Saturday 19 December 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - January 2016)

Happy New Year everyone. I'm writing this just before Christmas, which has already been a real boost for me. I'm in a position where I can voluntarily give my time to a number of community organisations even more rewarding than the parish council. This year the food bank where I volunteer organised Christmas boxes as a little extra, given by members of the community to those who needed to use the food bank through the year. Delivering those surprise boxes of Christmas goodies was the most rewarding thing I've done this year. People's reactions varied from the stunned to the very emotional. Everyone was grateful for the unexpected gifts that could make their Christmas special, and I was grateful for the opportunity to make a difference. There are lots of different volunteering opportunities locally depending on ability. I might choose to help with scrub clearance on nature reserves or DIY at The Growing Project Pensilva; others help in reception at Millennium House. Anyway I highly recommend volunteering as something to start doing, maybe as a New Year's resolution.
The parish council is about to set the precept portion of our council tax. We have two options: Delegating the management of Millennium House to the Pensilva Community Association charity (PCA), or carrying on as usual. If we carry on as before the precept will have to go up dramatically, from £62,000 probably to about £87,000. If PCA take over, the precept could actually reduce slightly. This is because parish reserves would not need to be as large for a smaller parish turnover, and as a charity PCA can save money.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems. 

Wednesday 18 November 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - December 2015)

Among other things, this month's Caradon Community Network Area Panel will be hearing Cornwall Council's plans for future library services. You probably know that because of budget cuts the mobile library service has already been cancelled for St Ive and reduced for Pensilva to monthly visits. Cornwall Council are limited by a ceiling of 2% on council tax increases, unless they call a referendum, and who seriously thinks a majority would vote for increasing taxes? So when central government cut their funding, because of austerity measures, Cornwall Council have no option but to cut services. We have already seen Cornwall Council close some public toilets, and then to make it fair across the whole of Cornwall, pass all public toilets over to town and parish councils to maintain. They know that town and parish councils do not yet have a 2% ceiling on the increase to local taxation, so the precept you pay as part of your council tax is still totally under the control of the parish council. The obvious strategy for Cornwall Council is to try and pass as many services as possible over to your parish council. The only limitation Cornwall Council have is the services that the law compels them to provide, but even then there is wriggle room. The law says that Cornwall Council have to provide a library service, but it doesn't say what size. If Cornwall Council decided to close all libraries except for the one in Truro opening one day a week, it wouldn't necessarily be against the law. It might be against the law, and I'm sure cuts that severe would be challenged in court, but it could only be decided in court, there are no current legal standards. Our current local libraries are Callington, Upton Cross and Liskeard and I hope they are all retained. For those in Pensilva, Millennium House also has an informal book lending service where people in the community have donated books that anyone can borrow. I hope we don't have to fall back on this sort of self help provision for other services that Cornwall Council provide.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Sunday 18 October 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - November 2015)

I want to tell you about the Caradon Community Network Area Panel this month. When Cornwall Council became a unitary authority the old Caradon District Council was abolished, but this left a big gap between the parish and town councils and the new unitary authority. This gap has been filled by community network areas; each has a panel which is the main way Cornwall Council communicates with local communities. These panels meet every two months and consist of the local Cornwall Councillors and representatives from the Town and Parish Councils. Three community network areas have been set up covering the old Caradon District Council area; Liskeard & Looe, Cornwall Gateway (Saltash & Torpoint), and us in Caradon Community Network Area. I attend these meetings to represent and report back to our Parish Council. These panels have no powers or budgets, but do provide an opportunity to question Cornwall Council officers, Devon & Cornwall emergency services; fire, police and ambulance or any other local service providers. Recently we have heard from the Devon & Cornwall Police Commissioner. He explained months ago that with the cuts imposed by government, there would have to be cuts in policing services. This has now been detailed as the closure of 30 police stations, including local stations; Callington and Liskeard, both of which have been running down for years. With this reduction of policing, the emergency and non-emergency phone services have become even more important. We know that there have been problems with the 101 non-emergency phone service. I heard that some times you had to wait up to 45 minutes for a response, but the service is supposed to have been improved recently. We are trying to get the police service to demonstrate this, with meaningful statistics.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Thursday 17 September 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - October 2015)

