The long awaited Stithians Parish Resource Centre for which the Parish Council have collaborated closely with the Village Hall Management Committee to secure, and have in part funded, is gradually getting closer and closer to completion despite delays caused by the very wet weather during July and August.

Once the build phase is complete, new activities and facilities will come on stream. The Pre School will have space dedicated to its use and so will be able to offer afternoon sessions as well as ‘wrap around’ child care in the form of a breakfast club as they have already started, homework club and holiday club if there is sufficient support.

Plans are in hand to make formal and informal training and learning opportunities available at the Resource Centre which are presently only available by travelling to Camborne, Helston or elsewhere.

Cornwall College has provided some literature outlining the range of courses which they offer which will be delivered to every household in the Parish with this edition of Spotlight. The range of courses includes formal education, which leads to a formal qualification such as GCSE and informal education where no formal qualification is granted, but skills and knowledge are learned.

ADULT EDUCATION

Cornwall Adult Education have also been consulted and provide some further promotional material which will be circulated with this edition of Spotlight. Some of the courses offered by Adult Education are for pure pleasure, some to get fit and keep fit and some lead to qualifications.

Most courses need a minimum of between eight and ten people to register for them to make the course viable to run. Some courses can be run on distance learning approaches making this condition less strict.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS

The Resource Centre will be equipped with computers linked to the internet which can be used for educational and learning purposes (including learning how to use computers and the internet) as well as for social, domestic and pleasure uses.

NEXT STEP

Next Step is a programme delivered in Cornwall by ‘Connexions’ to assist people over 20 years of age to provide Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) on how to learn something new, update your CV, improve basic skills, undertake voluntary work or start a business. They can assist with grants for learning and training, child care services and other questions relating to learning and work. They have also provided some promotional materials which are included with this edition of Spotlight.

A free combined promotional evening is being planned to be held at the Resource Centre by Cornwall College, Adult Education and Next Step to further promote the opportunities which these organisations are willing to make available to Stithians Parish. Meet representatives of these organisations and discuss your information, advice and formal or non formal learning needs with them.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE

The survey which was conducted in 2003 of the facilities which people in Stithians wanted showed a static library, in addition to the existing mobile visits every fortnight, as the highest priority.

Cornwall County Council has agreed to provide books to this community run facility and to enable the rotation of the stock of the library. The Village Hall Management Committee is seeking the voluntary services of someone to organise manning of the library. CCC will provide training on library procedures, including the issue, management and rotation of the stock. What is needed is someone to organise people to open the library at agreed times to meet the demand of borrowers. It has been suggested that user groups of the Hall and Resource Centre might like to nominate one of their group (for instance the WI, Luncheon Club or which ever group) to operate the library during, before or after their regular events to provide service to their members. Anyone (it may even be more than one person) interested in taking on this function is asked to contact the Chairman of the Village Hall Management Committee, Margaret Ramsey on 01209 861361, the Clerk, or any Parish Councillor. The Parish Council has three representatives on the Village Hall Management Committee: Cllrs Cath Cullen, Neil Potter and John Wimpenny.

DOGS AND PUBLIC PLACES

Dogs and their owners are welcome to use Public Rights of Way, footpaths, bridleways and byways, and most open spaces in Stithians Parish. You may bring your dog into the New Playing Field to use the footpath which crosses that field but may NOT bring your dog into the Old Playing Field.

You are asked to clear up after your dog and to either take the waste home with you for disposal or place it in one of the ‘litter’ or ‘dog waste’ bins provided.

Dogs must be kept under your control at all times, preferably on a lead.

A byelaw applies across Kerrier District which enables fines of up to £1,000 to be imposed on people whose dogs breach the byelaw.

There have been incidents in recent months where the Playing Field Caretaker, Members of the Public and Councillors have been verbally abused by dog owners who they have politely asked to control or clear up after their dogs in the interests of the amenity available to the public. This is hardly just reward for a public spirited action!

Thank you for your consideration of other users of the public facilities.

PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY

Work has been budgeted for to improve the surface of Mill Lane but has yet to happen due to difficulties in obtaining suitable materials for the purpose. The struggle continues!

Tory Bridleway has become very muddy, making it difficult for pedestrians to use, which the County Council has been asked to attend to; hopefully they might have done it by the time this Spotlight is printed.

