Chairman's Annual Report

Published: 17 April 2025

Parish Precept

We continue to manage the Parish Council’s finances carefully and have only needed to make a modest increase this year of £4.57 per year for a Band D property. This increase allows us to meet some inflationary costs and, most importantly, to expand the level of improvement and maintenance we undertake in the parish.

Councillors

After 4 years’ service, Nathan Cooper has decided to step down as a parish councillor due to his other time commitments. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Nathan for his calm, positive and constructive input on council issues and also thank him for the work he undertook in setting up our council branding and delivering the Carlyon Bay history board.

We are now going into the new council term with 4 parish councillor vacancies. Should any members of the public wish to be considered for co-option then please contact our clerk for guidance on the process. We are particularly keen to hear from any residents of Gwallon Keas given that it forms a large part of our parish and currently has no direct representation.

Planning Applications

Since our last annual meeting we have considered 29 planning applications, which is 1 fewer than last year and 30% down across the last 3 years. This downward trend may be reflective of the economy and/or the limited scope for the further development of our parish.

Neighbourhood Development Plan

Whilst our NDP remains part of the statutory planning framework, the government’s recent increased housing target has rendered the policies relating to housing numbers and development boundaries out of date.

The consequence of this is, like all towns and parishes across Cornwall, we now have limited defence against increased housing numbers and the coalescence of boundaries until 2028, when Cornwall Council’s updated plan will be published.

However, Cornwall Council have made a provisional calculation which determines that Carlyon will have a negative target of -459 houses, although we may be allocated a social/affordable build requirement of 22 properties by 2030. We are currently investigating options of how these 22 properties could be delivered as a community driven, not-for-profit scheme.

As a final point on the NDP, all other policies remain valid, including the protection of Local Green Spaces such as West Crinnis Fields.

West Crinnis Fields

It was unfortunate that Cornwall Council recently decided that West Crinnis Fields were no longer a suitable site to be held on the Assets of Community Value register. They deemed that the fields were only used as a path and that they should not have historically been registered.

Whilst this is regrettable, it does not cause us undue concern as their primary protection is as a Local Green Space, designated under the NDP. However, as we’ve stated previously, this designation does not, in itself, confer public right of access. The land remains in private ownership and public access is currently granted through a lease to the parish council that expires in December 2026. We continue to work with Cornwall Council on amending the PROW to reflect the historical access to the fields via Sea Road should the lease not be renewed.

Tregrehan Flooding

We continue to work closely with Cornwall Council and the Environment Agency on flood prevention within Tregrehan. Following identification of the primary flood sources last year (a collapsed culvert and breaches in the channel at Garker, and the management of fallow fields above School Lane) we are now awaiting an agreed action plan and budget allocation from Cornwall Council.

Cypress Avenue

In the autumn of last year we instructed our contractor to plant the first phase of spring bulbs on Cypress Avenue. It was great to see those bulbs in flower in recent weeks and we will now, in the autumn this year, plant a further phase with the ultimate goal of planting the full stretch of Cypress Avenue. We are also very pleased with the work our contractor has undertaken to keep the verges, paths and trees maintained on the avenue.

Parish Maintenance

We have now employed a part-time general maintenance person, reporting to the Parish Clerk. Consequently we are in a much better position to improve and enhance areas of our parish that have not been regularly maintained by Cornwall Council and Cormac. Whilst we have already identified a long list of jobs to be undertaken, we encourage residents to let us know via the Parish Clerk, of any further maintenance issues they identify where we may be able to assist.

Tregrehan Chapel

We are now at the point of exchanging contracts to purchase Tregrehan Chapel and change its sole use to become Carlyon’s Community Hall. This is an initiative that has been many years in the planning and it will not only protect the parishes last remaining community space from future development, but it will also protect the historical asset and give residents their very own permanent community space.

History Boards

The Carlyon Bay history board is now complete and has been installed on the grass triangle on Crinnis Road. The Tregrehan history board will also be installed in the coming weeks and will be located just outside the gated entrance to the children’s play park. We extend our thanks to Mike Stone for the design and content of the board, and to Valerie Jacobs who reviewed the content to ensure historical accuracy.

Tregrehan Jubilee Fields

After many years of discussions with Cornwall Council the Jubilee Fields are now devolved to the parish council and under our full ownership and control. We have consequently engaged a contractor to maintain the fields on a more frequent schedule than was undertaken by Cornwall Council, and we hope that residents are already seeing the improvements in the time and care we are giving this important community asset. Further to this, we have undertaken some improvements to the existing play equipment and installed a new children’s slide.