River Kensey fenced off after sewage spill - UPDATED

The River Kensey is currently fenced off at Prior's Bridge on Riverside following a small sewage spill. The Environment Agency has taken the action to protect people and their pets who might normally venture into the water.

I am assured that the spill was small and is limited to a short stretch of the river but the decision to close off the popular area has been taken as a precaution to ensure that there is no hazard to health. It is anticipated that the riverside will be back open as usual at some point tomorrow.

In the meantime, please stay outside the orange barrier and don't allow pets to go into the river.

UPDATE: Just to reassure everyone that the area has been given the all clear and the fencing has been removed.

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Upper Chapel plans - public meeting

The public meeting to discuss plans to build 100 houses on land to the west of Upper Chapel will now take place on Wednesday September 18th at 6pm in the Town Hall. This is a change to the previously discussed date.

The Upper Chapel plans have provoked a huge amount of controversy. The proposal is on land that was considered by the long-running town framework group which decided that the area was unsuitable for development. It is outside the town development boundary and will cause massive highways issues - not least around the school.

At a recent town council planning committee meeting a large audience condemned the plans and the town's planning committee voted unanimously against them.

The original date for the public meeting and informal site visit was this month. However, commonsense has prevailed and it has been decided to hold the visit at a time when the problems caused on the local road network will be more evident and at a time when more local people will be able to attend.

The public is welcome to come and make their views known to members of the planning committee.

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Banger racing this weekend

This weekend, the annual two day banger meeting takes place at Netherbridge, just over the border into Devon. It is a great event put on by North Cornwall Motor Racing Club.

If you have never seen banger racing, it is quite a spectacle. There are different classes from full contact bangers to classes which (in theory) allow no contact. There are even junior classes.

The NCMRC holds a number of meetings each year, but the two day August meeting is a highlight. You will be amazed at how some of the cars apparently written off on day one can make it onto the track again on day two.

Racing starts at 1.30pm on Saturday and at 12.30pm on Sunday. On Saturday evening there is a BBQ and music. Entry is £6 for adults each day and £3.50 for kids and OAPs.

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Advance warning of another road closure

More road works - this time due to water works.

Westgate Street will be closed for overnight roadworks from September 23rd to 27th. The works will take place from 7pm until 7am each day.

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St Thomas Road and Newport Square re-surfacing

Another road in dire need of re-surfacing is St Thomas Road and Newport Square. This too is on the list for action and the works will start on Monday 7th October and last for about seven night shifts.

The works will take place from 7pm until 7am each day.

This will, inevitably, cause some disruption to traffic and to local businesses. I'm keen to try to minimise these problems, so if any local firms or residents have concerns, please get in touch.

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St Johns and Moorland Road re-surfacing

The dates for the closure of St Johns Road and Moorland Road for re-surfacing works have been changed slightly. The works will now take place from 12th to 23rd August during the daytime (0730 to 1800).

These works will cause considerable disruption as there will be a full re-surface for much of the road surface. There will be a diversion in place, but the best advice is to stay away from the roads if possible.

Residents of St Johns Road, Moorland Road, Cowlard Close and George Fox Close who have any questions about the works should contact Jamie Neal of Cormac on 0300 1234 222.

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Launceston Rotary Shop needs volunteers

The community shop set up and run by Launceston Rotary has been hugely successful. They have raised and donated more than £50,000 for local groups and organisations.

Now they are on the look out for new volunteers to help in the shop.

If you can spare a few hours on a regular basis, please pop into the shop and speak to Peter or Alan.

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Launceston Big Clean

Last night Launceston Town Council backed an idea from the mayor, Dave Gordon, for a Launceston Big Clean group to work to tidy up our town. The idea stemmed from a community clean up organised by local accountants Hodgsons last month.

The primary responsibility for cleaning our town lies with Cornwall Council and contractors Cory. The general view is that the town centre - which is cleaned every day - is very good. The rest of the residential parts of the town and pretty clean in the main but there are problems from time to time. When we are made aware of these, we report them and take action.

But there are many areas that are not the responsibility of Cornwall Council such as the river and some of the back alleys. So the new group will come together a couple of times each year to organise clean ups. We're keen to involve local residents associations, youth groups and anyone else who wants to take part. If this includes you, contact Dave Gordon via the town hall.

It was also good to hear that new litter bins will be installed on the peace garden - the island in the river at Newport Bridge - and on the new picnic area that is being developed by the Causley memorial stone further along the river near to the bowls club.

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Launceston season ticket prices confirmed

A bit of really good news from today's council meeting was confirmation from the council that the £200 season tickets in Cornwall Council long stay car parks in Launceston will continue.

The news came after my colleague Jade Farrington asked the cabinet member for parking - Bert Biscoe - about plans to trial cheaper parking. This was a key plank of the Lib Dem budget passed in February.

