Full News Report

4th February 2025

Parish Councillors prepare for monthly meeting

THE monthly meeting of Morval Parish Council takes place at the Village Hall, Widegates at 7.00 pm tomorrow (Wednesday, February 5).

Items due for discussion include the official opening of the play park, and reports are likely to be received from Police Community Support Officer David Billing and the Cornwall councillor Armand Toms.

The agenda can be viewed at: https://www.morvalparishcouncil.org.uk/data/uploads/951_1834897231.pdf

Members of the public are invited to attend and while they cannot take part in the actual meeting itself, they can address councillors during a Public Participation session in the first 15 minutes of the meeting.

Each speaker gets a maximum of five minutes, although more can be allocated at the chairman’s discretion.

The official agenda for the monthly meetings always invites ‘members of the public to address the meeting in relation to the business to be carried out at the meeting’ but, in reality, almost anything topic can be raised.

Speakers do not have to give the chairman or the clerk pre-warning of what they will mention – although, as ever, prior notice can be useful if a satisfactory outcome is to be swiftly achieved.

Anyone interested in speaking is also asked to notify the Clerk, Laura Storey (clerk@morvalparishcouncil.org.uk) beforehand as a matter of courtesy.

DURING the public participation section of last month’s meeting councillors heard that Devon and Cornwall Police had been investigating alleged mis-use of CCTV equipment which, while installed on private property, was said to be directed towards public areas.

Council chairman Cllr Andy Jackson said it was correct that the Police had been notified and, while it was a matter outside of the Council’s remit, they would keep in touch with Looe Police Community Support Office David Billing in the hope that the issue could be resolved swiftly.

CHURCHWARDEN of St Wenna’s Parish Church, Morval, Mike Willmott told the Council that the Church took care of the cemetery pathways but that individual burial plots were the responsibility of the families whose loved ones were buried there.

However, over the years a number of graves has started to ‘sink’ – an issue not confined to Morval’s churchyard but being reported nationally as well.

Usually families helped resolve the situation but where the deceased have no living relatives, the problem can go unattended, leaving the churchyard to look untidy.

Mr Willmott accepted that it was not a Council matter, and neither was it really the responsibility of the church but, if issues of ‘sinking’ became more of a problem, local churchgoers might, in future, want to seek some financial grant aid from the council towards rectifying the situation.

CORNWALL County Councillor Armand Toms referred to recent County Council discussions about Cornwall being linked with Plymouth and/or Devon as part of a larger local authority.

But while the County was adamant that it wanted to keep its borders, Cllr Toms feared that the final decision would not rest with Cornish residents but with ‘someone in London’.

He also raised concerns about the amount of funding coming down to Cornwall from Central Government, saying that the Barnett Formula used to determined the cash handouts was out of date and ‘wrong at all levels’ because Cornwall residents were getting less money per head than the majority of the English population.

Cllr Toms said that the lack of financial assistance from the Government was having a huge effect on Cornwall Council’s services, especially in the provision of Adult Care, and he believed that Cornwall was being adversely treated compared to other areas.

Without much more help, he even feared that the County Council could eventually go bankrupt and he said he was ‘disgusted’ at what was happening.

“We have to start standing up and shouting,” said Cllr Toms, who called for the Duchy’s six MPs to step up to the mark and demand fairer action for the people of Cornwall.

THE Parish Council noted Mr and Mrs Philip Gibson’s pre-app planning application to re-locate their ice-cream-making business from Looe to a site off Lydcott Lane.

The Clerk, Laura Storey, said that, at this stage, the application was just for information.

If the Gibsons go on to make a full planning application, it will be notified in the usual way and the Parish Council will be asked for its views.

AN application from the editors of the Outlook community magazine for a £300 grant to cover the shortfall in running costs for the year was approved.

POLICE Community Support Office David Billing was unable to attend the meeting because of work commitments but his written report referred to one reported crime of criminal damage in Morval Parish during December.

He also said that he had been joined on the Neighbourhood Team by a new Tri-Service Safety Officer, Kate Bourn, who was working with the Police, Ambulance and Fire Service, and he hoped that she would also be able to attend a Parish Council meeting in the near future.