News News round-up


Hydrogen vehicles to be


trialled


HYDROGEN vehi- cles are to be tri- alled by Cornwall Council in an at- tempt to improve air quality.


These gas vehi- cles offer an alterna- tive to using petrol, diesel, LPG (lique- fied petroleum gas) or electricity as fuel. The vehicles, in- cluding road sweep- ers, tippers, vans and lorry-mounted cranes, will be fitted with equipment which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen and allows the hydrogen to be used as fuel.


The equipment will operate along- side the existing en- gines of the vehi- cles.


The move has been welcomed in the county which has seven air qual- ity management ar- eas, including Cam- borne-Pool-Redruth , where there are concerns about the high levels of pollu- tion caused by vehi- cles.


The Government has given the coun- cil a £236,650 grant to trial the equip- ment which has the potential to save fuel and reduce emissions.


The council and its contractor, Cor- mac, will be working with Water Fuel En- gineering Ltd on the project.


As the vehicles carry out their nor- mal work, their emissions will be monitored.


Councillor Geoff Brown said: ‘This grant-funded trial is excellent news for Cornwall. Nitrogen dioxide and particu- late matter play a role in many of the UK’s health chal- lenges, so anything that helps to reduce these pollutants is very welcome.


‘If the trial is suc- cessful, this tech- nology has the po- tential to be widely used to convert cars and lorries and reduce emissions from many of the older vehicles on our roads, which could make a big difference to air quality in Cornwall’s seven air quality management areas.’ Phil Davies, of


Water Fuel Engi- neering, said: ‘We’re delighted to have the opportu- nity to work with Cornwall Council in this ambitious and pioneering project.’


More smoke alarms needed


LATEST fire statis- tics reveal that one smoke alarm may not be enough to provide you with the best chance of escaping a fire in the home, say Corn- wall firefighters. Despite the major- ity of homes (88 per cent) having at least one working smoke alarm, smoke alarms alerted householders to a fire in England in only a third of cases.


The most com- mon reason a smoke alarm failed to activate was be- cause the fire was outside its range. For this reason, the Fire Kills cam- paign and Cornwall Fire, Rescue and Community Safety


Service are encour- aging people in Cornwall to have a think about the number of alarms in their home. ‘We must all make sure that we have enough smoke alarms to cover our whole home,’ said Watch Manager Katie Hoskins- Sweeney.


‘If you don’t have enough, or they’re not in the right place, you might not be alerted in time.’


For more informa- tion, visit Fire Kills on Facebook or call 0800 3581 999 for free fire safety ad- vice. You can book a free fire safety visit online through cornwall.gov.uk


LERRYN Ryall, Jennie Opie and Kate Kennally with messages at the Growth Hub event marking International Women’s Day Why the ‘story needs to change’


A HIGH-PROFILE business- woman in Cornwall has said ‘the story needs to change’ if young women are to have more ambition. Lerryn Ryall, speaking at an event marking Interna- tional Women’s Day, said: ‘It is not about being better than men, it’s about confi- dence or lack of confidence in yourself.


‘The stories girls hear from a young age are all


about falling in love and having a family.


‘If we want them to have more ambition, then the story needs to change.’ Lerryn and her sister Lucy Cox set up Redruth- based Halto which manufac- tures an accessory to pre- vent neck pain and discomfort for women wear- ing a halterneck bikini. Lerryn’s comments were made during a debate organ-


ised by the Growth Hub in Cornwall and attended by 10 leading women from across the county.


The chief executive of Cornwall Council, Kate Ken- nally, was among those at- tending.


Roles


The group shared their ex- periences of starting and running a business, and dis- cussed ideas on how to en-


courage more women to be- come entrepreneurs and de- velop into leadership roles. The panel was asked what can be done to help women have the self-belief to achieve and all agreed that the key to tackling confi- dence issues in women was to start early.


Director of Bickerstaff & Co Chartered Accountants in Hayle Jennie Opie said: ‘You need to put your busi-


ness interests first, which can be a challenge when it comes to finding a balance in working relationships.’ Hattie Wombwell, manag- ing director of Wombwell Robertson Developments, Lostwithiel, said: ‘As an en- trepreneur, you just have to deal with having a family. If you work for yourself, you do not get maternity pay so you have to find what works for you.’


College receives national award


CORNWALL College has been awarded a top prize at the national 2017 Creative and Cultural Skills Awards.


Creative Flare, an in-house cre- ative learning company at the col- lege, was presented with the ‘Train- ing Provider of the Year’ award at a ceremony in London.


The awards recognise excellence within creative education and the college was nominated for the work that Creative Flare co-ordinates across performing arts, media and art and design courses at both the Camborne and St Austell campuses. Creative Flare delivers real-life commercial work that is supported by students who are involved from the outset.


AMANDA Wood and Miriam Venner, of Cornwall College, with the national award


The company has worked for or- ganisations such as Weatherspoons, Tolvaddon fire station, Geekfest at Heartlands and Volunteer Cornwall. Amanda Wood, of Cornwall Col- lege, said: ‘This win was a huge achievement for the college as we


have been developing how we de- liver enterprise, employability and entrepreneurship skills through our learning company since Creative Flare was introduced at the end of 2014. ‘We’ve been involved in some fan- tastic projects with external compa- nies and organisations and this has heavily influenced the way in which students are able to learn, the quality of their work and the di- versity it has offered in the develop- ment of their professional portfo- lios.


‘It’s been a huge privilege to have been to this event in London to rep- resent our college and to network with other like-minded profession- als at such an inspiring event.’ Miriam Venner, director of cul- ture and visitor economy at Corn- wall College, said: ‘It was great to see our innovative approach to de- veloping skills within the creative sector being recognised by such a prestigious organisation.’


The Camborne / Redruth / Hayle Gazette April 2017


5


A BUSINESS leader in Corn- wall has backed a call for a comprehensive free trade deal with the European Union after Brexit. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) made the call just days before Prime Minister Theresa May was due to trigger Article 50 which signals the start of a two-year negotiation period before Great Britain leaves the EU.


Supporting the call, the FSB development manager for Cornwall, Ann Vander-


Businesses call for free trade deal


meulen, said that any deal following Brexit must make it as easy as possible for small businesses to trade with the EU to ensure ex- porting remains a viable op- portunity for them.


Ann said: ‘Our members want the security of know- ing that it will be just as easy in the future to trade successfully and cheaply with our EU colleagues and they will not be saddled with tariffs and extra red tape. ‘Here in the South West we find we are already behind


other parts of the country in terms of the amount we ex- port and we don’t want the current uncertainty to deter even more businesses from taking the plunge into the export market.’


The FSB says that small business owners want a deal to trade without tariffs with the European Single Market, as they do at present, and that any imposition of such costs would deter a signifi- cant percentage from trad- ing with Europe.


The owners also say that it


is far easier to trade with countries within the Single Market than to trade with non-EU nations such as the USA, Australia and China. As the Brexit process be- gins, the FSB also wants the British Government to pro- vide the least costly access to non-EU markets.


The FSB, which has pub- lished a national report called Keep Trade Easy: What small firms want from Brexit, says that business owners want the Govern- ment to ensure ‘a sensible


phased implementation ar- rangement is put in place to avoid a cliff edge, once we have left the EU’.


A resounding majority of those who voted in the EU Referendum in Cornwall last June wanted Britain to leave the EU. However, the nature of the departure has not been decided. A ‘hard’ Brexit would see the country leav- ing the EU without a trade deal in place, while a ‘soft’ Brexit would see the UK re- tain many of the existing agreements with the EU.


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