On Thursday 27th November CarlyonBayWatch are planning an Information and Awareness day to provide the local community with an opportunity to hear the other side of the story of the Carlyon Bay Beach development.
The Information and Awareness Day will take place at Charlestown Church Hall and is intended to be fairly informal. The aim of the event is to set out some of the important issues which will affect the St Austell Bay area if Ampersand's Beach project goes ahead.
Members of the public are invited to pop in and have a look at the displays from 10 - 1pm and again from 5pm - 7pm. Volunteers from CBW will provide information, act as a conduit for any concerns, take queries to put forward at the ongoing Focus Groups and explore some of the implications of the project. In the evening from 7pm - 9pm there will be an open forum, with a 'Question Time' type format, where key figures with expert knowledge will be available to answer questions. (Note: confirmed panel names to be announced next week)
Spokesperson for CarlyonBayWatch, Mark Frazer, said, "Many of the 929 people who signed our petition back in July are very worried about this development and asked to be kept informed of unfolding events. As time has gone on we have begun to realise that the concerns of locals are not being addressed elsewhere and we wanted to do something about that. An Information and Awareness Day, with a friendly meet-the-neighbours approach seemed to be what people wanted."
CarlyonBayWatch was formed as an umbrella group covering various residents associations in the area, in response to concerns about the holiday development to be built across Crinnis, Polgaver and Shorthorn beaches. A selection of members have been meeting regularly with representatives of the development company, Ampersand, since Spring 2003. Not only are they well informed on the issues, but they have had some considerable success raising the profile of opposition to the scale of the development in the local and national media.
Mr Frazer adds, 'We have all seen the Ampersand advertisements in the local papers and on television, but many do not seem to realise that the Beach development does not yet have full planning permission. St Austell does not have long to explore the serious unanswered questions raised by this project about the impact to our infrastructure, the dangers of flood risks, how much the taxpayer may stand to lose or how it will really affect our future here in St Austell Bay. CBW has researched some of these subjects and we felt there was a need to share what we have discovered ".
As the community waits to see if John Prescott is going to call-in this increasingly controversial development and expose it to the scrutiny of a full public enquiry, CarlyonBayWatch trust that the event on November 27th will provide Information and Awareness on these very issues.