Sue as a Local Town Councillor Speaks

Posted on: 5th June 2021

Transitioning from Cornwall Councillor to Town Councillor and Mayor

As your local Town Councillor I am going to try to set out my communication thoughts and plans. First, I do intend to keep this website going and I do intend to still put out local newsletters but posts and emails might not be so frequent as before. If you look along the tabs on my website, you will notice a From the Mayor one has appeared and my intention is to make that a sort of diary of official engagements. The whole website will get a bit more of a make over over the next month.

So, for clarity, the Town Council has its own website so this is very much from me so will have my bias and will not just duplicate what you can see on the Town Council site. I am still very much a LibDem, although Politics has virtually no place in Town Council work and decision making.

Marna, as Mayor, wrote in the local Outreach magazine. I might continue that, I might seek others to contribute. I will discuss this with the Clerk and welcome your views, if you have them. I suppose I think you have been reading a contribution from me since 2013 and you might welcome a break from my view of the world. My thoughts and suggestions would be that this become a more formal Town Council report, perhaps from the Clerk and staff or that Town Councillors take it in turns; there will eventually be 12 of us so that would give you 12 different insights rather than one view point from a Mayor that you had no say in appointing.

Me at Land’s End with granddaughter Chloe

I do think things are a little quieter for me now I am not your Cornwall Councillor although a week of my daughter and granddaughter being down has kept me busy in half term week, including going to St Ives, something I normally avoid during holiday season and I was reminded why I avoid it – the crowds! I do not feel I have reached the new normal yet as, until we have all 12 Town Councillors in place (and you still have time to apply for co-option) Council is not in its full functioning flow. Also, less groups are running their normal events, due to COVID, so not too many invites in my role as Mayor to official engagements. If you have something on that you feel would benefit from the Mayor being there then email info@stjust.org with details. However, do not feel obliged to invite just me along if inviting the whole Town Council might be a better option but do that the same way.

As for things I’m currently working on, for the local community, I am still chairing the bid to get our bit of West Cornwall recognised as an International Dark Sky Park and am hoping to secure almost £50,000 to ensure the continuing vitality of our town.