Nightmare for Cornwall

Showcasing Cornwall and in particular St Ives, is a fantastic opportunity for business, hospitality etc. Imagine the people who will be there when not "on duty" hanging around pub premises, they wont have ever seen anything like it, businesses will soare this weekend.I hope people socialy distance, wear masks,and are vaccinated.
St Ives is my favourite place and I love the publicity it is getting, it deserves it after a year of lock down.I wish I was there now!

When they had the G8 summit at Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire in 2005 it took me 5 hours to get home from work, normally a 20 min drive home, and I stay / work 20 miles away from Gleneagles ‘cos of all the security in place and traffic backing up… must be awful for the residents….

I agree with JenniferEccles, Elliane and Paperbackwriter.
I also live in Cornwall.
Yes there is major disruption in the Duchy, not just due to G7 but also the long traffic delays due to resurfacing of the road bridge over the Tamar dividing us from Devon.
This beautiful region has had many TV programmes during this past year celebrating its best features, these are sold world wide, and favourably commented upon by friends abroad,
Ashcombe’s message about the loss of EU workers is important
too, personally I thought it was a great pity to see acres of Daffodils in bloom, followed by Narcissus all going to waste as there were no pickers available.
The Duchy has massive divides of the wealthy second homers whose purchases of property leaves too many seaside communities virtually empty out of season and unaffordable for locals. The contrast was well researched in Simon Reeves’ telling TV report on Camborne and Redruth’s urban deprivation.
Its a privilege to have an international conference here, the temporary disruption is not a catastrophe! Although mizzle has dominated here during the past two days we have a sunny weekend forecast, after which this will be history.

You can’t “go for a drive to a quiet beach” at the moment notright. That’s the point.

Stubugs

Sorry, Mawbe but you are completely out of line on this one - a view just a tad shortsighted? Try thinking of the bigger picture!

It's not exactly come as a shock, has it? I haven't been in the UK since last August, but I seemed to know about it, and so the locals will have been well aware. Leaving town for a few days would have been an obvious way of avoiding things.

Elsewhere in the UK, this is what people do. Silverstone area residents leave for the week of the Grand Prix - and rent out the house to teams for good money. Ditto the golf Open.

Of course it comes hard down there. Real Cornish people regard traditionally anyone from the other side of the Tamar as foreigners!

Nannashirlz Also had an ex on phone last night saying trying to get to work for him at present is a nightmare he lives in Cornwall and a builder so he can’t work at home.

I live in mid Cornwall and the only problem today are queues on the A30. Mainly due to holiday traffic arriving - it's Friday. Every Friday for nearly 7 months is always the same.

The G7 (diversion) signs have been up ages. My friend lives near Newquay and is taking a detour which added 15 mins onto her journey to work Wednesday and yesterday. I agree with her, it's just for a few days. Blink and it will be gone.

25Avalon. We both put Cornish tin put into our wedding rings. Local jeweller and tin from the South Crofty mine here.

Not sure why they chose this venue, as the roads are a nightmare during the tourist season, and judging by the coverage on BBC this morning the closure of major roads and traffic checkpoints aren’t making things any better. I do hope the locals will profit from all of this and that it won’t make the Covid situation any worse.

Don't you think its rather ironic that the conference is about climate change and yet for just 3 days they have used ships, planes, helicopters, cars, motorcycles, lorries and trains. Which has probably made more pollution than the last 10 tourist full summers in Cornwall.

Just a few days where life is a little different, not a nightmare. Not a nightmare if you have any interest in the future of the planet and increasing vaccinations world-wide. Not if you are delighted to see world leaders here and enjoying our lovely County. Not if you are proud of Cornwall and all that it has to offer. Let's be positive!
Cornwall is not 'ringed with steel.' For most of us here it's life as usual with some added interest. Plus knowing that history is being made just up the road!

Calistamon I am presuming that you do not consider your next door but one a neighbour then?

It's a few days' disruption. The London Olympics brought many more ongoing challenges with huge influxes of people and cars in many different parts of the city. The fact is that it did showcase London, and so did the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2000 with all the resulting economic benefits. Cornwall is a beautiful county and should stay that way but the preservation of its idyllic surroundings must be funded and for that Cornish businesses must be able to contribute. Cornwall and St Ives are now being showcased globally and the economic benefits will flow, and then filter through to local residents. However, all this said, I do believe that all incomers to the interior of the ring of steel should be vaccinated - that's not rocket science. It will be interesting to watch the covid statistics for the area after the event. Fingers crossed they don't escalate and put the county out of reach for summer holidays.

