Newquay Participatory Action Research

By Josh Fairhead • 27 minutes read •

During my stay in the hostel I had an interaction with some of the locals playing pool, one of the lads started barking at me to move from the table at which I was sitting so that he could try pull up the seats in order to take a better shot. After some minor hostility that led to reporting him to the manager, I got a fresh cup of tea and decided to watch their game just as a means of showing that I wasn’t intimidated. After enduring some more hazing, one of their party came over, introduced himself in a respectful way and started a conversation while deploring his friends for their attitude.

After some time passed he asked what I was doing here, which led to a conversation about the Eden project, which I had come to explore. He said his girlfriend was a gardener and said the project was wonderful and asked what I thought. I told him I was just investigating and he said that they went on loads of school trips there when they were younger, so curious about the education program I asked what he learnt? He didn’t remember anything so I asked about the guide book that I had seen. Once again he couldn’t remember, and shouting to one of his friends he asked if they had been given one. His friend said yes and then asked why we were talking about the project because in his rather biased opinion it was ‘a pile of crap’ where he learnt nothing.

This attitude piqued my interest so I figured I’d try to get to the bottom of his issues. He said he didn’t learn anything, it was just a bunch of plants and that they just bleed the locals to support it as volenteers without return. “hows it make me money” he exclaimed, missing the forrest for the trees. Clearly his blinders were on but it raised some concerns about the project for me with regard to reciprocity.

Sitting on the balcony overlooking the beach on Saturday the 16th, I felt a calling to do some participatory action research and ask the locals what they thought, as clearly the education program didn’t get through to him as kid somehow.

I start to formulate some questions and soon realise that a fixed set wouldn’t work, so drew on a pentad instead to direct my thinking with regards to my interviews, which I would improvise on during our interactions. This took me down to the beach where I got a coffee and started talking with the stall keeper, who was my first interview.

As I was using pen and paper the full transcripts are unavailable, the short hand is available but I will paraphrase the report - meaning the qualitative data is processed twice.

John Baxter, Pinaswap Newquay. Midlife, maybe 45-60.

I’ve been with my teens but they got bored pretty quickly, it wasn’t particularly interactive for them and nothing was in bloom. I can imagine it might be better if it was but for us it was all quite dead and it seemed that they only wanted to sell overpriced food. I call it the Feeden’ Project.

Was it engaging? Not really there were no interactive buttons like a science museum might have and it wasn’t particularly inspiring. The food was really expensive and the cost of the day didn’t really match the experience. There was nothing like a maze or anything for them to enjoy, nothing amazing really. The food was really expensive and not that great.

Improvements? I suppose more biodiversity and learning would have been good, nothing was particularly inspiring and we could have done with more information on the plants, definately needs more for kids. It is a beautiful place though, and well setup, the staff were good.

I’d come back for a concert or the ice skating, but it would take a lot to return, maybe if it were in full bloom.

Ian Pryor and Che Glencross, Hidden Horse box. Late teens to early twenties.

Yes we’ve been, a few times. Its really great and the music awesome. Its pretty expensive though bet you can imagine the overheads. The Ice skating is great. Its a bit samey after you’ve been the first time, kind of a one and done.

Improvements? They could lower prices and change it up more, could be a really great dog walk, though pets are not allowed in the domes because of the birds. It needs to be cheaper for walkers really, that would attract the locals. Bouldering and sports out there could be really great. Do you know the train they had? they could bring that back as well as the moving chairs if you know what I’m talking about?

Learning? Yes, we learnt loads there, lots of facts and information about everything - though I can’t remember any now that you ask. There was a coffee tour and I think we probably came out of there more environmentally conscious, I mean we recycle religiously and are always taking care of the bins here, were both gardenrers as well so its all about green waste and litter picking in a way. The locals probably come out more environmentally conscious, even if they don’t learn anything but I’ve (Ian) worked there on placement at both Eden and Heligan.

It probably helps with mental wellness as a feeling, but they could do more to become a national treasure as I’ve watched it develop over about two hundred visits.

Chloe and Maddie, sitting on the benches overlooking the sea, tripping on shrooms. Roughly 18-20~

Yeah I’ve (Chloe) been, I enjoyed the visuals, but I’m not really the learning type and didn’t really learn a lot bar perhaps one thing about the coffee which was the only memorable story. The humidity was nice, but I don’t garden or anything, I’m like the worst person to ask as I even have fake grass at home. It was too expensive but some drum and bass, especially liquid would be cool out there. They should do festivals. Did they set off bombs to clear the ground? I remember our friend ate some of the bugs there, he was really stupid. An outdoor cinema would be good.

