Golowan no longer a community festival after a Penzance Town Council meeting behind closed doors

With some of us still pondering our way through the Penzance 400 report and trying to discover what to read between the lines, we all have a fresh cause for consternation, another festival involving Penzance Town Council; Golowan. Now I will be clear at the beginning that this was discussed in private session by councillors, that I am hamstrung to say much more on the subject.

I can however talk around it, a motion was brought before the town council on monday 21st September after the press and public had been excluded from the meeting. The public face of it is these words, as taken from the public agenda: "(b) Future Management of the Golowan Festival 2016 (see attached)". The attachment is of course private. I can confirm that this was the first and only time this matter was considered by the town council, since I was elected. I like other members had only 3 days from receiving the agenda to consider the item. Obviously due to the fact that it was considered private, councillors had no opportunity to speak to people involved and consider the arguments from those on the ground nor have a chance to canvass the opinion of the people that voted us into office. 

The last full council meeting, was a packed agenda and the usual rule for a 3 hour meeting maximum had to be suspended for the last items to be considered. As you can see for yourselves from the agenda it had 18 reports for decision that doesn't even include minutes or reports for information, including a future home for the town council, a proposal to reduce the number of town councillors, devolution priorities year on year for the next few years, CCTV, Morrab Gardens, Isles of Scilly parking, Poltair hospital and so the list goes on. Matters vital to the future of the council and the town itself, incurring budgets of millions and affecting a huge swathe of public services. As there was such a great rush, members were written to and asked to read papers carefully to facilitate less questions and more speedy voting at the meeting. It is in this context that we have to realise that the Golowan decision was made at the end of a very very long meeting with a packed agenda. 

Add to this the abject lack of consultation by the council itself to members of the public, interested parties and even councillors themselves. Is it any wonder that we now have an open letter signed by over 300 people, calling on the council to rescind that hastily made decision?  

Here's a link to the open letter which provides some insight to what the decision was: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6TN2L9M

For what it's worth, I do not agree that the motion should have been discussed in this manner. The future of a such a pivotal community festival is most definitely a matter of public interest and not to be packaged up with sensitive matter and hidden behind the veil of commercial sensitivity. Or in other words the decision to put Golowan out to commercial management, should be a matter of public debate, careful consideration and have been put before councillors as a simple question in the interests of openness and transparency. In the current climate this would seem to radical!

The alternative to the austerity consensus of the Westminster parties

There's a brilliant piece in the Guardian featuring Paul Krugman, attacking the Tories and Labour on their post election austerity budgets. How the distance in economics is so close between the two "major" parties. To quote from the article :

"Cameron is campaigning largely on a spurious claim to have ‘rescued’ the British economy – and promising, if he stays in power, to continue making substantial cuts in the years ahead.

“Labour, sad to say, are echoing that position. So both major parties are in effect promising a new round of austerity that might well hold back a recovery..."

It's a sad thing in a democracy that major issues like this aren't dominant in political debate. How we spend money, what the state chooses to spend and how it spends it. It is not this issue alone this is being ignored look at privatisation, Trident, foreign policy, the royal family, the House of Lords, Europe, tax dodging. When was the last time a politician brought up these subjects to debate, to offer choice to explain advantages and disadvantages? The answer sadly is democracy is too rare in this regard.

As for austerity itself, we must bear in mind like Trident and so much else. Labour, Tory and Lib Dems agree on the matter and share values in common. They may well want a cheaper system or a bigger  system, but they agree on the desire for a system.

The truth is post the election we will get more cuts if one of the three big parties Tory, Lab & LD,  takes power alone or in coalition with another.

On the ground the scale of the austerity drive will be fearsome.

The omens are not looking good, councils are cash strapped being at the sharp end of the Coalition’s austerity drive, but there not out of the woods yet, whether a Tory government alone or with Clegg's Liberals again or UKIP, or a Labour government propped up by someone else and/ or the Lib Dems. Whichever will bring more cuts.

I checked the Party manifestos of Labour, Lib Dem and Tory. None mentioned local government finance and what money's go out of the general taxation pot and out to communities... none also mentioned the referendum cap which is effectively, a public service cuts guarantee.

Things have been bad in Cornwall the public face off it is libraries on reduced hours and public toilets closing. Behind the scenes it's not enough money for social and care workers. Less and less road safety inspections. Less school repairs and maintenance than ever before. If we continue on this austerity trajectory all this problems will become much worse.

This election is more open than any before it. People have their ears open, a record number have political support and alliegence to parties outside of Labour, Tory and Lib Dems. You have to wonder if there was more choice in the established parties, if the crucial things the things that matter were actually discussed by those parties in a public manner? That policy might heaven forbid, flow from public to public servant. Rather than dictated in a speech!

The big 3 don't want to make this election about austerity they have fixed in their minds that more public services will be cut and yet more privatised. If you think this is wrong then you need to use your vote wisely against this continued austerity agenda.

Neighbourhood Plan: Your chance to have a say on the future of Penzance

After a lot of planning and preparations the Neighbourhood Plan will publicly launch this weekend

 in Penzance town centre. It is your chance to have your say on the future development of the Penzance area. For decades it has always been the way that a select few would decide what was built, where and under what design. A Neighbourhood Plan turns this all on it's head and puts people in charge and makes planning officers, politicians and developers have to listen to people.

