The town that dare not speak its name
The town that dare not speak its name |
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Have you noticed how reluctant some people seem to be to mention the name of a certain town in West Cornwall and others seem hesitant to acknowledge that it even exists. If this town is grudgingly referred to by name then it seems to be inevitably qualified with the suffix, near St Ives, or near Penzance. For an example you need look no further than the TV news where recently the fate of Godrevy lighthouse was being discussed. The lighthouse was twice referred to as being 'near St Ives'. Similarly, the tests which are being performed for the proposed wave hub power generation scheme have been reported in the press as 'offshore from St Ives' or in St Ives Bay, the town nearest the trial was never mentioned, It was also noted that the MP for St Ives, (yes notice how its called St Ives, despite the constituency covers the whole of West Cornwall), is keen to point out the fact that he lives in Phillack. Even John Millers wonderful paintings, the ones with a predominantly blue sky and yellow foreground are called things like 'Summer Estuary', 'April Fishing' and 'Yacht Passing' hiding the identity of the real location which has inspired the painting. The town that dare not speak its name was once the powerhouse of the industrial revolution in the South West, and is central to the current World Heritage bid, yet ironically it has no heritage centre or museum. Although Richard Trevithick worked extensively in this anonymous town and his wife ran one of the first hotels Trevithick Day is held in Camborne and there is no tribute or monument to the engineering pioneer in the town where he developed many of his ideas and fabricated much of his machinery. The schools in the town are bursting at the seams, and can hardly cope with current demands. Despite this more houses are being built in the town than in any other in the district, and that's before any sign of a development of the harbour. The town is the largest in the county without its own fire station and has more incidents requiring the attendance of a fire engine each year than other towns which do have a fire station. A Fire Station once was proposed but then the plan was suddenly withdrawn, instead the decision was taken to give fire alarms to people. What a wonderful move - fire alarms are a good idea but pretty useless if there is no fire engine to respond when they go off, and will someone please explain how fire alarms are supposed to help in road accidents, and other incidents where the fire brigade are required. Penzance and St Ives harbours have been taken into public ownership long ago and as a consequence have been maintained over the years and have recently been granted public money to allow more improvements to be made to them. In our town the harbour has been allowed to remain in private hands and has passed through a succession of developers hands all of whom have not only failed to come up with a viable development plan, but have also failed to maintain the fabric of the harbour while the council have sat back and refused to take enforcement action and have ignored the consultants advice that they bought with our money that they should intervene. When at last a what looks like a credible developer with the necessary gravitas to drive harbour regeneration comes along what happens?. The county council omits the town from the structure plan meaning that essential money for infrastructure improvements to support the harbour development have not been budgeted for. Do they know something we don't? The town of which we speak has more holiday accommodation than the rest of West Cornwall put together yet it is the only major town without its own dedicated Tourist Information Centre. Even the Blue Flag website which tells people how to access the beaches around here until recently said the Towans Beach could best be reached via Porthmeor car park in St Ives! The information supplied by Penwith District Council - say no more. Leisure facilitates in Penzance and St Ives include leisure centres, and swimming pools. The new leisure centre in St Ives will shortly be joined by a new leisure centre in Penzance, and our towns council tax is used to subsidise these. Yet the town that dare not speak its name is reduced to a small unheated, open air pool which has to be funded by raffles and quiz nights. The latest incident with the Virginia Waterwheel is not untypical, Hayle wanted a few quid to transport a unique artefact of its proud industrial past to bring it back to Hayle, estimated cost, perhaps £2000. Sorry - No was the council response. Meanwhile at St Ives £2m was suddenly found to buy the Leach Pottery. You would think that with such a lack of facilities that their would be some compensation in lower council tax wouldn't you? No such luck. Despite the lack of facilities the average council tax bill in our town is actually higher than Penzance and St Ives when local precepts are taken into account. So highly thought of is this anonymous town that before the next election we will be jettisoned out of the St Ives constituency but will remain in Penwith District. Where will the incentive be then for Penwith District Council to invest in our town, given how very, very little they do now. A logical move would be for the town to go to Kerrier District who may be glad of the revenue and may just treat us better than Penwith District Council does, could hardly be worse. Penwith District Council may not want to lose us, not because they care about us but they take our money to satisfy the needs of the other two big towns. HAYLE residents are fed up subsidising facilities in Penzance and St Ives. Isn't it about time HAYLE was recognised, treated fairly, accredited with the status it deserves and got its fair share of resources. |