I (Maddie) did take a few seeds for my garden. Yes, if they gave out seeds I’d have taken more. Yes, if they offered local seeds as seed bombs I’d totally guerrilla garden.

Sean Harry, sitting on the benches overlooking the sea on break. 40s

Heya Pal, yeah I’m local, no I havent been. I only moved here a little while ago, yeah I would like to visit - what is it exactly? Oh yeah I’ve seen a poster somewhere.

Katherine Leech, sitting on the benches with three friends who contributed only lightly as they hadn’t been. Mid 20s.

Yes, I’ve been you can talk to me. What was that thing with the fake instagram marketing? It was like they were gearing up for something? Do you know? No, ok, yeah it was quite expensive, we went to the Eden sessions and visited the gardens free the next day. It was a long time ago though.

Yeah I’d say we probably learnt something there, I cant remember what, but it was inspiring. Behaviourally the shock factor works best you know (in response to learning and marketing?). There was good recycling in the cafe, the food festival was interesting and they did really good recycling with the bamboo plates, I wouldn’t have thought of that. Seemed like they were showing what could be done but I can’t remember much, it must have been about eight years ago or something. Georgeous architecture, really novel you know? Animals would have been good out there I’d remember those more as I love animals, it was interesting but feels expensive for what it is.

Yes I felt invited to participate, but it didn’t leave an impression, yet its something I’m interested in. There was lots of information but I cant remember any of it. Really interesting that in its own right but I suppose our trip was probably a little half hearted as we were after the gig and were unguided.

Why are you doing this again? Oh yeah, the economy is a touchy subject for the locals. You should see the Simon Reeves documentary about that. I wonder how they participate in the local economy, as this area is seasonally deprived.

Improvements? Yah some ethically indigenous animals would be great, maybe a planetarium on the dome, that would rock. Its a good place for school trips with appropriate messaging, it has likeable ideas, especially for kids but needs more interactivity.

The living rainforest in Newbury was more memorable for the animals. I suppose the question is if it gives back to the local economy and locals? Travel is hard for the locals and its quite expensive.

Anita Heath, in the park with her partner overlooking the beach, 55-60~ (dont ask me)!

Yeah I’ve been, its pretty over priced for elders and locals. Its just a giant greenhouse. It needs a local incentive and discount. The ice skating and concerts are cool. Something for those in midlife as the elders have allotments.

Group of early teens in the park over looking the beach, 14-16, taking turns to answer with differing degrees of enthusiasm.

Yeah we went there on a school trip. Ben really enjoyed the ice skating, it was a cool day out. We learnt about habitats and rain forrests and they had the cloud thing (the bridge). It was a fun school trip with good food. Yeah we would have participated in the activities but we weren’t allowed to because of our strict timings but we enjoyed looking at our own pace.

(they grab a someone they know saying you like the Eden project, leave him with me and run on)

Alfie Hancock, 14~

He beams: I like the Eden Project it really inspires me to help the world its really beautiful and wonderful. Improvements? More exotic plants would have been really cool. Participation and contribution? Yes if I were allowed I would have participated more and contributed in the gardens, its incredible there. (looking like hes being kept I ask if he’d like me to leave him join his friends and he says yes)

Eileen from Plymoth, in the same park, 60’s or so.

Yes I’ve visited recently, we have a yearly ticket that I bought twice every year since my kid was 10 years old, hes now 17. The Gorilla suit show was really convincing, exceptionally real, you actually thought it was a Gorilla, the guy obviously had stilts or something in the hands to reach the ground. It was very realistic.

The VR experience was really cool, as were the trucks, but that seems like its all stopped now. It seems they are not putting in that much effort any more since covid. Its hard to get my son to go anymore as hes a petrol head, so maybe something on the build and design of the place would be good for him. He liked the pollinators thing and actually listened!! He was quiet enough but later he taught me some of the facts he’d learnt which I didn’t expect. I couldn’t believe it, so that obviously left an impact.

Improvements? More interactivity, less reading and maybe moving rides. I know you can do the zipwire but thats really expensive.

Brad, Cafe Nero Staff.

Its been ages since I’ve been but with regards to the education there there was even a private space to do science and things.

Participatory? yes, I was actually selected for a special science day and played with pipetts and stuff. I don’t really remember what we were doing but it was a real privilage to be there and it was fun. Its a very child friendly place and left an impression and memory. They gave me a pencil that I still have that was made from old CD’s and I’m pretty big on recycling now. They do ice skating now as well.

The different climates were eye opening as we the locals dont see so many of those due to the areas deprivation so thats almost like a holiday for many.

