Cornwall Council has just announced its approval of a proposal put forward by a self-appointed group of people to form a Community Interest Company for Falmouth.

Community Interest Companies (CICs) are a new government initiative that allows groups of people to form a company to run events and raise money. They are mainly intended to help people to run specific things like community halls and care homes, and to raise money for charities, but they can also be set up for other purposes, as the scheme proposed for Falmouth seems to have been.

As a first step, the Falmouth group have applied to take over and manage the buildings and run events on the Prince of Wales Pier, which is a publicly owned Cornwall Council asset. However, they say that this will only be the first step and they plan to move on to take over and run other unspecified areas and activities around the town.

The first snag is that these people are not democratically elected, they are self-appointed, and will not be responsible to the people of Falmouth. They will have a job for life if they so wish, and cannot be voted out of office by the community if we do not like what they are doing.

The second snag is that if after a few years the people who set it up want to leave there is no guarantee of continuity. When an elected council run public activities there is a certainty of permanent long-term management on behalf of the community.

The third snag is that if in the future the people running the CIC want to close it down, all its money, assets and responsibilities must by law be passed to another CIC which might be anywhere in the country. Do we really want to run the risk of our town being run by managers based up-country?

Presently many of the public areas around the town are managed by the elected town council in co-operation with locally based residents and Cornwall Council. Two fine examples of how well the existing system works are the current building and improvements in Kimberley Park and the recently up-graded and very successful Tourist Information Centre on the Pier.

Groups behind CIC schemes must, by law, show that they have the approval of their local community. I do not believe the Falmouth group have shown this. Nevertheless, Cornwall Council seem to have approved their proposal without asking for any such proof.

Your elected Town Councillors are strongly of the opinion that there is no need for change and no need for this CIC and that responsibility for the management of the Pier and other public areas in the town should be with the elected council in co-operation with Cornwall Council and others they choose to appoint. If you don't like the way your councillors run things you can always vote us out of office.

If these people want to help run Falmouth they are welcome to get involved, but first of all they need to stand for election to the Town Council next May and show they have the approval of the people of Falmouth. Oliver Cramp Falmouth Town Councillor