A week dominated by buses and local housing but hope for jobs

Bus Changes: A week where local conversations have been dominated by the changing bus routes. Whilst people in St Just do not seem too concerned at the reduction of service (perhaps the ability to get to Hayle shopping is a compensation) those in Pendeen are hopping mad! Those who live between Boscaswell and Portherras Cross have bus stops but no buses. Those with buses now have to go to Penzance via Botallack and St Just, adding to their journey time. On Monday I will receive a copy of a petition being sent to First bus and will forward it to relevant people in Cornwall Council.

Housing: This afternoon I plan to deliver a letter to the residents of Moorland close to explain why the Land Trust I chair has had to stop building the housing. There is an unmapped sewer in the way. It will likely take us until March next year to get back on track, a 5 month delay. I met with SW Water last Monday and it seems they don’t know where about 50% of the sewers are so the problem of them being in the way of approved planned housing schemes is common. It is a high risk if the new proposed homes are close to existing ones or are to be built on what are often called ‘brown field site’. Finding sewers where they are not recorded as being adds to the costs of building homes and causes delays. It makes me realise why building on green field sites is so attractive to developers who want to make money out of building homes!

Other Things: I often moan about the sea of emails I receive so Monday to Friday this week, I counted them. I received 88 that were due to my being a councillor and 62 for other reasons. So becoming a councillor has more than doubled my emails! I received an average of 30 a day.

A nice thing I have done, and want to share with you, is that I have met with 5 local unemployed lads keen to find work locally. They are the first people to join the local pilot scheme to help local unemployed people get into work. To help them build team work and problem solving skills they built some small coracles and the photo shows the result. All have something to move on to that could lead to a job or a qualification to increase their chances of a job. So, if you know some-one unemployed locally, tell them to ask about the local scheme at the job centre.