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