The County Council has stated that the Definitive Map for Kerrier is scheduled to be reviewed in 2008. This was promised in 1968 and in 1986 and at various times in between; hopefully this time it will happen and the many anomalies addressed so as to bring the map and reality on the ground into congruence with one another.

Footpath 1, where it crosses the New Playing Field is to be rerouted to enable the Bowling Green to expand into the New Playing Field. Kerrier had hoped that this would be done by December 2007. It is not now likely to be done until next year.

Stithians Parish Council, in common with many other Parish and Town Councils, continues to resist the scheme which County Council is forcing onto the footpaths system of concentrating resources on half the network which County has more or less arbitrarily categorised as most used and largely abandoning the other half of the network.

Persuading County that improving the lesser used routes so that they can take more of the strain and increase capacity seems hard going. Consultations are not rare, listening to the results and acting upon them, more so, especially in this matter.

PLAYING FIELDS

Work continues to maintain and improve the Playing Fields. Apart from the regular maintenance issues of cutting the grass and hedges, mostly done by Stithians farmer Peter Williams, litter picking and repairing and keeping up the equipment, mostly done by the caretaker Tyrone Martin, the safety surfaces have been improved and extended where needed and the big slide has had some repairs done to it.

The roundabout has been brought back into service. The surface under the platform has been coated with safety material and the lateral movement of the platform controlled to make it safer. Longdowns Blacksmith Kevin Gerry did some engineering bits, Peter Williams provided lift with his fore end loader, John Bell assisted with skills and advice and repainted it once it was reassembled, and the Clerk also turned up to assist. Hopefully this will give this somewhat old fashioned bit of playground equipment a further lease to its already long life.

The new rugby pitch has been aerated again at Parish Council expense to improve the growth of the grass before the onslaught of the playing season.

BUS TIMETABLE AND SERVICE

The Stithians Parish Council representative on the Rural Transport Partnership Rod Davis has produced an updated version of the Truronian Bus Timetable which forms the last page of this Spotlight for parishioners to ‘cut out and keep’ for reference.

If this is considered a useful service (please let Parish Council know) it will be repeated. Thanks to Rod Davis for this and his continuing efforts to improve the bus service to Stithians.

A direct bus service to Redruth is high on his list now so that people can get to Redruth and back without having to change in Four Lanes. A brief sojourn in Four Lanes can be pleasant but having to make a connection takes time and adds an extra risk that the connection might not turn up for some unforeseen reason.

SPOTLIGHT ON STITHIANS

Readers will notice that Spotlight does not carry any sponsorship notice at the end this time. The company who have sponsored Spotlight for some years have called it a day. Their support over several years was appreciated and they are duly thanked for it.

The Parish Council posted notices seeking alternative sponsorship but none has come forward. In consequence the costs of producing the newsletter now fall directly onto the council budget. If someone knows a likely sponsor please ask them to contact the Clerk.

The good news is that by going commercial for the production it is possible to add colour to make Spotlight more attractive than it already is. Do you like this innovation?

HIGHWAYS

The County Council, as Highways Authority, has done some maintenance on parts of the roads in Stithians. A BT manhole was replaced at the top of Tresevern Hill, some Fire Hydrant covers have been replaced and some potholes, mostly along South Road, have been filled in. More remains to be done so the Parish Council keeps reminding them of the various issues and they get done slowly. The drop off the road at Tregolls where the farm road from the

new Tretheague shed has been repaired by the landowner. CCC have said that they will tarmac this edge to make it more durable.

Parishioners will, by the time this is published, have seen that the road has been closed for a while at Trembroath. This is to enable CCC to investigate Trembroath and Trewithen bridges to ascertain if they need strengthening.

The Parish Council has been consulted on this matter and has made it clear that if strengthening is necessary then strengthening means strengthening and not one of several variations on wholesale destruction and replacement which have been observed on bridges around the Parish in recent years.

The matter of the weight restriction on Kennall Bridge with so many exemptions as to make it meaningless remains to be resolved.

Tretheague bridge, serving a couple of farms, is scheduled for strengthening to 40 tonne loading and the Parish Council has been unable to get County Council to divulge the basis upon which they have reached this conclusion.

The verge outside the telephone exchange on Foundry Hill is gradually joining the other verges in the Parish in terms of neatness as Ray Helmer gets it under control.

