Cornish jeweller brings space age to Penzance - The Pasty sells saffron cakes from Cornwall and Cornish pasties

A Cornish jewellery store is using space age technology, developed by aerospace companies, in their new range of jewellery.

Penzance-based company Amanda’s Glass Art uses dichroic glass to create colourful one-off jewellery designs.

The website, which is run by Penzance-based jeweller Amanda Williams, uses dichroic glass, a speciality glass developed in the 1950s by the aerospace industry.

Dichroic refers to the property of having more than one colour when viewed from different angles. In the lengthy and costly procedure the thin layers of metallic oxides are deposited on the surface of the glass giving an extraordinary selection of vivid colours.

Kiln fired in extreme heat to produce the desired stunning textures, colours and shapes, the resulting pieces of jewellery are both beautiful and unique.

Made using this fired dichroic glass and bullseye coloured glass the resulting creations are unique. No two firings are the same so every piece of jewellery is individual.

A 10 per cent tax could be imposed on takeaway meals in the South West, according to a proposal submitted to a Treasury-commissioned review.

Also a six per cent tax could be charged on sit-down meals in restaurants and pubs.

The taxes, which were proposed by Sir Michael Lyons, would increase government funds by £1.5 billion a year. Chancellor Gordon Brown had commissioned Sir Michael to find ways to net more money after concerns that the next round of council tax revaluation would see increased bills.

Westcountry tourism and business chiefs are concerned that the proposed taxes could severely damage the region’s holiday and tourism industry. Chief executive of South West Tourism, Malcolm Bell, labelled the tax proposals as “bordering on stupidity”. He said: “A measure like this will simply mean we will lose tourists to the foreign market.”

It is feared that more than 5,000 jobs could be on the line in the South West if the proposal is accepted.

Tim Jones, Devon and Cornwall Business Council chairman, said: “It’s nothing short of absolutely barking mad. It strikes at the heart of the Westcountry rural economy and will without doubt see businesses go bust.”

Proposals for a 5-10 per cent tax on the prices of hotels and bed and breakfast rooms were also made earlier this year.

Cornwall County Council has approved a company’s plans to restart tin extraction at South Crofty tin mine at Pool, near Redruth.

South Crofty was closed in March 1998 as a result of falling prices, ending the county’s 3000-year-old tin-mining tradition.

Baseresult Holdings Limited, who bought the South Crofty site in 2001, hopes to restart tin-mining and create more jobs. The company’s managing director, Kevin Williams, said: “The new South Crofty will not be the South Crofty of eight years ago. It will be a modern, high-tech mine run with the help of computers - it will be a more efficient way of mining tin.”

Before closure in 1998, South Crofty was producing 2,100 tonnes of tin per year. Baseresult plans to double its production to 4,000 tonnes a year by making use of modern technology to cut production costs.

But former miner and county councillor Mark Kaczmarek said that restarting the mine would be difficult. He said: “It’s going to cost at least £30m. That’s a lot of money before you mine one ounce of tin. I don’t believe Baseresult have got the muscle and financial backing to plough that amount of money into it.”

Lloyds TSB is to close three of its branches in Cornwall and 16 other branches across Wales and South West England.

The high-street bank said that the increasing usage of telephone and internet banking meant that many people did not visit bank branches anymore. The branches in St Just, Gunnislake and Tintagel will face closure as a result.

The bank added that post offices in the affected areas would offer essential bank services such as cash withdrawals, deposits and balance enquiries. But St Just Mayor Sylvia Smith criticised the move: “Customers cannot bank at the post office. For people here it may mean a daily trip into Penzance to bank money, and longer waits for cheques to clear.”

The decision was also condemned by pressure group Campaign for Community Banking Services. Campaign director Derek French said: “Banks consistently take the view that if they can’t be in a community under their own brand, they really don’t care what happens to the customer. They’re just prepared to pull out.”

The group suggested that concerned customers should contact their MPs.

Sir Richard Branson’s business Virgin Galactic may consider using a Cornish airfield for its launch pad for space travel, it has been revealed.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, which is pumping hundreds of million pounds into making space travel affordable, has said it might use RAF St Mawgan, near Newquay, as a “spaceport”.

Although the company is yet to approach the owners of the Cornish airfield, it is “one of the very few possible sites in England”, he said.

Virgin Galactic is currently building five SpaceShipTwo spacecrafts, which it plans to send more than 70 miles above the Earth.

