CORNWALL DATA

CLICK FOR LATEST ADDED Housing waiting lists

In this ongoing post I shall bring together data about Cornwall from various sources so that they are more readily accessible: other data will be added to this current post and data will also be updated. Much is already posted at scattered places on this blog of course. All the data refers only to Cornwall and its parts (and sometimes includes and sometimes excludes the Isles of Scilly). Sources are given in square brackets; I have also included some website addresses, though these may change, so that you can explore the data for yourself. Explanatory notes with the original data are important for understanding.

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CLICK INDEX
Empty dwellings | Second homes | Average pay | Unemployment: JSA claimants | Pupil funding | Free school meals | Deprivation in Cornwall | Civil partnerships | Children born in Cornwall | Population of Cornwall | Pensioners in Cornwall | Land use in Cornwall | Cornwall MPs’ expenses and allowances | Landfill in Cornwall |School place appeals in Cornwall | Place survey 2008| House repossessions |Housing waiting lists| Miscellaneous

EMPTY DWELLINGS
There were 9012 empty dwellings in Cornwall at 6 October 2008
— Caradon 1588, Carrick 1604, Kerrier 1597, North Cornwall 1746, Penwith 1084, Restormel 1393 [Hansard 14 May 2009 columns 998W-999W].

SECOND HOMES
Cornwall (excluding Scillies) total 13 603 at October 2008
— Caradon 1813, Carrick 1917, Kerrier 1368, North Cornwall 4000, Penwith 2779, Restormel 1726 [House of Commons Library DEP 2009-1230, 27 April 2009, data is given for the five years 2004-2008].

In terms of numbers of second homes, North Cornwall is 7th out of 354 England authorities, Penwith 15th, Carrick 24th, Caradon 26th, Restormel 30th, and Kerrier 47th. These positions represent numbers of second homes not percentages of housing stock. The Isles of Scilly had 212 second homes in 2008.

AVERAGE PAY
£21 004 at April 2008
median, annual, gross, fulltime, all workers, by Cornwall and Scilly residence, at April 2008 [ONS, ASHE 2008, Table 8.7a].

There are various ways of measuring average pay, eg mean and median average, male and female and both, fulltime and part time, by place of work and by place of residence, by local authority and by constituency, weekly pay and annual pay. Figures for median average pay tend to be less than for mean average.

UNEMPLOYMENT: JOBSEEKERS ALLOWANCE CLAIMANTS
October 2009: 8336 (2.7 percent of the resident working-age population of Cornwall and Scillies). This is a rise of 232 over last month. In October 2008 the figure was 5381 (1.7 percent). The figure peaked in February 2009 at 10 220 (3.3 percent). [ONS]

The contribution-based jobseekers allowance (JSA) is £64.30 a week for people over 25 and £50.95 a week for people under 25. The jobseekers claimant count is not a measure of unemployment but of people claiming the benefit who must be, inter alia, available for work and actively seeking work.

This website gives details of jobseeker claimant counts over time for Cornwall:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/jsa_time_series/report.aspx

More data about the claimant count in Cornwall is here:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=15084

These are general labour statistics for Cornwall and Scilly:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/report.aspx

The latest labour force survey data, a measure of unemployment, is for October 2007-September 2008: http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/ea_time_series/report.aspx

PUPIL FUNDING
The per pupil grant from central government for Cornwall school pupils is £3879 for 2009/10; the England average is £4218 (dedicated schools grant: indicative allocations to local education authorities).
[teachernet website of the DCSF]

Earlier funding data is here:
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/schoolfunding/2006-07_funding_arrangements/

The dedicated schools grant (DSG) began in 2006/07 and earlier per pupil allocations are not directly comparable. Before 2006/07 schools were funded largely through the formula grant which, apart from the DSG, is the main grant from central government to local authorities.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS
Eligibility for free school meals is an indication of income deprivation and is an influence on educational achievement.

Percentage of primary and nursery pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2009:
England 16.0 percent
Cornwall 11.0 percent

Percentage of secondary pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2009:
England 13.4 percent
Cornwall 9.3 percent
[DCSF web page Schools, pupils and their characteristics; tables 11a and 11b in 'Local authority tables'.]
The website is www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000843/index.shtml
The eligibility percentages for Tower Hamlets are 47.5 and 55.7.

