{"id":647,"date":"2013-05-07T17:13:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T17:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/?p=647"},"modified":"2013-05-07T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T17:13:11","slug":"st-mellion-parish-election-2013-response-to-alan-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/?p=647","title":{"rendered":"St Mellion Parish Election 2013 – Response to Alan Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following my previous post<\/a> regarding the Parish Council elections, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to proffer my thanks to Alan Twist for his concise comments.\u00c2\u00a0 Alan, please accept my apologies for the false supposition that the Solar Farm was the driving force behind the collaborative efforts of St Mellion Park.\u00c2\u00a0 I did hear rumours of the precept issue but discarded it because I\u00c2\u00a0didn’t\u00c2\u00a0feel the facts supported it.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to set out my reasons for arriving at that conclusion.<\/p>\n

Firstly, you state that St Mellion Park houses are rated at Band H.\u00c2\u00a0 This is partially correct but for the sake of completeness, here are the actual bandings for St Mellion Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Street<\/b><\/td>\nA<\/b><\/td>\nF<\/b><\/td>\nG<\/b><\/td>\nH<\/b><\/td>\nTotal<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dunstan Lane<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/td>\n16<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Keason Hill<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n16<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lake View<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n9<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oak Avenue<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/td>\n4<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oliver Court<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Orchard Close<\/td>\n<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/td>\n13<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Rowans<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/td>\n6<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wood Drive<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n7<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/b><\/td>\n1<\/b><\/td>\n5<\/b><\/td>\n61<\/b><\/td>\n6<\/b><\/td>\n73<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Unfortunately I did this exercise after obtaining precept details from the council for only Band H properties in the parish.\u00c2\u00a0 Suffice to say, the Band G properties pay less than Band H.\u00c2\u00a0 The following table shows the current St Mellion Band H precept and the Cornwall county average for Band H.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
St Mellion Band H Annual Precept<\/td>\n\u00c2\u00a329.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average Cornwall County Band H Precept<\/td>\n\u00c2\u00a3139.44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

St Mellion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precept is approximately 21% of the county average for Band H property owners.\u00c2\u00a0 To put it another way, the six highest banded properties in St Mellion Park contribute less than \u00c2\u00a30.56 each per week to the parish.\u00c2\u00a0 This seems unworthy of the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

In your comment you expressed concern that St Mellion Park residents were paying for projects that mainly benefited the village.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have any examples of these projects?\u00c2\u00a0 I do my best to follow parish matters but\u00c2\u00a0I’m\u00c2\u00a0not aware of a single parish project, current or proposed.\u00c2\u00a0 I presume that if such plans existed, the incumbent parish council would have raised the precept last year to accommodate them.\u00c2\u00a0 They did not.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d also like to point out that despite its unique characteristics; St Mellion Park is part of the very village you express distaste at contributing towards. \u00c2\u00a0St Mellion village (and indeed parish) lacks many of the facilities available to other parishes. \u00c2\u00a0In fact the only parish asset I’m aware of is a granite seat located across the A388 from the Coryton Arms and the small patch of grass it occupies.<\/p>\n

Prior to the election, the five candidates representing St Mellion Park distributed a flier around the parish, it included the following manifesto statement:-<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our objective during the coming electoral period is to reflect the interests of the parish and to utilize any resources for the benefit of all the residents of St Mellion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This statement seems completely at odds with the objective stated in your comment of preventing Band H precepts from rising in St Mellion Park.\u00c2\u00a0 I appreciate though that your views are your own and might not be those of the candidates representing you.<\/p>\n

Despite my points above, I fully understand your desire to have representation on the parish council.\u00c2\u00a0 St Mellion Park is a significant component of the parish and has every right to representation.\u00c2\u00a0 In your comment you express surprise at four candidates responding to a request to represent St Mellion Park.\u00c2\u00a0 Four would have given them, not only representation, but majority control over the parish council.\u00c2\u00a0 This begs the question as to why St Mellion Park then co-opted a fifth candidate and was declined by a sixth.\u00c2\u00a0 This suggests that mere representation was never the objective.\u00c2\u00a0 St Mellion Park sought, and indeed achieved, complete control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following my previous post regarding the Parish Council elections, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to proffer my thanks to Alan Twist for his concise comments.\u00c2\u00a0 Alan, please accept my apologies for the false supposition that the Solar Farm was the driving force behind the collaborative efforts of St Mellion Park.\u00c2\u00a0 I did hear rumours of the precept issue… Continue reading St Mellion Parish Election 2013 – Response to Alan Twist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-st-mellion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}