An interesting story of development-versus-quaintness is going on in Britain, where locals are fighting over a ferry terminal in Penzance in Cornwall in the far west of England and whether trucking loads will be offloaded elsewhere or allowed into the new terminal. Contrary to what Gilbert and Sullivan fans might think, the only Pirates native to Penzance in real life are the city’s rugby team.
What is native to the beach in downtown Penzance is a historic Battery Rocks, where fortifications were posted in the 1700s to fend off the French from the other side of the English Channel. The proposed terminal would not only bring a RORO ferry terminal to that site, but some of the vehicles rolling on and off would be trucks.
Preservationists are hoping to scrap plans for the new terminal or at least keep the trucks away, routing their ferry service to the neighboring Isles of Scilly 40 miles up the road to Falmouth. While the friends of Penzance would like the business from the tourists coming to and from Scilly by car, the freight carriers aren’t as welcome; the truckers wouldn’t be likely to stop and shop in town and the negative externatlities of the trucks help ruin the quaint mood of the town.
This isn’t just a British problem. Many small towns in the US market themselves to tourists are aren’t all that interested in economic development, especially noisy trucks and trains, and will strive to keep their quaintness, even if it means surrounding areas are growing slower.
Sources:
http://www.handyshippingguide.com/shipping...l-decision_1204
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penzance
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