mudhook

I haven’t posted about religion for a while.

Here is a story of Christians scuffling in Bethlehem. Religion, eh.

And here is an article by Jeremy Clarkson in today’s Sunday Times which I enjoyed.

This follows on from this post of 7 December 2007 on next year’s formula grant for local government.

An official council paper presented recently to the county executive says candidly that the increase from central government in the formula grant over 2007-08 is “much higher than expected and sees Cornwall close to the higher end of shire county increases.” The paper goes on to point out that this means about £6.2 million more than county council budget planners predicted Cornwall would receive. The paper adds that the following two financial years to 2010-11 exceed, to a lesser degree, the county council’s predictions of funding.

This is a welcome frankness about how well Cornwall with a 8.5 percent increase has done out of the settlement and puts the earlier political wailing in context. The average increase for the shire counties is around 5.7 percent.

The paper goes on to point out that the Cornwall largess still leaves the county council with a deficit of nearly £5 million on current spending plans.This is a serious problem.

The Liberal Democrat council has made some curious spending choices in the near past and has at times appeared incoherent about its route. Can it improve? Not enough, I think, and that’s a pity because, Labour being out of the possibility of power in Cornwall at present, the alternative is the godforbid Conservatives.

I shall look at the effect of the damping mechanism on Cornwall’s funding later.

In 1854-55 seven men from Newlyn sailed to Australia hoping to make their fortunes in the gold fields. Although not used to distance sailing, they made the journey of about ten thousand miles to Melbourne in their thirty-seven foot long lugger Mystery. They had no engine and no twenty-first century navigation equipment.

Pete Goss is going to re-enact their voyage next year. Read about it here and here.

The seven Cornish braves should be noted as among those who sought fortune with courage: Richard Nicholls (captain), Richard Badcock, William Badcock, Charles Boase, Job Kelynack, Lewis Lewis, and Philip Curnow Matthews. Let their names live in fame.

People in Cornwall should be - are - proud of these men and welcome Goss’s adventure.

I shall post here continuing good news for Cornwall, developments which will positively help the people of Cornwall and the local economy and everyday lives. Everyone who wants the people of Cornwall to succeed in the modern world will welcome them. This post covers 2007 from July onwards. Vorsprung Cornwall 1 covers February-June 2007 onwards.

*December 2007: Newquay Airport continues to expand its services. Ryanair are increasing their flights to London Stanstead and flights to Spain, from March 2008 Skybus will be operating two additional routes, and in summer 2008 Flybe will be operating five new routes.

These expansions will help the airport, create jobs, and help the Cornwall economy. Welcome them.

* 26 November 2007: A parliamentary answer has revealed that the proportion of 16-18 year olds in Cornwall who are not in education, employment, or training (NEETS) is 6.1 percent of the Cornwall age group. This is much lower than in many places; for example the figure for Hackney is 13.1 percent, for Liverpool 13.2, for Birmingham 11.4, and for Plymouth 7.4. Cornwall is in the bottom third of the figures, where bottom is best. This is good news about young people in Cornwall though 6.1 is still too high.

Read the details in Hansard 26 November 2007, columns 141W-144W. Similar information is given in Hansard 21 November 2007, columns 958W-964W.

Addendum February 2008: Hansard 25 February 2008, columns 1284W-1290W gives NEETS figures for 16 and 17 year olds. At December 2007 the figure for Cornwall was 5.5 percent of the age group; this puts Cornwall at the 64th percentile of the 149 local authorities.

* 7 November 2007: Starting in September next year Cornwall, along with thirteen other local authorities, will begin to offer fifteen hours of free early education to all three and four year olds for thirty eight weeks of the year. This is to help to give every child a good start in life and to help parents work out a life/work balance. The scheme will be funded by the government. Details are in Hansard for 7 November 2007, columns 3WS-4WS.

* 2 November 2007: today is the official opening of the new heart centre at Derriford Hospital, Pymouth. There’s an account of it in the Western Morning News.

