One Stop Shop Opening Hours

On their website, the Cornish and Devon Post are running a poll on whether the Council is right to look at reducing the opening hours of One Stop Shops such as Bude and Launceston.

The poll follows my report to last month's Town Council meeting where I said that the Council was conducting a review of One Stop Shop opening hours and was looking to cut some OSS from 5 day opening to 3.

Since that time we have now learned that the most likely OSS to see cutbacks are those which are least used - Fowey, Camelford and one further west (the location of which escapes me for the time being). Councillors have been told that the Council will be seeking to combine the workings of the OSS with other agencies such as housing associations or the Police and only cutting back on hours as a last resort.

That's fine as far as it goes, but I would have hoped that the Council would not be considering any such cutbacks at this time. It's less than a year since the new Council started work and people are only just getting used to it and its range of services. I think all One Stop Shops should be open at least five days per week (and ideally six days and into the evenings as was originally promised).

So it looks like Launceston OSS is safe for the time being, but please do vote in the poll and do use the One Stop Shop service. It may be that our OSS is safe for now, but you never know when the Conservatives will decide to have another round of cost cutting.