Councillor Plummer, our County and District Councillor, vouchsafed at the September 2007 PC meeting that he is developing a traffic management scheme for Church Road with County Highways and will advise what it is when it is ready. He has agreed to seek two disabled parking spaces outside the disabled access ramp to the Village Hall, which will also serve the School.

Work to the river bank/road interface at Trewithen is scheduled to be done in October/November according to the Area Surveyor in mid September, to stop the river eating away at the road.

As and when street signs need replacing by Kerrier DC the new ones are being further embellished by addition of the street name in Cornish to bring a little local culture to the notice of the public.

ENVIRONMENT

Several complaints were received from Parishioners in relation to the Volkswagen Jamboree held at the Showground over the August Bank Holiday weekend. It was excessively noisy, being audible at Collins Parc, Stithians Dam and even Polkanuggo, brightly lit and carried on until the early hours of the morning. The Parish Council has written to the Agricultural Association asking them to take this up with the people to whom they leased part of the showground for this event and to refer to the conditions attached to the Premises Licence with which they were issued before the first such event.

The Police were asked to speak with some users of the bus shelter at the junction of New Road and Crellow Lane after which request the area is less noisy in the evenings, for which, thanks.

One of the windows at the toilets in Church Road was broken for a second time in a few months, clearly maliciously with a large rock which meant the wire reinforced glass had to be replaced again.

The barrier behind the toilets put there to stop people riding bicycles and skateboards round and round some years ago has been repaired.

Coastline Housing have been asked again and again to repair the hedge between Collins Parc and Crellow Hill. Most recently they said they could see nothing wrong because of the growth on the hedge. They were reminded that it is their duty to trim the hedges as well.

The condition of the New Churchyard has improved under the care of Tyrone Martin who now holds the maintenance contract.

The Parish Council continues to make its views known to the County Council on the plans for waste disposal. For those interested in this issue, a report was produced and published on the Parish Council web site (copies can be obtained form the Clerk) laying out an alternative approach which CCC had clearly not thought of when it was discussed with the Deputy Leader and one of his officers.

A resolution was unanimously passed at the July meeting exhorting the County Council to retain 24 hour fire cover at Falmouth and Camborne and to use some of the £17 million a year savings which they claim a unitary authority will yield to pay for it if needs be. Being on the periphery of the areas covered by Camborne and Falmouth stations any delay could be critical to incidents in Stithians.

For the record, the Parish Council voted unanimously not to support the proposal to convert the Chip Shop at Gribbas Corner into a dwelling on the basis that this would mean loss of a significant amenity to the village. Whether Kerrier District Council will be of the same mind remains to be seen.

Cllr Anton Barkhuysen was co-opted onto the Parish Council at its July meeting.

Three additional seats remain to be filled on the Council.

Residents who are interested in fostering the well being of the Parish for the public good are encouraged to apply to the Clerk stating the particular skills and experience which they can bring to the Council.

The Governing Body of Stithians CP School has vacancies for one parent governor and three other governors, for which most people are eligible from within the community or further afield. The function of Governors is to assist Mrs Northern, her staff and families in a voluntary capacity. If you know anyone who is interested can they please contact Mrs Northern, the Head Teacher at Stithians School or the Chair of Governors, Cath Cullen on 01209 861424, or e mail rosscathetc@hotmail.com. More general information is available at www.governornet.co.uk

The Parish Council has actively participated in several consultations on the proposed reorganisation of local government in Cornwall to have a single unitary authority. While in favour of a two tier structure (the County and Parishes) Stithians Parish Council has been at pains to try and ensure that if functions are devolved to Parishes, the necessary resources come with the functions. Fears have been expressed elsewhere that functions could be devolved to Parishes who would then have to increase the Council Tax precept to pay for running them.

The potential for Community Networks to be set up becoming a de facto third tier of Local Government is being resisted.

Other than the possible devolution of some functions, which CCC say will only be done on a willing Parish Council basis, this should, hopefully, mean little change for the Parish Council.

As before, the Parish Council will run a Christmas Lights Competition this year. The prizes will depend on how many prizes the Members give as they have done in previous years, from their own pockets. A judging team will be agreed at the December meeting and then make the rounds and award the prizes. An effort is made not to award a prize to the same location two years running.

Cllr John Wimpenny
Public Relations Officer
Stithians Parish Council