50,000 reasons to love the Launceston Loyalty card

Since the Love Launceston loyalty card was set up a year ago, cardholders have saved over £50,000 in shops and businesses in Launceston. And more than 100 businesses in the town have seen increased footfall and sales which has helped them survive the tough economic conditions.

So shoppers at HBH Woolacotts have saved more than £6000. Customers at Hazard Clothing have saved more than £1500 and customers at Castle Pet Supplies have saved more than £1200. And at shops like Castle Jewellers, more than 50% of customers use their loyalty card when they make a purchase.

To celebrate the anniversary, this morning some of the Love Launceston crew were out in the town square during the Buttermarket to hand out this month's offer leaflets. The picture shows (left to right) Cllr Jade Farrington, me, Sue Issleib and Jen Issleib from Hazard.

We were also getting shoppers to enter this month's prize draw for a free meal for four at Cornish Delicacies worth up to £100.

Don't forget that your loyalty card entitles you to some great deals. To find out about this month's offers, go to the Love Launceston website.

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Launceston College Masterchef

There are some days when being a Cornwall Councillor is lots of fun. Today is one of them. I was a judge at the second Launceston College Masterchef competition.

We ate the work of six very talented year nine pupils (aged 13-14 in old money) who had been whittled down from 49 original entrants. All the food was of an incredible standard which is testament to the pupils, their parents and the staff at the college.

Each contestant had two and a half hours to produce a two course meal of main course and dessert. We got two fish pies of the highest order, a vegetarian moussaka with home made flatbread, Thai fishcakes with an incredible dipping sauce, chicken wrapped in parma ham and a traditional Polish meal with breaded Turkey escalope.

For dessert, there were a couple of cheesecakes, a meringue with limoncello cream, a chocolate cake, a tiramisu and a shortbread with cream.

There were truly exceptional elements within each of the meals we were given and it was really hard to make a decision. As you might expect, I had to take a second, or even third, pass just to make up my mind.

Many thanks to the college for inviting me and to the town's youth council and Hockridge and Stacey for sponsoring the event. Congratulations to all the entrants for the passion they showed and their immense skills. (Yep, I'd quite like to be a judge next year too!)

If you want to know the results and the name of the winner, check out next week's local papers.

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And the winner is...

The winner of this month's Love Launceston loyalty card prize draw is Chris Oaten. Chris wins a year of free haircuts courtesy of our friends at Diamond Cutz in Exeter Street.

Chris is pictured with Julie Downing from Diamond Cutz and Jeremy Loft from the Loyalty Card team.

Don't forget, there isn't much time to enter the December draw. The prize is six month's free golf membership at Trethorne Golf Club. And, in case you are doubtful about golf in January, Trethorne have told us that you can start your membership period at any point. The draw closes on December 22nd and all you have to do is complete your loyalty card details, name and contact number on one of the leaflets available in any Love Launceston business.

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Stop the Bus Cuts in North Cornwall

I'm joining with North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson and other local Lib Dems to campaign to stop the latest rounds of cuts to bus services in our area.

Last week, Western Greyhound announced a package of changes which include the loss of the 577 service linking Launceston to Tavistock and changes to the 584 service along the North Coast which will hit people living in that area.

Sadly, the company gave people very little notice of the changes and they will have serious consequences. Some people who live in villages along the route rely on these services to get out and about, to see friends and to go shopping. They will find themselves more and more isolated. Others rely on buses to get to and from work. The cut in services and re-timing can make it difficult to use the bus to get to work.

The loss of the Launceston to Tavistock service is an example of Cornwall Council's short-sightedness during the last service review. They insisted that they would only subsidise lifeline services in Cornwall. They failed to recognise that routes that cross the border are often just as vital as those wholly within Cornwall.

The council has history with cutting buses. Lib Dem action stopped them when they tried to end weekend and evening buses. We also forced them to think again when their subsidy cuts would have meant most routes being axed. This time the decision appears to have been taken by Western Greyhound themselves. But we think that Cornwall Council has the position to ask the company to think again and to restore these lifeline routes.

If you back our campaign to save the bus routes - please sign our petition here.

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Late Night Shopping in Launceston

As ever, Late Night Shopping saw Launceston packed with people as well as musicians, dancers, traders... and camels.

Huge thanks to everyone for coming along, but especially to my colleague Sasha Gillard-Loft who has organised the event for six or seven years. She persuaded me to get on a camel this year (I thought they knelt down to let you get on - but apparently not).

Thanks also to all the other volunteers and helpers who make this such a special event.

