My Cornwall my home

I live in Newquay and run a small business in Truro. I find it very sad to see year on year the decline of these respective high streets, empty shops, to let signs it’s not great for the locals and only encourages tourists to shop in supermarkets and chain stores... this money does not go to the county, it lines the pockets of shareholders only. More needs to be done to support our towns, to encourage businesses with lower rates and cheaper or free parking. Go to any European town where the parking is free and shop rates are low or don’t exist you will see bustling trade, the same cannot be said here, this needs real forward and progressive thinking, you cannot flog a dead horse.
Affordable housing needs addressing, it is unjust that people here are priced out of their own county, often with no benefit to the community, more often than not killing the spirit of a place, especially in winter. It’s almost parasitic that the visitor ends up killing off the very host that attracted them in the first place. The disparity between cost of living and wages only aggravates this situation.
Bins and recycling... it needs to be reversed, recycling taken every week general waste once a fortnight, encourage recycling, take green / food waste so the amount that’s going to landfill can be reduced, again this serves to help with the growing population down here and our commitment to our environment and the sea which surrounds us. And please enforce proper bins so seagulls can’t just get in and create rubbish strewn roads.
With a hole network of disused tunnels and train tracks throughout the county I wonder why a major project to get these used again to ease traffic and connect our towns and connections with the rest of the country more efficiently cannot be considered, it would be huge but so is HS2 and apparently it’s vital. Something has yo be done improve traffic and the accidents that frequently happen at Chiverton, that roundabout is a death trap.

thank you for this opportunity

Ellie