Tory poster boys let off

Sarah Newton, Conservative candidate in Truro & Falmouth, had a meeting with police yesterday to discuss "restorative justice" for two young men responsible for vandalising Tory posters. Sarah tells me all 30 Conservative posters in Falmouth had been damaged or destroyed at a cost of several hundred pounds.

The perpetrators, apparently caught in the act by local bobbies, will not face criminal charges. Instead they've seen the error of their ways, said sorry and promised not to do it again.

"These are young people and I didn't want them to have a criminal record," says Sarah. "They've made a full apology. They're really sorry and I accept that apology. Although it's a very serious offence, personally I do not want to blight a young person's career by pressing charges. I don't think I'm being soft on crime at all I think it's about the punishment fitting the crime."

The two men, in their early 20s, are not members of any political party.

St Tudy school update

Having failed to reach a meeting of minds in time for last month's Cabinet, St Tudy school campaigners and Cornwall Council education officials are now struggling to find sufficient common ground to present an agreed paper for May. The love-in which followed the March Scrutiny & Oversight Committee meeting seems to be thawing as the two sides continue to dispute the costs of building a new school. St Tudy campaigners and school governors are planning a public meeting for Thursday (anything else happening that day?) and have until Friday to submit their definitive views to the council.

News from the gallops - watch St Austell & Newquay

Bookmakers William Hill are offering odds on every constituency in Cornwall. Of interest is how UKIP seems to be drifting into fifth and Mebyon Kernow closing on - sometimes overtaking - Labour.

Bookmakers are not generally known for letting their hearts rule their heads - they just follow the money - and so William Hill's response to the St Austell & Newquay constituency is particularly interesting. Mebyon Kernow's Dick Cole started at 100-1. Then it was 50-1. Then 33-1. Today he's 12-1. Ladbroke's, however, are still offering 6-4 against MK saving any deposits.

Here are the latest William Hill's odds for each Cornish constituency:

St Austell & Newquay

Lib Dem 4-9
Conservative 13-8
MK 12-1
Labour 125-1
UKIP 150-1

Camborne & Redruth
Lib Dem 1-5
Conservative 10-3
Labour 66-1
MK 100-1
UKIP 125-1

Truro & Falmouth
Lib Dem 1-4
Conservative 11-4
MK 100-1
Labour 125-1
UKIP 125-1

North Cornwall
Lib Dem 2-5
Conservative 2-1
Labour 100-1
MK 100-1
UKIP 100-1

South East Cornwall
Lib Dem 1-3
Conservative 9-4
Labour 100-1
MK 100-1
UKIP 125-1

St Ives
Lib Dem 1-25
Conservative 9-1
MK 100-1
Labour 125-1
UKIP 150-1

As far as I can see William Hill is not offering prices on any of the other parties. Ladbrokes is also doing constituency odds, with generally similar prices.

BBC TV News Channel debate

Watching the BBC TV News Channel debate, live from Newquay, with candidates Stephen Gilbert, Caroline Righton, Clive Medway and Dick Cole - if Laurence Reed was there it would be an exact re-run of the BBC Radio Cornwall gig at the Eden Project last night.

Strange to see the candidates with lots of make-up, although the effect was lost when the lights failed five minutes in. Then the lights came back and Dick got the first round of applause with a call to tax the rich.

To me, the audience seems rather more docile than those we've encountered at the radio events - but make a point of listening this week and judge for yourself. Tomorrow we transmit the St Austell & Newquay debate, on Thursday it's Truro & Falmouth and Friday it's Camborne & Redruth - all at 12 noon.

Second home voters: only one challenge

Cornwall's political activists clearly have some way to go to match their United States counterparts, where challenging the legitimacy of the electoral roll is all part of the daily grind. In 2000, for example, in Florida and Missouri, about 100,000 voters were incorrectly removed from the register by over-enthusiastic "voter purges" - widely seen as organised campaigns to weight the register for partisan reasons.

I'm grateful to Cornwall's Electoral Services team for confirming that in relation to fears that some second-home owners are voting in the "wrong" place, since 2009, there has been just one challenge to the accuracy of the register.

Second home voters: how the lists are made

In pursuit of issues raised by my earlier post, I today put three questions to Cornwall Council's Electoral Services department. The questions were, since 2009: How many complaints or challenges have there been to the accuracy of the Cornwall voters' register? How many have been investigated and how many would-be voters removed from the list?

Here's the answer, a bit short of relevant numbers but still interesting:

"Electoral Services have carried out in excess of eighteen registration reviews over the last twelve months. This involves requesting documentary evidence from electors as to their degree of residence and checking our Council Tax records. In addition to this, a data-matching exercise was carried out last September comparing information held on the Council Tax data-base against the Electoral Services data-base to produce a report of those properties classed as empty or second homes on the Council Tax records to establish any discrepancies. This is an on-going exercise with periodic reviews taking place as and when time is available."

It would appear that if you have evidence of a specific abuse, you should report it to County Hall.

The mystery of room 439

On Thursday 13th May, at 1pm, a small group of Cornwall councillors, and a senior official from the planning department, will make their way to the fourth floor of County Hall and assemble in room 439.

Their meeting is not advertised in the public calendar of official council business and yet it could have a profound influence on one of the most explosive issues the council has to deal with - its statutory obligation to provide residential and transit sites for gypsies and travellers.

The Gypsies & Travellers Working Group (GTWG) is an informal "sub committee" of the Planning Policy Advisory Panel. Meetings of the GTWG are not normally open to the press and public, but I have nevertheless asked to be allowed in and to report on its proceedings. Watch this space.