The Late Night Shopping event is produced entirely by those associated with the town centre shops. One of them - Paul Loft of Gillards Sweet Shop - has posted this on Facebook:

“So there you have it, a great night funded entirely by the Chamber of Commerce members and their supporting sponsors.

Argos, the 99p shop, Pets at Home ... NONE of these businesses contribute to the cost of this event, which exceeds £3,000 to put on. Many of the town's small businesses do not benefit in terms of cash through their till on the night, as most of the spend goes to the additional attractions we bring into the square. But they still contribute.

All we ask in return for putting on the event every Christmas is that you think of us when doing your shopping throughout the year, and remember what a fantastic little town you have in Launceston, with some lovely generous and caring people running some excellent family businesses.

Tweet Bus got it right in one of their Tweets - we need 'Balanced Shopping'

Yes the big boys have their place, but so does your local town centre. And we'd love to see more of you visiting and supporting your town more often. We know we can't expect to see you all every Friday night (I don't think we could cope), but seeing the hundreds of people who filled the town tonight reminded us of just how exciting and vibrant a town centre can be.”

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Picking up where Cornwall Council fails

According to Cornwall Council, there are some streets that don't exist - at least as far as street cleaning and litter picking are concerned.

One such is Blind Hole in Launceston which runs down to the Orchard Centre, home of the youth partnership and other community organisations.

This street isn't classed as town centre and so doesn't get swept every day. But then, it isn't classed as a residential zone two street either (in which case it should get swept every six weeks). According to Cornwall Council's contract with Cory, it doesn't exist at all. Any sweeping or litter picking is done by local residents.

So today, local Lib Dem campaigner Jade Farrington and myself went and swept the street - picking up two bags of broken glass, cigarette ends and general litter.

We have asked the council to make sure that Blind Hole - and any other missed out areas - are added to Cory's list of streets to sweep. Street sweeping is a core service for the council, but it seems far too many areas are being missed.

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Collecting for Launceston Foodbank

This weekend, Launceston Foodbank are holding a collection at Tesco. They are after dried, canned and non-perishable goods to make up into food parcels to give to people who are facing a crisis.

This afternoon I joined the volunteers for a couple of hours to hand out shopping lists and to collect donations.

Many thanks to the hundreds of people who gave us items from our shopping lists. Every single can or packet will help an individual or family who are facing a really tough time.

Tesco are donating a lot of staff time to help the effort and they are also adding 30% to the total amount of donations received over the weekend. So far, we have collected more than 40 of the green pallets full of food - that's about half a tonne.

Some of the donations were quite incredible. One young boy handed over a packet of sweets from his pocket money whilst another gent gave us a whole trolley-load of stuff.

The volunteers will be there again tomorrow and don't forget that there is a collection basket permanently behind the check-outs in the store.

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We have a winner!

The winner of the first Launceston Loyalty Card prize draw is.....

(drum roll)

Jan Broom of Launceston.

Congratulations to Jan who picked up her prize - a surround sound stereo system kindly donated by Hockridge and Stacey - this morning.

In the photo are Karl Hockridge and Jan Broom with myself and Jeremy Loft of the Love Launceston Loyalty Card scheme.

The next prize draw is for a year's worth of free hair cuts, courtesy of Diamond Cutz.

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And the winner is...

I've just made the draw for the winner of the first Launceston Loyalty Card prize draw.

More than 120 people entered by posting the cut out coupon from the October loyalty card leaflet in one of the participating businesses. The competition was organised by Paul and Jeremy Loft from Gillard's Sweet Shop where the draw took place.

The winner will receive their prize - a surround sound stereo system kindly donated by Hockridge and Stacey Appliance Centre - on Monday. We'll announce the name (and post a picture) then.

The next prize draw will be in December as part of the bumper Christmas loyalty card promotion.

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Keeping the streets warm this winter

There seems to have been another outbreak of yarn bombing in Launceston over the last few nights.

With colder weather moving in, it appears some people want to make sure that the street furniture is kept nice and warm.

You can see more examples here.

As to who is responsible, still no one is saying....

Don't forget, carnival is tomorrow evening, from 7pm.

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Kensey Valley Meadow litter pick

This morning I joined some of the residents of Kensey Valley Meadow for a litter pick of their estate.

It's a relatively new development, with 200 properties and a burgeoning residents association. There were eleven of us, of all ages, out with grabbers, gloves and vests kindly loaned by the Council's waste team.

In an hour and a half we collected roughly four full bin bags full of rubbish - not a huge quantity, but enough to make a difference for local residents.


If you think your area could do with a litter pick and you're willing to help make a difference, the council can lend the equipment you need, just get in touch with me and I'll pass on your request.

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Jubilee Weekend Day Three - Fireworks

Tonight the people of Launceston came together in Coronation Park for an evening of music and fireworks.

