Friday 16 October 2009

October 2009 Meeting

'Charlotte MacKenzie, PPC for the Labour Party
Charlotte (CM) had been invited as one of a series of discussions with the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates. She introduced herself as candidate for MP and listed a range of issues which people are raising with her as important to Falmouth:

  • More social and affordable housing
  • Future for commercial docks, as well as marina - dredging
  • Access to the waterfront: public access walkway from Ponsharden to Gyllyngvase
  • The economy: develop marine, renewable, creative and digital sectors
  • Business: support for SMEs, buy local
  • Save sea views, protect opes, prevent over-development and regenerate neglected sites
  • Parking
  • Town centre - pedestrianise? suit people of all ages and improve disabled access

Many of these issues were of course familiar to the Forum. Items emerging in discussion included:The need to manage the planning process, releasing land for development. CM welcomed the Cornwall cabinet's decision to build new council housing including on the ‘Falmouth kitchen' site. It is important not to lose the green spaces in town as well as out.

Questions were asked about the recent permission for student accommodation (231 units) alongside Penryn railway station which would not have any parking. Mike Varney (MV) had been involved in this decision and explained that it was something of an experiment. Being close to the station and the CUC meant that students would not need cars (as at Maritime House in Falmouth). It was also important to develop sites within Penryn which would help to boost the economy of the town. The capacity of these units would require about 70 large houses in multiple occupation which could be released for other uses.

Jilly Easterby (JE) explained that University College Falmouth/the University of Exeter would have some 1200 beds at Tremough when the new buildings came on stream, and capacity within the site masterplan for up to 50% of the student population.

CM welcomed the economic and other benefits the university brings, and noted that there are probably some inevitable tensions initially in adjusting to an 80 per cent increase in 18-24 year olds in an area that many people choose to retire to. She confirmed her support for the Falmouth docks dredging, and is raising this issue with Ministers.

The general economic picture was believed to be pretty gloomy. Schools had been asked to budget for a possible 10% cut in expenditure and MV reported Cornwall Council (CC) was under budget pressure. Convergence allowed Cornwall to carry on investing provided matched funding could be found. The recent failure by the Learning and Skills Council had impacted the Falmouth Marine School’s plan to re-locate to a waterside location. CM noted the wider issue of converging funding levels for FE students and school sixth-forms funded by a single agency and given the education leaving age is being raised to 18. Government is sustaining investment until the recovery is well-established - it's important to keep the money moving to accelerate our exit from recession. Three year budget allocations help schools plan and it is important to recognise local contingency planning as that, the actual allocations from 2010 are not yet known.

In summary, CM emphasised the role that she would play as an MP. She was thanked for her open and welcome contribution.

Membership changes
John Slaughter (JS) would be leaving the area around the new year and that this would rob the Forum of a doughty warrior who had put in hours of work to further the towns. The Forum was therefore looking for a new transport champion who could take on his mantle. (The Transport Working Group would identify someone).

David Pollard (DP) had also tendered his resignation as Town Manager with effect from the end of December. The signs were that Falmouth Town Council would be seeking a replacement which was obviously essential is development were to continue.

Cornwall County
The future of Community networks remained in the balance as the CC review was taking place. This was due to report on 29 October. At one level there was an issue with voting rights but at a deeper level there were questions as to whether the networks were a good idea at all or whether they were simply seeking to replace the previous District Councils. There were cheaper options such as using the parish and town councils, especially when budgets were under strain.

Gerald Chin-Quee (GCQ) remarked that the networks had been part of the promise in the development of the unitary authority and should be delivered. There was agreement that some sort of middle tier of coordination was needed between the community and CC but it probably needed to be light-handed.

The nominated Chief Executive of Cornwall Development Company had declined the post and work had started on identifying another candidate. Malcolm Bell, the former Chief Executive of South West Tourism, would be joining VisitCornwall as Chief Executive in the new year.

More widely, MV reported that CC was having testing times with 1/3 as many councillors but progress was being made:

  • An Ofsted report about Child Services would be published shortly. Dean Ashton, head of this service had recently resigned
  • The budget situation was still being resolved and speculation was that CC would have to make some fairly massive financial cuts in its provision to balance its books effectively in the light of predicted grants from government and to pay off any outstanding debts
CC was tackling some difficult issues. The agreement on the Bodmin wind turbines had been controversial but was not an option given energy targets. The future of waste management, on the other hand, was still not resolved

Conservation Area Management Plan
The draft report was now available and DP had a copy. This will give direction but has no money attached. Early indications were that it was being recognised as a useful document for planning

Falmouth & Penryn Community Plan
JS reported that the final document is expected in November. It would be issued in multiple formats and would be presented to the Town Councils and CC.

The Community Plan Management Group (CPMG) was now looking at the implementation process. The issue was the means of achieving localism and yet getting the individual ideas implemented. The Plan would contain a list of potential delivery partners and it was likely that the CPMG would be recommending that it should remain in place as a monitoring body to meet every six months to review progress.

Convergence and the Strategic Investment Framework (SIF)
An Executive Summary of the first draft of the SIF was discussed. The main document had already been presented to Penryn Town Council, would be going to the Falmouth Town Council w/c 19 October, then CC and finally to the Convergence assessment groups.

