Meeting - November 2011

Falmouth 350
Congratulations were due to everyone who made the 350th anniversary celebration of the Charter such a success. Thanks to the team which drafted the New Charter; a way would be found to get this into all the schools in the town. Special thanks go to Robin Dunseath who had inspired the event.

Marine Conservation Reference Zone and Dredging
A new Reference Zone had been proposed, quite unexpectedly and to almost universal horror, for part of Carrick Roads. Any normal activity would be banned in, near or around the zone and it would effectively destroy the commercial business of the Docks and the Carrick Roads in general. Representations were being made everywhere and, although it was fairly certain that the proposal would be withdrawn, the proposal was wasting a great deal of potentially productive time and building distrust between local interests and conservation bodies.

Letters should be addressed to the minister, Richard Benyon with a copy to Sarah Newton MP.

As far as dredging was concerned

• The Falmouth Harbour Commissioners had agreed with the Marine Management Organisation that they would carry out a £150k, 12 month study on a sample area. FHC would be seeking permission for this from Cornwall Council
• FHC was pleased to report that the fishermen who had originally been against any dredging had been reassured now that they understood that it would not involve wholesale dumping of spoil at sea
• The Docks company would not be taking up the option to develop the 290 berth marina until the future of the dredging project had been resolved
• Oliver Cramp was convening a meeting of interested parties to try to unlock the impasse over permission for the dredging.

Seasides town regeneration bid
The BID-led proposal for £75k from the joint Cornwall Council and central government fund had not been successful. This was a great disappointment as an enormous amount of effort had been put into the bid and significant match funding had been committed, including from the Forum. The winners and losers, many of which sounded remarkably similar to the bid’s proposals, had been:

Winners: Par (beach nature reserve and the bike hub); Bude (sea pool development); Looe (seafront enhancement and walking route signage, podcast and leaflets); Hayle (improved visitor experience); Newquay (harbour regeneration); Perranporth (destination for people with disabilities); St Agnes (bolstering St Agnes).

Losers: Falmouth and Penryn (visitor hospitality and workforce development); Looe (low water landing stage and events kit); Newquay (street environment); Padstow (lobster festival); Perranporth (Perran trail); St Ives (Guildhall regeneration).

Church Street Car Park
Oliver Cramp had obtained support from Falmouth Town Council for his proposal to give up a few parking spaces and install seating on the edge of the car park. He felt strongly that some change was better than nothing in the car park. The task would now be to raise the necessary £100k. A possible source was the Sainsbury money.
Mike Varney reported that the contamination study on the car park was now available on the Cornwall Council website [Google cannot find it]

Planning issues
MV reported that the proposal, with the Section 106 proposals, would be going to the November Planning meeting. If agreed, this would release money which could be spent in Falmouth. Penryn could not benefit as its shopping area was not sufficiently developed to be hit by the appearance of the new store. A key project would obviously be a contribution to the walkway along the waterfront which could be on a larger scale than envisaged in OC’s scheme.

The nitrate zone around the Docks was being reduced and, as a result, the planning blight on the area was going to be listed, allowing developments such as the Lord Nelson site to go ahead.

Localism
There had been little progress since the presentation by Ray Tovey of Cornwall Council. Officers were elusive. There were opportunities for the local community to take control over services within the town. The Forum believed that it would be preferable for an arm’s length body, or bodies, to take these on rather than the Town Council whose priority appeared to be to take on little more than responsibility for the Town Hall. Alternative management solutions ranged from the Town Manager, to BIDs to newly created Community Interest Companies (CICs).

There appeared to be no appetite for a single comprehensive solution for Falmouth, it was therefore believed better to go ahead with smaller initiatives rather than wait for a single major devolution of activities. The Tourist Information Centre had already been devolved and King Harry Ferries were keen to take on the whole of Prince of Wales pier. There was an immediate imperative as building work was being done in the area and the builders had offered to help out with environmental improvements. There was talk of the possible devolution of responsibilities for car parks in the longer term. 

Falmouth Energy Partnership
The Partnership was going ahead well. They would be launching their draft report at a meeting at the Poly at 19:30 on 17 November. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the creation of an integrated renewable energy plan for local wealth and resilience. The Partnership welcomed engagement and information.

Cycling feasibility study
A surprising discovery had been the proposal by Cornwall Council to let a £30k consultancy study on the feasibility of Penryn as a cycling destination. This had already been commented on in the Forum’s response to the Transport Strategy and a new cycling route had already been opened linking Tremough, Penryn College and Penryn town centre.