Bert confirmed that the reduced season ticket price would stay and he also said that trials of cheaper 'pay as you go' parking would start soon. There is no certainty that these will include trials in Launceston, but I hope they will prove the benefit to all concerned of lower prices which bring in more drivers. Drivers in other towns would also start to see season ticket prices lowered as the trial in Launceston has shown that prices can be lowered without significantly affecting the overall income for the authority.

Some Launceston season ticket holders may have been quoted a renewal price of £500 by mistake. The council has confirmed that this was an error and they have apologised. The price remains the same and, if anyone did renew at the higher price, then they will offer a refund.

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Link Road Morrisons gets the go ahead

Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee today gave the go ahead for the new Morrisons supermarket on Launceston's Link Road. The committee also gave outline consent for a hotel, fast food restaurant, pub and 275 homes.

The vote was 20 in favour and just one against.

Both I and colleague Jade Farrington spoke to the committee. We both broadly supported the plans but had concerns about the loss of up to seven of the Millennium Avenue of oak trees. We both argued that an alternative entrance would have been better and we regretted that the developers had not been able to find one in order to preserve the oaks.

However, it is clear that the majority of people in Launceston support the scheme. The developers found 80% support and Jade found just over 70% support in her survey. At the same time, we found broad opposition to the idea of a supermarket on Race Hill car park with around two thirds opposed.

So the supermarket will go ahead and bring over two hundred new jobs to the town. It will also bring competition to Tesco and there will be mitigation measures in place to offset any damage to the town centre.

The rest of the scheme - the hotel, pub, housing etc - will need to come back for detailed planning permission. When it does I will be looking to see that the housing has not encroached onto employment space, that the much needed southern loop road is properly formed and that there are works to the South Petherwin Road to widen this and make it suitable for the extra traffic it will be asked to carry. 

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Speedwatch

This evening, Jade Farrington and I joined the Launceston Police Cadets and police staff to carry out a community speedwatch event on Western Road.

An event like this is based around education. The cadets get to see what speeding looks like and the drivers who go too fast are educated about the dangers that speeding poses. There aren't any tickets handed out for drivers who are going just too fast, but they are reminded by the cadets and officers about the problems and dangers of speeding.

Whilst we were with the cadets, we saw about a dozen cars pulled over. All but one that I saw were doing just over the limit. The driver who was doing 44mph got a more serious talking to from the police officer who was with us.

I know that the police team can sometimes go out with school groups and residents associations to do a similar exercise. It is particularly helpful in showing the difference between cars that really are speeding and those that simply give the impression of doing so. It's amazing what a loud exhaust does to give the impression of speed. If you are a member of a group that is interested in such an exercise, contact the local community policing team.


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Launceston Mayoral Induction

Today saw the ceremony to induct Dave Gordon into office as Launceston's new mayor. Normally, this would have been a mayor making ceremony in May, but it was delayed this year because of the elections. Dave has actually been in office for a month now.

All the bling and formality was still observed with visiting mayors from around East Cornwall and West Devon and the great and good of the town on parade.

Dave made a passionate speech about his pride in our town and the need for many organisations (and Cornwall Council in particular) to start to treat Launceston and its residents more fairly. He talked about making sure that developments happened with the consent of the local community and weren't done to us. He asked, in particular, for action on the lack of public transport in our area - particularly services to link us with the rest of Cornwall.

Also formally starting his term of office is Brian Hogan who takes up the reins as the Deputy Mayor. I wish both he and Dave the best of luck for their term of office.

There were three awards of appreciation handed out. These are to recognise significant contributions over a long period of time to the community. They went to:

• Ann Brown who has been the bedrock of the Launceston Town Band for many years and, in particular, for her work to support younger band members;
• Keith Roberts who was the person behind both the Foodbank and Money Advice Centre - seeing the need, raising the funds, starting the organisation and recruiting volunteers;
• The Rotary Club for all the work they do but, especially, the Rotary Shop which has raised more than £70,000 for local projects and clubs since it started.

Congratulations to all of them for their hard work and well deserved awards.

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Link Road development to be debated next week

The proposed supermarket, hotel, housing and fast food development on Launceston's Link Road will be debated next Thursday by the council's Strategic Planning Committee. The meeting will take place in Truro but be webcast from 10am for those who cannot make it in person.

This has been a proposal a long time in the making. The principle of employment use south of the Link Road is one which has been accepted for some time. But some of the details of this scheme have proved particularly controversial. These include the proposal to cut through the Millennium Avenue of oak trees in two places and the proportion of the site given over to housing.

The council cannot dictate the application that is made - it can only pass a yes or no judgement on what comes before it. In this case the application is a detailed one for the supermarket and major highways works. But the rest - hotel, housing etc - is all in 'outline'. In other words, only the principle is being debated and the details will be the subject of a further planning application in the future.

I will be attending the meeting next week as will Jade Farrington, the councillor for Launceston South - including the proposed development area.

