Supporting Cornwall Towns
North Cornwall has a lot to offer in terms of beautiful landscapes and beaches. It also has some of the most attractive and diverse town centres with a wonderful selection of shops and attractions ranging from the staple national brands through to artisan and creative boutique family run businesses.
Sadly, in town centres across Cornwall, it is true than many businesses are struggling to stay afloat. This is due to many issues such as the rising cost of living and increasing costs for rent, energy, staff and so forth.
What is needed for these businesses to survive and thrive is more customers coming through the door. This is not a difficult concept to grasp but it seems to have been a challenge to implement by many local authorities over many years.
To encourage more customers to visit these struggling businesses, we need to focus attention on how to attract more people to in our town centres. As successful plan will include looking at public transport together with improving the parking situation in terms of availability and affordability.
If we can make the prospect of visiting our town centres desirable and affordable, then we will encourage more people to visit, shop and enjoy our wonderful Cornish town centres.
Right now, our town centres are under threat and businesses are closing. No one wants to see our town centres made up of boarded up shop fronts. Let’s take some positive action now to ensure that our towns are around in the future for our children to enjoy.
Mission Statement
If elected as your MP for North Cornwall, I will prioritise getting our town centres into a better position.
To set expectations, this is not an easy task and there are many years of neglect and under investment to be reversed. However, with the right level of commitment, I do believe that it is possible to do a lot better to support our wonderful and hard working business owners in our town centres.
Town centres in North Cornwall deserve to thrive. Thriving town centres in North Cornwall will be positive for local communities as well as boosting the economy via increased tourism.
First 100 Days
My commitment to North Cornwall for the first 100 days in office will be to ensure that town centres are prioritised to initially ensure stability and stop the ongoing decline in town centres through business closures.
Once we have a solid direction on sustainable town centres, it will then be possible to consider what measures can be taken to promote growth and prosperity within our town centres.
The plan
- Identify key stakeholders in improving town centres, business owners, parking companies, local authorities, public transport providers etc.
- Initial consultation with key stake holders.
- Create a sustainable set of achievable objectives based on initial consultation with stake holders.
- Work with and support stake holders in creating a working group of dedicated individuals with an interest in moving forward with implementing the short and medium term plans for sustainability and growth of foot fall to our town centres.
- My ongoing support in any way needed to ensure that The Plan maintains momentum over the coming years to secure our town centres for future generations to enjoy.