Meeting with
The Town Deal Project Team
Meeting with
The Town Deal Project Team
22nd May 2024
22nd May 2024
20th May 2024 - Updated 16th July 2024
20th May 2024 - Updated 16th July 2024
Prior to that meeting a video in which Kieren spoke was circulated - available on The Town Deal Facebook page.
In regard to the plans to restrict access to Downlong Project Lead Kieren Couch 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.”
Prior to this meeting we also asked for:
The Business Case in the original plans for the Low Traffic Environment.
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.
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 have had no response to any of these questions, neither have we been sent minutes of the Transport Sub Group meeting or an invitation to the next one.
Objectives:
To protect the safe, accessible, healthy, vibrant & prosperous community of Downlong, all of which is threatened by the LTE.
To agree steps to enable accurate direct communication between The Project Team & the residents & businesses affected by its proposals.
We asked for clarification of the following:
On why the bollards were shelved, we explained we had heard rumour that this was because of a lack of electrical supply or similar technical difficulties.
From “Update on St Ives Town Deal Low Carbon Transport Strategy” - Traffic Categorisations. “encourage more local people to leave their cars at home.” We asked what an acceptable journey into the LTE is & what is it hoped will be reduced?
The technology being installed: “A newly installed traffic monitoring system will provide information and data on the levels and types of traffic entering the town centre following the implementation of the LTE.”
Kieren assured us that he can get power anywhere & this was not the reason.
Using number plate recognition (“12 Vivacity cameras”) this tracks complete journeys into & out of St Ives, for instance where the vehicle comes from & where it travels to. Kieren was adamant that the technology can identify “legitimate journeys” but since this is yet to be defined we struggle to understand how this can be so. We have provided a working list of journey types, along with what sort of vehicle might be used, e.g. residents, cleaners, trades people, prescription deliveries, museum volunteers etc. – all of whom would use unmarked vehicles.
Kieren explained to us such an LTE is only enforceable by the police, which is not desirable. However despite our request for clarification on what “legitimate reasons” are, at the meeting & to date, despite repeating that question by email, we have had no answer. We asked Cllr Andrew Mitchell to clarify this point after the Town Council Meeting of 2nd May but he did know what this meant nor how it could be enforced.
At this point we struggle to see how this technology can work for Downlong & how the LTE can or will be enforced.
Further meetings to ensure ongoing communications and proper consultation have been assured, including in Town Council meetings minutes, and an update at the end of May promised, but this has not happened.