CORNWALL COUNTY COUNCILS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE MR KEVIN LAVERY WHO IS SHOWING GREAT PROMISE IN HIS COMPLEX ROLE AS THE MAN CHARGED WITH MAKING THE UNITARY AUTHORITY A REALITY ON THE 1ST OF APRIL.

Yesterdays headline in the Western Morning News was to say the least groundbreaking, after a quiet start our County Councils new chief executive Kevin Lavery appears to be getting into his stride.It is reported that councillors were summoned to an extraordinary meeting during which he laid out a series of damning reports and issues which have “tarnished the image” of the Council.

Mr Lavery revealed that the new unitary authority, to be introduced on April 1st was in danger of Government intervention. County and district councilors looked on in surprise as Mr Lavery made his presentation with the soft rock song “Why does it always rain on me” as a backing track.                

I never went along with the hue and cry over his level of renumeration feeling instead that he might just be value for money if he could rehabilitate our shambolic County Council in the run up to unitary status. This gut feeling was reinforced by his quiet air of confidence when he was interviewed by Radio Cornwall, when given the short but disastrous tenure of his predecessor things could, in reality, only get better.

The chief executive warned councillors before the presentation: “There are going to be frank views on the table, we need to face up to challenges in an honest way”.

After the briefing councillor David Whalley the leader of the majority Lib Dem group claimed his party “was not to blame for the current situation” but the inescapable fact is that the potentially catastrophic situation has arisen on councillor Whalley’s watch and has hitherto been covered up. Councillor Whalley is quoted as saying “WHAT KEVIN LAVERY HAS DONE IS HIGHLIGHT WHAT WE HAVE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME” in that case why in the heavens has councillor Whalley pointedly ignored taxpayers concerns in relation to these issues over an extended period?

Hopefully in the wake of this refreshingly frank expose of the present administrations inherent weaknesses Mr Lavery can get on with the herculean task of turning the Council around. It is highly encouraging that the independent group of councillors appear to endorse Mr Lavery’s plan of action. Perhaps finally, even at this late hour, there may at last be some real consensus over what needs to be done to make Cornwall the centre of excellence many of us have always known it could be.

MR LAVERY DESERVES CONGRATULATIONS FOR BEING FRANK, WHILST COUNCILLOR WHALLEY CAN AT LEAST BE CREDITED WITH BEING INVOLVED IN THE SELECTION OF A PERSON WHO NOW SHOWS GREAT PROMISE AS THE MAN TO GET IT RIGHT FOR US ALL, WE WISH HIM WELL.

MOUTH OF THE HELFORD TOWARDS HELFORD VILLAGE ON THE CENTRE LEFT.

Having grown up amidst Cornwalls Northcoast mining country I was always aware that our land, in spite of its timeless beauty, invariably sported a few rough edges that give us a clue to its mighty indusrial past. As a Northcoaster I have always felt more at home with the big skies, sandy surf pounded strands and high cliffs than the sylvan softness of the southcoast ria’s.

The Helford is a case in point, idyllic as it may be it has never appealed to me as a place to live, however the sheltered nature of its waters have since time immemorial supported waterborne trade which has evolved in tune with the needs of its indiginous population. Clear evidence of this evolution is all around in the form of various long abandoned quays and slipways where schooners once berthed and lime was burnt in the kilns that often occupied the quays. In 1944 the Helford echoed with military activity as countless allied troops trained and embarked on the epic voyage to the Normandy beaches and the D Day Landings.

Things as ever have moved on, today yacht moorings occupy centre stage along with a small, long established, fleet of modern fishing vessels. These typically ten metre craft are predominantly engaged in tangle netting on the rough ground south and east of the Lizard, the fishery is stable and even in these uncertain times quietly prosperous as its superb fresh produce is in great demand. The fishermen have long needed a quay of their own to facilitate better and safer working practices when landing the catch or transhipping fishing gear.

The local Council, planners and Sea Fisheries Committee have been rightly sympathetic and proper approval has been given for the construction of a small quay at Helford Point together with an access track along the foreshore. Its design is intended to blend in with its surroundings and it is unlikely to add to currently low levels of activity.

However a group of typically non resident owners of property in Helford Village who appear to wield considerable financial clout and what could, therefore, concievably be construed as disproportionate influence have halted progress by forcing a judicial review of the scheme in its entirety. This will involve local council taxpayers in considerable unwarranted expense and, even if the review finds in favour of the fishermen, yet another unreasonable delay in the projects completion.

In other circumstances elsewhere the proposed construction of a nuclear power station would possibly raise less resistance than a simple stone built jetty to service an established indiginous low impact industry wishing to improve its lot.

Helford Village is in reality a sterile residential netherworld of chocolate box perfection but nonetheless lacking in both soul and lights in its its windows on dark winter nights. It is a community effectively abandoned by Cornish People who long since touched their forelocks in gratitude for their thirty pieces of silver and departed to a cheaper house on the other side of the hill, taking in the process, any pretence at community spirit with them..

The new style residents are covetous of their prize resenting anything that does not conform with their rigidly narrow vision for the settlements future, the only thing currently preventing Helford Village becoming a gated community is the physical lack of a gate. 

“Blow ins” is the particularly appropriate description coined by the Irish to describe the phenomenon of rich part time occupiers that seems increasingly to afflict beautiful isolated commuities. Helford Village has become a virtual ghetto for those, who in many cases, have little to contribute to to the local community other than a serious distortion of property values and a quite unreasonable antipathy towards locals conducting their legitimate business nearby.

Where the situation becomes untenable and their presence potentially offensive is when as in this case they use their undoubted connections and superior financial clout to the serious detriment of a long established legitimate local activity that dares to impinge on their utterly selfish vision of utopia. The obsequious smugness of the “city slicker” ringleader of the campaign of attrition against the jetty encapsulates the problem these “blow in’s” create.

As a member of Cornwall Sea Fisheries Committee and a supporter of the fishermen of Helford I would be failing in my obligation to act in their best intersts were I to remain silent, yes I also have a vested financial interest insofar as many of the fishermen also support my local business. Conversly I also supply a number of the objectors, if my loyalty is tested by an unfavourable outcome from the judicial review I will have no hesitation in ceasing to operate in Helford Village in future.

FAIR PLAY TO ROCK STAR ROGER TAYLOR THE MAN MOST EXPOSED TO THE PROPOSED JETTY FROM HIS HOME AT HEYLE HOUSE ACROSS THE RIVER. HIS MOST WELCOME STATEMENT THAT “HE CAN SEE NO EARTHLY REASON WHY IT SHOULD NOT BE BUILT AND THAT OBJECTORS SHOULD SHUT UP AND GET ON WITH THEIR LIVES” SAYS IT ALL.