I am please to say that our Neighbourhood Development Plan is moving forward with two new members joining the committee. This committee has not met for a long time. Last year the NDP committee presented our work at public meetings, both in Pensilva and St Ive. At these meetings we asked you to tell us what you thought the important issues were for the future planning of our parish. This guided us as to what questions to ask in the questionnaire that everyone was asked to complete last year. The results of the questionnaire have been analysed and the report is available on the parish website. This now needs to be turned into planning policies in a plan that we can vote on in a referendum. Planning decisions for the parish will then have to be based on what we have democratically decided locally, instead of just being whatever Cornwall Council choose.

Transferring the management of Millennium House from the Parish Council to Pensilva Community Association is taking a lot longer than expected. The trouble with having volunteers running the Parish Council is that we only have our spare time to get work done. This is also a new undertaking that we want and need to get right, but is a steep learning curve. We are however making progress.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - September 2015)

Peter Haines has been welcomed back onto the Parish Council after many years of absence. His previous experience as a Parish Councillor makes him another invaluable addition to our ranks. We still have vacancies on the Parish Council, so if you think you can contribute your time and enthusiasm, please contact the Parish Clerk, Leesa Childs.

Congratulations and thanks to the Millennium House Events Group who organised Pensilva Carnival Week this year. This shows how the local community can run some things just as well as the parish council, if not better. I think this shows that Pensilva Community Association CIO running Millennium House is a positive way forwards.

As the new Universal Credit system is rolled out to replace a number of benefits it is possible that some of us will have financial difficulties if the change doesn't happen smoothly. If you know of anyone in temporary difficulties, don't forget that the food bank where I volunteer in Callington is there to help, also the one in Liskeard.

I heard recently that our rural buses can be flagged down on a 'hail and ride' basis. I think this means that if the bus driver considers that it is safe to stop, we can wave them down at places other than the standard bus stops.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Thursday 16 July 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - August 2015)

David Waddington has been welcomed back onto the Parish Council after many years of absence. His previous experience as a Parish Councillor makes him an invaluable addition to our ranks. We still have vacancies on the Parish Council, so if you think you can contribute your time and enthusiasm, please contact the Parish Clerk, Leesa who is also a new addition to the team.

The Butchers Arms Preservation Society has decided to turn down the new owner's offer of a tenancy agreement to run the pub, since the terms were not considered to be workable. The pub is still registered as an Asset of Community Value, and the Butchers Arms Preservation Society would consider purchase if it comes on the market.


The resurfacing of Higher Road Pensilva has reinstated the speed restriction cushions. Many people asked for these traffic calming measures to be left out of the replaced surface, but Cornwall Council told our Cornwall Councillor that it would actually be more expensive to change the paperwork, than to put the bumps back. It does occur to me that this might be a blessing in disguise. Before the bumps were added, the traffic on Higher Road used to rocket through the village, endangering life and limb. There was a clamour to do something about speeding traffic and so the speed cushions were added. Maybe they are a good thing. What do you think?

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Thursday 18 June 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - July 2015)


There has been an interesting development on the planning application in St Ive for change of use of the Butchers Arms public house to a residential dwelling with Bed and Breakfast facilities and a village shop/post office. The Butchers Arms Preservation Society has been formed, and the pub registered as an Asset of Community Value. At last month's parish council meeting opponents of the change forcefully expressed their views to the new owner. He has withdrawn the application for change of use and offered the community a tenancy agreement. This is an opportunity for the community to run the pub. The offer will only be open until the end of July, so if we want to take up this offer, the time is rapidly running out.


