Launceston Lib Dems call for urgent action from new parking boss

Together with my colleague Sasha Gillard-Loft and local Lib Dem campaigner Jade Farrington, I have written to Cornwall Council's new cabinet member for highways and transportation calling for urgent action on parking issues in the town.

We have asked Councillor Bert Biscoe to continue the £200 season ticket trial price which is due to run out at the end of October and to extend the deal to other areas of the town where Cornwall Council still charges £470 per year.

The cheaper £200 season ticket deal we secured back in July has been a huge success with more than 100 sold already. It has made a profit for Cornwall Council to help fund local services, but it has also been a welcome relief for town centre workers who couldn't afford £470 per year. The trial period is due to run out at the end of the month and Launceston cannot afford to return to the previous chaos.

We've asked Cllr Biscoe to confirm the trial as a success and make the £200 price permanent. We also need him to extend the deal to the other season ticket areas around the town rather than just limiting it to the Cattle Market long stay car park.

We hope the new cabinet member for parking will also bring a new attitude to pricing. Cornwall Council has treated car parks as a cash cow which can be milked for as much money as possible. That attitude wasn't just harming local shops and businesses, but it was failing to bring in the amount of money needed. The parking budget had to be bailed out twice in the last year alone.

The rising cost encouraged commuters to leave their cars in residential streets as they abandoned the car parks – making it difficult for householders to find a space outside their own homes. Some of those living in Race Hill asked the council for a residents-only parking permit scheme and it is set to come into effect shortly.

We’ve knocked on all the doors in Race Hill and people are very concerned about the lack of information about the scheme. We’re asking Cornwall Council to include the right to park in the Fair Park season ticket car park within the cost of the permit as it is currently almost empty and it would give Race Hill residents a much better chance of finding a space.

We have invited Cllr Biscoe to Launceston so we can show him the devastating effect Cornwall Council’s parking charges have had on the town centre and we will be urging him to lower them when the council’s new tariffs start in April.

This story was covered in the Western Morning News and Plymouth Herald at the weekend.

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Launceston Post Office future secured - UPDATED

After months of uncertainty, the good news emerges that the future of Launceston Post Office in the town centre is secured.

As local residents will know, the Post Office branch has been run by a company on a short term rolling contract for a couple of years. Proposals were brought forward to move it to Newport which would have been another blow to the town centre and all the shops there.

Working together with the town council and local traders, Cornwall Councillor Sasha Gillard-Loft and myself persuaded the Post Office to halt that move and to look for a new sub-postmaster or mistress who would take over the business in its current location or another town centre property. We organised a meeting with the Post Office and interested parties at which they agreed to what we wanted and they have advertised the business and held interviews.

I was very glad to hear this afternoon that Julie Allen of Pat's Greetings Cards will be becoming the new sub-postmistress. I know that the whole town will be very glad to hear the news and will be wishing her all the best when she takes over officially on July 15th.

UPDATE - Julie has emailed me to say:

"I can confirm that the Post Office will stay where it is currently, just restaffed and restocked to the level the town deserves! We hope to "plug" a few gaps in lines not currently available in Launceston, including Art supplies. Pat's will also continue unchanged in its current location."

Launceston Day Care Centre needs to move into town

This morning I attended a meeting with the staff and users of the Launceston Day Care Centre. The centre provides activities and support for adults with learning disabilities in the town and the surrounding area. The problem is that the centre is located on the Newport Industrial Estate and really needs to move into the town.

The industrial estate is a busy place. There are businesses all around the centre with cars and lorries loading and unloading at all times of the day. It's also pretty noisy. None of that is unusual for a thriving industrial estate and I wouldn't want to put a stop to any of it. But it's not exactly the place for a day centre for people with learning disabilities. They told me themselves how unsafe they feel walking around and how cut off from the town they are. The policy of the government and of the Council is that people with learning disabilities should be part of the community - able to meet with and interact with their neighbours and able to do all the normal things like shopping and going to the library. That's simply not possible stuck in Newport.

The users have identified another building in town which they feel would be ideal for their new site. It's council owned and it is both big enough and with a garden. The site is the rectory next to St Mary's church. What's more, it is empty at the moment. Of course, the new building would need works doing to it in order to make it ready to be used as a day centre. But it would also be able to be used by other organisations who could help to contribute to the costs.

The Council officer at today's meeting was told that Launceston Day Care Centre had been asking for a move for 11 years but kept on being held up. Now we are told that the different parts of the council are looking at what can be done. I'm glad to hear that and hope that they can move swiftly and agree that Launceston should be treated as a high priority.

At the end of the day there should be no 'one size fits all' solution for day centres across Cornwall. The fact that Launceston identified what it needed and got all its ducks in a row before others should not mean that meeting their needs is delayed unnecessarily.

Even though it would mean losing this excellent facility from my ward (it would move into Launceston South where Sasha Gillard-Loft is the councillor), I am delighted to support their campaign as being the best for Launceston and the best for the centre users now and in years to come.

Launceston Post Office - latest

We held a very productive meeting with representatives from the Post Office today discussing the future of Launceston Post Office.

