OK – when I took this I confess that I was planning a story about horizontal rain and 50 mile an hour winds but then a little bit of magic happened. The sunshine bus was doing battle with said wind and rain on the way home from Uni and I was listening to the soothing tones of Radio 4. God I love radio 4. If you had told me that when I was fifteen and complaining like mad about not being allowed to listen to the Radio 1 breakfast show and having to listen to dreary old Radio 4’s Today programme. It’s shocking how quickly I progressed from R1 to R4 with no flirtation with Radio 2 in between. BOOM – one day it was Radio 1 and the next I found myself thinking Brian Redhead and John Humphries were the best thing ever!

I digress. I was listening to R4’s early evening output and the last item on the six o’clock news show at about two minutes to six-thirty made my ears prick up. They were talking to Blackie. I’ve not actually met him myself and you’ll realise why in a moment. David, on the other hand knows him reasonably well – well as well as any man who has been trapped in his barber’s chair for the duration of a haircut. He’s the man who has been charged with keeping David’s mop under control for the last eight years (!!!???!!!) since we moved to Cornwall. He’s the local “gentleman’s barber” and a very traditional one too. David often comes home with tales of the thing that Blackie has been ranting about today! He’s as opinionated as a black cab driver and we love him for it.

He was being interviewed today for falling foul of Cornwall Council who have put him on their “cautionary contact list” list apparently. This is a list of people who are considered dangerous to council employees. The reason for this action is that good old Blackie has been doing the residents of Liskeard a great service recently. There are double yellow lines outside his shop and whenever he sees a traffic warden coming down the street a loudhailer goes off with a police siren followed by a message that a traffic warden is coming. Hee hee. Blackie says it’s only right and proper to give people due warning because parking charges in Liskeard are so shocking.

Cornwall council say that this makes him dangerous. The residents of the town think he’s a hero. The traffic wardens think “he’s pathetic”. I agree with the rest of the residents.

What strikes me about this is that this is a dying town. Residents of the UK will know that the situation is so dire that the Government gave us money (£100k) as one of the 10 most in need towns in the country, to try to rejuvenate the town centre and frankly, with our current government, that’s a thing as rare as a hen’s tooth. It’s “Mary Portas money”. The thing is that it’s a tiny town and half of all the shops are empty. The local council used to charge 10p for a half hour stay in the car park, which meant that if you needed to nip into town for a few bits and bobs you could easily do that without a huge financial outlay. The cost doubled to 20p but in the scheme of things that didn’t seem too bad. Recently however, the council have put the car park fees up so that the minimum ticket you can buy is 2 hours for £1. OK – I accept that 2 hours for £1 is cheap in relation to a city centre car park BUT you have to bear in mind that even the most avid shopper would find it hard to find enough to do in Liskeard to warrant such an investment. The council claim they are bringing Liskeard in line with their other town centre car parks in other Cornish towns but the other towns have more to offer in the way of shops.

I have to confess that I now rarely set foot into the town centre because of the car park charge. I only go in now if I have to collect a parcel from the post office and then I’ll try to get DM to drive while I run into the post office so we don’t pay to park at all. The sad thing is that the shops that are there are almost all really good: there is a wonderful greengrocer; a fresh fish shop to rival any; a superb butcher that if I find myself needing to buy meat for guests I will always go to; an excellent hardware shop amongst others. Of course there is always Blackie too. The sad thing is that the town is slowly dying and no-one seems to be able to stem the flow of life blood from it. There are not enough shops to make it a shopping destination and the car park charges make people think twice about popping in for a few bits and bobs. I’m ashamed to admit that I go to Morrisons more often now that I have to pay “real money” in the town centre.

So, GO BLACKIE. Don’t give up the fight. The council and their traffic wardens will kill off the town totally without folks like you challenging them!

BTW - this photo was taken of the same window as this.