We have long lines in Falmouth waiting to get covid tests, our Fitness clubs have sent out warnings of increased cases and quite a few shops are closing just now. At least Track & Trace is working, a young chap we know go 'pinged' yesterday so has to isolate for 2 weeks.Thing is, he is self employed & relies on day to day work so will lose 2 weeks earnings.
When you import 1000 police from Scotland alone as well as extra personnel from all over the U.K. and hundreds of people flying in from all over the world, I guess this is inevitable. Our only hospital has cleared two wards of all patients too, so sounds like medical cases are to be expected in the planning.

Stubugs

Sorry, Mawbe but you are completely out of line on this one - a view just a tad shortsighted? Try thinking of the bigger picture!

Well thank God for that, I have never wanted to be in line.
But as for assuming I don’t have the intellectual capacity to appreciate the “bigger picture” , thank you for the suggestion I am sure it would never have occurred to me without your helpful guidance.

some of you would never cope if you lived in London with the constant security and disruption.
The residents of Cornwall only have it for a few days.
I think those in the area on GN seem quite laid back and happy to see the summit there.
good posts from muse and oldudders.

Theoddbird

Calistamon I am presuming that you do not consider your next door but one a neighbour then?

Yes but they're not next door! In fact, I can't even see them.

Somerset and Dorset are a long way from Cornwall and I can't see what benefit Somerset or Dorset would gain from this apart from traffic jams.

Or even neighbouring Devon, unless the hospitals in these counties are used which is not really a benefit for locals.

Evie66

Don't you think its rather ironic that the conference is about climate change and yet for just 3 days they have used ships, planes, helicopters, cars, motorcycles, lorries and trains. Which has probably made more pollution than the last 10 tourist full summers in Cornwall.

Don't forget all the trees which were chopped down too, Evie66

Sorry, Mawbe but you are completely out of line on this one - a view just a tad shortsighted? Try thinking of the bigger picture!

Stubug I think the irony of all this with regard to ^the bigger picture^has not escaped some of us, including MawBe

We were in London recently to see Van Morrison at the Palladium and the streets are in total chaos. The money outlined for road repairs has been used to close roads and create endless one way traffic systems. I think the job was given to the work experience student.

At least my OH has accepted that we will travel by train next time around. Literally nowhere to park as all the underground car parks have been sealed off as well.

Just respect our leaders and be grateful we have them. When the Open is held in Sandwich Kent, we are swamped by golf fans camera crews and media outlets from around the world.
We rent three rooms out for just for duration of the Open and it pays our council tax and house insurance for 2 years with some over. It also puts Sandwich on the map so we get a lot of visitors following the free publicity of the Open.

It’s only a few days. Cornwall is used to overcrowding. It’s what pays the bills. Same as the Lake District. I wonder why they didn’t think that would be a good place to hold the summit.

Try the Glastonbury Festival. Most folks from Pilton aim to be away that weekend. In fact I think the organisers pay them to be away. The roads around are chaos and to be a aided. Come to think of it not good for The Royal Bath and West Show either but not so noisy. Then there is the Isle of Wight Festival.

Avoided not a aided

I love Cornwall and I'm glad that the world will now get to see how special it is. I'm also delighted that some of the local towns will get more money as many towns and villages in Cornwall will miss the money they have received, in the past, from the EU, and outside of the tourist areas many are run down and under resourced. I think the police are doing an amazing job under very difficult circumstances, but I admit to bias as one of the key police officers involved in organising the response is a very close relative.

However:

The Pandemic seems to have been completely ignored and it will be no surprise to anyone if one of the safest places in England suddenly becomes rife with the Delta Variant. I've just read that one of the police officers on the ship has tested positive.

My own preference would have been to hold a virtual meeting with Cornwall as the backdrop - and I have no doubt this could have been done well and imaginatively, but as it was deemed necessary to hold in-person meetings I do think much more could have been done to travel wisely. I've taken the train to Cornwall many times and although long, it really is a beautiful journey and I've no doubt that First Class travel could have been arranged.

Are these people from red and amber list countries? Do they have to quarantine like the rest of us? If not, why not?

I kind of agree. Carbis is a very small village reached down winding narrow lanes. The old Carbis Hotel was old fashioned - it looks ritzy now. Most of that part of Cornwall is hard to get around. The last G7 was at the Celtic Manor and we were staying there for a wedding around the time they were setting up - Huge hotel near Cardiff and major road networks. Carbis Bay is beautiful but strange choice in view of the location - but I imagine there will be lot of people visit now its on the world map.

The G8, as it was then, was held in Fermanagh, N.ireland in 2013. Before it there were all the same predictions and anxieties about restrictions, security, an invasion of protesters etc and there were police sent in from all over the uk. In fact very few protesters arrived, possibly because too far for people to travel, the police who came from big cities in England loved being here and many said that they'd come back to holiday on the lakes. I don't think it really brought in any investment in the county but it was all very exciting and great fun having world leaders in town. President Obama even visited one of our local schools.