The Community Emergency Plan for St Ive Parish is nearly in place. Unlikely though it may seem now in high summer, it is possible that a snow storm could block our roads, leaving many people stranded and in need of help. There are other possibilities that have to planned for. Mostly we would just be managing the situation until the professional emergency services take over. Copies of the plan and grab bags with vital kit will be stored strategically in Pensilva and St Ive. This plan has been worked on by our Cornwall Councillor's local working group, and under Cornwall Council's guidance for a long time, but is nearly done.
  Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Thursday 4 June 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - June 2015)

At the AGM on 11-May-2015 I was elected to be Chair of the Parish Council for the next year. Alan Moss is the new Vice-Chair. Unfortunately Linda Olver has had to resign from the Parish Council, and we thank her for all her work for the parish.

There are two planning applications that need to be mentioned. The first is a new application in St Ive for change of use of the Butchers Arms public house to a residential dwelling with Bed and Breakfast facilities and a village shop/post office. Although I can see that getting back our shop/post office would be positive, the survey for the Neighbourhood Plan was very strongly in favour of retaining the pub. The second planning application that the architect and housing association involved presented to the Parish Council, is for a new housing estate to be built on the fields between Amanda Way and the industrial estate on the St Ive road. This not only removes the buffer zone between residential accommodation and the noise and smells of the industrial estate, but is not a small-scale development, as required by the Neighbourhood Plan survey. Your opinions of these developments are welcome. Comments on the Butchers Arms change of use can be added to the Cornwall Council planning website (reference PA15/02306). The housing estate already has the pre-application closed (reference PA14/03812/PREAPP) but existing documentation can be viewed.

On Fore Down some unofficial 15 mph signs have been erected, vandalised and removed. I know this is just outside the parish boundary, but if the person who put them up wants the damaged signs back, please contact the parish office.
 
Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Friday 15 May 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - May 2015)

In the Millennium House Forum Working Group, we've made more progress on transferring the running of Millennium House from the Parish Council to the new charity, Pensilva Community Association. The constitution of the charity has been agreed with the Parish Council, and now it has to be approved by the Charity Commission. I am one of the four founding trustees. There is still a lot of work to be done, getting the paperwork right for the contracts. Joe has done most of the paperwork, including the business plan which has been agreed by the Parish Council.

Sue has moved on, so we are looking for a new Parish Clerk. David Waddington has volunteered to do the work temporarily, but you should see an advert for the permanent job elsewhere in this Pump.
 
Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Tuesday 17 March 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - April 2015)

Down in St Ive, the Community Park Project has been making good progress in getting new play equipment. We have been so successful in raising funds from different events, that with the community support money from the solar farm, we have about £8,000. This together with a grant from the parish recreation ground funds and the landfill tax contributions should multiply up to about £80,000 of equipment. We have met with four different play equipment suppliers, and will shortly be comparing their different designs.

Up in Pensilva there is the proposal for a new estate between Amanda Way and the industrial estate. While this location is not totally unacceptable, it goes against the will of the parish, as expressed in the Neighbourhood Plan survey, for small scale infill development. That piece of land also provides a buffer, between the noise of the industrial estate and the peace and quiet required for residential housing. We need to press on with the Neighbourhood Plan so that it can control future development in the parish. If anyone else would like to help with this plan, please contact me as Chair of the working group.

There is another development of a wind turbine, but this one is just over the parish boundary in Quethiock parish. It will however be not that far away from St Ive church, so is attracting attention from concerned residents.
 
Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - March 2015)

I hope word got around about the roadworks on the lower roads in Pensilva. I put that sort of thing on the St Ive Parish Council website and Facebook page, but not everyone is on the internet.

The St Ive Community Park Project is still holding events and raising loads of cash for new playground equipment. We've met with several suppliers who are quoting for the new equipment.

The Parish Council has agreed a budget for the working group to start setting up the new organisations that will be running Millennium House in the future. A charity in charge, and a company to run the bar. By the time you read this we will have selected the initial charity trustees and applied to the charity commission. We intend to reuse the old name of Pensilva Community Association for the charity and Pensilva Community Bar for the company. So that's PC A and PC B.

