October arrived in some style at Trebah with winds from storm Amy. Luckily no damage was sustained in the garden, but it certainly changed the mood to autumn suddenly. Leaves in the garden are starting to show more colour this week and if the wind keeps itself in check the coming weeks should see a bumper year for autumn colour; the months of dry sunshine leading to higher sugar levels in leaves.
Our Annual General Meeting takes place this coming Saturday, 11th October in the Visitor Centre. Thanks to everyone who has booked a seat. The Council of Management and I look forward to welcoming you and our speaker, Jeremy Wilson, of Strete Gate Camellias.
Thank you to the many hundreds of you that took the time to respond to our first Trebah Members survey recently. The Council of Management, the team and I felt it important that we ask for your views and feedback so we can feed relevant into future plans, though I should say that we certainly cannot . There is a huge quantity of feedback which will take time to read through and digest. At first glance there is a lot of positivity for Trebah and for our team and for our membership offer and thanks for that. There is of course some constructive feedback too. The ask for toilet facilities on the beach has, I believe, been a point of question for many years and some of you have mentioned this in your survey returns. Today I simply wanted to acknowledge that feedback, without going into too much detail. In November 2024 we commissioned a report from a wastewater consultancy that had two chief outcomes. Firstly, that it is not possible within British Standards or building regulations to create a normal drainage system near the beach within our ownership. Secondly, that our present system that deals with wastewater from Trebah house and the Visitor Centre will be in need of considerable works within a few years. We are currently at the scoping stage of that project, which in itself is likely to be complex and expensive and needs to take priority.
On a very different note, I’m delighted to tell you that Trebah has been shortlisted for the Cornwall Tourism Awards this year in the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year category. The awards ceremony will be held on 13 November in Truro Cathedral and I’ll be taking a small number of the team along to find out the results. We’ve some stiff competition from well known names; The National Maritime Museum, Cornwall; Camel Creek and our friends at Lappa Valley, who have won gold in two of the last three years. Fingers crossed for Trebah!
Many of you will have seen the sad news that Visit Cornwall went into voluntary liquidation last week. A loss for our county and I really feel for the good people on the team who will lose their jobs. The closure of our county’s destination management organisation creates a real gap for tourism leadership, out of county advocacy and promotion on which many businesses rely for support, including Trebah. Discussions have begun between tourism leaders and other industry groups about possibilities going forward.
Looking ahead to our festive offer, bookings for Stories with Santa is now open to book, as our Christmas lunches in Trebah Kitchen – you’ll find the links to those in other sections of this month’s newsletter.
Thanks to you all as ever for your support as Trebah Garden Members.
Best wishes, Jon
