The Town Council has faced many challenges over the past 12 months deriving from regulations and changes both locally and nationally. The new Localism Act which aims to shift power away from central government to local people will see local councils facing further challenges in the coming months and years as they respond to the localism agenda.

 Public address to council

 During the year the Council has seen the increase in presentations by applicants requiring planning, these pre-applications are done on an informal base and we hope the exchange of ideas helps applicants before they apply for full planning consent.

We also received our first public address from a group of young adults who were working on a skate park project. Although their project was not delivered it was encouraging to see young local people engaging with the Council over an issue which they felt passionate about.

Together with the Town Clerk we were invited to speak to the Youth Council at Cape Cornwall School about the work of the Town Council.  I hope that in some way this has helped broaden public awareness and perhaps encourage more local people to become involved in their community at an earlier age.

 Lafrowda

 July saw the annual Lafrowda Day celebrations and I had the pleasure of hosting the reception for invited guests and those who work tirelessly to make the event the success that it is. It is likely our support will continue for this organisation well into the future because of benefits it gives to the Town.

 TIC

 During the summer period, the Town Council gave the Library Service a grant of £2,500 to enable the staff to deliver the TIC provision. This provided a much needed service for tourists visiting the area and support to local businesses which are dependent on the tourist trade.  I am pleased to confirm that the Town Council has made a similar commitment in this year’s budget.

 Allotments

Working with the Bosavern Community Enterprise, the Allotment & Growers’ Association and the National Trust, 19 allotments at Kenidjack Valley will be delivered this year (Breaking news as one of the directors of BCE, I countersigned the contract with the Nation Trust at the weekend, this means allotments will be up and running very soon at Kenidjack, my personal thanks to my fellow directors Deb Pepper and Andrew Corser for their continuing hard work).

I am aware that many of you have waited a long time to reach this point and I would personally like to thank you all for your help and patience. As to the allotments at Bosavern Farm, the planning application has now been submitted and is going through the planning process and the application for grant funding to the West Cornwall Local Action Group to deliver the project will be submitted by this Thursday deadline, 17 May.

Housing

Over the past year, the Council has continued to work closely with the Lands’ End Peninsula Community Land Trust, with its plans to deliver new affordable homes at Lafrowda Close, St Just & Moorland Close, Pendeen. Planning approval at Lafrowda Close has been secured and work will hopefully begin on site in the coming months.

It is also hoped that a further 36 affordable homes will be delivered soon by Sanctuary Homes at Gews Farm.

Policing

Despite the loss of the community police station, the Council continues to work closely with the local team, in particular PCSO Andy Tonkin to address local issues. Andy visits the council office on regular biases where a relevant exchange of information takes place between himself and the clerk, this helps keep members updated on what’s happening around the town and parishes.

Traffic

A new Traffic Regulation Order “No Waiting Restrictions” has been approved for various parts of the town which it is hoped will reduce congestion on our local streets and make access easier for the emergency services.

Car-Parks

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Town Council and Cornwall Council in respect of the car parks in St Just and Pendeen has now been signed which will keep the car parks free at the point of use for a further 12 month period to enable discussions to continue on the possibility of the Council purchasing the freehold.

Public Toilets

Discussions on the long term future of the public toilets will hopefully begin again in the coming weeks, although the Town Council has formally indicated its commitment to take on responsibility for maintaining these facilities for the benefit of the local community.

 Plen-an-Gwarry

 In addition to the emergency works that were carried out to the perimeter wall of the Plen-an-Gwarry last year, the Council, working with English Heritage, has been awarded a grant to implement an ongoing program of maintenance. We hope to keep any disturbance to a minimum during these works.

Notice Boards

I’m sure you will have also noticed the new notice boards and I would encourage anyone wishing to put up a notice to contact the Town Clerk’s office.

Finger post

Refurbishment of the finger post at Trewellard was completed last summer and I’d like to thank Ian Thompson of Milestones Society and Phi Keverne, Cornwall Council local Area Highways Team for their help in delivering this project.

Grants

The Town Council continues to provide grant funding to support local organisations / groups and this year has raised its budget to £20K which will hopefully help to assist a larger number.

Footpaths

Maintenance of the area footpaths has continued under the LMP scheme. The Council has also made a small increase in its own budget to carry out additional works. Members of the public are encouraged to let the Council know of any problems with the footpath network so that the money can be spent in the areas where it is most needed.

Quality Council Status

As part of the Council’s agenda to obtain Quality Council status, the Town Clerk attained the CiLCA qualification. (Again congratulations and thanks Madam Clerk)

Jubilee

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is only a few weeks away and the Council has arranged for all the schoolchildren at the primary schools and nurseries in St Just and Pendeen to receive a commemorative mug to mark the anniversary.