The relationship of eligibility for free school meals and not gaining any GCSEs above grade D is given in DEP 2009-0918 of 19 March 2009 (Parliamentary Library).

Also see the data for deprivation below.

DEPRIVATION IN CORNWALL
There are several ways of measuring deprivation. The Index of multiple deprivation (IMD) is a major one.

The latest IMD measurements (2007) show Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at 69th out of 142 ‘counties, cities, and London boroughs’ in England, where 1st is the most deprived. The IMD puts the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust (CIOS) area at 74th out of 152 trust areas where 1st is the most deprived.

The IMD 2007 give these results for the former districts of Cornwall out of 354 districts in England, the score 1st is the most deprived: Penwith 36th, Kerrier 86th, Restormel 89th, North Cornwall 96th, Carrick 120th, and Caradon 156th.

IMD deprivation varies vastly across Cornwall and the measurements for 32 482 subwards in England which are available show this clearly.

See the IMD 2007 here.

The Health Observatory website here has some deprivation data for Cornwall too. Also look at the data above for free school meals in Cornwall.

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS
Civil partnerships became possible in Britain with the coming into force of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 in December 2005. Between that date and the end of last year 307 people entered civil partnerships in Cornwall and Scillies: Table 5 of the Data by area of formation file on this ONS website.

CHILDREN BORN IN CORNWALL
The ONS published in August 2009 the latest details for England and Wales of the numbers of live births to mothers who themselves were born in the United Kingdom or born outside the United Kingdom in each of the eight years 2001-2008. The figures for Cornwall (excluding the Isles of Scilly), with much lower percentages than for England as a whole, for the first and last years of the series are:

2008: 5423 live births, 92.4 percent of which were to mothers born inside the UK
2001: 4463 live births, 94.5 percent of which were to mothers born in the UK.

The data is in tables 3a-3h on this ONS website which also gives separate figures for each of the former districts in Cornwall. [ONS]

POPULATION OF CORNWALL
The population of Cornwall in mid 2008 was 532 200. About 428 000 (80 percent) were aged eighteen or over. The full figures, including analysis for gender, ages, and districts, are in the Mid-2008 UK file on this ONS website . [ONS]

PENSIONERS IN CORNWALL
There are about 133 000 old age pensioners in Cornwall (males aged 65 and over, females 60 and over). The full figures, including for both the county and the former districts, are in the Mid-2008 UK file on this ONS website . [ONS]

LAND USE IN CORNWALL
Details of land use in Cornwall are available for the six former districts and for wards. The categories are given in square metres for domestic buildings, nondomestic buildings, domestic gardens, roads, rail, paths, greenspace, water, other, and unclassified. The tables are at Census ward levels GLUD 2005 tables . GLUD means Generalised land use database. An explanatory document of the GLUD statistics is here .

CORNWALL MPS’ EXPENSES AND ALLOWANCES
These are readily accessible at this Guardian website http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/liberal-democrat/andrew-george. The last name in the url should be changed as appropriate to colin-breed, daniel-rogerson, julia-goldsworthy, or matthew-taylor.

LANDFILL IN CORNWALL
Cornwall 2007/08:
Total municipal waste 324 480 tonnes
Total municipal waste sent to landfill 210 386 tonnes (64.84 percent of total municipal waste)
The average proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill for the 121 unitary and waste disposal authorities in England was 54.42 percent.
[Hansard 26 October 2009 column 50W-54W]

SCHOOL PLACE APPEALS IN CORNWALL
In 2007/08 there were 277 appeals by parents against the non-admission of their child to their preferred primary school in Cornwall; 75 were successful. For secondary schools in Cornwall the figures are 405 and 151.

