Business attitudes towards Golowan and Mazey day, my survey

Following a number of comments on my blog and twitter about Golowan and it's effect on the town, it's funding and the effect on business, I thought I would investigate some of these claims for myself. I spoke to 20 business in Penzance East and asked them some questions about Golowan. Politicians of all varieties,

spend a great deal of time justifying their views, opinions and policies on what people think, or more precisely what they say people think. Phrases like 'the majority of people in my constituency', 'the people of...', 'people I speak to', 'ordinary decent people' and the like abound. In truth without talking to thousands of people, which in itself would be a full time job, we can't for certain say one thing or another. It became clear to me that the comments about Golowan were originating from a small number of sources. Myself my opinions were formed from what I knew or what I thought I knew, so in effect I was just as bad. All parties were guilty of making assumptions without proper research. I neither have the time or energy to speak to thousands of people so I spent a few mornings talking to a random selection of shops and traders on Causeway Head and Bread Street*, to try to get a better idea of what traders think.

About the questions:

To make things simple I thought I'd only ask 4 questions, to not unduly take up people's time and to make the results easier to understand. In hindsight, all 4 of the questions required 1 of 3 answers: yes, no and don't know/ not sure/ on the fence, this was a mistake. Only fundamentalists live in a world of black and white, there is lots of grey areas and perhaps my questions and received answers, could better reflect this.

I choose not to sugarcoat the questions, I wanted to know what businesses (managers, owners and shopkeepers) thought without any preconceptions about things. So for example the estimates for the millions brought into Penzance, I did not prompt people with. I gave the figure of the town council contribution to Golowan as it was in the question, I could have explained it costs the average Penzance ratepayer slightly more than the cost of a pint of beer a year, but I didn't. I tried to ask the questions without tainting the answers with my own preconceived ideas about the wonderful benefits (; of Golowan, although after the questions I wasn't shy about what I thought.

The first question was: "Do you like Golowan and Mazey Day?" I wanted to get a sense of attitudes toward the festival separately to figures and spending and see if there was a correlation between attitude and effect on business. I think some took the question as does your business like it and others as do you like it personally.

The second question was "Is Golowan/ Mazey Day good for your business?" Most seemed to take this question as referring to Mazey Day. This question provoked some definite yes and definite no answers, but also some grey area answers. Many of the yeses were very positive about it, recording record takings and explaining that Mazey Day the best day of the year.  5 respondents of the 11 nos (25%) explained that Mazey Day was a washout but either Golowan saw an increase in trade, or that customers choose to shop on days other than Mazey Day, so was far from bad for takings. We could easily move those 25% into the yes column or the don't know column. So the blanket yes or no question doesn't quite accurately cover it. All respondents bar one considered Mazey Day good for the town and welcomed events that brought people into Penzance. I didn't find any traders that don't open for Mazey Day, 2 were considering closing next year and 2 I didn't speak to, don't open for the day.

(A special mention to Kool Kutz the hair and beauty place on Bread Street, who knowing Mazey Day would not be great for business choose instead to bake cakes and sell them to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care, well done.)

The next question: "Penzance Town Council contributes about 5% of the budget; £26,120 per year to Golowan is this a good spend?" Again there were some definite opinions for and against, as with any public spending. Some questioned why it cost so much, 2 were unsure without knowing (all the don't knows), one thought it was a complete waste. 2 thought it was great and would be happy to spend more on it. The majority view was that it was good for the town, the school kids loved it and it was good to see people brought into the town, thus positive.

The last question was: "If the town council stopped contributing would you pay in?" This was by far provoked the most interesting responses for me. By far the majority view was that costs are high enough for traders as it is, a most definite no! 3 respondents explained that they would contribute something, all keen to explain not a large amount, it's worth mentioning that none of them do well at all on Mazey Day but would put in for the good of the town and businesses other than there own. The don't know/ not sures were all when I spoke to a member of staff, rather than the owner/ manager (2 instances) and the rest a chain store who didn't have the power to make that decision alone.

There are limits to this research it is by no means a comprehensive survey of town center businesses let alone all kinds of business. It was focused primarily on Bread Street and Causeway Head, missing out Chapel street, Market Jew street and Alverton street. However, I am confident that there is a majority answer to all of the questions and that I did speak to a sufficient variety of town center businesses to get a good feel for attitudes toward Golowan. I am confident that there is a positive attitude toward Golowan generally and in terms of business and that businesses are happy that the town council invests in it. 

*The full list of business surveyed is, many thanks to them for the time in speaking to me:

Mount's Bay Wine Company, Kool Kutz, Meeks Soft Furnishings, Exchange and Mart, Lou's Shoes, London Inn, Cancer Research, Rowe's Bakers, Thomson's Travel Agents, Blue Fur Ball, Mimi's Boutique, Spiegelhalter's Jewellers, Woot's News, Causeway Head Furnishings, Fur, Feather & Flowers, Jim's Cash & Carry, Supercards, St Justin, Malins pet foods,

Rubbish on the streets! and why we need our own waste center and why refuse collectors need to pick up rubbish

So my first blog on what people are telling me on the Penzance East doorstep is that people are concerned about rubbish and litter. A number have commented that the streets only seem to be cleaned when the tourist season is on it's way. They question why the powers that be only take pride in our town for some of the year. The problem is threefold, general litter being dropped by passers by, rubbish collections resulting in rubbish left on the street and fly tipping of waste. My solution to this is threefold.