Back to Belushis hostel I ask some of the people I’ve met, if they are cool to answer questions. This seems to move on from the Eden project, and takes on a new form with regards to education in the area and what it would require to make a regenerative impact beyond the scope of Eden, somewhat prompted by an interaction with Willow the outdoor education instructor who tells me that beyond what they do with rock climbing and coastal activities they run forrest sessions for inspiration. Our conversation how education should not just be a symbol soup, and generate more conscious awareness, internal clarity and general wellbeing.

This leads on to a conversation with Harry and Chloe, the former studying surf science, who asks what I’m doing and if he can answer some questions too. He really likes to be prompted about things. I explain that I’m still figuring out the research and while answering a feeling that it’s something that should be done. Initially it was with a sense that it may lead to a gig but the scope expanded to well being after talking to Willow.

Getting into things, Harry says he’s studying surf science which is the only place in England to do it, with maybe a few others in the world. He just wants to surf really, and doesnt care about the academic element and says he probably wont go on to the third year as they weren’t actually surfing or being taken around the coast. His project is on microplastics in the ocean, but this he says doest really connect much with tangible activity or impact, its just counting. He has a friend in third year though, who has the option of doing environmental resource management, which is counting berries for the birds and wild life and potentially growing more to sustain them based on the results. This is at Newquay University, which he feels nobody knows about.

Chloe starts to chime in suggesting that the area needs free parking for locals over the summer as well as keeping the toilets open in the summer because there are many Van Lifers out here that rely on them. Harry responds, yeah and if there was a daily tourist tax of one pound it would generate 75k for the locality per day in this season.

Somebody nearby is talking openly about MDMA and the hard drug use here is palpable, so the conversation moves on to drugs and mental health. Harry says they used to have a skate jam which raised funds for this and Chloe says that a pub like Belushis without alcohol would be a great for the town, as its a cool place but attracts degenerative energy that makes it hard to not drink. Something with pool, dance and ‘shit to do’ because people are bored. Its noted that the fermentation in the uk is a shorter period which leads to people feeling more ill than is needed. Its odd that hard drugs and booze are more normalised than things like weed and psychedelics.

Rider, one of the bar staff appears and gets roped in. Drugs in Newquay? Thats a hard one, its really the mindset and the reason behind them that needs addressing, and many people are just looking to blow off seem and maybe feeling anxious. She says the wave house has a miniramp and ping pong, but things like axe throwing and such are usually attached to a pub. A psychedelic playground comes to mind, just before she disappears back to work.

Dominic the manager appears. He believes that money is a problem, as well as parenting. Get kids off phones, they just act like assholes otherwise. Something like a youth center would be good but the councils funding is an issue as they are cutting budget rather than increasing it, your asking a hostel or pub manager so this is the best that seems possible really, but without alcohol its really hard, I mean you have church so maybe something like religion that actually works - thats the best I can suggest.

Returning upstairs to deal with some tickets for the Eden sessions I notice the Ben Howard song ‘keep your head up (keep your heart strong)’ references a forrest slide made out of bales and plastic to form a water slide, which is perhaps Willows idea of a forrest session? Dad is mentioning how he’d love an informal wilderness like an sanctor that seems relevant to the conversation.

Boiling this manifestation down a little bit it seems that the area calls for wholesome, playful, generative, activities to get folk off the drugs and booze. The surf schools are wholesome and playful activities, but they seem to lack a generative element that creates a virtuous habitat.

Up in the room I notice that Ali enjoys surfing and skating, and while characteristic London ‘degen’, he spends a good bit of time scooping up bargains in Tesco to give to the homeless as he attempts to find redemption from his life at home that from the sounds of things is rather misgiving, “take care of everyone except myself” he exclaims one evening as a joke after giving someone a juicebox. He’s right about the homeless for sure, there are lots of them around who deserve better. The lucky ones like Clive get memorials in rememberance, a picture of him with his tatoos changed from ‘hate’ to ‘love’ in the image, while there are flowers beside what appears to be the bench he used to sit on. The local shops do seem to do what they can to care, feeding them with chips and other nutrient deficient food that gets served. A hot meal is a hot meal though.

Theres a large remediation effort needed here, but perhaps not impossible given the untapped natural resources of the area? Not sure what such an intervention would look like but it seem apparent that information is of no use to these people. Activities that create a generative impact while mitigating the negatives become a question, otherwise this is a dangerous place to end up with tourists coming and trashing the place with drink drugs and degenerative behaviour, leaving a patterning for the locals to deal with and clean up. A despiritualisation of the local bioregion that seems like a shame.