8183 children were admitted to Cornwall primary schools September 2007-January 2008 and 6514 to secondary schools in the same period.
[Department for children, families, and schools: here (scroll to table 3)]

PLACE SURVEY
A survey in 2008 by the Department for Communities and Local Government looked at people’s views of the locality and local services. Question 5 asked people how strongly they felt they belonged to their immediate neighbourhood. In the Cornwall area 66.5 percent said fairly or very strongly. This was 53rd out of 353 council areas, the largest percentage being at number 1.
[Department of Communities and Local Government Place survey 2008]

HOUSE REPOSSESSIONS
There was a total of 180 mortgage possession claims in Cornwall (unitary authority) in quarter 3 of 2009. This represents 0.8 households in every 1000 households and the total was a drop of 20 percent on quarter 3 of 2008. The figures for England were 23 205 mortgage possession claims, 1. 1 in every 1000 households, and a drop of 34 percent.
[Ministry of Justice12 November 2009]

HOUSING WAITING LISTS
There were 17 650 households on housing waiting lists in the six former districts of Cornwall at April 2008. In 1997 the number was 8043. The details from the Department of communities, by district and by years 1997-2008, are here.

MISCELLANEOUS
Statistics for Cornish towns is a booklet produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The revised version is dated September 2009. It contains data about deprivation, the number and size of businesses, unemployment, and population. Read it through the South West Observatory here.The South West Observatory website also has other data.

South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) has published in October 2009 Economic profile: issue 8 which discusses Cornwall’s economy in the recession on pages 20-25. Read it here.

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General sources

ASHE Annual survey of hours and earnings (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statBase/product.asp?vlnk=13101)

DEP Deposited parliamentary papers (http://deposits.parliament.uk)

Hansard (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/home.htm)

ONS Office for National Statistics

Teachernet (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=12222)

A useful website for understanding local government language is: http://localgovglossary.wikispaces.com/
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VORSPRUNG CORNWALL 6

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 the second half of 2009. Vorsprung Cornwall 1 and 2 cover 2007, Vorsprung Cornwall 3 and 4 cover 2008, and Vorsprung Cornwall 5 covers the first half of 2009.

* Tonight, 18 November, is the festival of lights in Truro. People parade the streets, often in costume, on floats with lanterns they have made, young people to the fore. It is a newish thing for Truro but defying the winter dark with lights is as old as the hills. A joyous night, Cornwall celebrating, confident, happy.

* The Ofsted inspection of Gwinear primary school describes it as “an outstanding school.” Read the 24 October 2009 report here and note the many outstanding scores. (November 2009)

* The September festival at St Ives is now in full swing, a fortnight of music, guitars aplenty, song, drama, open art studios, and poetry recitals. The festival goes on strongly. Indeed, Cornwall has numerous festivals: for example, Trevithick day in Camborne, Golowan and Mazey day in Penzance, Obby Oss in Padstow, Run to the sun and the music festival in Newquay, the agricultural show in Wadebridge, and next month Lowender Perran in Perranporth, and many more. There is a strong celebratory and varied culture across the county. Art galleries, publicly and privately owned, everywhere in Cornwall are putting on exhibitions throughout the year.

* Business Cornwall reports that the pottery at Lelant in west Cornwall is closing as the owners are retiring but a wine shop and cafe is to open in the premises and that £480 000 is to be spent on improvements at Carn Brea Leisure Centre at Camborne. These are good stories of enterprise and investment in Cornwall when we face economic difficulties. Additionally, three gangmasters have lost their licences after an investigation into the living conditions and wages (and other matters) of some migrant workers. This is positive news that the authorities will act to protect workers and this enhances Cornwall’s reputation and supports the work of decent gangmasters. (September 2009)

* The report by John Mills into the temporary and unplanned closure of Newquay airport as it transformed into a civilian airport has now been published. There are some criticisms about management of risks and the project and some sensible recommendations for the future but nothing alarming. Mills rightly sums up the airport project as having “created a vital and excellent asset for the benefit of the whole county.” It’s important to recognise that. (August 2009)

* A parliamentary answer shows how much unsung outstanding progress has been made in council house standards in Cornwall. Three former districts, Caradon, Carrick, and North Cornwall had council houses; the other districts had disposed of theirs. In 2004 a large 46 percent of these council houses in Cornwall failed to meet the decent homes standard; in 2008 this had fallen to 7 percent. In numbers the fall was from 4964 houses to 767. That is still too many and the 2008 percentage in former Caradon, 14 percent, is much too high but government and local councils have worked well to tackle this in Cornwall and throughout England and make homes decent for people. The new unitary council must continue with this work.

