The work of a Parish Councillor

I've read a lot over the past few weeks about encouraging more people to stand to become Councillors and it makes interesting reading.

Cornwall Council have just held an event for people wishing to become Cornwall Councillors and a few people have written about the event. Here’s one Robs Cornish Blog.

Penzance Town Council has also held two events recently to encourage people to stand.

As reflected in Rob’s Blog there is a lot of interests in councillor allowances and you only have to read some of the comments on Social Media sites to get the impression that a lot of people think.

‘ all councillors are only in it for the allowances,  the free food and what they can get out of it’

In fact, certainly at the Parish Council level nothing could be further from the truth.

I have said this before and will say it again Parish Councillors (In general) do not get an allowance, and certainly not on Penzance Town Council. Limited expenses are available, in 14 years I'm unaware of any councillor claiming them. So in the 14 years as a councillor I have received £0 for my work as a councillor.

We do not get free lunches and the only thing we get out of it is the satisfaction of doing something for the community in which we live.

At Penzance Town Council we do not have, tea, coffee or biscuits at meetings, the last time I had a ‘free lunch’ was from a development company/Cornwall Council at a all day consultation, which was open to all, you only had to turn up at 9:30 and be there until 4:30 to get your free sandwich and cup of tea.

As a Parish council we have no statutory duty to do anything, with the delivery of all services the duty of the principle council, in our case Cornwall Council.

We are only consultees on planning issues (often very late in the day), with our comments only taken into consideration.

Anyone who thinks we can stop or conversely start planning applications is very much mistaken.

Penzance Town Council meetings work on a cycle of 6 weeks, in that the 4 standing committees, General Purposes, Finance, Penlee House & Park meet every 6 weeks, with the Planning Committee meeting every 3 weeks, at the end of this cycle there is a full Town Council Meeting, in addition we can also have Special Town Council meetings as required to discuss single issues of urgency. All these meeting are open to the public, why not come along and see what we really do. A list of meetings is published here…

As a councillor you sit on two of the standing committees of your choice, so an average councillor would be expected to attend 3 meetings every 6 weeks, it’s these meetings which make up our attendance record.

But only a few councillors are average, we also have working groups, small groups of councillors who meet, very often with groups and individuals from outside the council, to organise or progress town projects.

Let me give you an example:

Penzance Christmas Lights Switch On and Market

This was an initiative brought to the town council by me two years ago, to create an event around the Lights Switch On, we had a small sum of money from the Christmas Lights budget.

The working group for this consisted of two town councillors, me and Cllr Jan Ruhrmund with a member of staff from the Town Council doing the admin.

Also invited to join the group where:

Brenda Lemon : Penzance Farmers Market.

Penzance Chamber of Commerce.

The Cornishman

Causewayhead Traders Association

Wharthside Shopping Centre

Andy Hazlehurst : Golowan

Rotary Club

This group met 6 times on the build up to the event, discussing what could and couldn't be done, how we were going to organize what was required.

On the day Cllr Ruhrmund and I were in attendance for the whole day to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

Other working groups of councillors meet to deliver less obvious projects around the town.

In addition to the above Councillors are asked to become the Town Councils representative on numerous other groups/organisations in the area, attending their meetings, assisting them to progress their ideas and reporting back to the council on the work of these groups.

From the above you can see that being a Town Councillor can be quite busy, but also very satisfying, in fact all we are is a group of unpaid volunteers but unlike most people who join a community group, say the Rotary Club, every four years we can be asked to leave, mostly by people who have no idea of what you do.

Penzance Retail Space

Sat at home last night in front of the computer, after a couple of meetings, a photograph of a document was posted on Twitter by @Tweet_Bus, for which I thank him. The document caused a little comment and some deal of surprise. 

The document has been produced for the group opposing the huge development planned at Coyte Farm, St Austell, @StopCoyteFarm .

What the document shows is the Total Occupied Retail Floorspace of major towns in Cornwall; this is then broken down into ‘Convenience Goods’ and ‘Comparison Goods’.

Convenience Goods are defined as ‘These are widely distributed and relatively inexpensive goods which are purchased frequently and with minimum of effort, such as petrol, newspapers, and most grocery items.’ To most people the stuff you tend to buy at a Supermarket regularly.

Comparison Goods are defined as 'non perishable' goods for retail sale which are often stocked in a wide range of sizes, styles, colours and qualities, including furniture, carpets, televisions, clothing etc.’

The surprise for many perhaps is that Penzance has the second largest amount of retail space in Cornwall, only Truro has more.

It should also be noted that on the list of Convenience Goods retail space Penzance comes forth (4) beaten by Truro, Newquay and Camborne and by some margin, so even with the soon to be built Sainsbury’s supermarket, Penzance will not move up this list.

For Comparison Goods, Penzance easily comes second, only beaten by Truro.

Interesting reading and a set of numbers I've not seen before.

Chapel Street, Penzance

I’ve written in the past about Causwayhead in Penzance (Here) and what a great shopping street it is, full of independent shops, its now the turn of Chapel Street in Penzance, what brought this on is the publication this week of its own guide ‘Historic Chapel Street’ and what a great guide it is.

Within it details the 39 yes, 39 Specialist Shops and Services it has to offer as well as a small section on Exploring the street and its many Historic Buildings, also a simple map, so a big well done to the Chapel Street traders for this fine publication.

I’m pleased to say that just before Christmas I brought a book from one of these Independent shops, written by a local author and published locally, now that really is shopping local.

http://www.chapelstreet.co.uk

Newlyn

The Town Council has now returned the renovated bench to its home at the bottom of Trewarveneth Street. Along with the benches alongside the War Memorial the council has now repaired all the benches in Newlyn requiring work, the town clerk and I took a trip around the village just before Christmas to identify any others requiring work and are pleased to say all the others looked ok. Although the benches in fact are the responsibility of Cornwall Council the Town felt that it would be quicker if we carried out the work and this was done in house by our handyman. If you know of any others requiring work please let me know. 

In the past few days a row of bollards have appeared alongside the War Memorial and Seamen’s Mission on a road under the control of the Harbour Commissioners, replacing the traffic cones that had been bolted to the ground a few months ago in the same location. I know what the Commissioners are trying to achieve, stopping cars parking here, but I'm not sure a row of bollards next to a row of bollards is the way forward.