Cornwall Councilor

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Councilor Chris Goninan for his continued support and much needed help to this Council. I continue by thanking him for his seemingly endless energy in supporting the community. And on a personal level I thank Chris for the respect he has shown me over the past year, the feeling is mutual.

Staff

In the ten years plus I have served the public as both District and Town councilor I have never worked with such professional people as we find in the Clerk and her assistant, I  have watched and listen to them putting forward and fighting for the interests of this council and the people we represent. My heartfelt thanks to Elaine and Shirley for the outstanding working relationship we have shared this year, for all of your support and of course on occasion for saving my sanity.

My personal recollection of the past year:

While at school one of my favorite books was Charles Dickens’s “Tail of two cities” the story of conflict surrounding the French revolution and contains the famous lines “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness”. Why I mention this is because I believe it reflects the experience I have had as Mayor this year.

I have immensely enjoyed my meetings with the public, Councils, Schools and other organizations and this has been a great honor for me.

As to the members around this table, I must be truthful we have at times had an uncomfortable year, though the outcome of most of our debates I believe in the public interest have been for the good.

What I think we lack is the respect that we are all entitled to our own opinions, I know that all of you in your hearts put the public in our area first. Maybe a little tweak in our people skills would be good; I know I could do with it.

If asked would I put myself forward again, even after all the stress of the past year YOU BETCHA, there’s no greater honor than serving your Town and Parishes.

Morley Thomas

Town Mayor

2011 / 2012

She will be supported in her role by Councillor Dave Stevens as Deputy Mayor, himself a former Town Mayor.

A couple of weeks ago the Bosavern Farm Group launched an event for the sale of Community Shares in Bosavern Community Farm.  Details of the share offer can be found at www.bcfshares.org.uk where there are links to the share offer document, the farm’s business plan, and to the application form to apply for shares. There is about a month left before the share offer closes. The more shares that are bought, the more community support we demonstrate to Cornwall Council!

I thought you might be interested in how other people are buying shares: it seems there are three different groups of holdings that people go for: some go for 20 or 30 shares, another group buy between 50 and 200, and yet another group buy 500 or 1,000 shares (and there are a number of supporters applying for these larger holdings). We have some target figures for each group, but we are hoping that upwards of a thousand people will buy shares in the farm – I hope that you will join us and become a share-holder and member of Bosavern Community Farm!

Incidentally, it would make a substantial difference if we could find one or two more wealthy supporters who would like to buy a larger holding – if you have any ideas of any people interested in local community and/or food projects, who we could approach, please let me know!
Best wishes,

Andrew Corser (for Bosavern Community Farm) andycorser@gmail.com

The club has been in existance since 2008, and now has a membership of nearly 30!  with Club meetings held fortnightly on Wednesday Evenings at 7.30pm. at Age Concern, Fore Street.

Camera Club Secretary Gerry Gee said… ” We are really pleased to be given this grant by St Just in Penwith Town Council. We wish to thank the council and it’s members for their generosity in helping the club in it’s aspirations of providing the local community with equipment that can be used by all for this very popular hobby!”

The club is actively looking for new members throughout the district, and if they would like to come along to a club evening to see what is on offer and how the club can help them develop their camera, and editing skills, then please contact club secretary 01736 785794

Rubbish, recycling and waste collections are set to change from 1 April 2012, when a new contract starts with Cory Environmental Municipal Services.

The contract was designed following consultation last year with residents and will be introduced from 1^st April this year.

The new single contract will replace those put in place by the former district and borough councils, prior to the formation of Cornwall Council. By harmonising waste and recycling collections across the county, we can provide a fair and equitable system  , giving many people and enhanced and improved service, while saving the Council £27m over the life of the contract.

Every household in Cornwall will be affected to a greater or lesser degree, depending on where they live.

Rubbish

Rubbish will be collected weekly. It will need to be contained in a disposable plastic bag. This does not have to be a traditional black rubbish sack any plastic bag will do as long as the rubbish is properly contained.

If you have a wheeled bin or standard rubbish bin, you can still use it to put your rubbish out for collection, but the rubbish must be bagged.

Recycling

Recycling will be collected fortnightly from reusable containers, which will be provided free of charge. This will be a rigid plastic box and three colour-coded reusable sacks provided free of charge. We will collect glass bottles and jars, textiles, paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, cans, tins, aluminium foil and aerosols.

In some areas reusable containers are already being used for storage and collection of materials that can be recycled. We will be asking people to keep using these and provide new equipment only in those areas where it is needed and/or when it needs replacing.

