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