The youth club has had to be cut back to just the weekly Flipdance sessions organised by Dean, but we hope to expand again in a couple of months.

Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.

Monday 2 February 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - February 2015)

With special dispensation from the editor, I'm sending this in just after the special Parish Council meeting on 22nd January to set next year's parish council tax.  I'm sure everyone will want to know about this as soon as possible, so thank you Joe for holding space for this.

Rumours that the parish part of our council tax (the precept) was going to double in the next year had been going around the parish, so there was a very large turnout at Millennium House from all over the parish. There were many contributions in public participation, from people who were understandably very concerned at the prospect of a large tax increase.

Since I had been keeping track of the budget on a spreadsheet I explained the situation. There are guidelines as to how much money the parish needs to keep in reserve in case of emergencies. We are supposed to keep between three months to a year of expenditure as reserves. Since the total parish expenditure each year, including Millennium House, is about £250,000, the parish reserves of about £100,000 in the 2010-11 financial year was healthy. Unfortunately, in the following years the losses of Millennium House got worse and worse, eating into the reserves, so that at the end of the current financial year we expect to have reserves of about £38,000, well below the lower guideline of about £55,000.

If the parish carried on with no change, the only way to reverse the decline was to increase the precept from the current £52,000 to £90,000. For a band D house a 73% increase from £72 to £125.

The Millennium House Forum have put forward a proposal to run Millennium House as a charity. I strongly support this as it solves a number of problems. 

Since I live in the St Ive end of the parish I didn't realise how controversial and divisive the building of Millennium House was. Some love it, others refuse to set foot in the place on principle, even 16 years after it was opened. We residents of St Ive don't see why we should pay through the nose for a massive facility we don't use.

The plan for a charity to run Millennium House means that everyone can be satisfied. The people who want Millennium House can be responsible for running it, while those that don't will not have to pay for it. Also the Millennium House expenditure will no longer be on the parish accounts so the reserves can safely be kept at a lower level.

My proposal for this plan to be financed with an increase of the precept from £52,000 to £62,000 was agreed by the parish council. For a band D house a 19% increase from £72 to £86. I promised this was only for one year after which it will reduce back to what it was, and eventually even less.

There was a call for the precept not to go up at all. This would have meant the parish reserves coming down to a level near going broke, with Cornwall Council taking over and Millennium House closing. The Parish Council went with the difficult decision to increase the precept in order to at least give the people who want it to work a chance. 


I will work to help Millennium House Forum set the new system up, but it's going to be up to the people of Pensilva to prove we were right to give that extra £14 over the next year.  If you are one of the people who like having a large and expensive community centre in Pensilva please help. As they say, use it or loose it.

Thursday 15 January 2015

The Latest from Your Parish Councillor - Martin Corney (Parish Pump - January 2015)

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and we all have a happy new year. 

Parish councillors Roger Bennison and Keith Mutton have both resigned from the Parish Council. Roger in particular has been on the council for many years and has made many valuable contributions to the parish. Most recently organising the solar panels on Millennium House which will be a great asset. Keith is still on the Neighbourhood Development Plan working group as a parish resident.

The Millennium House Forum have presented their plans to the Parish Council and there is now a joint working group to put these plans into action. Last financial year Millennium House cost the parish more money than the complete precept (the parish part of your council tax). Something has got to change since the parish reserves are nearly exhausted. The next precept will have to increase substantially until Millennium House costs us all a lot less money or breaks even. Which it hasn't done in any of the recent years that I've seen accounts for.

On evenings when the youth club doesn’t run an event, the youth still hang around Millennium House. This is causing a problem for Millennium House staff who want them to go home, and ask why their parents aren’t supervising them. I think that the best solution is to run the youth club every evening. Well I would say that wouldn’t I. The youth club is still trying to rent the CafĂ© full time.

St Ive Community Park Project is still raising money with events like table top sales, and the Christmas Carol Concerts.


Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.