Town centre manager Jonathan Birkett has admitted it will be hard to leave Helston, confessing: “It gets under your skin.”

With exactly a week to go until he leaves the town to begin a job as chief operating officer for a cosmetics company in Leamington Spa, Mr Birkett has spoken to the Packet about his 16 months in post.

He said: “It’s been the kind of place where you don’t realise how much it gets under your skin.

“When you start these types of job you don’t live, necessarily, on patch and you to try to keep a fair distance between your stakeholder and your personal life – but that’s not been possible in Helston.

“It’s such a rich place. I feel very lucky to have been the town manager here.”

It’s been said before, but there is no doubting his influence – the Helston Business Improvement Partnership now sees traders working with the town council to develop the town, the markets have been re-launched and the Healthy Helston scheme has fitted defibrillators in shops and trained staff on how to save lives, to name just three.

“It’s very rewarding. I’m genuinely sad to go. I do genuinely feel that it’s going to go from strength to strength,” said Mr Birkett.

Impossible to pick just one thing he is most proud of, from the 22 projects that have been delivered there are two that really stand out.

The first is the independent town business guide, which lists the multitude of Helston’s independent shops and businesses, separating them into categories.

“I was really pleased to be able to produce something that could raise the confidence of the traders in the town. It encapsulates the fun, the personality and the genuine range of shops,” he said.

The second is the work of the aesthetics group, which organised a week-long Town Tidy as part of an ongoing campaign to improve the look of the town, and he added: “That’s what it’s all about.”

If allowed a third Mr Birkett would say the Helston Towneoke video, featuring traders and community groups singing along to Blue’s Keep On Movin’, which went viral on YouTube (to date it has been viewed more than 13,000 times) and his first real success, just weeks into the job. Fifteen months on people are still talking about it.

“I would really hope that people feel I’ve made a difference while I’m here. I don’t think I got it right all the time. But it will be sad to go.

“I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank everybody, not just for the last 12 months but since I’ve announced I was going people have stopped me in the street to say thank you or wish me well,” he said.

There is one thing that he does regret, and that is losing senior board member Barry Dunstan six months in. In January Mr Dunstan, who had been vice chairman of the business partnership, was quoted as saying: “A lot of money has been spent but I can't see anything has been improved.”

Mr Birkett said: “I have a lot of respect for Barry and he was one of the first people to come and speak to me. I like the board and there was vision there, and he didn’t really stick with it enough to see what we could achieve.

“I hold myself responsible. He’s a key member of the community and I hope he reconsiders and gets involved again.”

Reflecting on his time in Helston, Mr Birkett said: “It’s been quite an amazing year. If it wasn’t for some of the national success we’ve been having I don’t think I’d have been offered the job I’m going to, so I have Helston to thank for that opportunity.”