The detailed data is at DEP 2009-2057 here (July 2009).

PROTECTING THE HARDEST HIT

Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has revealed that the recession is having the worst impact upon low paid and unskilled workers. Read the report here. This affects many workers in Cornwall.

The TUC shows that people in “elementary” jobs are disproportionately more likely to suffer unemployment in contrast to people in professional work. Additionally,
people from low paid and unskilled jobs are more likely to spend more than six months unemployed than people from professional jobs.

Low paid workers have little or no opportunity to save for rainy days from their wages and for them Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) is a very important income. Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, says: “Increasing JSA by as little as £10 a week would make a real difference to millions of families.”

He is right. I know these are difficult times for the national (and global) economy and some serious financial cuts are necessary. However, a civilised country must seek to protect its poorest and most vulnerable people. We cannot shield people from unemployment; we can mitigate its effects on the incomes and lives of those who have least. Eventually economic improvement and consequent more work will help them. In the immediate meantime JSA should be increased for them.
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Job seekers allowance (JSA) claims by occupation, TUC September 2009. A summary is in the TUC press release, Low paid hit hardest by recession, 4 September 2009.

TAX INJUSTICE

A telling post by Richard Murphy on his always interesting Tax Research UK blog . He publishes and comments on parts of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) data showing how taxes and benefits affect different income-groups of people in Britain in 2007/08. His Table 3 is most informative. Income tax and national insurance contributions are largely progressive; but indirect taxes are largely regressive, that is they take a larger share of income as one moves down the quintiles of income groups to the poorest. Council tax is regressive too.

The original full ONS paper, The effects of taxes and benfits on household incomes, 2007/08, is here .

I share Murphy’s views that the present redistribution through taxes and benefits is insufficient. I think that while we have to encourage effort and discourage unnecessary dependency we also have to balance material rewards for the enterprising with help for those at the bottom. At present the balance is wrong, more should be done for the poor, and it is disappointing that the Labour governments of Blair and Brown have been in effect indifferent to this injustice. Do I need to add that these tax and benefit policies affect people in Cornwall?

DON’T MENTION THE FORMULA

See the Isle of Man update 27 October 2009

Among the silenda and tacenda of Cornish nationalism is the redistribution of UK taxes to public expenditure among the four countries of Britain. The allocation of public expenditure per capita benefits the three devolved countries more than England.

Barnett Formula

The vehicle for the redistribution of collected taxes is known as the Barnett Formula, which I have discussed before. This formula now seems to be on the ropes.

A House of Lords committee has been examining the formula since last December and a House of Commons committee has commented on it as part of a completed examination of the working of devolution: Lords, Barnett Formula Select Committee ; Commons, Justice Select Committee . The Commons committee have looked at asymmetric devolution and suggestions for territorial powers for England.

Most people giving evidence seem unhappy with Barnett, mainly because it is largely based on the population numbers of the countries of Britain rather than on people’s needs for public services, though there are also challenges to the degree that tax collection and, more specially, spending are centralised in Britain. The consistently larger share to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as against England (though not as against London), as measured by per head spending, is also increasingly challenged as unfair. The Commons committee has declared that “the Barnett Formula is no longer fit for purpose” and is “overdue for reform”.

The latest per head annual public spending figures (2007/08) due to the formula are: Northern Ireland £9789, Scotland £9179, Wales £8577, England £7535. (Source: Public expenditure statistical analyses (PESA) HM Treasury Table 9.2 in chapter 9).

Those higher figures are the primary cause of what is seen as the better provision of public services in Britain outside England. The Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) has estimated the money total of the “excess” spending in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from 1985/86 to 2007/08 is about £202 billion: see ( Unequal shares: the Barnett Formula (2008) . Incidentally, in the same document the TPA has also said that the North Sea oil revenues do not balance out the higher Scotland allocation: only in five of the last twenty three years has the revenue exceeded the excess allocation.

The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) makes the reasonable point in its evidence to the Lords committee that per head comparisons, while important, do not take into account the effect of differing prices and earnings in different places and their consequent effect on the differing costs of providing the same level of services in different places.

