Local community invited to attend update event on latest Transport Strategy plans at
St Ives Library on
Wednesday, 11 September.

A public update event exhibiting the latest details about all the projects which are being developed as part of the St Ives Low Carbon Transport Strategy and the timetable for delivering the different elements is being held at the town’s library between 2pm and 7pm on Wednesday, 11 September.

One of the nine Town Deal projects being funded and delivered as part of the St Ives Town Deal programme, the aim of the Low Carbon Transport Strategy is to help reduce the impact of vehicles on St Ives and introduce measures that encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

These include proposals aimed at reducing traffic congestion and parking demand in the town centre, enhancing public transport options and accessibility, improving air quality and health outcomes for residents and visitors and supporting local businesses by creating a more attractive and vibrant town.

During the past few months discussions have taken place with stakeholders, community groups and individuals to provide local information and shape the proposals contained with the Strategy. These have resulted in changes being made to some of the projects.

The aim of the exhibition, which is open to all, is to provide an update on the current plans.

Members of the Low Carbon Transport Strategy team, Cornwall Council’s highways department and representatives of the St Ives Town Deal Board and St Ives Town Council will also be on hand to answer any questions.

Download this announcement as a PDF here.

‘It’s just a rich man’s playground now’: how St Ives became patient zero of British overtourism

The Guardian - Sat 10 Aug 2024

"The Cornish resort may be the picturebook seaside town but, through a desolate winter and a crowded summer, artists, fishers, visitors and locals reveal a community in danger of losing its soul"

By Tanya Gold

Read the article here. [more...]

LTE Plans
Town Council Meeting
Thursday 2nd May 2024 

16th July 2024

On 14th May we reported, courtesy of West St Ives Councillor Andrew Mitchell, how at the Full Town Council Meeting on Thursday 2nd May 2024 a vote was taken on the LTE. The minutes, now available here, record:

“RESOLVED – that the Council endorse the Town Deal transport project and note the progress to date, but request that in subsequent work, the needs of residents are prioritised and considered, including the communities of Halsetown and Lelant. The Council remains committed to working with Cornwall Council and other stakeholders on a people first travel and transport strategy for the parish.”

We’ve extracted from the minutes the relevant parts of this resolution, including plans on “changing behaviour”, “community engagement” and the phrase “legitimate access”. That is available on our website here. [more...]

Library Corner Traffic Warden
Town Council Meeting
13th June 2024

16th July 2024

As reported on the front page of The St Ives Times & Echo No 5835 on Friday, June 28th, 2024, at the 13th June meeting “St Ives Town Council looks to provide Library Corner traffic warden as transport plan stalls”

A motion “’That St Ives Town Council take up to £10,000 from reserves to pay for traffic control staff to be posted at Library Corner for the main summer season,’  …unanimously adopted.”

We have extracted verbatim the relevant information for Downlong & linked to the video of that meeting on our website here. [more...]

St Ives Town Deal Recruiting Board Members

16th July 2024

If you would like to volunteer their recruitment information has been slowly disseminated on The Town Deal Facebook page over the past few weeks.

“deadline for applications is 19 July”.

More information on our website here. [more...]

Meeting with The Town Deal Project Team
20th May 2024 

16th July 2024

Prior to that meeting a video in which Kieren spoke was circulated - available on The Town Deal Facebook page here.

In regard to the plans to restrict access to Downlong Kieren says in that video: “There was a consideration to support the [LTE] through use of physical restrictions, such as bollards or barriers. However, St Ives is a unique place & that sort of technology just wouldn’t work well. It would be too restrictive for those that still need access.”

Members of our Steering Group & The Barnoon Car Park Users Group Lead met with Project Lead Kieren Couch & Communications Lead Trisha Hewitt.

The aim was “To establish trust between residents & The Project Team & facilitate ongoing two way communication for this & future projects.”

Details are on our website here. [more...]

Downlong Business Support & Representation
St Ives Business Improvement District (BID) 

16th July 2024

Since November 2023 we have been given to understand by several councillors that many, if not the majority of, St Ives businesses are in support of traffic restrictions on Wharf Road. We struggled to accept that but, set up to represent the views of Downlong residents, we do not have the time to represent businesses as well. This despite the fact that many of us in Downlong, indeed many on the Steering Group, are businesses ourselves.

For that reason we set up a meeting with St Ives Business Improvement District (BID) Manager Sarah Hooper & St Ives Tourism Association (SITA) Business Liaison and in-house marketing expert Catherine Cooper.

Are you a business based or working in Downlong? Find out more about our meeting & what BID have to offer on our website here. [more...]

Latest LTE Update

20th May 2024

Today we have been sent an update on the LTE following a meeting of of St Ives Town Deal Board on 13th May 2024.

Whilst we welcome some of the update's contents:

"...recommendation from Cornwall Council’s Highways Authority to remove the use of automatic bollards..."

"Discussions will be held with the local community in all these areas ... and to address any remaining concerns before work starts"

We question how "Permanent traffic cameras ... installed throughout the town" can possibly provide "robust live data on the levels and types of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists entering the town centre." nor identify  "legitimate" vehicles, which we are waiting for The Project Team's definition of.

We hope our views will be sensibly addressed at our meeting with The Project Team planned for 22nd May 2024 which we will report on. 

Meanwhile you can read the whole update yourself, and our observations on it, on our website here. [more...]