Firstly we need refuse collectors to be better at cleaning up after themselves. Since the contract was taken over by Cory, there seems to be more rubbish left on the streets after they've been. Quite why, I don't know, they use the same kind of lorries and we all have the same wheelie bins we've had for years, yet this didn't happen under the old contractors. We need to find out why and councilors need to hold Cory to account on this, something I would do if elected. Although I think we do need the street cleaning teams to come here more often, I think it would be much more efficient if the weekly bin collection left our streets with less rubbish then when they came.  I would also question why Cory employees are being pushed harder and harder by their employers, why Cornwall Council wants to contract companies using such practices.

Secondly we need to have more bins, they're seems to be an abundance of them in the town and on the housing estates (something I would seek to protect), but on the old streets of the town none. On my street people often put rubbish in the wheelie bins, I don't mind this and personally I'd rather people cleaned up after their dogs but the waft when you open it on a hot day, not so keen on tbh. Something that the town center needs and all of the streets need is on street recycling. The amount of cans, paper, card and plastic sent to landfill this way is woeful. Recycling saves the planet a worthy enough cause but it also raises money by reselling those materials and lessens landfill taxes. Common sense is needed.

Thirdly Penzance is a fairly big town for Cornwall, add in West Penwith and there's a lot of people that have a lot of rubbish and recycling. At the moment things that can't be put in household waste and recycling (or should that be things that shouldn't be) need to be taken to St Erth to be disposed of. As someone who recently got rid of a lot of old and knackered furniture, I know it's not far but 6 odd miles 3 times there and back costs money I frankly don't have on fuel. I've never fly tipped in my life, but I can see why people do. I can see why people chop up Christmas trees and stuff them in with their rubbish or chuck old tvs and microwaves over hedges. Let's not forget not everyone drives in Penzance and I can't imagine many people take their recycling on the train to St Erth to be disposed of properly. What we need in Penzance is a waste and recycling center, so people don't have to drive up to St Erth. At the moment the old Penwith offices at St Clare are being sold off to property developers. We could easily make it a stipulation of that sale that a recycling and waste center be set up on the site and paid for by the developers. So people in Penzance can be encouraged to not fly tip nor put recyclable and hazardous materials in with their household rubbish. Hopefully we can save people like me in the division some fuel when we want to recycle and properly dispose of our waste.

Thoughts from the Penzance doorstep, what people want to see changed

After spending the last couple of weeks speaking to people on the doorstep, I though I'd highlight what people are talking about and what they think Cornwall Council and Penzance Town Council can do to make things better for the people like them. I live in the division and I spend a lot of time in it, my kids go school here, I have friends here, even my dentist is within 2 minutes walk from my house. Anyone that knows me, will know I'm a friendly guy and I like nothing more than a good chat and I have time to talk to anyone. I had this notion that I really understood the people of Penzance East, that I know people here and have a good grasp of what politics ought to be offering people. I was pleasantly surprised that I don't have all the answers, my leaflet does not cover all the issues people care about. Something I've learnt over and over again in life is that you learn more when you listen then when you talk.

One of the things I have always thought about politics is that, politicians are out of touch. As the Mebyon Kernow manifesto seeks to address there is a lack of faith by people in politics and indeed in politicians. As

Cliched Cornish electoral hopeful eating a pasty pic

my late Grandmother used to say 'They don't know and they won't be told'. Politics is all about messages these days, politicians are obsessed with it, how many times have you heard cliched phrases like "the message we're sending to the electorate...", "the government is sending a clear message...". I'm not saying I'm not guilty of this, I could preface this blog with the words: "the message I'm sending to the people of Penzance East is that Rob Simmons is listening to your concerns." (Now isn't that a cliched leaflet-worthy phrase!) Anyway irony aside, my point is that politics at the moment is about messages, it's about explaining to the electorate why your ideas are better than your rivals. But this isn't the way it should be, politicians are and ought to be servants of the people, paid by them and working for them. If I hire, say a plumber to do work in my house, I'd expect them to listen to me, if they didn't I'd probably find another one. This is what politicians forget. I will continue to listen to people on the doorstep in this election campaign and the problems they face and I'll write about them in a series of blog posts.

However, there are a number of concerns I couldn't address if elected as a councilor, some because they have already happened and others are well outside the power and influence of the position. Here's some of the highlights, ones I most agree with, as I remember them not direct quotes:

"That Duke of Cornwall makes a fortune from us, he ought be paying to subsidise the Isles of Scilly link."

"They never should have filled in the harbour and made a car park."

"What on earth does Penzance want with another out of town supermarket." (Sainsburys)

"What do these people know about roads? Why do they think we need more roundabouts on the A30." (again Sainsburys, not found 1 person that wants it yet)

"Penzance never should have turned away the university."

"Why am I being penalised by bedroom tax, when there's no smaller properties to move into."

"Penzance doesn't need Cameron to come here and tell us what to do to help the economy, he's making enough of a mess up the line."

"If you're a Tory, I don't want to know. Or if you're a Lib Dem."

"Are you really the candidate? but you're so young." (still smile about that one, I'm 32! yay)