Incidentally, the papers for this debate include details of some of the things that the developer is proposing to give to the town is the proposal is approved - so called section 106 contributions. As I understand it, the details given are an early draft rather than the final proposal.

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'At least' two years until Launceston medical centre is upgraded

It seems that Launceston will have to wait at least a couple of years until our medical centre is upgraded and able to cope with the demands being placed on it.

The story so far...

Launceston relies on one medical centre which is struggling to cope with the demands of the town and the surrounding area. Although they are trying, the centre is often unable to offer the appointments that patients want and has been one doctor down for some time due to long term sickness.

The medical centre wants to expand and has plans to buy land from Launceston Hospital. But that deal has been held up by the NHS reforms which saw the previous owners of the site (the Primary Care Trust) abolished and replaced with an NHS property company based in Bristol.

At tonight's town council meeting, the business manager of the practice, Peter Harper, assured us that the practice was doing all they can to make progress in the buying of land and the building of their extension. But, even so, the time until the practice is expanded and open is likely to be at least two years.

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Could your local project use up to £1000?

As in previous years, Cornwall Councillors will have a community chest to give grants to local groups and projects. And this year the total amount for each councillor has been increased to £3000.

The awards are decided on by each of Cornwall's 123 councillors. They can be for any amount between £100 and £1000. There are other rules, but they are not particularly restrictive so long as the money is going to help a group (new or existing) and the money will be used for a project rather than for core funding.

The great thing about these grants is that they often bring in far more money through match funding. So if I give a grant for £100, it can bring money from other sources, on average, of another £800. In some cases over the last four years, the 'leverage ratio' has been as much as 32-1 (ie £1 brings in £32).

In the past, the community chest funding has been £2195 per councillor per year. But this year we decided to use some of the small underspend in the council's budget to top up the community chest. We considered a range of different possible uses for the money and felt that the ability to help local groups and projects which are often finding fundraising tough was a good use of resources - particularly if it can bring in so much more in matched funding.

In Launceston, I have used my community chest in previous years to help establish the Launceston Loyalty Card, help set up the foodbank and money advice centre, and to help groups like the boxing club and a local art group to buy new equipment.

So if you are involved with a group or project in the Launceston area and you want to apply for funding from my community chest, get in touch. I won't make most decisions until the end of July (to give everyone the chance to apply) and I will be giving priority to projects where matched funding is being sought and which have not received any community chest money in the past. You can email me alexfolkes@gmail.com or call 07984 644138. I look forward to hearing from you.

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'Death Row' development gets unanimous thumbs down from town council

Launceston Town Council tonight voted unanimously against the planned development at Upper Chapel dubbed 'death row' because of the new cemetery extension which would be at its heart.

This was the best attended town council planning meeting I have yet seen and local residents spoke passionately about the problems they perceive with the plans. The chief concern was the highways issue with claims by the applicant that there would be just one more car per minute at peak times openly laughed at.

I'm not a member of the planning committee but I also attended and spoke on the issue to point out that the town framework group had extensively considered this area, as well as all others around the town. We had rejected only those areas we felt unsuitable for good planning reasons and this area was one such.

The applicants claim that Launceston is in desperate need of new housing. They are right to say this. But that is why the local community has identified the space for more than 2500 new homes over the next 20 years - far more than the 1500 that Cornwall Council says we need.

The developers admitted that they had received very negative feedback when they had a public consultation on their plans and that they had not altered them a jot as a result.

The next stage for this application is that it will go to Cornwall Council's planning committee. As soon as I have a date and venue I will post that here.

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Upper Chapel homes plan to be discussed by town council tomorrow

Tomorrow evening, Launceston Town Council's planning committee will consider the application by Hallam Land Management to apply for permission to build up to 100 new houses on land north of Upper Chapel.

This is a very controversial application which has the potential to create a lot of highways problems. The applicants have asked to be able to speak at tomorrow's meeting.

The meeting takes place at 7pm at the town hall and is open to the public. I don't sit on the town's planning committee but will be going along to hear what the applicant, residents and councillors have to say.

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Causley Festival

Many thanks to everyone for organising this year's Causley Festival. And great that we had such fantastic weather.

My particular highlights were

- Bert and Pol, Cornish poets, performing on the opening Thursday night,
- the Seize the Day performance by Will Coleman and his troupe at the castle yesterday afternoon and
- the Music night last night in the Town Hall.

If you have any ideas for next year's festival, please get in touch (but allow a week for the team to recover from this year first!)

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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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Western Road and Pennygillam re-surfacing

I've now also been sent the details and times for the re-surfacing works at the top end of Western Road and round the Pennygillam roundabout.

This work will take place overnight between 4th July and 12th July. This means that the local roads - including the A30 westbound off-slip and Western Road will be closed between 7pm and 6am.

As you can see from the map, the resultant diversions are going to take you a considerable distance out of your way, so plan accordingly.


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