I HOPE everyone is well as we head into the winter months. At the time of writing, my inbox has been dominated by issues relating to the roadworks which have seemingly sprung up everywhere in and around Mevagissey. Tregiskey to Peruppa, the road down to Valley Road, Church Street, the top of School Hill, the list goes on, and has inconvenienced many over the past couple of weeks.

The issue with roadworks is that Cornwall has a seasonal embargo on them over the summer months. This in turn leads to the utility companies who are responsible for a lot of the roadworks, and Cormac, who are responsible for resurfacing and the general maintenance of the highway network, to seemingly cram everything in as soon as the tourists go home.

When combined with the weather getting poorer, this can lead to delays, as we saw in the Tregiskey to Peruppa section, and another particularly vexing occurrence was the section in Church Street which only happened because the utility provider, who will remain nameless, bodged the job when they did it last earlier this year and had to come back and do it again, each time necessitating a road closure and suspension of the one way system!

On the positive side, highways inspectors have been very quick to come out and read the riot act to culprits when I report that roadworks are being poorly managed, and Cormac also came out specially at my request and resurfaced the uneven section of highway in front of the war memorial in Mevagissey which can be a nightmare to stand on if it rains during the remembrance services.

Speaking of the war memorial, it has been great to see the parish council’s support of the community efforts to tidy up and have a regular maintenance schedule for this important site, that I have been leading on. We had the second of these on October 11, with Cormac having provided paint and waste disposal facilities, and the parish council providing slate chippings and compost to renew and refresh the flower beds and area around the memorial.

I am also grateful to Chris Ellis, who pressure washed the memorial in September, and as always to the Cellar Bar for use of their utilities, not to mention everyone who has helped out in some way so far. There is still lots to do ahead of Remembrance Sunday but I hope that doing this work now will make regular maintenance sessions less onerous in the future.

We also saw the shanty festival take place over the weekend of October 18 and 19 – a brilliant weekend for the parish! Whether you like shanties or not, you cannot deny that this event provides a powerful economic boost for Mevagissey at a time where it traditionally is not so busy, attracting visitors from all over the UK and beyond, and the people who use their own free time all year round to organise the shanty festival should be saluted for their efforts.

As ever, should people require my assistance on any matter, please get in touch on 07885 277670 or at [email protected]