The process will take a long time, it will be a thorough consultation, ending in a referendum of all the residents of Penzance parish (i.e. Eastern Green, Gulval, Heamoor, Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole and Paul). To find out more there will be a pop up shop opening in the town centre this saturday, in the old travel agents on Market Jew Street near the Humphry Davy statue. opening hours will be saturday's 11 am - 3 pm, thursdays 4 pm- 7pm, fridays 11am- 3pm.

As one of the town council's representatives on the board, I'm very pleased with the work done so far. I'm delighted that the pop up shop will be an interactive exhibition, it's there to get people' opinions, whether that's on particular sites or a blank canvas. If you've ever wanted a greater say on Penzance and it's future development now is your opportunity.

Councilor surgeries in Penzance, are you interested?

I managed to get on the agenda for tomorrow's General Purposes a motion about holding public surgeries. It's something I've heard lots of councilors talking about, but not any action on. One of the many things I've found with being a councilor is that the desire to change something and the opportunity to do so, don't always correspond.

I think it's important that councilors make efforts to engage with the public. To make people aware of what they do, and can do as a council, and for the public to express their ideas about council business.  Crucially what people think should be happening.  Unfortunately for local authorities the general malaise with politics stemming from scandals such as MPs expenses reflect on councilors too. Other events like the creation of unitary and the distant authority of Cornwall Council. Lead to a dissatisfaction,  but Penzance Town Council shouldn't shy away from our community because of others faults. Public events before the election led to a good deal of interest in the council, which is encouraging.

So on tomorrow's agenda is a discussion about holding public consultation events.  This is an early stage of the process, there will be a vote tomorrow,  a suitable venue has to be found and other details have to be ironed out. Hopefully people will be interested in these events and bring forward their ideas for the town,
problems with current services and get to know their representatives better.

Fair funding for Cornwall, an insight into Cornish democracy?

On the 27th of July 2010, at a full meeting of Cornwall Council Mebyon Kernow councillors Dick Cole and Stuart Cullimore, proposed and seconded respectively a motion for fairer funding of Cornwall. The vote was passed and so accepted by the council, quoting from the minutes on http://democracy.cornwall.gov.uk/ (Agenda no 15.2 pages 19/20)

RESOLVED that Cornwall Council : 

(a) Notes that hospitals, schools and vital public  services in Cornwall 

receive less funding than other parts of the United Kingdom; 

(b) Notes that public sector cuts will have an especially adverse impact on 

Cornwall, if we continue to receive less than our fair share of government 

expenditure in the first instance; 

(c) Writes to the new Coalition Government to seek  a Commission to 

investigate the full extent of the underfunding of Cornwall, similar to the 

recent Holtham Commission in Wales; 

(d) Agrees to produce a briefing document, outlining our broad concerns 

about the underfunding of Cornwall, which can also  be forwarded to 

central government; and 

(e) Notes the action of the 6 Cornish MPs resulting in Andrew George MP’s 

adjournment debate, and agrees to support our MPs in lobbying for fairer 

funding for Cornwall in support of (i) the 2011/2012 financial settlement; 

and (ii) the revision of Local Government finance, recently announced by 

the Coalition Government.

It should be noted that the Conservative leader of the council Alec Robertson, sought to remove reference to the commission, as the minutes explain:

Part (e) of the recommendation was an addition to the original 

motion in recognition of the Leader’s suggestion that it replace part (c).  

However, it was considered it should be an additional element 

of the motion to further strengthen its intent; 

So it occurred to me a while back that no information had been forthcoming about this motion, so it got me to wondering what had Cornwall Council actually done over the last year about this? were they busy organising a commission with the coalition government? Might we expect fair funding of our services in Cornwall? So I thought I would fire off a Freedom of Information request to Cornwall Council, I worded it as such:

Rob Simmons

22 August 2011

Dear Cornwall Council,


On the 27th July 2010 Cornish councillors voted for the council to
both lobby central government and write to them requesting a
commission to investigate the issue of fair funding for Cornwall
and specifically how much Cornish public services were underfunded.
Could you please provide all correspondence, file records,
telephone notes and any communication sent/ received from Cornwall
Council with relevant government departments, from the 17th June
last year to the present day (todays date 22/08/2011)in relation to
fair funding and the proposed commission.


Yours faithfully,


Robert Simmons

I have had an answer the sum amount of correspondence forwarded to me by Cornwall Council is two letters, one dated the 6th of October 2010 14th of January 2011, the former addressed to the Secretary of State and the latter to Eric Pickles. It must be stated at this point that Cornwall Council have a terrible habit of replying wrongly to FOI requests, so this might not be the total correspondence between Cornwall Council and relevant departments. Both letters are very instructive into the situation Cornwall Council faces and some of the problems of our geography and status as a unitary authority. What does stick out is they make no reference to the motion passed by a majority of Cornwall councillors on the 27th of June last year. The words fair funding are not mentioned once (and surprise surprise?) the commission proposed by Mebyon Kernow and voted for by councillors from every party against the wishes of Cornwall Council leadership  not mentioned once. Also too there is no replies from central government.


I have updated the request to ascertain whether the Council has indeed lobbied the government on this issue and requested a commission to investigate Cornish funding from central government. Any replies that are forthcoming I will blog about. Please feel free to chip in any comments on this subject, especially if you know whether it is legal for the council to democratically adopt policy and then not act on it.... 


The full FOI request is available here, including the replies and the letters sent to govt attached to the CC reply: correspondence on fair funding.