At this point I find an opportunity to talk to the staff of St. Christophers again, this time Kasper and Mike, as the former is sitting at the bar while the latter is serving. As the scope has been expanding I have a fair bit of context to inform them of regarding this work, the purpose of which is almost lost to me but I push on.

Kasper has been living in Newquay for twenty years and he describes it as Peter Pans never never land where people have been doing the same thing forever, saying life sucks and getting stuck in their thinking. While relatively spritely, it was surprising to hear his darker side. Broken up with and feeling the cross roads of kill himself or to live, clearly choosing the latter. He decided to eat better and start climbing, walking around with weights as a form of ‘productive self harm’ when doing nothing as a sort of short term pain with a positive outcome.

He describes the place as needing sense of community, and says its kind of like six degrees of inner turbulence due to the connectivity. “People think its hard to make friends but it’s not, just need some form of regularity” and that a 14hr shift can actually be fun because of this.

Mike chimes in that the skater community is strong and that they all help eachother and anyone that wants to join in, while mention that the surfers are kind of assholes where they’ll only help for money and enjoy setting blow ins up to fail. Kasper mentions that the climbers are great because they all help eachother solve the puzzles and refine eachothers patterns while bouldering. They both seem to agree that the skaters are lovely, and that the surfers are upselling the whole time, with climbing being similar but more inclusive - so perhaps a middle ground.

Opportunities for interaction with plausable deniability is brought up as a strategy, illustrated by collecting glasses at the bar as interaction isn’t necessary but can be welcomed. This brings us to the notion of invitations, and back to climbing, where Kasper gets two free entries with his membership to bring and possibly onboard friends. He mentions that there is a locals card that provides discounts through partnerships with different stores and venues; a useful strategy in realising mutual benefits.

Back to possible interventions in the area, we touch back on booze, I suggest St. Christophers as a community hub and ask about how it could be funded in some way to promote generative behaviour and activities. Like Dominic he says that the council are cutting funding and misalocating resources. The whole crew jump on this opportunity to highlight the absurdity of council spending, where there is an 80k piece of art that was put in the center of town that is apparently an eye sore that could have been foregone to fill in the potholes. They move on to saying that the community gardens also suck, just some concrete pots.

This starts generating some ideas, in that I recognise the hub as a great setup with an active community, that might act as a fantastic receptacle for resources. Thinking about Alis work with the homeless in the car park, I wonder about resources at the Eden project, namely the food they grow and if this could in someway act as a distribution center - ether offering nutritious meals to customers or those in need who hang out in the car park.

At this point I notice Josh the bar manager passing by, who I ask for a word with given he’s clued in to the possibilities and seemed to have a pretty level head for the pragmatic business aspects. I share what I’m thinking about and he helps ground things in the realities of red tape; the council and the business owners are somewhat resistent to change. He often finds himself blocked on activities that would even make them money and seems to regularly ignore the head office, taking calculated risks to improve their balance sheets and working in their best interests against their wishes. They have a template that things need to fit into, and if it doesn’t, then the idea will meet resistence. He gives an example of the boat tours and reciprocal discounts, between the tour and the hostel - which would be a win-win of about 80 people as potential throughput per side. Head office said no. Same for the footballers that come to play matches. Or cheap advertising with digital assets placed at the airport. For things like giving away food there is a liability that would also be really hard to manage. The council also creating more red tape, having told him to sell the house he inherited at 16 so that he wouldn’t need to sign on to the dole. “If you started growing potatoes out in those pots out back that are supposed to be a community garden, someone would tell you to stop because of liability”. Lastly he mentions that the board masters is where a lot of the towns publicity comes from and is peak income for the hostel and bar, the owners of the hostel would go for free publicity he mentions but it would need to be pretty calculated - all benefit, no cost or risk associated.

It appears that doing good things is hard in this town, and the apathy is palpable as a result. He himself is pretty straight in that he has secured his own wellbeing and doesn’t give too much of a fuck about others because he knows how much he’d have to grind in order to be of service. He would like to in some way, but the expenditure to get round the road blocks are quite considerable.

I draw a triangle of the eden project, st christophers and the council before heading back inside. I can see Eden offering food from the gardens, to be dispensed at the hostel or in the carpark next to it, and the council being the enabling factor. The business owners probably wouldn’t bite though, as it would displace their supply chain which comes with considerable kickbacks. Reformulating, I can imagine Eden providing food, dispensed in the carpark, perhaps somehow enabled by the hostel in exchange for publicity during the board masters. Its tricky, so I decide to leave it once again.