It hopes to “bring the dream of space travel for many millions closer to reality”.

Tickets for the three-hour journey will cost £115,000. Virgin Galactic plans to launch its first flight from its main base in New Mexico, USA, in 2008.

Around 20,000 people packed into Newlyn yesterday for the Cornish village’s annual fish festival.

The festival, which has been running for 16 years, aims to boost the profile of the fishing industry.

One of the day’s highlights was the lifeboat gig race, in which a number of gigs raced in Mount’s Bay to compete for the Trafalgar Trophy. The three-mile course started and finished in Newlyn.

Other features included an exhibition by Seafood Cornwall, local chefs giving cooking tips, and a variety of bands.

“The event is our biggest fundraising of the year and enables the Fishermen’s Mission to continue offering the support and help to the families and loved ones of fishermen who have lost their lives at sea,” Superintendent David Whitehead said.

The festival supports 26 charities who displayed their own merchandise and items at the event to raise funds.

The Eden Project has the healthiest food of any tourist attraction in the UK, according to a new report by the Soil Association.

But most tourist attractions were failing to provide healthy food for visitors, opting for junk food instead.

The Soil Association sent a “secret mum” to 14 top attractions to test their food and drink choices.

Only the Eden Project and the Tower of London scored well, with both serving fresh fruit and drinking water.

Peter Melchett, of the the Soil Association, said venues had a responsibility to offer alternatives to junk food.

“Not to provide kids with the option of free water on a day out is scandalous,” he said.

“It is crazy not even bothering to offer fresh fruit or the choice of a healthy meal for children.”

The Western Morning News, the south west’s leading daily newspaper, has featured The Pasty.com in its Business News section.

The paper highlights the site’s ambition to become an online marketplace, selling all kinds of Cornish products and produce, like “Amazon.com for Cornwall”.

The Western Morning News has a daily circulation of over 46,000 copies throughout the south west.

Read the full story here: Western Morning News story on The Pasty.com

Organisers of this year’s Newlyn Fish Festival are hoping to educate a wider audience on the versatility of pollack, a little known fish for which Newlyn is the UK’s main port. Seafood Cornwall are putting together a program of fish-related events to include talks and cooking demonstrations by top chefs. Along with pollack, they are also hoping to raise awareness of mackerel and monkfish. These fish are heavily used by the food-loving French, but Seafood Cornwall feel that the British public don’t know what they’re missing.

Project director, Nathan de Rozarieux said: “We believe that pollack is one of our best kept secrets and our expert chefs will be cooking over 12 different recipes with pollack and other local fish to show people how quick and easy it is to cook.”

With an amazing annual pollack haul of over 1000 tonnes, worth approx £2m in 2005, Seafood Cornwall hope to repeat the success they saw at last year’s Fish Festival at which they promoted megrim, sardine and spider crab.

Top chefs have been drafted from all over Cornwall for the planned masterclass sessions. They include Keir Meikle, Head Chef of the Navy Inn in Penzance and Des Turland, Head Chef from the Royal Duchy Hotel in Falmouth.

Mr de Rozarieux said: “People are often afraid of dealing with fish so our aim is to show that preparing fish or shellfish couldn’t be simpler.”

Visitors will be treated to a range of events including fish tasting, talks and presentations explaining how to prepare and cook fish and shellfish. Seafood Cornwall hope that when visiting tourists return home, they will ask for lesser known fish such as pollack at their local supermarkets. Newlyn Fish Festival is scheduled for Monday 28 August.

Plans to plant hundreds of mini wind turbines in hedges on West Country farmland as an alternative to nuclear power have been announced.

Some farmers and environmental campaigners have welcomed the 48ft turbines as a less intrusive way of providing energy than the huge turbines proposed in recent years.

Ian Johnson, spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in the South West, said: “Farmers would welcome looking at anything that reduces their energy costs. It’s a good opportunity, and providing they are appropriately sited I think we have to explore and investigate all the possibilities.”

However, not everyone is as happy. Tim Hale, Devon chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, has described the plans as “absolutely ludicrous”.

“Wind turbines do not work and do not replace capacity,” he says. “The wind is intermittent and unreliable and will never replace capacity. It produces noise, damages bird life and lowers the value of land and houses.

Each turbine could generate 15KW of energy, which is enough to provide electricity for 15 homes.

Farmers who have the turbines on their farms would pay nothing and receive benefits like a small rental fee and cut-price energy.