Carn Brea Leisure Centre

Like many people who grew up in this part of Cornwall, I have fond childhood memories of Carn Brea Leisure Centre. It has been an essential part of the local community for well over forty years. I have been running since I was nine, when I first joined Cornwall Athletics Club. Throughout my twenties I was running for Cornwall and at the peak of my fitness I was running around 80 miles per week. It was a big part of my life, and a lot of it revolved around training at Carn Brea.

 

At any given time, there are over 1000 children learning to swim at Carn Brea. It is therefore great news that the management team have secured funding from Sport England to refurbish the pool and deliver other maintenance and improvements.

 

The work will start this summer, and will finish at the end of the year. It will ensure that facilities are sustained for existing users, as well as the next generation of swimmers. Carn Brea is Cornwall’s first Charitable Trust Leisure Centre, and provides health and wellbeing facilities in the heart of our local area. I am pleased to hear that during the pool refurbishment, facilities including the gym, running track, café and fitness classes will still be open.

 

We now need to focus our efforts on raising the remaining funds needed. The fundraising campaign will start in May, when full plans of the project will be unveiled. I hope that the fundraising campaign will be a real community effort, in the true spirit of Carn Brea.

Local Elections

It is now just a couple of weeks until polling day on Thursday 4th May when people right across Cornwall will have their chance to elect their local representatives to Cornwall Council.  The Lib Dems have been in charge for the last four years with the Independent bloc supporting them.

Cornwall Council has a very large budget of round £1.2 billion per year but a lot of people feel that they don't always get their priorities right. They say they can't find money for the things that really matter, like adult social care, but then they can always find money for pet projects like spending £536,000 on a bid to make Truro the "European Capital of Culture" - even though we will have left the EU by then and are therefore unlikely to be successful.

The Council is not getting its approach to social care support right at the moment.  I have seen many parents of disabled children or carers of adults with special needs who have previously benefited from quite modest support payments to help with a few hours a week of respite care or three hours a week from personal assistants.  It just helps them keep things together.  But all too often that small amount of support is being pulled away by Cornwall Council which is leading to anxiety.  It is also a false economy because when funds are tight we should be looking for more ways to provide a small amount of money that can make a big difference and reduce the need for more expensive care options later on.  Cornwall Council have it back to front at the moment.

Planning is another area where change is required.  In the last few years, the Council has had a poor track record in defending Cornwall from urban sprawl and inappropriate development on green field sites.   They do not pay enough attention to the need for infrastructure and services to support new development.

Local Council elections are always very close in this area so anything can happen.  Although I am a Conservative, I also have a lot of respect for everyone who puts themselves up for election whatever Party they represent and also to all the volunteers who give up their time to help deliver leaflets.  So, whichever way you decide to vote, make sure you do vote.

Marine Hub Cornwall

This week, twelve new Enterprise Zones have gone live, including Marine Hub Cornwall. Located over sites at Hayle, Tolvaddon and Falmouth Docks, the Zone will build on what has already been achieved and establish Cornwall as a global centre for the marine renewable energy sector.

Marine Hub Cornwall seeks to bring together world class assets like Wave Hub and our universities and research and development programmes to provide a seamless co-ordinated offer to the marine renewable energy sector in Cornwall. The aim is to strengthen our position as the global leader in research and technology development.

Cornwall is already recognised as providing marine renewable developers a unique prospect within which they can test technology from prototype to fully operational systems. The Cornish coast provides optimal conditions for early-stage trials at FaB Test, while Wave Hub at Hayle, the world’s largest and most technologically advanced demonstration site, allows for more advanced testing.  Wave Hub boasts one of the best wave resources in Europe and has really put Cornwall on the map in this sector. 

There are lots of different technologies under developmemt with different modes of operation.  Local firm Seatricity has already deployed a device at Wave Hub twice to test their technology which pumps water at high speed through a series of small turbines. 

American wave energy developer GWave has announced its plans for a 9MW project to be deployed at Wave Hub. GWave, based in Portland, Maine, USA has spent the past decade developing its Power Generation Vessel (PGV) technology, which uses very large equipment and captured kinetic energy.

Last year, Carnegie Wave Energy, a wave energy developer from Australia, was awarded a grant to support the first phase of its £60m commercial wave energy project at Wave Hub. Carnegie Wave Energy is the only company in the world to have operated a grid-connected wave energy project over four seasons.

There are still challenges to overcome.  We need a clear path to move from wave energy being an interesting idea, to being deployed at scale and generating electricity in a low cost and effective way.  But Marine Hub is a statement of Cornwall's commitment to the idea and if anyone in the world can make this work, Cornwall can.

A new mental health facility for Cornwall

This week, Cornwall’s Air Ambulance Service celebrated its 30^th birthday. Towards the end of last year, Cornwall Air Ambulance was awarded £1 million from the Libor banking fund, boosting their fundraising for a new helicopter. I remember when the Cornwall Air Ambulance began in 1987. It was the first air ambulance in the UK. Since then, it has completed more than 26,000 missions and saved many lives.

 

Other good news this week was the announcement that a new mental health unit will open in Cornwall in the summer of 2019. The purpose-built 12 bed unit will open in Bodmin. This is a much needed facility in Cornwall, that will help young people. Previously, young people have had to travel out of county, as far afield as Cheshire and Norwich, in order to access treatment.

In recent years, the number of young people affected by mental health problems has increased. Maybe it’s the pressure to fit in and to belong - a sentiment that always existed - but seems to have been heightened by social media in the digital age which is relentless and immediate but often impersonal and sometimes offensive.

There is good work being done. Last year, measures to transform the way we approach and deal with mental health locally were introduced, to ensure that more young people receive support and care.

Some good work is done by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) service, which helps children and young people deal with emotional, behavioural or mental health issues. There are also some good charities out there which help provide the support needed. A great example is the Invictus Trust, a small charity which aims to support and offer services to local teenagers who are suffering from mental health problems and associated issues. But all agree that this is a challenge of our age.