News Archive

Haunted pub set to close

TIME could be called on one of St Blazey's best known landmarks.
The Cornish Arms in St Blazey is under offer and looks likely to cease trading as a pub.
The Church Street hostelry, a former coaching inn, has been a familiar sight next to the village church for more than 80 years.
It's believed that a local builder has put an offer in to St Austell Brewery, the owners of the building, for the freehold. That offer has been accepted (subject to contract) and it's believed that the purchaser plans to convert the premises into private dwellings and apartments.

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Town council to met over Wainhomes appeal

COUNCILLORS are staging a special meeting to formulate a strategy following a developer's decision to go to appeal on its plans to build 1,300 homes in the town.
St Austell Town Council is organising the gathering to ensure the authority’s views are represented after Wainhomes lodged an appeal for non determination on the scheme, which is earmarked to be built on 126 acres of pastureland to the west of Carclaze.
Cornwall Council was due to make a decision on the application by Monday, March 22,  but the authority had been given extra time to bring the application to committee, following negotiations with the house builder to iron out several issues.

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Cornish cross — the Chinese way

A STUNNING sculpture symbolising peaceful international relations has been unveiled at a specialist St Austell language college.
The Celtic Cross has been put on display at Penrice Community College to mark its association with schools in China.
A group of 18 year seven students have been working alongside local blacksmith artists Gary and Thomas Thrussell to bring the seven foot tall structure to fruition.
The youngsters designed and made six copper panels in the piece, which depict images including Cornish and Chinese writing, fishing, tin mining, a Cornish pasty, the Eden Project and King Arthur to celebrate the links between local and international heritage.

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Tortoises 'not pets' claim council

A small animal sanctuary in Sticker faces closure following a bizarre interpretation of animal legislation by Cornwall Council.
Joy Bloor’s Tortoise Garden, which has been home to abandoned, sick and unwanted Tortoises for the past 12 years, has been told by the new unitary authority that it must now apply for zoo status or they will take legal action to close it in less than a month.
Under the Zoo licensing Act 1981, collections of animals normally kept as domestic pets are exempt from the expensive regime of regulations and inspections required by zoos, but Cornwall Council has decided that one of Britain’s favourite pets of the last hundred years — the humble Tortoise — should be re-classified as a wild animal on a par with Lions, Tigers, Elephants and Giraffes, going against Government guidance that exempts ‘True domestic breeds, and selectively bred wild species, introduced to this country relatively recently, but now so commonly kept outside zoological collections as to justify regarding them as normally domesticated in Great Britain’.

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Harry returns Nazi booty

A wartime relic from Nazi Germany has been reunited with the town it was liberated from 65 years ago by a St Austell war veteran.
Sixty-five years after snatching Nazi mementos in the German town of Goch, former sapper and Normandy veteran Harry Billinge  donated a rare Nazi Swastika banner  to the town's war museum in a visit to coincide with the D-Day anniversary in Normandy.
The sprightly 84-year-old was part of the British push that invaded the German Rhineland in 1945. After fierce fighting, the town of Goch was captured by the Allies and Harry took the opportunity to help himself to some keepsakes as the occupying forces retreated.

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'Northern Expansion' goes to appeal

A CONTROVERSIAL planning decision on whether to grant permission to build 1,300 houses in St Austell has been taken out of Cornwall Council’s hands, writes Warren Wilkins.
Wainhomes lodged an appeal on Monday for non determination so the Secretary of State will now appoint a planning inspector to decide if the development earmarked to be built on 126 acres of pastureland to the west of Carclaze should be approved.
Cornwall Council was originally due to make a decision on the application by Monday, March 22, but the authority was given extra time to iron out several issues in the scheme following negotiations with the developer.

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Dog stabbed and dumped

AN INVESTIGATION is under way after the bodies of two dogs were discovered in the St Austell area, one of which appears to have been stabbed and dumped in a sleeping bag.
A walker made the gruesome discovery of a male light tan or beige coloured elderly Mastiff cross in scrubland near the Ironbridge on the old A30, close to Roche on Wednesday, April 21.
The dog was wearing a red half-choke collar. A post-mortem examination revealed the Mastiff had four puncture wounds in his side, at least two of which appear to have happened prior to his death, which may suggest he was stabbed.

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Hero boy saves neighbours

A twelve-year-old St Blazey boy has been hailed a hero for risking his life to save his neighbours from a raging fire.
Peter Tyrell raised the alarm as a fire ripped through two properties in Rosehill, St Blazey, and helped the family escape last Monday night.
The quick thinking Fowey Community College student was in his house in Landreath Place when he spotted smoke and flames coming from a house in neighbouring Rosehill, where his mother was visiting friends.
He raced to the two semi-detached properties that border the main road in St Blazey and banged on both doors to raise the alarm, dodging a loose high voltage power cable that was flailing on the ground.

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Crossbow attack on duck

A BUGLE animal lover was shocked and disgusted to discover his pet duck had been shot with a crossbow in a cold-hearted, vicious attack.
When feeding his ducks last Monday morning, Richard Hickmott  found a crossbow bolt sticking through one-year-old Jemima’s wing.
Richard, who keeps ducks, chicken, geese and and guinea fowl, immediately took her to Rock View Vets in Roche where she was examined and x-rayed.
Jemima, which Richard has had since she hatched, was anaesthetised and the bolt was removed.

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Beach defences come down

DETAILED plans are due to be submitted in the autumn to build a £250m holiday resort at Carlyon Bay, which will include new sea defences.
Meanwhile, developer The Commercial Estates Group is now removing the temporary sea defences at Shorthorn Beach at the eastern end of the Carlyon Bay development.
This is likely to take approximately 10 weeks. Sections of Shorthorn Beach will have to be closed to the public for safety reasons during this period.
The company has approached Cornwall Council asking for permission to delay similar work on Crinnis so the beach can remain open to the public during the school holiday period and is currently awaiting a response.

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