In a new regular feature, Mayor Steve Eva and Deputy Cllr Kirstie Edwards provide an update on the things going on at the Town Council.

Both mayors will be addressing the community weekly writing about what they have been up to, their committees/meetings, and any issues/news affecting residents in the town.

This is what the pair had to say about the events over the past week and going forward...

Mayor Steve Eva

Over the last few weeks, we have been busy at the Town Council, most of our time has been trying to sort out the terrible situation GLL and Cornwall Council has put us in. GLL have had 4 years to sort out running Ships & Castles, and we have been given 6 weeks to work out a way forward or lose our leisure services, hardly fair don't you think.

We held two public meetings and gathered over 1600 surveys to find out the views of our residents. This has all been fed through the Town Council and findings sent to Cornwall Council.

We have engaged with our MP and hopefully, there will be a way forward and the forgotten Town of Falmouth will be remembered and treated fairly once more. If only we were Truro the pot would be endless.

I attended the unveiling of the plaque for Were Fox a famous inventor back in the 1800s and was the inventor of the Dipping Needle to help ships navigate the world.

I attended the Mayor Making of the new Mayor of St Austell a most enjoyable night and best wishes to Richard Pears the new Mayor, of course, covid has put pay to a lot of events this and last year and was nice to catch up with old faces.

Friday 22nd I was at the Trafalgar Night celebration at the Greenbank Hotel enjoying good food, company and some great speeches.

I held a special meeting on Monday 25th to collate and decide the Town Council response to all the Residents comments received reference Ships & Castles .

Thursday 28th I was invited to lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Falmouth to remember 100 years of the British Legion at Trebah Gardens. Which played a large part of the departure of the Normandy Landing in WW2.

Several meetings on the future of Falmouth are taking place behind the scenes and hopefully will need to a better future for the Town.

Saturday morning saw the laying of the first poppy which signals the start of remembrance a time to reflect on the past sacrifice by so many for us to enjoy our freedom now.

We should never forget those we lost and a reminder that Remembrance Sunday 14th November will see the town's service at Kimberley park at 11am there will be a Parade from the Moor at 10:35, assembly at the Park at 10:45.

On a sad note, it is a shame that one of our Town Councillors has decided that democratic decisions only apply to other councillors and not him and takes every opportunity to disrespect fellow Councillors and staff for his own gain. Hopefully, he will try and join the rest of us and be a team player for the whole town and not just his projects.

Covid is still with us please mask up entering buildings and respect other people's space.

Cllr Kirstie Edwards - Deputy Mayor

Firstly, apologies for our lack of report in the last couple of weeks. It's been all hands on deck in the fight to save ships and castles. For me, its been my first exercise in running public meetings and true diplomacy.

As many of you know, I am rather outspoken and have some big opinions I also have a long history of public protest and for being passionate about many issues.

Obviously, in my new role, I must always be mindful of the diversity of opinion within our council and community. I should never speak on behalf of the community or council without a mandate to do so. It can make things tricky of course, but it also allows me to challenge my own ideas and opinions to ensure they are valid and representative of our population.

It was incredible to have such varied and insightful engagement from our community, I learnt a lot and was surprised along the way by the strength of opinion.

I can now understand the challenge of public-facing roles a little more, you are elected to represent the people and ensure their voice is heard, but also must abide by the rules and standing orders of office.

To that end, I will briefly touch upon our letter to our member of parliament regarding sewage overflow. I will always insist on kindness and compassion, we may as humans, differ in our opinions and be passionate about the subject matter at hand, but we all have a duty to ensure everyone in our community feels safe and that difference of opinion doesn't spill over into hate and abuse.

There are 16 of us councillors, we are diverse in background, politics, age, gender and opinion, as we should be. Those differences bring true debate and representation to the table and ensure that the

many voices of our community are heard.

I am very grateful to my colleagues for their guidance, questioning, respect and support. It has been wonderful to see everyone pull together on ships and castles and to see the community voice being heard loud and clear on the issues that matter to you.

We also got to go and visit young people at both King Charles and Falmouth schools to hand out awards, talk about what a council does and how we can all play our part and do something important, however small we sometimes feel. Yes, even me! It's such a pleasure to have the opportunity to be so involved in our community and answer questions from our young residents.

It was also an honour to lay a poppy cross, at my first official remembrance event on Saturday morning and to meet some real heroes from our community. This role is incredibly varied and rewarding and I continue to feel grateful that I get to represent our town at such events. Thank you!

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