The Penzance crisis gives the town a front row seat on social issues that it can't solve
The 'end of the line' is suffering a spike in crime and anti social behaviour that led to a crisis meeting this week
Jacqui Merrington
The week before I moved to Penzance to become editor of The Cornishman, I asked for a copy of the paper to be sent to me so I could have a look through it.
'This town is not a safe place to live' said the headline splashed across the front page. It was a story about a woman who ran a Thai restaurant in the town and who was moving back to Thailand because her windows had been smashed.
My gut feeling as a journalist was that the paper had probably misrepresented how most people felt about living in Penzance. It is, after all, one of the safest places to live in the country.
The crime rates are low, many people still don't lock their doors when they go out. You can generally go anywhere, day or night, without looking over your shoulder. It's quiet, it's peaceful and it's beautiful.
But it is the 'end of the line' or, as many people affectionately refer to it, 'the toe of the stocking, with all the nuts at the bottom'. It does have a reputation for attracting escapists, who jump on the train to escape their pasts and ride it all the way to the end.
Penzance at crisis point?
On patrol in Penzance
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And like many towns, it has its fair share of social problems; problems that seem to have been exacerbated in recent years by cuts to the benefits system, cuts to the NHS , cuts to the police , cuts and more cuts. While employment levels have increased, pay hasn't risen in step with the cost of living.
In this climate, vulnerable people are being left in food poverty, and those with drink and drug addictions or mental health issues are starved of the help they need. And across the country, thousands of people are ending up on the streets.
In Penzance, the brilliant Street Food Project has stepped in to provide hot meals for those in need, every night of the week. Volunteers are cooking – and serving up more than just food; they're listening, talking, effectively counselling those people who flock to their charity and humanity every night.
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One of the consequences of this success, however, is that it has drawn a lot of vulnerable people to one area. Of course, not everyone on the streets is causing anti-social behaviour – far from it – but some are and it's becoming an issue day and night.
Earlier this week, the town council called a crisis meeting in St John's Hall to discuss 'the current state of affairs' . The four-hour meeting came as new crime figures revealed there's been a 64 per cent increase year on year.
Watch a former Penzance street drinker talk about the town's problems below...
Penzance's crime levels are currently around double those of any other urban area in Cornwall (though it's worth remembering that's still far lower than almost anywhere else in the country).
One man told the meeting he'd collected 67 needles from the town's streets in just three weeks. Another woman said she witnessed a man 'shooting up' in a shop doorway in front of a child.
This week, a flurry of pictures have been posted on social media of one woman sleeping in the middle of the pavement, a man sitting for four hours outside a shop, too drunk to stand, and others fighting.
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Several weeks ago, lunchtime shoppers were confronted by the sight of a man was staggering around shouting that he'd been stabbed.
And when a film crew from BBC Spotlight turned up to shoot some footage in Penzance this week, they had bottles thrown at them.
Commendably, the tone of the crisis meeting was not one of accusatory finger pointing in the direction of the people causing the anti-social behaviour. And no one was blaming the volunteers who are stepping in to fill the vacuum of public support services.
In fact, the object of their frustration was largely the police, whose resources are so stretched they're just no longer visible enough or in some cases, at all. The hall reverberated to the complaints that callers to the 101 service were often not getting so much as an answer, let alone a meaningful response.
Watch this youth worker's view on the issues facing Penzance...
Let us be fair. The issues confronting Penzance are national ones in origin, even if they feel hyper-local in their manifestation.
The people being blamed for the anti social behaviour generally need addiction services, mental health support, and rehabilitation, before we can even consider issues such as education, employment, and affordable housing.
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But in the immediate term, if the community is stepping in and providing help for people that really need it, then there needs to be robust policing too.
In recent years, Penzance has fought really hard to build its reputation, surfing on a wave of enthusiasm for Cornwall. But it'll take just one summer of drug-fuelled anti-social behaviour to set back its reputation for many seasons to come.
While Penzance is still a beautiful, quiet, and largely peaceful place to live, it now has a front row seat on some deeply worrying social issues that many experts are predicting will worsen in the years to come.
That so many people are prepared to stand up and address it fills me with hope. But the problems they raise cannot all be dealt with and resourced at a local level. They need help and they need it now.