The Past Week

As a belated birthday present, Mrs Cox and Miss Cox treated me to a week away at my favourite holiday destination - Cornwall.

Whilst I have been away, I am delighted to have been asked to serve in the cabinet for another year as portfolio holder for Public Protection, Waste and Transport - a position that I have accepted.

During our stay, it is always nice to visit my favourite place St Michael's Mount but also spent a few hours in the surfing capital Newquay. This was an interesting visit for a number of reasons but also for its new shared space area in the High Street.

It was busy and the scheme resembles the new City Beach and Victoria Circus schemes. Newquay is a vibrant resort which attracts many young revellers as well as many day visitors.

It was interesting to observe the behaviours of both the pedestrians and motorists in this area. The shared space idea seemed to working very well and some of the locals that I spoke to were very receptive to the scheme which has been in place for nearly two years.

It seems that the shared space concept is an idea which is being implemented by many local authorities. There has been many column inches written about City Beach and Victoria Circus. As these are new schemes in their infancy it is important to let them bed in. As the new portfolio holder for transport I am aware of the issues raised about these schemes and will be monitoring these over the next few weeks.