Town & Gown by Jon Cox — Falmouth University English & Creative Writing

Falmouth is regularly listed as one of the most attractive places to live in the country. At least part of its attraction comes from the university, according to Falmouth Mayor Steve Eva.

‘Over the last 10-15 years the influence has been massive,’ the mayor tells me in an interview at the town hall. ‘I am a big supporter.’

I am not really sure how to address a mayor. Your mayorship?

‘You can call me Steve,’ says the sprightly sixty-something former submariner, recently appointed for a fourth successive term to the unpaid mayor position.

Eva admits he was originally against the university’s expansion, swelling the student population to 7,500. A contentious local debate finally ended in 2017 with Cornwall council narrowly giving approval. Residents worry about the local infrastructure, particularly strains on the local housing market and parking.

Others complain about late-night noise.

‘They have not done anything I wouldn’t have done,’ says Steve, who reels off a list of discos that have come and gone during Falmouth’s history.

‘There is no doubt that the university has brought money into the town and it has breathed life into the town.’

Tracing its roots back over a century to the Falmouth School of Art, the university’s population has expanded eightfold over the last two decades, swelling the town’s population by almost a third.

There was a lot of tension between the council and university during its early development phase around the turn of the century, Steve acknowledges. But with both sides putting in an effort, a ‘partnership’ has developed and he is in regular contact with Peter Cox, head of university operations.

Steve believes the town’s biggest asset is the sea and that the resource should be used more effectively. He points to the main downtown shopping area, where there is limited visibility and access to the shore.

A waterfront development involving land reclamation, a sea village and a boardwalk enabling pedestrians to walk from one end of the town to the other by the sea, would further boost the town’s popularity.

Expanding the harbour’s ability to take large ships by dredging the bay would attract cruise ships and travellers’ wallets into town, he adds. However, the harbour proposal is bogged down amid concerns about the impact on the Falmouth sea bed’s maerl, a rare calcified seaweed that acts as a nursery for commercial fish stocks.

Steve was born and bred in Falmouth, and after a career in the navy, he started up his own carpet cleaning business, which he still owns. A councillor for almost nineteen years, Eva says he has no political affiliation and wants what is best for the town.

‘Falmouth has probably adapted better than some other places,’ enabling it to grow and succeed, says Steve.

Edited by Conrad Gardner