St Ives Town Q&A Gathering

6pm 22nd April 2024

Having heard conflicting reports regarding why the rising bollards have been “shelved” we attended this meeting to seek clarification.

On your behalf we asked why:

• Because of, as The Town Mayor told Councillor Andrew Mitchell, “Technical difficulties”?

• Because as it says in the update (available via our website here) we’re going to wait & see how much traffic comes through town & then if we adjust our behaviour, [unclear] then the bollard will be no more?

• Or have people realised the damage that bollard would have done to the residents and businesses in Downlong?

You can see & hear responses to our question  (bookmarked in the videos embedded on our website) from:

• Jess Morris (Town Deal Commissioning Specialist for Penzance & St Ives Projects)

• Councillor Linda Taylor (Head of Cornwall Council)

• Councillor Johnnie Wells (Town Mayor)

• Councillor James Ryall (St Ives East & Carbis Bay)

Our feedback, thoughts & summary plus the videos & transcripts of the most important responses are on our website here. [more...]

Transport Sub Committee of the Town Deal Board

Thursday 25th April - St Ives Guildhall

Our aims in attending were:

• Find out first hand exactly what is planned for the LTE.

• Make clear that there are many reasons why the LTE should be shelved & the technical difficulties that have become apparent is not one of them.

• Ensure the committee understands that there is a difference between journeys along Wharf Road & into Downlong that are necessary & those that are discretionary.

Find out what happened here. [more…]

Business Engagement

Are you concerned about the impact of the LTE on your business?

St Ives Business Improvement District (BID) manager Sarah Hooper would like to hear from you. We met Sarah at the Transport Sub Committee, of which she is a member, where she told us that, contrary to what we have been told by several St Ives Town Councillors, there are very many businesses in St Ives who are concerned about the impact on their business viability of the threatened LTE.

You can contact Sarah here or find her at her office just inside The Guildhall. Sarah’s door is always open whether you are a business whose rateable value makes you eligible for BID membership or not. This is a great opportunity to correct the narrative that businesses in Downlong & St Ives are all in favour of the LTE.

Members of the Steering Group will be meeting with Sarah in the week commencing Monday 3rd June 2024.

You can find out more about St Ives BID on their website here: www.stivesbid.co.uk

Council Vote On LTE

Full Town Council Meeting
Thursday 2nd May 2024

We were informed by Councillor Andrew Mitchell that “At Thursday’s full council meeting it was confirmed that although there will be no physical barriers,  the 11am - 4pm restriction on access to Downalong is still going ahead!”

“The recored [sic.] vote was 2 against,  7 for and 2 abstentions. That will be in the minutes with names.”

(Regarding how it would be enforced.) “I got no reply to that question!”

The agenda published on the Town Council website here gave no indication this was happening & in fact the only item of business mentioned appeared to exclude press & public. The minutes when published will be here – not there at time of writing.

It might appear that this is actually a reduction in traffic restrictions on entering the whole of central St Ives. See image here. [More...]

St Ives Town Deal Public Engagement Report Published

This came to our attention through the article in The St Ives Times & Echo, Friday, May 3rd, 2024 - Page 5

You can read & download the summary on the Cornwall Council “Let’s Talk” website here.

The full report is available here. 

We have saved the full report on the Downlong Residents website here. 

We view the conclusions drawn from the survey as dubious to say the least & our observations will follow.

It is worth restating how this consultation was managed which is outlined on our website here. [More...]

Planned meeting with
The Project Team

Planned for 22nd May 2024 in Downlong, present will be Project Lead Kieran Couch, Communications Lead Trisha Hewitt & at least two members of our Steering Group.

We have initially asked for clarification of the following:

1. The Business Case in the original plans for the Low Traffic Environment.

2. The basis on which (as per the attached letter) The initial Plans concluded “During COVID-19… Sentry Point Access was located at Tregenna Place and Lifeboat Hill enforcing restricted access, with ‘flexible discretion’ to the LTE during the hours of 11AM - 4PM,”. … this proposition performed well,” (Board 3 here. ) Was there consultation with any Downlong residents or businesses to come to that conclusion? We would like to be provided with that research & its findings.

3. The Town Deal Board and its sub-groups are a public body. On what legal basis and by whom has it been decided that the information discussed at the Transport Sub Group is confidential & must not be shared?

We will share our requested agenda in due course here.

March Meetings Update

Through March we wrote to St Ives Town Deal Board Members and our elected representatives  as follows:

St Ives Tow Deal Board - Vice Chairs

Libby Buckley (Leach Pottery)
Gareth Jones (LiveWest)

St Ives West Ward Councillors

Councillor Andrew Mitchell
Councillor Michael Evamy
Councillor Joan Beveridge
Councillor Kenny Messenger

We also managed to meet with Councillor Rachael Gaunt here in Downlong

You can read their responses if any & precis of meetings here.

LTNs: Councils told to consider residents' views under new guidance

"Councils will have to consider local residents' views before introducing new low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) under new government guidance."

"We want local people to have their voices heard, and any traffic schemes to have the consent of those they impact," [Transport Secretary Mark Harper] said.

BBC News, 17th March 2024

Around the UK Low Traffic schemes introduced by local councils are being scrapped after a lack of planning, consultation & angry backlash from residents.

Sound familiar?

You can find links to several articles here. [more...]