THIS week’s Cornish Times, on sale from today (Friday), leads with a Cornwall Councillor’s suggestion that signs should be placed near the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferries warning people of the county’s road accident statistics.

The suggestion comes as councillors heard about the 9.3 per cent increase in traffic in Cornwall, the fact that the majority of accidents happen on real roads and that the A38’s accident rate is particularly high.

Today’s the day when local people can have a say in planning the future uses and look of Liskeard’s cattle market site in a process called a ‘charrette’. We explain what that means and how people can get involved.

Today is also International Women’s Day and we have features on both a new festival in Looe celebrating women’s contribution to the life of the town, and on some of the women who run businesses in South East Cornwall as a whole.

We also speak to Liskeard’s mayor-elect, Rachel Brooks, who once made headlines for taking her knitting into council meetings but now hopes to bring people together in an exciting year for the town. We also speak to deputy mayor elect Sandra Mitchell, well-known to many from her job in the town’s Co-op store, and to newest council member, fromer engineer Ian Barlow.

After a group of travellers provoked mixed reactions during their stay in Liskeard’s Westbourne Car Park, our reporter speaks to a representative of the group to hear their point of view.

Proposals to extend a holiday park have been rejected because of their likely impact on the landscape, and we hear that while the future of two local libraries have been secured by a town takeover, the future of another in Fowey is still under threat.

We report the results of the World Pasty Championships at the Eden Project – believe it or not the winner was a new egg, sausage and bacon pasty from Kent, and Americans also took plaudits with a Thanksgiving inspired pasty, but at least Cornish heads were held high over speed of crimping.

We also report that a local young woman has followed her two sisters in achieving gold in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, and we have pictures from a celebration marking the reopening of a local centre after it was badly damaged by a falling tree.

The week’s packed edition also has pictures and reports from your community events, and regular columns on farming, Ray Roberts’ Nature Watch, your letters, TV Choice, Recipe of the Week and latest books.

There is all this and more in this week’s packed Cornish Times, in shops from today.