Environment

see also Green Issues , Alternatives and Quarrying

West Cornwall's Environment:

West Cornwall has been described as a ‘palimpsest’ – a manuscript on which two or more texts have been written, each one erased to make room for the next’.  Of course many of these ‘texts’ – whether of landscape, social or industrial archaeology, have not been fully erased, and the place we know and love is a mixture of past and present, some parts more attractive than others, that has evolved slowly and gradually.

Like the landscape, people evolve gradually; we do not take well to sudden changes. A sudden change in our environment can cause feelings of distress, disconnection, alienation; but until the damage is done, we do not realise what we have lost.

Moreover, if the change involves the introduction of something radically different from what went before, the sense of alienation is increased. The Port Penlee development, and the other simultaneous proposed developments in the immediate area, add up to a loss of the loved and familiar that could be psychologically acute.

This isn’t just a ‘fear of change’ Luddite argument. There is an inherent value in place or landscape which we overlook at our peril.  When people talk about ‘Mickey Mouse’ developments they don’t just mean vulgarity, tackiness, inappropriateness. They are also referring to what is lost in order to create it. People who have seen marinas built in other places refer to their ‘soullessness’. We believe that the Port Penlee development would be somewhere between a pity and a sacrilege, depending on how highly you rate landscape as a resource.

“The character of our countryside – its local distinctiveness, its variety, its historical and spiritual depth – is what makes it so special. It is character which makes people feel that their locality matters and that the place where they live is different to other places. It is character which makes for a rich variety of landscapes, rather than a bland placelessness. It is character which gives people the feeling of being linked to a place – somewhere that is special and worth fighting for…  Just as family heirlooms, of personal not monetary value, cannot be replaced after a burglary, so it is with the local character – the meaning- of the landscape and the wildlife that inhabits it.

It is a modern, fashionable untruth that the continuity of landscape can be recovered once destroyed. Time is an absolute currency, a gold standard.  If a landscape feature took 500 years to take its present form, then that is what it will take again.”

From the CPRE Report “Your Countryside Your Choice” 2005

Just because Objective One money suddenly becomes available doesn’t mean we need to spend it instantly – and wealthy developers are not necessarily the people who know what is best for our area!  We need to address some profound questions when we consider what we want, what we are we doing, and why.

‘an apprehension of transcendent landscape has profound implications for how we live, for then their exploitation, like our exploitation of each other, becomes sacrilegious as well as immoral… through an appreciation of the imaginative power of landscape, we come face to face with the living reality that is the ground and source of our being…’

Alex Wright Face to Faith The Guardian

Penlee in 2002; around the time the clearance work began
(click image to enlarge)

Cornwall has historically been a place where people come and go. Our 'Cousin Jacks' have emigrated across the globe, some went off in search of fortune, and some went because they had no choice. Many returned invigorated and many returned disillusioned after months, or years away. At the same time an enormous cross-section of people have come from outside to make their home in Cornwall. Some stay a short while, while others settle and make their home and life here. This has occurred for the best part of the last one hundred and fifty years. This is the spirit of Cornwall: a slow, steady evolution with a hearty collection of indigenous residents and incomers who, in the main, live quite happily side by side. However, this is a delicate balance that should not be disturbed.

The problem with the Port Penlee and the extensive Newlyn redevelopment is that it will mean a sudden and massive influx of newcomers who are sure to upset the established equilibrium and this is guaranteed to have a number of knock-on effects that will affect our culture in very unpleasant ways. There is already a brooding resentment among many locals that incomers are driving up house prices which, in turn, is driving our young people out of the county to both find work, and to find a reasonably priced house. This resentment can only get worse unless the problem is addressed at source – reduce the availability of second homes for a start so the last thing we should be doing is allowing our elected representatives to pass planning applications to provide a heap of new ones. It is gratifying to know that Andrew George MP is most concerned about the second homes issue and we can only hope that he loudly proclaims his opposition to the development schemes for at least this reason alone when, and if, the planning applications are made.

