Meeting - January 2013

Cornwall Development Company (CDC)
Suzanne Bond, Chief Executive of CDC joined the meeting to talk about the work of the organisation.

CDC is funded roughly 25% by Cornwall Council, 25% by Job Line and 50% by leveraged funds. There is a ca£300m delivery programme over 3 years consisting of money from the EU, CC and the private sector. The organisation is divided into four units: Corporate, Tourism – Visit Cornwall, Business and Skills (£43m), Development (£13m). There are about 130-140 staff most of whom are on short-term contracts which is not helpful for continuity or for career and organisational development. Rules on expenditure also mean that cross-discipline working is severely constrained which is not necessarily to the benefit of the projects.

Some 20% of the SIF (Convergence) money has been spent in Falmouth which has demonstrated a degree of get-up and go about the town.

The relationship between CC, CDC and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is still evolving especially at the border between the development of strategy and delivery.

The next round of EU funding will probably start at the end of 2014/early 2015. This is likely to be a ‘national programme’ rather than a Cornwall-specific one. CC was leading on this and it would be important to maintain continuity with the change of CEO.

Superfast Broadband
Suzanne introduced Dr Ranulf Scarborough, BT’s Director of the Superfast Broadband Programme.
The implementation of Superfast Broadband had started in 2010 and would take until October 2014 to complete. It was expected that about 80/90% of Cornwall would be covered which was a triumph given the challenging geography of the county. BT had been learning a lot and innovating. For instance, they had tested the first overhead fibre lines.

Fibre to the cabinet (FtC) is now routinely delivering 80Mps and Fibre to the Premises (FttP) up to 330 Mps. It is reassuring to see that about 60 service providers are now competing for business on the back of the network. About 50% of all premises are now covered by SFB and this would rise to 70-80% by the end of March.

Falmouth, with 55 cabinets, is one of the best connected towns in the county with 75% complete and about 10,000 lines. Half of this is FtC and half FttP. There are about 1500 exchange-only lines and BT is still working out how to handle these effectively. Nonetheless, take-up in Falmouth has been below expectations. (A straw poll suggested that about half the Forum had access to SFB at home and almost no one at the meeting had access at work).

In discussion, the slowness of installation of SFB for businesses was mentioned. If the intention behind the investment was to give Cornwall a competitive advantage then business should have come first.

Town Framework
CC is still discussing the growth figures which will go into the Local Plan. Until this is resolved, the Town Framework will mark time as an official document although it has recently been used as evidence in a recent planning enquiry.

Dredging
The dredging trial is now complete. The test of the re-laid areas would take place in March and the formal results are expected in May/June.

Future Falmouth CIC
Future Falmouth CIC has been created and has been informally awarded the contract for running events on the Prince of Wales pier. The final details of the Licence are under discussion. Directors for the CIC are required and an announcement will be made soon. Anyone interested should contact David Pollard as soon as possible.

Sainsbury’s planning application
Despite leaks of the draft agreement, the negotiations with Sainsbury’s over their planning application are going well and it is hoped that a significant sum of Section 106 money will be available to help offset the predicted 12% impact that the superstore will have on the economy of the main streets. Some of the money will be shared with Penryn.

A Liaison Group is being convened to help decide on the detailed expenditure given that the Agreement itself sets out certain parameters which must be followed.

Energy Partnership
The Falmouth Energy Partnership felt that a proportion of the S106 money should go on renewable energy sourced locally as part of a project to make Falmouth carbon neutral. They are looking at a solar bulk-buy project and exploring a biodiesel unit at Tremough.

4-10 March is Climate Week and all are encouraged to become involved in projects marking this. www.falenergy.org.uk

A Car Club is being developed for Truro and Falmouth. This will be the equivalent of a local hire car scheme. This will be launched in April.

Shorts

• Falmouth Town Council is looking at a Beach management Plan and would like input from residents as to what should go into this. Contact Mark Williams.
• Caroline Robertson is the new chair of the Federation of Small Business and invited suggestions for issues, involvement and lobbying
• Charlotte Chadwick thanked those involved in the Citizens for Life programme and invited people to sign up as mentors for the next round
• John Pearce described the Rotary project to bring fresh water to people in Masaka, Uganda. They need $5,000 to help 7,000 people. Money raised will be multiplied by 3.5 by Rotary International

Those attending
Cornwall Development Company - Suzanne Bond
BT Superfast Brodaband - Dr Ranulph Scarbrough
John Pearce - Rotary Club of Falmouth

A&P Docks - Mike Reynolds
Breakfast Club – Andy Coote
Civic Society - Dick Stiles
Cornwall Council – Mike Varney
Cornwall Council - Steve Eva
Cornwall Council - Charlotte Chadwick
Cornwall Marine Network - Paul Wickes
Chamber of Commerce – Jeremy Edwards
Churches Together – Neil Tinson
Fal River Links - Tim Light
Falmouth and Penryn Community Plan – Christopher Smith (chair)
Falmuth BID - Richard Wilcox
Falmouth Energy Partnership - Nigel Murray
Falmouth Exeter Plus - Jilly Easterby
Falmouth School - David Yelland
Falmouth Town Council - Mark Williams
Falmouth Town Manager – Richard Gates
Falmouth Watersports – Jackie George
Federation of Small Businesses - Caroline Robinson
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - Jonathan Griffin
Public - Keven Ayres
RCPS - Mike Jenks

November meeting cancelled

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday 14 November has been cancelled.

