As I write this, winter roars in like a lion – but at least we had a passable summer this year !

The Parish has been granted Neighbourhood Planning status by Cornwall Council so the Parish Council is making a start on developing the Neighbourhood plan which may take us up to 18 months to complete. At many of the community group meetings and at Council meetings we have called for volunteers from the community to help us do this as it is a key part of the requirements of the Plan that parishoners be involved. It is pleasing to see that 23 people expressed an interest but that so far only 8 have taken the next step to actually do something. So that we have a broad range of skills helping form the Neighbourhood Plan, we have put a simple questionnaire on the website  https://ggpc.org.uk/neighbourhood-planning/   and would encourage you all to look at this and fill it in – we really do need your help (however large or small the time you are willing to make available) if we are to have any influence over the nature of our Parish during the next 15 years or so.

To demonstrate that communities can get behind a neighbourhood planning scheme, parishoners and community groups in Gwithian Towans have all rallied around the development of a Design Guide to preserve the charm and appearance of the chalets at Gwithian and we are moving towards completing that project in the next couple of months as it will then be incorporated into the main Neighbourhood Plan.

I make no apology for “banging on” about the importance and significance of doing a Neighbourhood Plan !

Second to planning issues is the matter of speeding around the Parish. Currently Cornwall Council have been working with us to use their covert speed measuring device around the Parish to record speeds – without people in high visibility jackets . The results will be available in the next couple of months. In the meanwhile- and in anticipation of the results that we can probably all guess at- we have asked Highways to prepare schemes and costings to deal with traffic and safety hotspots around the Parish. They will get back to us at the end of November with preliminary ideas.

In parallel with this, the Parish Speedwatch team have been very active recording speeding activity and data so we can compare the overt and covert data ! Cornwall Council tell us that our Speedwatch Team is amongst the most active in the County – so well done to the volunteers !

Parishoners and community groups have often posed the question “what if we had funds to improve our infrastructure and facilities……………..” so to that end we have compiled a very detailed and comprehensive list of projects and have ranked them for importance. This list is available on the Parish website https://ggpc.org.uk/infrastructure-needs-assessment-gwinear-gwithian-parish/  and I would encourage you to look at it. Paper copies are also available from Mrs Vida Perrin at the Parish office (01209 614618). Now, you could be forgiven for saying “pigs might fly – where’s the money coming from ?” Most developers are required to pay a community benefit fee that goes to Cornwall Council but the Government is changing this system into a new Community Infrastructure Levy still paid by developers but now available to local communities. The Parish Council has decided that rather than spend this potential money piecemeal, that it will be pooled to allow the Parish to work through its list and to do a proper job of each item. In this way we ought to be able to leverage additional funding and grants to make the projects possible. Once again our Parish is leading the way in the County.

As Christmas is fast approaching may I, on behalf of the Parish Council, wish you and your families a happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

2014 will bring all sorts of new challenges and I hope you will find the time to help us make our wonderful and varied Parish a still better place to live and work !

Oll an gwella ha Nadelek Lowen

Brian Pocock, Chairman GGPC