New site for police station

BEHIND-the-scenes negotiations are taking place for an alternative site for Falmouth's new police station.

After years of wrangling and battling it out with planners and conservationists, the old police station could now be discarded and an office built at the other end of town.

If current negotiations are successful, it could mean a waterside police station on Peter de Savary land at Port Pendennis behind Grove Place and a re-think over traffic flows in Falmouth.

Police chiefs are known to be playing their cards close to their chests following the problems they had with planning for the existing police station off The Moor.

Clampers in new quay controversy

WHEEL-clampers who operate on Falmouth's Custom House Quay have this week been accused of 'extortion' after they insisted a tourist paid the £47 fee even though a clamp had not been fixed to her car.

Mrs Jacqueline Hardy and her husband Graham were on a camping holiday in Cornwall and had come to Falmouth to do some shopping when they parked their car on the quay.

Mrs Hardy admits she went 30 minutes over her ticket because she lost track of time, but when they returned to their car they discovered they were about to be clamped by Armtrac Security Services.

"I stood in front of the wheel and asked what was going on," said Mrs Hardy.

Mrs Hardy added: "He said I could give him the £47 and he would not put the clamp on. I got upset and distressed because it was such a lot of money. He blocked our way and as we are not the sort of people to argue if we are in the wrong we paid up.

"We discovered after that the signs say you pay the £47 to remove the clamp. We had not realised that legally we were in the right in as much as he had not got the clamp on the car."

ECC submit 100-house plan for Swanpool

PLANS to build just under 100 new houses on land overlooking Swanpool at Goldenbank in Falmouth, were due to be discussed by Carrick planners last night.

ECC Construction has applied for outline permission for a residential development on the land below Goldenbank which overlooks Swanpool.

The proposed development would be a mixture of both "conventional" and "low cost" homes and the site would be served via extensions to the two existing access roads – Penhale Road and Boscundle Avenue.

The site is made up of the whole of the two southernmost fields in the area, which are allocated for residential development and small areas of two adjacent fields.

The proposed scheme breaks down to provide 72 low cost homes and about 24 other private homes.

Carrick's planning department has received a letter of objection from the Gyllyngvase and Swanpool Residents Association who claim the proposals would cause irreparable harm to the Swanpool area.

Shiplovers club spellbound by computer magic

IF you fancy driving a supertanker from the comfort of an armchair at the Hotel St Michaels, then you should go along to the Falmouth Blue Peter League meeting at 1930 hours on Thursday October 21.

There the dedicated band of local shiplovers will be hosting PC Maritime, experts in personal software who have produced many award winning maritime programmes for the computer.

Their most recent success has been the remarkable 'Officer of the Watch' simulator programme which won the 1993 Seatrade International award for their contribution to Safety at Sea.

Officer of the Watch is founded on a unique expert system with a knowledge base of the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collision at Sea. In three dimensions, the operator enters a realistic and truly interactive exercise covering the full range of visibility by day or night. With six types of 'own' vessel ranging from supertanker to fishing vessel and eleven different types of target vessels all reproducing real vessels the combinations combinations of collision and pilotage situations is inexhaustible. At the press of a button you can be in the radar mode or on the navigation chart.