CEBR also draws attention to another and damaging aspect: the share of public expenditure as a share of an area’s GDP. Those figures also show that Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have a much higher share of their GDP on public spending than England. The large share taken up by public spending probably discourages enterprise by creating a world in which the ready assumption is to look to the public rather than the private to provide services. Additionally, in areas with higher GDP, with in general higher incomes (that is, areas in southern England), public services tend to be poorly funded. In such areas the poorest, dependent on public services, are seriously adversely affected.

All in all, the Barnett Formula is discredited, irrationally based on population numbers not need, and consistently discriminating financially against people in England outside London. However, London is a nett contributor to the UK: CEBR estimates its subsidy to the rest of Britain in 2007 was about £30 billion, though falling significantly as the recession bites.

However discredited the present formula is, there are political difficulties in changing it. Labour in the UK is increasingly dependent on votes in Scotland and Wales; the Conservatives wish to prosper in Scotland and Wales and are reallied to the unionists in Northern Ireland; they (and the Liberal Democrats) are reluctant to do anything that could be presented as reducing help or subsidies to those places and thus losing votes in them. Of course, this assumes that a rejigged allocation based on need, for example, would reduce the flow; it might increase it as some have argued. However, allocations over large areas, even if based on need, will always contain unfairness because need very much varies within countries and regions as well as between them.

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is another part of the Cornish nationalist silenda. Richard Murphy’s Tax Research UK blog has been arguing that the Isle of Man is subsidised by taxpayers in the UK. The post of 18 May 2009 is headed “Isle of Man costs UK at least £1.5 billion a year” and says Britain provides a “heavy subsidy” to Man. The post from Murphy of 21 May at 1113 hours gives a short and straightforward account of his argument. I think the Isle of Man and the British government have a case to answer.

Addendum 27 OCTOBER 2009: In October 2009 the Vat revenue sharing agreement between the UK and Isle of Man was changed on the initiative of the former. This revision, along with other consequences of the recession, will result in the Isle of Man receiving £90 million less in 2010/11 and £140 million less in 2011/12 and each year thereafter. This revision strikes me as confirming that the agreement subsidised the Isle of Man. The Tax Research UK blog says that the island will still be getting a subsidy. The Celtic League said that the Isle of Man “should rethink its links with the UK” including the option of independence in the light of the tax changes. It did not mention the claimed subsidy aspect of the UK/Isle of Man agreement.

Cornwall

Of course, there is wailing, essentially unjustified, about the share that public services in Cornwall get relative to other parts of England, but the wailers never seem to ask about the larger redistribution among the four countries of Britain. Why is that? It is time that Cornish nationalism faced the formula.

ICELANDIC INVESTMENTS STILL HAUNT CORNWALL

The Audit Commission has now reported on local authorities and their investments in Icelandic banks: Risk and return: English local authorities and the Icelandic banks, dated 26 March 2009.

It records in Table 6 (original document page 53) the deposit of £5 million made by Cornwall county council in Landsbanki which I discussed in the post Cornwall and the Icelandic bank.

It also puts the £3 million deposited by Restormel district council in Landsbanki on 1 October 2008 in Table 3 (original document page 28), along with similarly timed deposits by eight other local authorities, and describes them as “negligently deposited” and says (in paragraph 46) “these deposits breached local treasury management policies.” Restormel already had £1 million invested, making a Restormel total of £4 million in Icelandic banks (Table 6, original document page 55).

Cornwall county council’s deposit represents seven percent of its reserves and Restormel’s two hundred percent of its (Table 6).

Informative local newspaper reports on Restormel’s investment are here (28 January 2009) and here (29 January 2009).

The new unitary Cornwall council thus starts with £9 million of deposits in problematic Icelandic bank, a miserable inheritance. As the county council and Restormel district council are abolished on 31 March, I suppose holding their Icelandic investment policies to account will slide away.

It’s still unclear how much of the £9 million will be recovered or when. Oh, with what little wisdom our world is governed.
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With what little wisdom… Axel Oxenstierna (1583-1654)

PAY AND HOUSING IN CORNWALL

Original post 3 January 2009. Note on average pay in Cornwall added 30 April 2009.

