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00:00and showing the strength of feeling from the community about this potential injustice that we are watching unfold.
00:08My name's Liz Wright and I'm the one that kind of did the little Facebook event, so thank you for seeing that and joining us.
00:16There's a couple of us that want to just say a few things this morning before we all disperse.
00:21I'm going to pass on to Drew Creek, who is the Mayor of Newquay.
00:31Good morning, I'm Drew Creek, I'm the Mayor of Newquay and thanks to Liz and Jesse as well for really highlighting this issue over the last couple of weeks.
00:40This to me is an absolute travesty and a ridiculous decision by Cornwall Council to sell off or hand off even,
00:48that's even worse isn't it, handing over these car parks to a private entity so that they don't have to worry about enforcing them anymore.
00:56They think they have an issue with people not paying for parking but what we know is that these car parks are absolutely rammed in the summer
01:04and huge out onto the road and they are making tons of money off these and this money should be reinvested in the communities for which these car parks sit.
01:15Newquay is disproportionately affected by this issue because out of the 28 car parks across Cornwall we have 5,
01:23which is far more than any town, this is going to have a huge impact on Newquay and as Mayor I get so many emails over the summers
01:29to tell me about tourists who have had ANPR fines down at Little Fistral and at Fistral car park
01:38and they're using Little Fistral as an exemplar of why this is a great idea and we know it's a ridiculous idea.
01:46We have a huge problem with camping down there and all they do is put towers over the number plates and drive through so it's not solving the issue at all.
01:56At the Town Council we have one car park in Newquay and we reinvest the money from that car park into managing the town's green spaces
02:06and the infrastructure in Newquay like play parks, that's what these car parks should be used for for the community
02:13and should be staying in the community and shouldn't be sold off to a private entity in Birmingham via Cornmark.
02:21I'm glad to see that so many people out there, it's such a strength of building and I thank you all for coming out.
02:27I know that we've got the MP Noah Law here and I thank him and his colleagues from the Labour Party for supporting us today.
02:39And thank you, it would be remiss of me not to say thank you to my fellow Green Councillors here today as well on the Town Council.
02:47We're really passionate about this issue.
02:50Among other ridiculous issues that Council are having is debating around the airport, around planning decisions like the Hotel Bristol.
02:58I think the message here is clear that the Tories are not right for Newquay.
03:05I hope you'll remember that on May 1st.
03:07I'm going to hand over to Noah, our MP, who wants to say a few words.
03:12Thank you again, I'll be hanging around if you want to have a chat.
03:15Thanks so much everyone.
03:20Thank you Drew.
03:22Thank you everyone for coming.
03:24Look, I am really going to say only a few words because whilst I've been sort of grumbling away about this in my usual economics-y way
03:32for a few months now, I think it's fair to say that Jesse and the others that have campaigned here
03:39have brought this right back to the grassroots, captured everyone's hearts and minds on this issue
03:45and said exactly what we're all thinking, which is that we've had enough of box privatisations,
03:50we've had enough of Cornwall's money being sent to distant private companies upcountry.
03:57To have Jesse and others here today who I look forward to hearing from
04:01come and bring you all here from the grassroots is just phenomenal.
04:06People have had enough and I'm just delighted that you've all grasped this and spoken out against it.
04:13It's high time, so I think it's also high time we hear from Jesse and the others.