Organised by the Rotary Club, the event was a real community one with around more than a thousand people in the park. BBC Radio Cornwall's Duncan Warren and Tracey Wilson were also there broadcasting from the event as part of the evening programme. Many thanks to them for coming along and being so interested in our community.

The culmination of the evening was a firework display. Many thanks and congratulations to Eric Chapman, Tony Sandercock and Dave Gordon - as well as the Launceston firefighters - for once again putting on a great show.

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Jubilee Weekend Day Two - Poetry

As well as the Jubilee, this weekend is also the annual Charles Causley festival in Launceston. The festival has been going for three years and attracts a wide variety of artists but always as poetry at its core.

The most well known name at this year's event is undoubtedly the former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion who will be reading from his new book Silver later today. But yesterday saw a writing workshop and performance by Mark Grist, the former teacher who left the profession to become a battle rapper and performer. (If you want to know what battle rapping is, watch this video - warning, contains lots of swearing).


Mark's performance was of material that will form the basis of his show at this year's Edinburgh fringe, including a poem in praise of red heads and a poem using only one vowel - the letter E.




In addition to Mark, we had performances by two local spoken word artists. The first was Ben Haynes (right) whose work on Hamlet is brilliant. The second was Ricky Lovell, MC Tricky (left), whose work is mainly as a dubstep MC but who does a great job acapella as well. Many thanks to both of them.

Yesterday also saw the main town square street party moved to the town hall because of the weather. I don't think it suffered as a result and the town band entertained a huge crowd.

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Jubilee Weekend Day One - gardening

First day of the Jubilee weekend and I joined a wide variety of other people for some gardening in the centre of Launceston.

The event was organised by Ben Robbins of the Eden Project and Margaret Wills of Launceston in Bloom with the help of a lot of the Barefoot Games volunteers. We had plants, compost and equipment kindly donated by a range of people including Homeleigh Garden Centre.

(I have to say, I'm quite glad that I live in a flat with no outside space as the digging took it out of me!)

Also out and about in town were a huge group (a swashbuckle?) of St Pirans Pirates singing and sword-fighting for the crowds.

As well as the Jubilee weekend, the Charles Causley Festival has started with poetry walks, literary lunches and an art display on the ground floor of Liberty House.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a community picnic in Priory Park and then the Mark Grist performance at Harvey's in the evening. If anyone still wants to come along to that event, be warned, there were only half a dozen tickets left this morning so turn up early to buy one on the door.








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White Hart facelift

Congratulations to the White Hart Hotel in Launceston town square. Their scaffolding is coming down after a (dare I say it) much needed facelift. The building looks fantastic - just in time for the holiday weekend.

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MPs vote on #pastytax

MPs tonight voted by 295 to 260 against the Cornish Lib Dem amendment to abandon the Government's proposal for the pasty tax which will cost Cornish jobs.

During a debate on the budget VAT measures, there were seven MPs called to speak on the issue of static caravans and five on the subject of church alterations, but only one (Stephen) on the issue of the pasty tax.

The resultant vote was a lot closer than might have been predicted. Labour (sensibly) withdrew their own amendment on the subject which was not so well supported and allowed the vote to take place on the Cornish amendment. All six Cornish MPs backed this amendment - which shows both solidarity and hope for the future that the Government might still listen to reason.

The fight will go on as Dan Rogerson will be taking a group of pasty makers to meet with a Treasury Minister soon to explain why the proposals will hurt Cornish jobs.

But as things stand, I won't be buying Nick Clegg a pasty again. (Pic shows Nick eating a pasty I bought for him while talking to Cornish Lib Dems in Bodmin.)

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Pasty Tax summit

This afternoon I attended the 'pasty tax summit' organised by John Endacott of the accountants firm Francis Clark in Truro. He had brought together VAT and tax experts, pasty manufacturers and politicians to look for a way forward in the debate about the imposition of VAT on pasties.

The manufacturers told us that they thought the imposition of the pasty tax would lead to a loss in sales of 15-20% and this would have a consequent knock-on effect on jobs and the amount of money in the Cornish economy. Firms which had been planning to open new shops said that this measure would automatically end those plans and others have said that they will have to close shops. They said that this is simply the straw that will break the camel's back with rising raw material and fuel costs already making their life difficult.

There was a general perception that the Chancellor didn't realise what he was doing when he announced the pasty tax. He didn't fully understand the implications (the Office for Budget Responsibility papers are confused as to the impact) and clearly never expected to stir the hornets nest that he has.