The PO explained that they had not had a permanent tenant for a number of years and the landlord wanted a long term deal. The PO did not feel this was possible at the moment and so they were given notice to leave the premises by the end of May.

The only application up until three weeks ago came from the person who wanted to move the PO to Newport. Three weeks ago another applicant came forward with the desire to keep the business in town. Both of these applicants have been interviewed today.

The Cornwall councillors - Sasha Gillard-Loft, Phil Parsons and myself, together with the Town Council and the Chamber of Commerce - all expressed the strong desire to keep the PO in town. Whilst we do not criticise the person who wants to move the Post Office to Newport, we all feel that it would be better for the town as a whole if it remains in the town centre. Many shops gain a trade boost from people visiting the Post Office and would suffer if it moved to Newport. Whilst Newport has parking, the venue is almost inaccesible for pedestrians and has little public transport. And, whilst it is a bit more convenient for those in the Ridgegrove and St Stephens end of town, that does not make up for the damage it would do to the town centre.

The Post Office told us that their wish was for the venue to stay in the town centre. We told them that, since the landlord had indicated that he would allow a lower rent and a rent holiday and Cornwall Council would provide between 50% and 100% rate relief, there were a number of other people who would be interested in applying to run a town centre post office if the current applicant did not meet the criteria.

We will not find out for another 48 hours or so what the outcome of today's interviews is, but I hope that we will hear then that the Post Office is staying in the town centre or, at least, that other town centre applications are being invited.

Unfortunately, it appears that the local papers said that there would be a public meeting at 4pm on the issue. This was never planned but the three Cornwall Councillors stayed behind after our meeting with the Post Office to chat to members of the public and press who turned up to tell them what had been discussed. I hope everyone understood that it was not our fault that a meeting was wrongly advertised and they seemed to go away, as we did, with a bit more hope than before.

Boundary Committee proposes big changes for Launceston

The saga of Cornwall Council's boundaries is long and involved. Suffice it to say that the elections in June were fought on draft, rather than final, boundaries. The final report of the Boundary Commission is now out and there are further changes proposed for Launceston.

The town will still keep three wards and the North Ward will still be a mix of town and villages, but many areas of the town itself are set to change.

At present, the Lanstephan Estate is split between North and Central Wards. It is proposed that the whole estate, together with Cross Lanes, sits within North Ward.

Part of the St Stephen's Hill area of town - that part to the West of St Stephen's Hill itself - will move to Central Ward.

In the centre of town, the Castle and shopping area of town will move from South to Central wards.

I'll be chatting to local residents and my colleagues Sasha Gillard-Loft and Adam Paynter about the changes (which still have to be agreed by Parliament). No changes will come into effect until after the next council elections in 2013.

TRAC gets the go ahead

Although work commitments meant I wasn't able to stay for the debate, I'm delighted to hear that the TRAC plan for a multi-use trail alongside the Launceston Steam Railway track at New Mills got the go ahead at Planning last night.

This trail will be great as a stand alone project, but will have massive value for the people of Launceston if it can be extended as part of the strategic network of trails across Devon and Cornwall.

The Camel Trail is already in place and runs between Wadebridge, Bodmin and Padstow. It brings many thousands of visitors to the area each year and provides a lot of income for local businesses ranging from hotels and restaurants to bike hire firms.

In Devon, the Tarka Trail does the same and the construction of the Granite Way in West Devon is going to do the same.

The new project aims to link up the current trail network to create a great resource for walkers, bike riders and, hopefully, horse riders as well.

The plan is to link the (now approved) New Mills section with Launceston, coming in at Newport. The trail will go on to link the Newport Industrial Estate with Ridgegrove Lane and createt a safe crossing that is currently lacking at Newport.

That would be a boost for businesses in town and hopefully bring in many additional visitors. It will also be of benefit to local residents who simply want to be able to get safely from one part of the town to another.

This has been a cross party effort with my colleagues Adam Paynter and Sasha Gillard-Loft backing the scheme as well as local Tory Phil Parsons. Congratulations to Peter Sainsbury and the team who are making TRAC a reality and good luck with the rest of the scheme.

Launceston Parking Shambles

My colleague Sasha Gillard-Loft (councillor for Launceston South) has taken the lead on trying to sort out the mess of street parking in the town.

As local residents are all too well aware, there is little or no enforcement of the parking rules in Launceston. This has a severe impact on visitors, locals and businesses. What people may not know is that the reason for the lack of enforcement is that many of the rules cannot legally be enforced.

If a double yellow line is not correctly marked then no ticket can be issued. The same is true for loading bays and over-staying in limited time spaces such as in the Town Square.

Council officers have now been on a tour with Sasha, business leaders and others to audit the parking problems. They now have to correct the mistakes and only then can the rules be enforced.

We're told that they hope to have all the correct lines and signs finished by Christmas.

It's a massive shame that it has taken quite so long and local people and businesses have suffered in the meantime. But congratulations to Sasha and all who have now got the situation moving.

We trust that, once the lines and signs are in place, the Council will ensure that enough enforcement officers are in place to police the rules.