and did little more than re-cycle previous ideas however, it appears to be the plan on which Cornwall Council is developing its work, despite anything written in Connecting Cornwall 2030 (also known as LTP3). A working group would make contact with the officers concerned in order to try and establish a clear and focused dialogue with CC.

Cycling
A small working group had already met to review the CC proposals. They would be refining their proposals and feeding them back to the CC project team later in the month.

Church Street Car Park
A number of spaces have been barriered off in the car park to carry out repair work. Once this has been completed, it is hoped that the seating proposals will go ahead. The Falmouth Town Council has offered £10k to the latter work which might be completed next year.

Dredging
It is hoped that the team will hear positive news about the trial dredge on Thursday 12 July. If so, then the work would go ahead, costing £180k and taking around six months. The work would be led by Falmouth Harbour Commissioners with the science being validated by the University of Plymouth.

The Penryn River study
This study grew out of that for the Docks and looked at the needs for waterside space on the river to support marine industries. It was progressing well with an initial survey of the major marine industries on the river nearing completion. The next stage would be to survey these businesses and assess future needs and demand.

It was noted that a planning application had been submitted for Falmouth Wharves (not yet available on the online Planning Register). This would include some marine businesses.

Localism
The CIC: After considerable delay, it now appears that CIC matters are beginning to move forward positively. Things remain confidential but FTC and councillors and senior members of staff at Cornwall Council are now of like mind on a solution and there will be more news very soon.

Prince of Wales pier: an advertisement had recently appeared in the local newspapers, inviting tenders for the running of events on Prince of Wales pier. Interested bodies were invited to bid.

Devolution of management: it is recognised at CC that devolution to local control of assets from CC to other groups has gone swiftly in some cases but too slowly in others. An effort is being made to speed things up. Falmouth has, so far, only pitched to run the municipal building.

Governance review: CC is conducting a governance review, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the cabinet and committee models. Enquiry days are being held on 17 July and 17 September. 

Citizenship for Life: this is a local scheme which helps 12 young people with a series of monthly events. There would be a final celebration of their work at Eden on 7 December. One of the places visited by the young people had been the School for Social Entrepreneurs which has a Cornwall branch.

Crime: there had been a recent spike in crime which appeared mostly to be caused by under 16 year olds between 3pm and 7pm. The police were exploring solutions. This emphasised the need for some out of school activities or places for them to go.

Fal Energy Partnership
The FEP had done a recent presentation to the Falmouth Business Club and was due to hold another partnership meeting on 20 July at 7:30. There would be a Zero Carbon Day on 21 July on the Moor. They are looking to work with smaller groups on specific projects.

Other town issues
Rubbish: there are continuing issues with the standards being set by Cornwall Council for rubbish collection and cleaning.

Car parking: it was good to hear that Cornwall Council had been consulting the Town Manager in advance on possible charges for car parking.

The Maritime Line 150th anniversary
The railway line to Falmouth would be celebrating its 150th anniversary in August 2013 and a series of events, visits and special trains rides were being planned (toot toot).

Tremough
The Tremough Campus Services Group has been re-branded as Falmouth Exeter Plus.
The name reflects the fact that the Tremough Campus is shared and jointly operated by University College Falmouth and the University of Exeter, and the added value that Falmouth Exeter Plus brings to the partnership through its development of, and investment in, shared facilities and services for the two Higher Education partners.

These shared services include IT and audio visual services, library and information services, dyslexia support, academic skills support, reprographics, capital development, facilities management, infrastructure planning, carbon management, sustainability monitoring, timetabling, reception, counselling, student living support, nursery, accessibility support, chaplaincy, student accommodation, sports and recreation facilities, catering and hospitality services, retail outlets, and conference and events management.

Falmouth Exeter Plus also delivers a number of shared services at University College Falmouth’s Woodlane Campus.

CUC should not be used to describe the Tremough Campus.  CUC is the wider partnership of University College Falmouth, the University of Exeter, Plymouth University, Truro College, Penwith College, Cornwall College and the Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry. This partnership gives more people the chance to study in Cornwall, and uses university level education to support the county’s businesses and communities.

Those attending
A&P Docks - Mike Reynolds
Ambassadors – David Pollard
Civic Society - Dick Stiles
Civic Society - Mike Jenks
Cornwall Council - Charlotte Chadwick
Falmouth Age Concern - Sally Stiles
Falmouth Exeter Plus - Jilly Easterby
Federation of Small Businesses - Caroline Robinson
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - Jonathan Griffin (chair)
RIBA – Christopher Smith
Transition Falmouth - Jeremy Tridgell
Transport Working Group – John Bottomley