Falmouth Enterprise Zone
At the meeting with the Chris Pomfret of the Local Enterprise Partnership, it had been suggested that Falmouth might develop a proposal for a Local Enterprise Zone of its own, following the Newquay model. The LEP was committed to help if it thought the idea had legs. There was a real need for development and grow-on space on the industrial estates to house the successful companies coming out of the new buildings on the Tremough campus such as AIR and TIC. Andy Coote would gather some like minds to discuss the idea and work up a proposal.

Falmouth by Design
Mike Jenks and others wished to update the work done by the Falmouth by Design group as a way of providing a better quality living and working environment in the town. There were now many electronic tools which could be used to engage a wider circle of consultees and to visualise the results. This was very relevant given the re-drafting of the Planning Policy Framework that was taking place. It also tied in with the proposals for Neighbourhood plans, falling below the core Strategy and Local Development Framework, and he would be discussing this with Sarah Newton MP. It was believed that the Town Council had similar aspirations.

Town and gown committee
A committee had been set up, chaired by Kevin Ayres, to discuss common issues. This brought together representatives of the educational establishments, town councillors from both town and student representatives. Current discussions included the need to raise standards in Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs). The committee met once a term.

Penryn River Study
A project was under way to look at the usage and development of the remainder of the Penryn river as a follow-on from the Port of Falmouth Masterplan. Led by CDC, the aim was to provide guidance on the usage of space both on and off the water.

Other updates:

• Local Development Framework: a public consultation on the expansion options for the two towns was expected during November
• Anyone who had travelled on the Maritime Line and suffered from over-crowding should write to Julian Crow at First Great Western as he was in the process of putting in a bid for more rolling stock
• The Olympic torch would be visiting Falmouth on 19 May 2012
• The BID team, with Richard Gates, had met Mary Portas at Westminster recently, as part of their campaign to improve high streets throughout the country
• The Christmas edition of Fathom was now out with the programme for activities up to Christmas. Copies could be obtained from Richard Gates
• Mike Varney is now Planning Champion as well as Chair of Strategic Planning, on Cornwall Council

Those attending the meeting:
Age Concern - Sally Stiles
Churches Together - Neil Tinson
Civic Society - Dick Stiles
Cornwall Council - Mike Varney
Falmouth Business Club - Andy Coote
Falmouth and District Hotels Association - Shaun Davie
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners - John Langan
Falmouth Rotary - Nigel Druce
Falmouth Watersports Association - Jackie George
Falmouth Town Council - Oliver Cramp
Fal River Links - Tim Light
National Maritime Museum Cornwall - Jonathan Griffin (chair)
RIBA - Chris Smith
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society - Mike Jenks
Transition Falmouth - Lorely Lloyd
Tremough Campus Services - Jilly Easterby

Meeting - September 2011

The Falmouth Visitor Information Centre (VIC) This is now open and operating successfully. This replaced the former Tourist Information Centre.

350th Anniversary of the Falmouth Charter
5 October is ‘Falmouth Day’ – the 350th anniversary of the granting of the Charter which created the town of Falmouth. An ambitious programme of activities is planned (see www.falmouth,co.uk). The Falmouth Art Gallery, the Poly and the Maritime Museum were all planning associated exhibitions. The Forum is contributing a new version of the Charter: something aspirational for the next 50 years.

Seaside Towns funding
The bid for £75k from the Seaside Town scheme has been produced by the BID with help from Cornwall Marine Network and others. The proposal will involve new signage and visitor management schemes in the two towns. The result of the bid will be known in late October. The Forum has contributed its ‘signage’ reserve of £3k towards this project.

Port Masterplan
The Masterplan has been approved by Cornwall Council Cabinet and work is going ahead on the development of bids for Convergence funding. There is some urgency here as the Convergence window of opportunity is closing.

As far as dredging is concerned, active lobbying was continuing. The recent announcements about marine conservation areas appeared restrictive with a ‘reference’ area having been unexpectedly identified for the St Mawes bank. A test project on the re-location of marl would be carried out shortly.

A second project is emerging: to do a similar, but simpler, study on the rest of the Penryn river, to assess the strategy for the water and adjoining land usage. This will be funded by Convergence. A project team is meeting on 29 September to work out a brief. 

Connecting Cornwall 2011 – 2105 Implementation Plan
The CC Transport Department has published the Implementation Plan for the next five years. No major schemes are planned for Falmouth and Penryn but there may be elements hidden away in the ‘general’ categories. CC has promised an analysis of the projects associated with the two towns.

Falmouth and Penryn, have been selected as one of two a ‘Cycling Demonstration Towns’ in the county. This was something of a surprise since the Forum’s response to the consultation had pointed out the cycling-unfriendliness (steepness) of the hills. We await further details.