Garden waste

From 1 April 2012 garden waste will be collected through a subscription only scheme based on wheelie bins. This provides customers with better value for money as only those who use the service, pay for the service. It also means we can make savings through targeted collections, which reduces the number of vehicle miles travelled.

Cory Environmental Municipal Services will also be responsible for street, beach cleaning and associated services, as part of the contract.

For further information please visit Cornwall Council’s website or telephone 0300 1234 141

Each year St Just Town Council has to work out how much money it needs to raise from local residents, to meet its obligations and ambitions for the community. This amount is known as the precept and it is one of the elements of local residents’ Council Tax. This year, many people will know that Cornwall Council had proposed to put pay and display meters in our car parks in St Just and Pendeen from April 2012. Fewer may be aware that they have also told the Town Council that unless we or another organisation are willing to take over the responsibility for the toilets in Pendeen and St Just they will almost certainly close on 1 April 2012 (people will have read about proposed closures of other public toilets in the county in the Cornishman).

As you can imagine, taking over responsibility for our local car parks and toilets will place a considerable additional burden, both in time and money, on our local town council. If we do not rise to the challenge, on your behalf, we will be a tourist area and local shopping centre with no public toilets, and local people and tourists alike will have to pay a suggested £1 daily charge to go in one of our car parks and that is just the initial proposed charge by Cornwall Council!

Town Councillors are beginning to grapple with what it might mean to run both our car parks and toilets and it is already clear that we have to budget for predictable annual costs, a programme of planned maintenance and some contingency funds for those unexpected events. Cornwall Council is considering what level of grant it may be able to give towards the running of the toilets, for the first two years, but no such transitional help will be available for the car parks and we will likely have to meet a lease charge for all.

So what will this mean to local residents, in terms of their council tax?

To take on both the car parks and toilets St Just Town Council will have to increase its precept. For every £10,000 per year extra we have to raise (about 12.5%) each household would have to pay an additional £5.80 a year, based on a band D home. Obviously car parks and toilets will be just one of the additional costs that the council faces this year so the Town Council will be making challenging decisions when setting the budget in December.

Your local councillors on St Just Town Council hope you agree that keeping our car parks free for use and having public toilets is worth every household paying an extra sum each year and based on this, we plan to keep talking with Cornwall Council.

If you have views or questions you can write to St Just Town Council at 1, Chapel Street, St Just, Penzance, TR19 7LS or email info@stjust.org.

St Just is twinned with Huelgoat, a delightful little town in Brittany, France.  The signing of the twinning agreement was completed in March 2010.

Since the signing strong links have been created bewteen the two communities and we are keen to promote future exchanges.

We warmly welcome groups or individuals alike to become members of the association.  For more details please contact Monty Nicholls (Chairman) on 01736 788278 or Delia Treseder on 01736 786324 (evenings only) or email delai@tintags.com

He will be supoprted in his role by Councillor Sue James as Deputy Mayor.  Sue who lives in Carnyorth has been a member of the Town Council for four years.

The press release launching the Lands End Peninsula Community Land Trust (LEPCLT) as a registered, not-for-profit company had an unfortunate write up in the Cornishman.  To set the record straight for worried locals and the group working hard to secure the farm for the community, the Trust is not considering this as a possible site for affordable housing.  The Trust is supporting a group of enthusiastic people to obtain it for a community supported agriculture venture.
With that put right, I can confirm that the Trust is  involved in separate talks with Cornwall Council and Devon and Cornwall Housing Association to identify suitable sites for Affordable Housing, for sale and local people will get to discuss these ideas before any plans are submitted.  The housing will be for people with a local connection whose needs are not being met by rented social housing providers but cannot afford to buy on the open market.  LEPCLT also hopes to help small business enterprises in need of affordable workspaces, perhaps with associated office support.
Housing was the initial driver to set up the Trust but we are now looking to develop related projects to produce food and workspaces.  We want to recruit members who support our goals (only costs £1) and help us grow.  We would also like to hear from individuals or organisations, with land, that they are willing to offer it to the community, either free or at low cost.
The fact that Cornwall Council is looking to dispose of the county farm in this area provides an opportunity for the Trust to try to secure it for the community use.  It could be a real opportunity for the community to come together to produce its own food.  It has the potential to provide education for young people on related courses or for disabled people to have a sheltered working environment.  There could also be a partnership with local pubs, cafes and shops who, by investing in the project, could influence the food produced and benefit from the taste of freshness and local supply; an excellent marketing opportunity.
If you want to find out more contact Sue James (Chair of LEPCLT) on 01736 787223 or Rob Pickering (Company Secretary) on 01736 785755.  Watch the local press and look out for posters regarding open meetings about housing or workshop developments and on progress in securing Bosavern Farm for the community.