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Click Here to read a selection of articles relating to the Impact on our Culture and Housing

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MK says no to 'second homes'
click here to read the press release from Mebyon Kernow

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Heritage

The word ‘heritage’ can have many connotations: ‘natural heritage’, ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘historical heritage’ for instance. The preceding two essays on Environment and Culture fall within this framework but there are several more ways in which the Port Penlee, and surrounding developments, will affect this: our architectural heritage is a prime example.

click here to download the 20-page Newlyn Trail Guide

Newlyn, Mousehole, Paul and Penzance have a rich tapestry of architecture with many original buildings and street plans going back into the 1700’s and even earlier. This is one of the main reasons why people love living here and why we  attract visitors in such large numbers. This architecture and the history with which it is imbued are highly cherished qualities that are simply beyond price. There is a solidity; a feeling of permanence and timelessness. They are inexorably interwoven in the Cornish psyche. To place any modern  development adjacent or in the proximity to these historic settlements would be a defilement; an act of vandallism no less.

The esteemed architectural journalist and author Stephen Gardiner was alerted to the Port Penlee and other developments and was so appalled that he devoted two scathing articles about it to his regular column in The Times. We share the views of Mr Gardiner in that the incongruity of placing a complete ‘model village’ (of which to us Port Penlee resembles) next to the long-established historic communities of Newlyn, Mousehole and Paul, is a travesty. Anyone who does not see this is either a Philistine or an idiot! We would further suggest that anyone who puts profit before heritage should seriously examine their prioities. Even when viewed in such mercenary terms, the old arguments about the developments “bringing in new jobs” or “people can't eat history” fall flat: In 2004, The revenue generated in Penwith from tourism and related businesses was £230million, over six times that of the fishing industry, the next largest. We must not let these developments damage our heritage or kill the golden goose.

Mr Gardiner informed us that he received a telephone call from Tony Jarman (Managing Director of Port Penlee) after his articles appeared in the Times. Mr Jarman was at pains to point out that the architect that had been appointed to design the various houses, offices and hotel for Port Penlee was MJ Long and that it was the same MJ Long who was the (award winning!) architect responsible for designing the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. Mr Jarman didn’t quite see the irony in this as this hideous jumble of Lego is as much out of place on the historic waterfront site of Falmouth as Altons Towers would be inappropriate if sited next to Stonehenge. This reinforces our point entirely; to us, or to anyone who appreciates timeless historical buildings and their surroundings: the juxtaposition of such a grotesque modern building on a prime historic site suggests the architect responsible should be locked up, not given an award!

The MJ Long-designed, 'award winning' National Maritime Museum in Falmouth Harbour
(click to enlarge)

(As a further point of interest: One of the members of  the jury panel that selected (MJ) Long & Kentish as the winning architects for the National Maritime Museum Project was none other than Ingrid Heseltine who was, at the time, working for Cornwall County Council as their ‘New Initiatives Manager’ in their Objective One office. Ms Heseltine was also responsible for securing the £28m of grant funding for that very same project; a project that she continued to work on in her capacity as Managing Director of her new company, DeFacto Project Management. It is of course DeFacto Project Management that have created and pieced together all the various parts of the Port Penlee and Newlyn, Penzance and Newlyn Coombe schemes and will have no-doubt helped secure all the various grant funding packages for them also. Cosy eh?)

Try and reconcile the incongruity of the architecture portrayed in the artist’s impressions of Newlyn and Port Penlee illustrated below, with that of the existing architecture of Mousehole and Newlyn, only half a mile away. We trust you are suitably appalled.

The images above show the developers' vision for The Strand, Newlyn

This would be the view from the site of the Old Fish Market (left) and towards the Coombe (right)

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This is the developers' artist's impression and scale model of the Port Penlee 'Toy Town' model village!

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Don't let them create another 'Anywhere Town'
Regeneration and the historic towns of Cornwall and Scilly
click here to read the Introductory Statement of the Cornwall And Isles of Scily Urban Survey (CSUS)

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