22nd February 2017

Nearly 150 people attended the “‘Show Some Love for Bodmin” event on Saturday designed to focus concern about the future of the town’s Public Rooms and other facilities.

A town council proposal to sell the Victorian-era building to a private cinema operator is fiercely controversial and has divided opinion in Bodmin.

Fin Irwin of arts consultants No Mean Feat, who have been supporting the campaign to keep the Public Rooms in public ownership, said: “It was great to see so many people show some love for our town. Thank you to everyone who came along and shared their thoughts, concerns and ideas. Bodmin is lucky to have such passionate residents.

"It was positive to see some current and former councillors taking an interest in this community-lead event, with a few in attendance.  The people of Bodmin clearly want to see their views more actively taken into account in decision-making, and community interests better represented. 

"We’ll be collating people’s feedback to publish, along with an update on The Public Rooms campaign.”

Ahead of the 4^th May council elections, the Public Rooms Trust commissioned a survey of a representative segment of the population, reflecting different age groups and demographics.  In response to the question “If there was a Parish Poll about confidence in Bodmin Town Council, how would you vote?” - 91% said they did not have confidence in the council, with 1% stating they did and 8% responding “don’t know.”