Steve Gilbert, the Lib Dem MP for St Austell and Newquay, was present and he set out the options from a parliamentary perspective. Whilst there is a debate called by Labour for next week, this will be on such a wide range of issues that he does not expect it to be a proper study of the pasty tax issues. Steve, together with Dan Rogerson and Andrew George, is also asking the Speaker for a full debate on the pasty tax. Tory MP George Eustice has put forward his own idea for a 40 degree re-definition of 'ambient temperature', but the manufacturers pointed out that the only likely effect of this would be to give everyone food poisoning.

Among the manufacturers, the clear mood is that we will continue to fight this unfair proposal which will damage jobs and businesses. We hope that the Chancellor will see that he has made a mistake and will 'clarify' the proposal so that savouries sold out of the oven in bakeries remain VAT free. As things stand, the proposals are totally unworkable.

The next stage is a meeting with Treasury Ministers which Dan Rogerson MP is organising. But as a first step in the concerted campaign, this was hugely positive.

After the meeting, Steve recorded this short message:



Image shows Mark Muncey of the Cornish Pasty Association, John Endacott of Francis Clark accountants and Steve Gilbert MP.

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Not quite meeting the Pakistani cricket team

I'm currently in Islamabad in Pakistan working for the British Council on an education advocacy project with a group of six young people from the UK and 20 young people from Pakistan who are the steering group for a project called IlmPossible.

There was a recent update of the Pakistani constitution which added in Article 25a which guarantees the right to free state education for all children aged 5-16. The trouble is that the delivery of this is down to provincial governments and many people simply don't know that it is a right. Many others are discouraged from taking up their right or don't believe that education is important. The IlmPossible group exists to publicise and campaign for this right to be taken up.

We want to share our experiences and help them as well as learn from them and put together a joint UK-Pakistan project which can run in parallel in both countries.

I'll write more about the project itself at a later date, but the highlight of the first training day was a visit (just an hour we were told) to an event where members of the Pakistani cricket team were meeting groups of orphans who had been taking part in a sports week.

I don't know what we were expecting, but it certainly wasn't 2800 children aged 4-8 from all over Pakistan who have all been given the opportunity to take part in a variety of sports based activity and this week has been the end of programme event where they all came together to play against each other.

The idea behind this, as explained to us by one of the organisers, is that these children can easily feel that they are marginalised by society. They are certainly some of the most socially disadvantaged in any society. The programme manager also said that an additional fear is that some might turn to the extremists and become the next generation of terrorists and suicide bombers. Making sure they engage in education and social activities is one way to encourage them to feel part of society and make the best of themselves as well as to lessen the chances of them being drawn into extremism.

From a start with just a single child, the organisation has grown in quick time to the 2800 that were present today (last year there were 1300).

It was fantastic to watch as they received their trophies and medals, to talk to them and to the organisers about the project. (It was just a pity that they were so clued up about the relative merits of the Pakistani and English cricket teams in the recent test series!)

The star guests at the event were members of the Pakistani cricket team. Unfortunately, they arrived after we had to go. We held on and held on with the promise that they would meet us for a photo. Unfortunately, when the time came, they didn't make it over to us for the photo as the local media were engulfing them. (But given that they were there to see the children, that's probably fair enough.)

Hugely enjoyable and I learned a lot. I would hope that this sort of project is something that the UK foreign aid budget would invest in. A scheme which provides education for a marginalised group and has the additional specific aim of reducing the danger of the young people being radicalised is surely a good investment.

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Nick Clegg makes the case for lower taxes for lower paid

This morning Nick Clegg is urging the Government to go further and faster in raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax.

One of the key demands made by the Liberal Democrats when we entered the coalition was that the tax threshold should be raised. Our manifesto commitment was that no one should pay income tax on the first £10,000 that they earned. This was accepted by the Conservatives and is being instituted in stages with the first £1000 rise happening last year and another £630 rise planned for this April.

In today's speech, Nick Clegg says:

"Today I want to make clear that I want the coalition to go further and faster in delivering the full £10,000 allowance, because the pressure on family finances is reaching boiling point. These families have seen their earnings in relative decline for a decade, compared to those at the top. That has accelerated since 2008, with lower real wages and fewer hours at work."

The Lib Dem demand is for lower and middle earners to be as higher priority than the super rich - which is why the Lib Dems have vetoed any suggestion of abolishing the 50p rate for top earners and have ensured that the tax on bank profits is enforced.

That concern for tax cuts targeted at the lower paid is also why the Lib Dems in Cornwall proposed the council tax freeze for the coming year.

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Dear Labour...

Dear Labour Party

If you are going to object to the 'Red Ed' tag for your new leader, perhaps you ought to think about your imagery a bit more carefully.

Yours

Alex