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Spotlight on
Stithians
November 2007
TRAINING AND EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES TO BE
AVAILABLE AT STITHIANS PARISH RESOURCE CENTRE
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.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL TRAINING
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.
FREE PROMOTIONAL EVENING
10th January 2008
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.
Thanks
also to Tim and Karen Batten for giving the bus shelter its
next scheduled coat of lime wash to keep it looking smart.
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.
PLANNING
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.
VACANCIES ON PARISH COUNCIL
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.
GOVERNORS SOUGHT FOR STITHIANS SCHOOL
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
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
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.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS COMPETITION
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
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