‘Meet the candidates’ event – what happened

Dec 1, 2012 | Parish News

‘Meet the Candidates’ event held Tuesday 27th November 2012 at Hall for Gwinear

St Erth and Gwinear-Gwithian Parish Council jointly agreed to hold a special public event whereby its Parishioners could meet and ask questions of the 7 candidates standing in the Election for the Gwinear-Gwithian & St Erth Electoral Division.

Each candidate was given the opportunity to tell the public why they deserve your vote.

Michael Roberts – Independent
Michael Roberts said advised that he had been a Parish Councillor for Gwinear-Gwithian for 10 years. He had spent the past 11 years involved in building the Hall for Gwinear. He moved to Cornwall in 200 and has been actively involved in the community including being a very active member of the Parish Council. The projects he is involved in on the Council are a traffic working group in Carnhell Green, a Towans project to preserve the character of the area in the form of a Neighbourhood Development Order which will help the community to ensure they have the say on development in certain areas, a Towans Ranger initiative which has only just started building momentum but does form part of the Parish Plan. He stated he is also involved in the renovation project for Reawla Park and helped organise a consultation event and is looking to form a group made up of local people to take the project forward. He is also a member of the Wall Hall committee. He said he likes to be involved in the community and always starts by talking to local residents as he feels he would need the support of them to move any project forward. He said his strengths would be taking local issues forward as he has dealt with so many first hand.

Anthony Lionel Pascoe (known as Lionel) – Conservative
Lionel Pascoe said that he was born in Gwinear Parish and lived in Fraddam which was on the border of the two Parishes. He said that he had 20 years experience on the Gwinear-Gwithian Parish Council and was currently the Vice-Chairman. He said that he had served as a District Councillor for Penwith for 4 years and was instrumental in his time a District Councillor in getting a housing development in Connor Downs which was not wanted by the local community overturned. He said that the officers at Penwith had wanted to approve the application and between Ray Tovey and himself they had fought at Committee level for the application to be refused. He advised that when the application went to appeal he had spoken up on behalf of the residents and won and the refusal was upheld. He said that he felt there was far too much development happening within the Parishes and far more consideration was needed towards the Schools and infrastructure before more development should take place.

John Gillingham – Mebyon Kernow
John Gillingham said that he was standing against any cuts particularly in rural areas where he believed this was particularly damaging. He said that as he grew up in the Countryside he knew how vital a service public transport is. He stated that is he was elected he would hold the position as a full time job and wanted to represent you the people and Cornwall as a whole well and wanted those on the outside world looking on Cornwall to see this. He said that he had found it difficult getting full time employment and afford to buy a house and felt that these were issues that needed to be addressed in this area. He said that any housing built needed to be for the community and not just for short term gain. He said that he felt the natural environment was very important to us and wanted to protect Cornwall from overdevelopment. He said that he wanted fair wages and the idea of the proposed local wage in a place like Cornwall would be wrong as wages are already low generally and the cost of living in this area is high compared to places such as London. He said that he felt the funding received by Cornwall was disproportionate to larger areas such as London for vital facilities such as hospitals and schools and these were all issues he wanted to stand for to change.

Sheila Furneaux – Independent
Sheila Furneaux said that she had moved to Cornwall in 1983 and had two children; she said that she had been involved with the work of Parish Councils for the last 30 years. She said that as she had not been involved at County level in the past she felt that she would bring fresh ideas to the Council. She said that as she was independent she was here to represent the people not a party. She said that had been the Chair of a local animal charity group and the residents group at St Erth, she had been an organiser for the shoe box appeal and the teacher at a local Sunday school. She said that she was currently employed as a dental nurse but would give up this position if elected as she felt this was a full time job and would need her full attention.

Derek Elliott – Independent
Derek Elliott said that he had been a member of the Trelawney Alliance for 5 years and was currently the Vice-Chairman. He said that he had been supporting local groups speak out against the mass housing. He said that he marched in 2009 through Camborne for the Alliance, alongside George Eustice although he felt that his views had since changed on mass housing but his views would not change. He said that he was involved in heritage works on Holman’s and helped fight against the closure and sale of the Trevu Toddler Stop building in Camborne. He said that he had worked closely with Treleigh School in Redruth to reduce the speed limit outside and managed to put enough pressure on Highways to have this changed. He said that he was part of a Hayle pressure group which worked with ING to ensure the numbers of housing going in to the development there were not high and negotiated the heights of those houses also. He said that he had spoken at County Hall many times supporting various communities. He said that he had worked with the community at Angarrack and spoke out against the Asda proposed for Hayle at the Rugby Club mainly because there were no plans for the local community or the youth, they just had not thought about this in their plans and this is why he fought against this proposal and won. He said that he wrote many letters to the local press probably around 40 a year. He said that he supported the NHS particularly on the local wage issue and felt that there was a level of poor management within that needed addressing. He said that he had concerns about the EU, the closure of Post Offices and felt there needed to be more support for the youth and the elderly. He said that he was a keen sportsman particularly in bowls and felt he got his drive and enthusiasm from this. He felt that he need to fight for the truth and that the public’s views were the ones that counted. He said that he had negotiated in his job at senior levels and been on various boards and chaired meetings and this would help in this job.

Yvonne Bates – Liberal Democrats
Yvonne Bates said that you may have seen her loitering outside the co-op with her RNLI collection tin, she said that her parents and grandparents had always been involved in local councils and her grandfather had fought to save a library where she originates from and the library was still going strong. She said that she had worked in retail and for the Department of Employment as well as Cornwall Council and Trading Standards. She said that she had worked in West Cornwall as a network supplier looking at the continuous improvement of Cornwall. She said that she had spent the last 10 years working in the NHS Trust buying goods. She said that she is now retired but still does voluntary work and is a trained advisor for Citizens Advice. She said she works for CA two half days a week as well as visiting St Michaels to make coffee regularly. She said she helped organise the Songs of Praise events and has worked with the RNLI for many years. She said she is in 3 Cornish choirs and regularly likes to walk the costal path at Godrevy. She said she had worked with various charities, one of which helped bring music to under privileged children. She said that she had worked as a temp in Finance at Cornwall Council and the One Stop Shop in Falmouth. She said that she felt Cornwall Council should not be selling off libraries and One Stop Shops and these must be protected. She said that she did not see a need to put car park charges up and this had been detrimental to the trade of local businesses at Gwithian Towans. She said that she wanted to know why CC had granted permission for the Heliport at St Erth. She said that she felt CC waste far too much money on consultants and luxury cars whilst trying to take away free bus services for the elderly. She said that the waste contract caused chaos and she was still waiting for her recycling containers and she felt this meant that everyone was paying for services that were not being delivered. She said that she had spoken to residents in Reawla and they wanted safe outdoor areas, they wanted to know why the skate ramp had been taken away. They said that they wanted off street parking and not trees planted on the bank. She said that there were problems in St Erth with parking that needed to be addressed. She said that her husband had died in 2007 and she did not have any children so she had plenty of time to do the job.

Malcolm Hurst – Labour
Malcolm Hurst apologised for being late, he had been held up as there had been a very serious accident in the village of Carnhell Green and this has delayed him. He said that he had been a lifelong member of the Labour party and said that it was imperative that the community felt important and that Cornwall Council were not listening to local communities. He said that he was a strong believer in the NHS and this must not die. He said that he believed in community spirit and this is what he would fight for.

To see the full meetings notes including questions and answer session for members of the public in attendance click here

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