The economic crisis hits many people in Cornwall (and elsewhere) hard. Look at just two aspects of life here. The mean average pay in Cornwall is about seventy five percent of the UK average according to the GMB trade union. ASHE data for 2008 suggests around eighty percent. County averages encompass a large range and also variations among different and smaller subareas but they can be useful and limited guides. House prices in Cornwall are high (with the same caveat about range and variations). Affordable housing thus matters to local people looking for a home.

Look a little more closely at housing and pay.

We need many more affordable houses to be built throughout Cornwall – to rent and to buy. The Labour government has failed appallingly over the last decade to push house building. It talked houses but little got built, affordable or open market. This isn’t likely to change now as finance and the economy seize up unless the government and local councils are pushed very hard. I fear the economic crisis is more likely to see the shortage of affordable housing in Cornwall continue.

In our low wage economy, Labour’s minimum wage has been a godsend to many in Cornwall. Now we are hearing arguments that the minimum wage should be frozen at the present rate during the economic crisis. Of course, the wage has to be affordable by employers, an unaffordable wage bill puts firms out of business or leads to firings, but I remember that the national minimum wage was brought in to a background of miswarnings about unaffordability and job losses, Tory opposition, and Liberal Democrat nonsense.

Happily, the local Liberal Democrats are now firm in their support for it. However, the Tories now seem to be ready to see the minimum wage end.

It is unacceptable that those at the bottom of life’s financial heap should suffer further and unnecessarily financially. Labour’s record on poverty is patchy with its disastrous abolition of the 10 pence tax rate and its inexplicable failure to take the poor out of income tax altogether, two kick-the-poor policies, on the negative side. There are welcome signals that the guilty government does not support a freeze on the national minimum wage.

The minimum wage is £5.73 an hour at present for those over twenty two; that is modest pay.

Here is how we give real recognition to the people of Cornwall in this economic crisis:

We should build many more affordable houses in Cornwall, social housing for rent and low-cost housing to buy, because many people here, who cannot buy on the open market, need them and building provides jobs and funnels money into the local economy. The minimum wage, a lifeline to many in Cornwall, should increase normally because industry and commerce can afford it, the wage funnels money into the economy, and the poor and low paid should never be held down but always helped up.

Note on average pay in Cornwall

I put below the median average pay taken from ASHE table 8.7a for 2008: it is the gross annual pay for fulltime workers based on residence by local authority area in Cornwall.

There are numerous figures for average pay: median average pay, mean average pay (higher than median because of some very large salaries), and median and mean figures based on workplace as well as on place of residence, fulltime or part time work, male or female workers, or all; and based on residence and workplace by local authority and by constituency; and of course pay that is not simply gross.

Average pay, eh?

Anyway, here are the ASHE figures for Cornwall for annual gross median average, residence-based by local authority, full time working, for 2008: £21 004. Divided by fifty two that’s about £404 a week.

As I’ve said at the beginning of this post and indeed often about statistics, the figures vary across Cornwall

Previous ASHE data is here.

ASHE: Annual survey of hours and earnings

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See here for an earlier post about the minimum wage in Cornwall

Additamentum:
See this Guardian article of 6 January 2009 about the low rate of construction.

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VORSPRUNG CORNWALL 4

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 the second half of 2008 to December. Vorsprung Cornwall 1 and 2 cover 2007 and Vorsprung Cornwall 3 covers January-June 2008.

* The West Briton reports that Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, is to see a major new development. £40 million will be spent to create a new campus for Cornwall College and £12 million to create a business innovation centre. Eventually and hopefully about two thousand new office jobs will be created at Pool. This is very good news indeed for education and the economy in Cornwall. (11 December 2008)

* A parliamentary answer (Hansard 17 November 2008 column 132W) shows that the number of people sleeping rough in Cornwall has fallen from thirty six in 1998 to zero in 2008. This is progress, especially in Penwith which accounted for half the county’s rough sleepers in 1998. Of course, this does not reveal whether the rough sleepers have moved into accommodation or have simply moved on. (18 November 2008)

* Two lifeguards in Cornwall have been awarded the RNLI silver medal for their courageous rescue of a holiday maker from treacherous seas at Trebarwith in June. After bringing him from the sea, they resuscitated him and kept him alive until the helicopter arrived to take him to hospital. You can read the RNLI account here. They are heroes. (14 November 2008)

* Excellent news for people in Cornwall seeking work. £27 million is available for new projects to help people improve their present skills or develop new skills and thus increase their chances of finding work. The money is from the European Social Fund (ESF) and has just been announced by the UK government. It will support three projects in each of the three areas of Merseryside, South Yorkshire, and Cornwall. Project applicants will have to put up 25 percent match funding in Cornwall but 50 percent in the other two areas.

