Anna Pascoe

Nine times out of ten I use this website to promote the shops and events that represent the best Camborne has to offer. On this one occasion, unfortunately, there is something rather more disturbing to report.
This weekend I encountered a man making lewd comments and trying to expose himself in the lane between Boundervean Lane and Camborne Park. This lane is a popular shortcut for children going to school or to the park, for dog walkers, joggers and for anyone who lives around the area it’s a handy shortcut up to the main town.
Sadly despite reporting it within a few minutes of the incident, the police weren’t able to catch him so please be careful when you are out and about. Tall, mid 40s white male, heavy frame, dark clothing, brown hair.

Tom Ford, the Lib Dem candidate in the upcoming Camborne Town Council by election, has called for pride in Camborne to be the main focus of his campaign.

“People are often quick to criticise Camborne, but I enjoy living here, it’s a nice place and I aim to promote the many positives of this town through my campaign,” said Tom, aged 25.

Tom lives in the Roskear area of Camborne, and has worked in catering and retail since leaving school in 2001. He enjoys following sport and watching the Cornish Pirates in his spare time. His father is a popular local businessman, working in the car trade for over 25 years. Tom has successfully been appointed assistant manager for a new bookshop set to open on Trelowarren Street this month.
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“I’m keen to get started with my new role and am pleased that a new business is coming to Camborne,” commented Tom.

Anna Pascoe, town councillor for the North ward of Camborne added:

“I am really looking forward to working with Tom to promote pride in Camborne. Tom’s energy and enthusiasm make him a great role model for Cornish young people and he would be a brilliant ambassador for the town on it’s Council.”

Congratulations this week to the Tyacks Hotel, on Commercial Street, which has been nominated as Pub of the Year in the Great British Pub awards.

Tyacks has provided part- and full-time employment for many Camborne people over the years, including myself when I was a student and then later after my graduation.

The current manager, Jodie, does a great job leading her team. She is one of the youngest tenanted managers I know in the county, certainly to be running such a large turnover establishment. This makes the nomination even more of an achievement!

The awards ceremony will be held on September 9th in London. Fingers crossed that Camborne and Tyacks will come up trumps!

On Tuesday this week, Camborne Town councillors were invited to visit the town’s fire station ahead of their open day this Saturday, to have a look round.

I’d not visited the station since I was at school, and needless to say there had been a few changes since then!

Everyone is aware of the day-to-day duties of the Fire and Rescue Service, such as house fires, arson, animal rescue etc. It was fascinating to learn just how many other responsibilities our station undertakes though - from youth education to community work.

Camborne is one of the busiest and largest stations in our county and is home to an Incident Response Unit, which can provide fast and mass response to a major incident, even a terrorist attack.

I certainly came away from my visit feeling a lot safer and very proud of the amount of responsibility our town’s firefighters undertake on our behalf.

Well worth a visit for the Community Open Day this Saturday, 31st July.

During the warmer weather, I usually become inspired to try lighter and more interesting recipes that have been scrapbooked from Sunday magazines over the years. This tends to involve searching high and low to find various unusual ingredients and spices to make the recipe taste like it should!
I usually go on the forage in the fabulous Camborne Delicatessen (see Shop of the Week passim), but when I popped in to town it was closing early so I ventured in to Julian Graves for the first time.
There was a goldmine of different spices and dried ingredients, many on special offer or promotional deals. I did actually forget to buy one of the things on my list, but can definitely get it there next time I’m in town!

As a licensee and a former committee member of Camborne Pubwatch, when thinking about which shop to feature this week, it struck me that it was probably about time I gave this slot to one of Camborne’s pubs for a change.

Dotted around the urban street scene of Camborne, whilst I appreciate not everyone’s cup of tea, licensed premises form an important part of our economy, with well-managed places causing minimal, if any, disruption.

I’ve signed up to the Back the Pub campaign - which you can too, by following this link www.backthepub.com

One of my favourite pubs in Camborne is The White Hart (Commercial Street). The landlord and landlady, Dickie and Gail, are always welcome hosts and a great atmosphere awaits you (especially at Friday night karaoke and for the big football matches)!

I never fail to bump in to old friends and workmates when I’m stopping by for a drink and there’s a wide range of alcoholic and soft drinks to choose from.

Hope to see you at the White Hart too soon!

It’s sad to see that even in the year or so that I’ve been posting on this site, some of the shops which I’ve written about have closed their doors for the final time.

Seeing a new shop open up is therefore even more welcome than usual and to support one of the more recent additions to Trelowarren Street, I’d like to mention the new Wholefoods Shop, a few doors down from the turn for Adelaide Street.

A whole range of organic, fairtrade, locally-produced and sustainable products adorn the shelves and it was hard not to pack my shopping basket too full, especially as I had walked in to town that day.

The lemon pepper rice cakes can be recommended, as can the Whole Earth cranberry drink.

Looking forward to trying more of their wares out over the coming months.

The shop I’d like to showcase this time round is Specsavers opticians, on Trelowarren Street.

All that peering at council documents over the last few years has had its effect on my eyesight and last year I got my first pair of glasses. In contrast to some retailers, where you’ve barely stepped inside the door and someone is asking you what they can get you, I’ve found so far that the service is always tactful and unobtrusive in Specsavers.

I needed to get some budget glasses for netball, so that if they fell off and broke it wouldn’t be horrendously expensive to replace them (I’ve got no excuse for making rubbish passes now though unfortunately)! Although someone who only wants the cheapest possible pair of glasses is probably not any sales assistant’s dream client, I received a really warm and friendly welcome, making sure I’d got everything I needed but without pushing the issue on things I clearly didn’t want, ie contact lenses, coated lenses, etc.

Not a shop I’ll be visiting regularly, unless the glasses do get smashed at netball, but I can confidently say that I’m in safe, friendly and professional hands next time my check-up comes round or I need to replace my prescription.

Shop of the week this week is Superdrug. Although part of a chain, I am pleased to see this store supporting the long-term employment of local people. I know that each time I pop in to stock up on toiletries, that I will see the same friendly faces welcoming me in the aisles and at the tills, serving me with a smile and being as helpful as possible.

The post-Xmas sale is still in full flow, so if stocking up on bargains is your style, do pop in before everything is snapped up! You’ll be hard-pressed to visit Superdrug without encountering good value offers on bathroom essentials. I tried their own-brand Vitamin E face wash recently, which is mild enough to keep your skin feeling soft if you suffer from dry skin in winter.

It’s nice for a shop that I remember from my childhood still to be doing well on Trelowarren Street.

At Camborne Town Council this week the police made us aware of an interesting course they will soon be running. The aim of the programme is to help anyone interested gain an insight into the running of the different departments of the police and their partner agencies. The course will cover the reasons why and explain how certain actions are carried out.

Do get in touch with the local police if you are interested in attending, alternatively send me your details and I can pass them on to the Town Clerk. The course is on Wednesday nights, starting on February 3rd and running until April 14th, from 7-9pm.

You can also type “Policing Pledge” in to the search box on your internet browser and then follow the instructions to enter your postcode to have a look at what the local constabulary pledges to do to stay in contact with local people and police that area effectively.