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

Well, most of you will probably have heard that the Parish Council has decided to put up the precept from £62,000 to £64,770. This wasn't what I wanted, but only two of us voted against it. I said that a whole hearted commitment to passing control of the loss making Millennium House community centre over to PCA (Pensilva Community Association) would allow us to reduce the precept to £60,000, while continuing as normal meant that we would need to increase the precept to £80,000. This was based on the budget produced by the RFO (Responsible Finance Officer). The Parish Council have chosen to follow the budget produced by the Finance and Administration Committee for running Millennium House the same as before. I hope that the next financial year works out OK. It seems that we now have to make the PCA plan work if the parish is not to eat dangerously into the reserves.

I'm very glad that the issue of bus stops and bus shelters in St Ive village has been raised. Although Pensilva had several new bus shelters added by Cornwall Council last year, St Ive only has one old shelter at Keason. The places where the bus stops through St Ive need clarifying and rationalising. It isn't safe for buses going West to stop opposite the Keason bus shelter, the stop in St Ive Parkfield is possibly not official, and the stop at the Butchers Arms may not be actually in the lay-by with the phone box.

The Butchers Arms Preservation Society have been in touch about the decision by Cornwall Council to declare a very strange part of the Butchers Arms site as an Asset of Community Value. They have divided the whole site into four and declared that only the building and part of the car park count. This apparently perverse decision is being questioned with Cornwall Council. 

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 - 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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.