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Poundstock Parish Council

A Year of Progress

As 2024 draws to a close it is perhaps a good time to reflect of the past 12 months. At the very end of 2023 Poundstock Parish council (PPC) acquired the public toilets in the car park at Widemouth Bay as Cornwall Council were planning to close them.

Many of you will be only too aware these toilets were in serious need of improvement and modernisation. During the last year your Council has replaced the drains and sorted a number of plumbing issues, installed new double glazing, put in new sinks and completely replaced the urinals in the mens' with a modern flushing system.

We know there is more to do and in the New Year we will be addressing the electrics and them providing baby changing facilities. When this is all complete we will then be redecorating the toilets inside and out.

It is a sad fact of life that occasionally people think it is amusing to spoil things for others and earlier this month some idiot thought it would be a jolly jape to drop a huge rock in one of the pans in the ladies' toilets, completely smashing it.

Needless to say, this has been reported to the Police and there will now be extra surveillance around the toilets in future.

This was going to be a costly repair but a Good Samaritan in the shape of Daniel at Based Plumbing & Heating, a new local firm, stepped in and repaired the toilet free of charge after he saw the story on social media and the BBC News website.

Looking forward to next year, following the parish meeting in September plans for a new hall for Poundstock are progressing well and the architects will be submitting a full planning application on behalf of PPC at the end of January 2025.

This initial design has been funded by a grant from Cornwall Council. As a pre-planning application indicated that, given certain constraints, a full application may well be successful then once this is the case it is intended to set up a Steering Group to take the project forward.

Finally, I am pleased to report that the first draft of the Poundstock Parish Neighbourhood Plan has been submitted to Cornwall Council for review following a huge amount of work by the Chair of the NDP Steering Group, Matthew Blows.

We should receive a report from Cornwall before the end of February after which we cantata the NDP to the next stage.

All these projects as well as the day to day running of the Parish wouldn't be possible without the hard work put in by your Councillors and, of course, our wonderful Clerk, Lynn Pluess.

While Councillors each have their own responsibility, Cabinet portfolio if you prefer, they all work together as a team both at our fortnightly meetings and following up on a whole range of things that need to be done.

Poundstock Councillors, as with all Parish and Town Councillors, do not get a salary or received and form of payment and give generously of their time for free - something that a lot pf people don't realise.

Anyway, 2025 looks like it is going to be another exciting year and all that remains for me to do is wish you all  a Peaceful New Year.

Stephen Blake Chair, Poundstock Parish Council.