Penryn Bowling Club

Had a chat with Susie at the Bowling club.  At last South West Water have come up trumps and put the cap on their sewage works in Penryn.  This means that the bowlers can now play without the awful smell they have had to put up with for several years.  But it still took time and I had to call them every month to put pressure on to make them do this work.  

Anyway must ring and say thanks for getting it all sorted.  Result!

Eating croissants at the French breakfast

Last week we had a successful late morning French breakfast.... croissants, french toast etc. It was even better as we were able to sit in the garden and enjoy the sunshine.  Leigh's boys had fun kicking a football around and playing hide and seek around the trees.

Nick Clegg visits Cornwall

Great day yesterday.  Nick Clegg came down and made various visits including one to Playing Place Post office helping with my campaign to save rural post offices.  I organised a March from Carnon Downs to Playing Place post office a few weeks ago and wanted his support on this issue.  In July we will know which post offices are due to be closed.  

Mrs Williams came along on her motorised scooter.  It is for people like her that we need to fight to save our post offices as they are so important in our communities.  The local Conservative county councillor also came along and was pleased to meet Nick.  He thanked him for coming and was impressed that a national leader of a political party gave support to these campaigns.

We then went on to Tremough campus and Nick was excellent in answering a number of questions from the students.  

In the evening we all ended up at Porthtowan village hall where Arwen and Annette had organised a full sit down meal of Cornish produce with music from the Cornwall Youth orchestra.  Great!

British Telecom surcharge

Last week I visited a pensioner in Truro who was fed-up that she had to pay extra on her phone bill unless she paid by Direct Debit.  

She likes, like many pensioners, to go up to the Post Office to pay her bills.  BT don't really want her to do this - they want everyone to pay by direct debit.  If you don't you get charged an extra £4.50 a quarter for their additional costs in 'processing' the cheque or cash.  This is £18 a year that I am sure a single pensioner could put to better use.  

BT say that they are keen to allow customer's choice of payment!

It also tells us a lot about why Post offices are losing business and being forced to close.

I would love to hear from anyone else who feels they have been denied real choice.

Liberal Democrats : Post Office

Liberal Democrats : Post Office

Vsiting farmers at Allet

It's hard to think that in April last year we were basking in sunshine.  On Friday I visited some dairy  farmers at Allet.  Although milk prices have gone up over the past year by about 8p a litre this is just about compensating for the huge increases in feed, energy and fertilizer costs.  Farming is never easy.  From my days down on a dairy farm I know that.  The milking starts early meaning that most dairy farmers start at about 5.30am and go on until late sometimes working via tractor headlights in the fields in the evenings.  Paper work tends to pile up and get done in odd meal breaks during the day.  I think that many also put off doing this task as it's not always the top priority and let's face it not much fun.  

I had not seen the paperwork and forms used in recent years.  Passports for all the cows, rip out portions if the cow moves anywhere off the farm - even to a neighbouring field. Forms to fill out if they die.  Huge colour manuals on what to do in every eventuality from wildlife to goats, pigs, sheep,cows.  All of this paperwork is costly and since it is constantly being updated most farmers have filing drawers full of information from the Government.

I was interested to hear that the nitrogen free zones (NFZ's) which prevent farmers from spreading slurry during the wet winter months is causing concern.  Many smaller South west farms do not have slurry pits.  This means they usually spread slurry every day.  With the milder climate and longer growing season this has always been the case. Now some are being faced with building slurry pits at a rough cost of £50,000.  There will be no grant aid towards this work.  The NFZ's are not in place everywhere so some will lose out and have to borrow heavily to comply.  No wonder that last year 3 dairy farmers a year quit!

Meeting with Cllr Doris Ansari Chairman of Cornwall County Council

I had a very productive meeting with the Chairman of Cornwall County Council Cllr Doris Ansari and David Whalley, Leader last week. I wanted their support to back a One stop shop approach hopefully incorporating some of our post offices. Since we will be getting a new single Council it is a perfect opportunity to use innovative ways of delivering local government services into our communities.
This Tuesday there is a motion going to the full Council to back this proposal from Joyce Mepsted who is also a member of Postwatch.
I am really pleased that this is being looked at in a positive manner