I started the AI with a group of 40 from the Youth Theatre.  When asked about an ideal day in St Ives they quickly fell into list making ; a summer BBQ on the meadow, being in the meadow with friends, playing their guitar, skateboarding and the intriguing “The Day I Started my reputation as a Cowboy”. With a bit of prompting they started to get more narrative with stories about the music festival, drinking in Warners Park, the funfair and ghost train.

“When we first moved here we thought it was going to be really boring but then we met John Major in the High St and suddenly the place became a lot more interesting.”

It seemed their minds got a lot more stimulated talking about an ideal future:

“I love the snow and ideally it would be snowy but not cold.  If you were new to the city a rollercoaster would take you around on a tour.  TV screens would show you stuff about the town, Robots would be helping people with everyday life”

“I would wake up and there would be only 2 hairdressers and a toy shop.  Their would be a fast food chain like KFC, and a Blockbusters.”

“Futurama tubes that fly around everywhere, a Gadget Shop.  Trampolines at school, cannons on the side of the street that would shoot you to places if you were late, an American Diner like the one in Pulp Fiction, a Central Perk and life size snakes and ladders in 3D.”

“There are too many pubs/takeaways/hairdressers and charity shops.  We need loads of places to chill out, ideally outdoors.”

“I like the fair and the carnivals, the floats.  I am not from the area and don’t come here much except for the Youth Theatre.  There should be more youth-oriented shops.  We need Primark and a free bus to get around St Ives or a cheap bus pass and the Guided Bus”.

“We need a Fairground and Activity Centre.  In an ideal world the Edinburgh Fringe would stop here on tour.  It would be a Jedward free zone, a combination of London and Edinburgh.  The town should be less clumped together and more spread out to encourage us to move around a bit more.  A monorail or a tube network, I like it to be a change to Huntingdon where I work”.

“We need a Body Shop and a fountain in the middle of town.  We need a better swimming pool with a wave machine, a cinema that’s small and cheap.  A multi-storey shopping centre with little shops located separately.  We need better parks with no age restrictions, less Estate Agents, less Hairdressers and more kids discount on Hairdressing.  We need better buses, like the ones in London you can hop on and off”

“I would wake up and it would have been raining money notes, the pavements are trampolines, everyone is driving golf buggies, everyones theme music is playing in the street, you can play Tetris with the buildings, there is an anti-gravity room, better jobs, national jiggy day, no school, no exams, we are all equal, protected by Transformer robots and noone steals your bike.”

“I wake up and head into St Ives, the main street has been replaced by Penny Lane and the Penny Lane music is playing.  There is a massive new gadget shop with a race track to test out cars.  I would get to school via a chute system , French would be the first lesson and trampoline steps would propel me to class on time, a chute would get me down again.  After school I would go to the giant 3d snakes and ladders park where Waitrose used to be. In the evening I would celebrate the national house boat fashion week.”

“Once upon a time Francesca and Matthew and an ogre called Jonathan woke up on St Ives Town Bridge to find it was made of marshmallow with a chocolate river running through it. Trampolines are everywhere and Woolworths is open, the Fatface and Royal Oak have been combined into one giant Pickn’Mix.  Costa has gone over to a charity shop serving tea for 40p a cup.  There is a massive HMV catering for all music tastes.  There would be fewer hairdressers and we would all be treated the same. Everyone would be the same.”

“I want to have nice meals with friends and generally have a good time with adults who act like big kids.  The St Ives Youth Theatre would be massive like Tescos only not so evil, it would be like RADA.”

“It would be snowing but not cold, I would be famous.  Everything is made of chocolate fudge and everyone wears fuzzy hats.”

“There would be massive waterslides where you can go everywhere with traffic lights.  Loads of festivals and a club like The Junction, only cheaper to get into.  There would be fewer charity shops and good vintage shops.  The river is made out of melted chocolate and you can punt in it.  The are free lollipops, an American Cheesecake House with huge portions but calorie and fat-free.  Weightwatchers would have its own building.”

“Town is all small shops in one part with a separate shopping mall.  There would be only 2 estates agents and a chocolate fountain in the middle of town.  There would be old fashioned hop on buses like in London, lots of shops and a proper waterpark”

“Picture yourself on a boat, on the river, I would wake up like Wallace and Gromit and be dressed automatically, outside the door a monorail would pick me up and drop me off in town.  St Ives would be a mixture of London, Cambridge and the Edinburgh fringe”.

“I would wake up to unlimited money – everyone living on  a mountain, water parks with chocolate and a Primark.  Everything would be free with a Millers Cookies and loads of Macdonalds. There would be no seagulls, or just chocolate ones that we could eat.”