Yes, I know Plymouth isn’t Cornwall but patients from east Cornwall use the hospital and the heart centre will be used by people from all over Cornwall. This cardiothoracic unit is very good news for people in Cornwall who no longer have to travel as far as London for treatment such as a heart bypass.

* 25 October 2007: the future of Newquay airport is assured after investment of around £44 million has been agreed to change it from an RAF to a wholly civil airport. This involves money from the EU, British government, and the regional development agency. The airport is important to Cornwall’s economic development. Read more here.

* 10 September 2007: Kerrier district council has deservedly been named by the government as a champion for homelessness. It will share with other councils its expertise and good, successful practice in reducing the use of temporary accommodation and in helping people to avoid homelessness. See here for more details.

*From September 8-22 St Ives, Cornwall is holding its annual festival. Music, poetry, painting, film, talks, everything to enjoy in the arts from Cornwall and the wider world. Not a time to be gloomy about this place.

* From 6th to 12th August Newquay is hosting its annual rip curl boardmasters (RCB) surf contest. Okay, Cornwall isn’t Hawaii but one estimate is that surfing brings £40 million into the Cornwall economy and this RCB contest attracts thousands of visitors each day. The rip curl boardmasters is actually a surfing, skateboarding, and music festival/competition. See here for vigorous details. Oh, and there is a bikini competition too.

Cornwall: a fun, energetic place for talented people and great for unenergetic spectators.

* August 2007- a regeneration of the centre of St Austell is going ahead. The cost will be £75 million, of which £31.5 million will be from the south west of England regional development agency (SWRDA) and the rest from the developers, David McLean Developers.

The regeneration will be mainly retail and includes new shops, cafes, a cinema, and an underground car park, but also seventy flats.

For several years now St Austell has been the forgotten town of Cornwall with an uninspiring town centre. Things can only get better.

Details are here and here.

* July 2007 - A group restoring the Steeple nature reserve on Worvas Hill, St Ives was given £36 000 by the heritage lottery fund. The money will help to fund restoration, improvements, tree planting, and educational work.

* An architecturally impressive new art gallery has opened in Penzance in July. St Ives has its Tate and now Penzance has its Exchange. See details and pictures here in the Daily Telegraph for 21 July.

* Marks and Spencer opened a new store on 19 July at the shopping site by the roundabout on the eastern outskirts of Hayle. As well as shirts and skirts and the usual M and S things, it will sell food and has a cafe, and has created nearly a hundred jobs. This is very good news for Hayle and western Cornwall. There are other shops on the site (Next, Boots) though I’m not sure if there’s enough car parking there. On the adjacent site there are other shops selling fabric, tiles, cars, etc; it’s all a good shopping area now.

* July 2007 - A fast computer network which links all the hospitals and doctors’ surgeries in Cornwall and Scillies has been launched.
This enables information to be shared among medicos speedily; for example, doctors will be able to see patients’ xrays from hospitals in their surgeries.

This technology is clearly a beneficial way of meeting the medical difficulties of a spread-out rural county.

See here for details from PublicTechnology.net.

Here are some recent data which show Cornwall is getting a fair share of national funding and resources. Probably not what you will read on Cornish nationalist and Libdem web pages.

Funding for primary care trusts 2008/09
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly £710 827 000 (recurrent revenue allocation)

Cornwall is in money terms 24th out of 152 trusts, that is twenty three trusts have more money than Cornwall, the other 128 have less.

Hansard 13 December 2007, column 58WS-63WS

GPs per 100 000 of population
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 76.2

11 primary care trusts have a higher, better proportion than Cornwall, 140 have a lower, worse proportion.

Hansard 28 November 2007 column 546W-555W

The annual assessment by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) of the performance of Cornwall county council’s adult social services has just given the council one star (out of a possible maximum of three) for 2007 and described its delivery of outcomes as “adequate.” Of the 150 England authorities assessed by CSCI for 2007 I count forty eight getting three stars, seventy four getting two stars, and twenty eight, including Cornwall, getting one star. Cornwall is in the bottom, ie worst, fifth group. For adult services in 2004 it got three stars, in 2005 two stars, and in 2006 one, a downhill katabasis.

