No Cold Caller Zones for Liskeard, Torpoint and St Just

You are halfway through the washing up when the knock comes. There is a stranger on the step, a van out on the road, and a job on your roof or your drive that apparently needs doing today, in cash, before it gets any worse. For plenty of Cornwall households that scene is exactly where a doorstep scam begins. Three more corners of the county have now been handed a legal tool to stop it at the gate.

Where Cornwall’s newest No Cold Caller Zones are

Cornwall Council has launched three more No Cold Caller Zones to protect residents from rogue traders and other doorstep criminals. Each one marks out a cluster of streets where uninvited sales callers are not welcome and are breaking the law if they turn up anyway.

In Liskeard the zone takes in Moorland View, Moorland Close, Portland Close, Ashbury Close and Evely Court. In Torpoint it covers Chappeldown Road. And in St Just it runs along Cape Cornwall Road.

📷Credit: Cornwall Council

What the yellow signs actually mean

The zones are marked with bright yellow Trading Standards signs, backed by Devon & Cornwall Police, fixed to lamp posts at the entrances to the streets they cover. The wording leaves little room for doubt. “You are requested to leave this property,” it reads. “Failure to do so could be a criminal offence. Uninvited callers will be reported to the Police.”

The point is to hand residents, and in particular older or more vulnerable neighbours, a clear line to fall back on. A doorstep caller in a marked zone is not a nuisance to be argued with. They are somewhere they are not allowed to be.

📷Credit: Cornwall Council

The penalty for ignoring a zone

Cold calling in a No Cold Caller Zone is against the law. If prosecuted, an offender could be fined or sentenced to up to two years in prison.

That is the weight now sitting behind the signs in Liskeard, Torpoint and St Just. For the streets marked out, a knock from an uninvited trader has gone from unwelcome to potentially a matter for the courts.

📷Credit: Cornwall Council