Town determined to shed its negative image and focus on 'St Awesome'

EARLIER this month the Daily Mail published a damning report about Cornwall's largest town, dubbing it "St Awful" and stating that signs of drug abuse are 'everywhere!

- by LEE TREWHELA Local Democracy Reporter

It came after a YouTuber called JoeFish said he was offered drugs within minutes of arriving in St Austell where, according to the national newspaper, he found "dozens of drug addicts passed out in the town centre in the middle of the day".

The article goes on to paint a picture of a town with no hope, which people are intimidated to visit. That certainly wasn't the case when I spent a few hours in St Austell.

It’s true that St Austell is one of the most deprived areas in Cornwall and that its high street has seen better days - testament to a national malaise, sadly - but is it really as bad as has been made out lately?

There seems to be a certain paradox here. A lot of business owners don’t think so and are actually doing very well, with many of them at the cutting edge of innovative ideas to rejuvenate the town centre. Politicians of all stripes are doing all they can to improve things, too, while shining a light on St Austell folk who are working for the good of the community.

Jake Richards is a case in point: a new breed of business owner going above and beyond to make the town he loves a little bit more “St Awesome”. He runs Jake's Bakes, which takes pride of place in the historic Market House.

Starting off baking from his home in Foxhole, Jake then ran successful pop-ups which led to him being offered a permanent space in the Market House, a creative hub which is full of quirky and interesting businesses, including comic and science fiction book shop Into The Realm, a hobby store, a space for music lessons and art and craft retailers.

"What really strikes me is how people are super-negative about St Austell," he said. "It’s a weird, ironic negativity that the people of St Austell get is tongue-in-cheek, but they don’t understand that to the wider world, people think, 'I don’t want to go there.'