The full CSCI report is here but it does not fully explain the reasons for the council’s decline in the performance ratings. The county council’s response, which strikes me as overly upbeat, is here. The prospects for improvement by the council are assessed by CSCI as “promising”. I really hope that’s a judgement that proves to be right.

The minister responsible for local government finance in England, John Healey, said in the Commons debate on the local government finance settlement for the three years 2008/09-2010/11 that “there is a certain regular choreography about the annual settlements” (Hansard 6 December 2007, column 986). And so there is. The dissatisfied, who always far outnumber the satisfied, complain and the debate in the Commons and outside has overflowed with complaints.

Complainants grumble about the general inadequacy of the funding or the unfairness of it for their area.

Next financial year central government is giving local government in England £70.4 billion.

I cannot say whether those billions are enough to provide satisfactory services overall but those who believe it should be more do not say where any extra funds should come from. More taxes? Efficiency - which often turns out to mean fewer paperclips or sacking people or ending or curtailing services?

As for parochial complaints, Healey tellingly said, “every council regards itself as uniquely disadvantaged by central government funding decisions, and every council has a special case unique to its circumstances” (Hansard 6 December 2007, column 990). Indeed, and Cornwall fits his satire well.

On cue, Cornwall county council, has expressed disappointment at the funding saying that although central government is giving Cornwall additional money, it is not enough for the county’s pressing needs. I put below a link to a similar response from London councils. Again, I can’t say whether Cornwall and the others have a case.

Overall, the increase in funding in the formula grant (which covers revenue support grant, redistributed business rates, and the police grant) next financial year against this year averages in the inner London boroughs 2 percent; shires in the the south east, that pampered ogre of Cornish nationalist mythology, between 3.7 and 2 percent; shire counties in England 5.7 percent; and Cornwall 8.5 percent. General (not local government) inflation is about 2 to 4 percent. Whatever one might say about 2008/09 local government funding, it would not be convincing to argue that Cornwall is uniquely disadvantaged by it.

The Commons debate is here.

Details of the financial settlement from the Department for communities are here.

And here is the response of the councils in London: “London is hardest hit by ‘devastating’ three-year funding announcement.”

This is an updated version of the unitary update post of 24 October 2007.

Here is the timetable for a decision on Cornwall moving to a unitary council, as given in the House of Commons on 15 October (Hansard column 862W): first the local government bill has to be passed; after that a decision on Cornwall (and the other unitary candidates) will be taken by the government in late November or early December; then the draft implementation orders will be put before parliament; if they are passed the implementation orders will be made at the end of 2007.

On 5 December 2007 the government said it had decided that Cornwall, and some others, should be a unitary council. The elections to the new Cornwall unitary county council will be in 2009. The name of the new council is still to be decided.

The effect of a judicial review is not apparently included in the above timetable.

Listen. Can you hear the sound of feet marching backwards? Or is it forwards?

Earlier this year there were county council proposals on the grounds of lack of money to end 24 hour cover from the fire stations at Camborne and Falmouth, the only fulltime stations in Cornwall, and provide only daytime cover.

There have been widespread protests from people here, the Labour and Conservative parties in Cornwall, and firefighters; there have been demonstrations and a newspaper campaign. There was a fire at Newquay in August which showed the problems graphically.

There have been the usual Libdem complaints that the Labour government is not giving Cornwall county council enough money and last month a council delegation failed to persuade the government to give them more money for the fire service. Now the Liberal Democrat county council executive has heard the anger and alarm among voters and decided that in January it will recommend to the full council that Camborne (but not Falmouth) fire station is kept open 24 hours a day, fully crewed.

Apparently the council has the money needed after all.

It is tempting to hail this as listening to what people say and adjusting what one does accordingly, getting it wrong and then putting it right. What we might call democracy. However, I recall that the county council Liberal Democrats did not listen to the people of Cornwall when it came to the unitary council proposals. Listening and not listening. Camborne but not Falmouth. I can’t see any coherent principle of government here. This is not a policy, it’s a shambles.