The seemingly endless row over whether St Ives Parish Church should be demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park is on the agenda once again – the year of the 600th anniversary of its foundation. And it looks likely that the St Ives Constituency general election candidates might be sucked into the controversy – something they must be desperately keen to avoid after getting embroiled in the banning of pedestrians from St Ives town centre and other Cornish towns row.
Watch for TBH’s upcoming posts for exclusive views of the parliamentary candidates and the unexpected result of an opinion poll.
A proposal to ban pedestrians from the centre of St Ives and other Cornish towns under anti- terrorism legislation has provoked a fierce reaction from candidates battling for the seat at the general election.
UKIP’s Mick Faulkner condemned the idea as ‘a EU inspired bit of madness’. He said: ‘This idea has all the hallmarks of another example of bonkers EU law-making. I have been told that Cornwall Council’s Highways Department weren’t consulted about the proposal. UKIP will be encouraging pedestrians to defy the ban.’
Meanwhile, Conservative candidate Derek Thomas said that he supported the pedestrian ban. He said: ‘Second-homers in St Ives have long complained to me about the difficulty of steering their four-wheel drive vehicles around the streets of the town without running over the toes of slow-moving locals. A ban on pedestrians was long overdue and I wholeheartedly welcome it.’
Lib Dem Andrew George and Labour PPC Philippa Latimer in a joint statement said they understood that threats from Cornish Nationalists – although Mebyon Kernow and the Cornish Democrats were harmless – were responsible for the ban and they reluctantly gave it their backing. But Green Party PPC Tim Andrewes said he thought the ban didn’t go far enough. ‘Now the the Green Party wants to see a ban on town centres,’ he said.
The usual suspects were out in force in St Ives this week to oppose the proposal to open a branch of Pizza Express in part of the former Woolworths store in Fore Street.
There was St Ives town councillor Terry Tonkin (he who opposed the Carbis Bay Tesco) and a restauranteur who was worried lest ‘the whole culture of the town loses its soul’. Other objectors said the Pizza Express restaurant would ‘rip the heart out’ of the town. But last Tuesday Cornwall Council gave the scheme its approval.
I never quite saw Woolworths as either the heart or soul of St Ives and I speak as one who will probably never cross the threshold of Pizza Express. But any sympathy I might have had with the likes of Councillor Tonkin and his pals was quickly dissipated when I heard of their suggestion of just what might count for them as the heart – or soul – of St Ives. Poundland.