Meeting - September 2012

Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
LEP Board member Simon Tregoning explained the progress that had been made with the project since the breakfast presentation in January which had been one of the best attended in the county.

LEPs had been created by the government, as something of a replacement for RDAs but without any money. The intention was to bring the public and private sectors together to help create a strategy to grow the economy and create jobs in response to local needs. The LEP was not an implementation body but was working to the long term, helping to provide focus.

The LEP had produced a strategy, available here. This focused on four themes: inspiring business to achieve their potential; creating great careers; creating value out of knowledge and using the natural environment responsibly. Central was the idea of building on what we already have and not chasing after particular sectors or themes. There was a also a real need to wean Cornwall off a dependency culture which relied on grants, into one where money was seen as being spent on real investments.

Simon’s special interest was in finding ways of building networks between businesses and people: empowering businesses to do business. Of the ca 20,000 businesses in the county, only about 200 were really actively engaged. So much could be done if the others were linked in, through cross-working and mentoring. A starting point would be the establishment of a route map to help businesses to explore new solutions.

In discussion, people highlighted issues such as:

• The endemic suspicions of other businesses: the belief that cooperation would strengthen competitors; and that collaboration could only be achieved by bottom-up working and not top down.
• The three Innovation Centres provided useful platforms for cooperation. Would it be possible to extend the model to include some of the industrial estates as well?
• The poor record on allocating Regional Growth Fund money. Only about 5% had so far made its way to recipients.
• The need to build on tourism and see the spin-off benefits to other sectors such as IT, design and marketing.

In conclusion, Simon said that the LEP might well continue to be relatively invisible: that was the nature of its role, working behind the scenes. He was thanked and invited to return at any time to keep the Forum up to date with progress.

Town Framework
The final version of the Town Framework is due to go out to consultation in November. Some opposition is expected to come from people who confuse the Framework with the Core Strategy. The Core Strategy specifies the broad parameters for growth that Falmouth/Penryn are required to absorb which is set by Cornwall Council and is not negotiable through this process. The Framework shows how that growth might be managed.

It was interesting to note that some 16,000 houses had been agreed for the county but had not yet been built for one reason or another.

Cycling
A small group had been convened after the last meeting to review and feedback practical comments on the cycling routes proposal. Progress had been made and ideas had been fed through to Cornwall Council. Some of them involved ideas other than simple cycle lanes: bike parks, changing areas and so on. It was good to be involved in such a bottom-up process.

Falmouth CIC
A small group had responded to a Cornwall Council invitation for an operator to run events on the Prince of Wales pier and was in the final stages of putting together a Community Interest Company to deliver this. If successful in this bid, the CIC might well go on to manage other activities within the area. Part of the thinking is that a separate CIC would be eligible to apply for some grants for which Falmouth Town Council would be ineligible.

The Town Council remained of the view that a CIC was not needed and that they, the Council, could take on the management of events on Prince of Wales pier and the provision of other services. It was pointed out that the Council had not responded to the invitation to tender and that, had the group not put in a bid, the work might have gone to a fully commercial company or, worse still, to an organisation outside the county.    

Those involved in the CIC emphasised that there was a clear desire to work in harmony with FTC and not to seek to supplant it. A briefing note on the CIC would be circulated after the meeting.

Dredging
The Harbour Commissioners have been given the go-ahead for the dredging trial now costed at around £200k and they have reported publicly on the process that will be used. Work will begin w/c 17 September and the trial will take six months.

Objectors have continued in their opposition of any dredging seeking to dismiss the trial as unrepresentative. There was general agreement that the debate was being hijacked by these protesters only to be about the environment when there were social and economic elements as well which were not being discussed or funded.

Other town issues

• The Fal Energy Solar Club is being developed. This will be a club for purchasing solar (pv and thermal) for houses or local businesses owning or renting their premises and interested in doing a one-off or phased investment in solar technology.
• Everyone is invited to a visit Roskrow Windfarm between 2 and 5 on Friday 12 October.
• Everyone is also encouraged to respond to University College Falmouth to comment on the proposed change of name of the University College Falmouth to Falmouth University. 

Those attending
A&P Docks - Mike Reynolds
Ambassadors – David Pollard
Breakfast Club – Andy Coote
Civic Society - Dick Stiles
Cornwall Council – Mike Varney
Cornwall Council - Charlotte Chadwick
Chamber of Commerce – Jeremy Edwards
Churches Together – Neil Tinson
Falmouth Age Concern - Sally Stiles
Falmouth Exeter Plus - Jilly Easterby
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners – John Langan
Falmouth Town Council - Oliver Cramp
Falmouth Town Manager – Richard Gates
Falmouth Watersports – Jackie George
Federation of Small Businesses - Caroline Robinson
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - Jonathan Griffin (chair)
RIBA – Christopher Smith
Transition Falmouth – Lorely Lloyd
Transport Working Group – John Bottomley