Various issues were noted:

  • There was no mention of a Penryn parking strategy
  • There was no mention of opening up the waterfront or improving the public realm within the main street of Falmouth which remained the best way of injecting investment into the commercial sector
  • There were too many mentions of small industrial units for knowledge economy businesses, especially when there was already a surfeit of empty units in the two towns
  • There was a danger of producing too many doorstops: reports which gave direction but no funding
Although the Convergence process had originally identified ca £10m for Falmouth and Penryn, this process had been changed and projects coming forward for Cornwall were being assessed as a whole. The range of projects proposed for Falmouth and Penryn were strong and would help to ensure that the bid of ca £11m would go ahead. This was lucky since some £5m had already been spent.

Church Street Car Park development brief
Roger Radcliffe (RR) reported that the completion of the Church Street Car Park development brief was now part of the workplan for the Council’s planning team. The publication of the csa architects proposals had been purely speculative and based on the Terence O’Rourke. They demonstrated the amount of development that might be necessary if the private sector were to be involved. A possible alternative would be the use an asset-backed delivery vehicle of some sort; a technique that had been used in other towns with similar problems.

Events programme
The Oyster Festival was due to start on 15 October. An expanded Christmas Festival was also being planned supported, in part, by BIDS. The Finn Gold Cup had been secured for 2012 but early coordination had been poor.

The bollard and the shuttle bus
The bollard had definitely had an effect in reducing levels of traffic in the main street. The signs promised by CC in August had not yet been delivered.

The shuttle bus was continuing and usage was increasing. About 80-90% of users carry a bus pass. Further advertising was needed for the service to encourage greater usage from fee payers and car drivers.

Business Improvement District (BIDS)
Nigel Carpenter (NC) reported that the BIDS scheme is advancing well. A new corporate identity for Falmouth was in development and work was progressing on the website and map.

Transport strategy
CC had confirmed that Mott MacDonald had been commissioned to develop a transportation strategy for Falmouth and Penryn. This had been intended to look to the medium and long term and to that end required a steer from the planning framework in terms of housing and employment numbers. This had been stalled by a lack of background planning documents. It was now clear that it needed to go ahead with what we knew given the pace of change in the two towns.

The strategy is being developed in two phases:

  • Validating the base traffic model and ensuring that it picks up on all of the current traffic issues
  • The development of the strategy with proposals, timescales for delivery and costs
It is CC’s intention to consult with a wider group of local stakeholders regarding the draft strategy when it is developed, probably within the next couple of months.

The SIF will provide some of the delivery mechanism for the strategy as will the Local Transport Plan 3. And the Falmouth Conservation Area Management Plan will provide the planning policy context.

A separate parking harmonisation project is being carried out by CC Transport Department. This is due for completion by the middle of 2010.

Car re-charging points
Grants were available for pilot schemes which provide car-charging points in town centres. Declarations of interest were required before 28 October. JS suggested that this could be linked to the shuttle buses if they were electric. The lead body should be the CC Transport Department.

Late night entertainment in Falmouth
There has been recent correspondence about late night entertainment in Falmouth and the possibility that this might lead to a hostile environment. The Remedies night club had recently made an application to be open until 4am, a proposal which had been formerly refused. Views differed about the exact stages of cause or effect and the likelihood of a ‘Newquay’ situation developing in the town. It was generally agreed that such an atmosphere would be damaging to the town and the meeting was pleased to hear that the police and Town Manager were discussing the issue.

Future proofing and resilience
Lorely Lloyd (LL) reported that money was available on an invest to save basis. She welcomed the inclusion of a possible ESCO (Energy Supply Company) in the SIF and felt that more could be done. There was now a Cornish Green ‘Tsar’ and a Green Bond was being proposed.

Tourism
NC pointed out that the change to unitary authority had severely damaged the investment in Falmouth’s tourism industry. The Carrick tourism team had formerly concentrated much of their time and investment on Falmouth. This money and the team had now been drawn back into VisitCornwall and the support was no longer available to the town. It was known that the CC Chief Executive recognised the importance of events in the development of tourism and work was continuing to bring the current loss to the attention of Malcolm Bell. It was not acceptable for the public sector to renege on this investment and expect someone like BIDS to pick up the pieces as this was counter to the contractual arrangement between the public sector and BIDS.

Next meeting
The next meeting would take place on Wednesday 18 November at 19:00 when the special guest will be Sarah Newton, PPC for the Conservative Party.

Attendance
The following attended the meeting:
Charlotte McKenzie - PPC for the Labour Party (special guest)
Jonathan Griffin - National Maritime Museum Cornwall (chair)
Cliff Brown - 81 Employers Group
Cllr Mike Varney - Cornwall Council
Roger Radcliffe - Cornwall Council
Scott Sharples - Cornwall Council
Nigel Carpenter - Falmouth BIDS
Dick Stiles - Falmouth Civic Society
John Langan - Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
John Slaughter - Falmouth Marine School
Sally Stiles - Falmouth Residents Association
Brett Miners - Falmouth School
Gerald Chin-Quee - Falmouth Town Council
Mark Williams - Falmouth Town Council
Oliver Cramp - Falmouth Town Council
Jackie George - Falmouth Watersports Association
Chris Smith - RIBA
David Pollard - Town Manager
Lorely Lloyd - Transition Falmouth
Jilly Easterby - University College Falmouth