Church Street car park
The land under the car park is contaminated which is a significant barrier to re-development.

The results of the survey carried out by CC into the usage and attitudes towards this car park are still awaited (promised for November 2010). A separate proposal for a partial re-landscaping and re-arrangement of the car park with associated pricing changes at the Quarry, was welcomed. It suggested that a walkway could be created for the loss of only about a dozen spaces and recommended a pay-on-exit scheme. Its proponents were encouraged to be bold in their ambitions. The ideas would be going before the Falmouth Town Council to encourage them to adopt them as policy.

Local Development Framework
There had been much fuss in the newspapers recently about the ‘possibility’ that 4,000 new houses were to ‘be imposed’ on Falmouth and development would start with the pitch and putt course. Much of this coverage had been ill-informed and inaccurate.

CC Planners have been looking at possible expansion spaces around the town, for all sorts of uses: houses, schools, industry etc. In a careful study, they had identified a series of areas and looked at these from the point of view of such things as visual impact, accessibility, land usage, topography etc. Unfortunately discussions at the FTC Planning committee had brought this work into the public domain without any associated explanation.

A public consultation on the expansion options for the towns would take place in November. There are some who believe that expansion of the towns is inevitable given the need for housing (especially affordable)and the planned expansion of the university; others who refuse to accept this. The difficulty as always, will be in finding suitable sites which do not offend local sensitivities.

Discussions at a national level may influence this work. A revision of existing planning legislation will embody an ‘assumption in favour of development’. It will be interesting to see how this will impact the work of the Framework.

Meanwhile, the Civic Society was considering a revised version of Falmouth by Design, to help improve the quality of developments in the town.

Localism
CC has said that Falmouth is ‘not in the first wave’ for devolution of responsibility from CC to local bodies. The messages emerging from County Hall were very mixed. It was by no means clear whether devolution was simply a cost-cutting exercise, a shrugging-off of responsibility or a genuine desire to let go and allow local groups to run things themselves. It would be helpful if such questions could be clarified.

Locally, there was a considerable appetite to run everything, especially car parking, while the Town Council was focusing on management of its own building. Penryn was seeking to take back management of its own port.

The Sainsbury’s development
It appears that Sainsbury’s might be persuaded to make a significant ‘community benefit’ contribution to the town as part of a Section 106 agreement for the development of the site at Ponsharden. One estimate is that trade in the main street could drop by as much as 7% as a result of the new store.

FTC has already drawn up a list and is in discussion with CC Planning Control about possible projects. This list includes one-off expenditures, support for community projects and support for individual posts. The need for the money to be spent sustainably was emphasised with a possible model being an annual contribution based on something like the usage of car parking spaces alongside the superstore.

The Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
The LEP had been tasked with developing a single Economic Strategy for Cornwall. This was now the focus of their work. They were also convening a business stakeholder group.

Education developments
Falmouth Marine School had just spent £200k on refurbishments and had around 300 students aged 16-18, 50% of them coming from outside the county. They were developing their research threads with the aim of working towards HE accreditation.

The CUC building developments were advancing well with the Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC) and the Academy for Innovation and Research (AIR) due for opening in Spring 2012. Tremough has also been spending money on re-painting and reviving its existing buildings. There are now some 4,000 students at Tremough and 800 at Wood Lane (UCF).

Shorts
The Falmouth Progress School was designed for small businesses, offering 2 hours a month self-directed business-helps-business support. More details from Andy Coote.

Falmouth Business Breakfasts take place every Thursday at 07:30. £8 a head for a cracking breakfast and inspiring speaker

Source FM is now back on FM 96.1 and covers local business matters every Friday morning between 08:00 and 09:00

The Trescobeas play site re-opens on Saturday 17 September at midday. 

Those attending the meeting:
Mike Reynolds – A&P Docks
Sally Stiles – Falmouth Age Concern
Paul Wickes - Cornwall Marine Network
Dick Stiles - Civic Society
Richard Wilcox - Falmouth BID
Andy Coote - Falmouth Business Club
Jeremy Edwards - Falmouth Chamber of Commerce
John Langan – Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
David Stedman – Falmouth Marine School
Oliver Cramp – Falmouth Town Council
Mark Williams - Falmouth Town Council
Richard Gates – Falmouth Town Manager
Jonathan Griffin – National Maritime Museum Cornwall (Chairman)
Mike Jenks – Royal Cornwall Polytechnic
John Bottomley – Transport Working Group
Jilly Easterby – UCF,  University of Exeter and TCSG

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