I then meet Darren whos a Chef for the RAF, who explains more about businesses in the area, with Walkabout being sold - possibly to the council he’s heard, owned by a group who also own sailors, the red lion and the slug and lettuce. He has a friend called Nicholas that bought the Hotel Victoria and asked him to cook there, which he turned down, but thinks positively of. Asking Josh about this group he tells me they are investment bankers, but decent enough in comparison to the bar group that actively puts small holders out of business.

Finishing this odd mixture of research and reflections at the Newquay train station and having put my computer back in the bag I’m asked by a haggard looking fellow if I’m homeless, to which I say no, and then realise that I actually am - having no home of my own and having been living at my parents, friends and hostels for the last couple of months - so revise my answer to “actually yes”. He replies that he is too and that his dad is just picking him up and that “its either that or prison”. Not exactly an easy choice in many respects but this is what societal dependency looks like. I realise that this is perhaps an experiential lesson of some sort in that survival is hard and and consists of a web of interdependencies at all levels of existence.

Feeling somewhat humbled I wonder if this is what we are missing in society, existential support structures. When it comes to these, how do we do better? Links and connections piecing together the fragments of information at Eden was a theme, and the web of interdependencies also seemed the same with regards to the social and economic ecosystem around Newquay. There are of a number of matters to address with regards to regenerating Newquay, and I wonder what the key links are, yet we must go beyond the material to realise this is a matter of will and action that needs to be regenerated also. The core problem seems to be outfits like walkabout and sailors which act as negative incentives, bringing in poor dharma via tourism for profit. The dharma of which is propogated into the local ecosystem, poisoning the local patterns while despiriting the surrounding area.

The core matter becomes respiritualisation through participatory repatterining that creates a regenerative spiral. While we can diagnose the essential problem spiritually, any existential intervention would need to be material in nature, simply because dharmic loops are beyond the grasp of those that are existentially bound. In other words the essential issues need one track, and the existential interventions need to take another.

We can see most of the issues through the lens of the world mandala by Tony Hodgeson, and consider interventions in context. Imagine you are homeless, you need some foundations like food, air, water, habitat. You will also need money for the basics as well as energy and such. Eventually we pass through terms like community, health and world view - all of which are necessary elements for repatterining.

So how to intervene in all of these matters, while making use of what’s available? Eden seems like a strong source of patterning for the locality in that they integrate several of these indicators in one location. They manage water and energy to grow food, benefiting the climate and biosphere, holding community while enabling local trade and exchange while changing worldviews through their education programmes. Based on the interviews they have a PR problem, and it seems that many believe they could do more to extend their reach to the likes of Newquay but overall its a site of great potential that could benefit the entire region.

Its possible that mutual credit currencies could be developed to meed the dispossed around newquay who’s core problems are not solved by Eden, though its clear to see there are pathways to help them based on their resources. The obvious export is food from the gardens to feed the homeless, which could be seen as a form of credit, prompting thoughts about mutual credit systems such as the Brixton pound, that could also become a tax free micro economy for the homeless. Such an accounting system may then provide leverage for the essential repatterning needed around newquay. Work the gardens to grow food you directly benefit from, and receive housing credits etc. Alternatively, cook and serve the community, or host any form of event to develop a positive sum environmental pattern. Ultimately something along these lines would be a path to soverignty, though checks and balances via those granting such credit lines would be needed, because independent economies without imbued values can lead to things like pub crawls or drug rings as well. This is why credit lines would need to be issued carefully at first, the research and development of which having already been done by the likes of the metacurrency project and the infrastructure nearly completed for such projects. There are regulatory and political issues that may need to be addressed but it would seem local currency already has precedent in the UK, though would need refinement for new implementations as well as Pillars of Integrity to activate such systems through trials with local suppliers, or granting lines of credit to different communities because they ultimately act as the underwriters.

George Roberts, Globe backpackers hostel Exeter, semi-homeless or homeless with some money.

Asks what I’m doing, explain a little of the above. He adds:

A Homeless town would be good. You’d need workers, cleaners (the wont do it themselves), running water. I mean free food gets volenteers, around town, you can see they are ex homeless that got their lives back together or Christians. They need therepy, as its not given space.

Purpose? You’d have to let them decide, as they don’t like being told what to do. Some take too many drugs or are too far gone. Initiatives and incentives to participate? Food thats better than the center, this is where they go to get money and drugs.

What if they had a geodesic town like the ones at eden but smaller to give them space (eg hexayurt)? Yeah you’d need drugs available or they wouldnt come. It sounds mad but you’d need to control things like portugal.