Last week, I had the pleasure of formally opening Hayle’s
first Harbour Festival. Hayle Harbour and Foundry Day is a celebration of local
business, local talent, Hayle heritage and our community. The organisers
deserve huge credit. There was great entertainment throughout the day, and it
showed that Hayle really is on the up.
There has been an event in Foundry for several years, but
this was the first year it has been broadened to cover the harbour. The day
aimed to bring Hayle Harbour back to the forefront of the community, and to
bring different businesses, charities and clubs together to show off what Hayle
has to offer.
When I became an MP I said I wanted to see Hayle Harbour
regenerated. It had been left derelict for too long and plans had been talked
about all my life time. It was time for action. While a lot of work needed
to go into planning something that local people could get behind, and we needed
government grants to put infrastructure in place, like the new bridge into
North quay, great progress has been made. As well as the new harbour
walls, we now have a marine energy park on North Quay.
The next stage is to complete sensitive development at the
end of South Quay, put in place the footbridge to link the quay to Penpol
Terrace and get things moving on North Quay. There are now two new
developers who have bought the harbour from the Dutch bank, ING, and I will be
working with them to ensure we get the rest of the development right.
Hayle is going from strength to strength and there is a new
confidence in the town but we have to see through what has been started.
On a less optimistic note, this week saw a reminder of the
threat of flash floods in Cornwall. Homes, businesses and schools have been
affected. We can't legislate for the weather but we can prepare. In the last
parliament, the Government spent over £1.5 billion on investment in flood
defences. During the current parliament we plan to invest an additional £2.3
billion, supporting around 1500 schemes that will help protect some 300,000
homes.
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