This is additional to the £100 million from the ESF and British government for improving work skills announced on 15 October 2008 to help people facing redundancy. (6 November 2008)

* The Healthcare Commission has produced an assessment of the urgent and emergency services in areas* covered by primary care trusts in England. There are numerous ratings for numerous aspects of services such as out-of-hours GP services, A and E departments, and ambulance services. Details of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly area are here. The good news is that the Cornwall area’s overall score is in the top one third of results, the “best performing”. There is also summary file of all the areas’ ratings. (26 September 2008) *The Commission defines the areas as “within 152 localities set by the boundaries of the primary care trusts.”

* A project which has helped a thousand unemployed people in south Kerrier is expanding its catchment area westwards. The project, funded by the government and the EU, offers guidance and also helps job seekers to overcome difficulties with the costs of travel, childcare, and clothes, for example. An excellent, successful project. You can read a report on it here . (25 September 2008)

* Part of the Dobwalls bypass is now opened and it is expected that the new road will be fully open by November. The bypass is costing £42 million and will take traffic away from Dobwalls village on the A38, the Cornwall-Plymouth road. It began in late 2006 and will end congestion in Dobwalls making life there pleasanter and speeding the traffic

* Business Cornwall reports that RAM Gasket Solutions, a Redruth firm employing fourteen people, has won investment grants to expand. Three new jobs will be created. This is good news for the Cornwall economy, the firm, and its workers. Celebrate this success.

* Last March it was announced that the English open golf tournament was coming to St Mellion golf club from 2009 to at least 2013. Now the exact dates for 2009 have been announced . This tournament will attract top golfers and thousands of spectators to St Mellion, near Saltash, and will create scores of new golf-related jobs. The boost to the local economy should be impressive.

WHO GROUNDED CORNWALL?

The RAF has run a military airport at St Mawgan, near Newquay; and for a while now Cornwall county council has at the same place run a commercial, civilian airport, called Newquay, Cornwall airport. The RAF provided the air traffic control. The county council was right to step in a few years back and take over the commercial part of the airport; it was costly to do this but right to ensure that in the twenty-first century Cornwall had an airport to help its economy and people. For this and for the continual development of the airport the county council deserve much credit.

In 2006 the RAF announced its decision to close down the military side in 2008; this was two years advance notice for the county council who was to take over the air traffic control and fire services there and obtain a CAA licence. In March this year the RAF delayed their withdrawal from 1 August 2008 until 1 December to help the county council. In a media statement the council said the delay would ensure a “seamless overnight handover” and a “seamless transition.”

However, two years later, December, and the council isn’t ready and the RAF has said its people are committed to other work elsewhere and their deadline cannot be altered again. The upshot is that at the last minute the airport has closed to passengers for about three weeks while the county council gets up to speed. The date of reopening is only a hope at present and not guaranteed.

Let’s get this clear. The county council is run by the Liberal Democrats who hold all the portfolio (executive or cabinet) posts; county council officers work under Liberal Democrat direction and supervision. At bottom, no matter what the part of others might turn out to be, this airport foul up is down to the Liberal Democrat administration at the county council which appears to have been surprised by the lack of readiness. Ironically the council’s newspaper for this month has a two-page spread on the council’s “masterplan” for the airport. The Libdem administration should accept responsibility for the foul up because it is responsible for it.

It isn’t just the airport, is it? This is the Libdem council that fouled up about the county’s fire service . This is the Libdem council that foisted the unitary council on to an unconvinced electorate, albeit with the active support of the Labour government. This is the Libdem council that took so long to agree on unitary councillor numbers that unitary elections have been postponed until, well, no one knows but perhaps June but probably autumn next year. This is the Libdem council that will probably not have all the unitary elements in place until even later than that. This is the Libdem council of whom assessment reports do not glow. Did I mention their council newspaper, Your Cornwall, delivered free to all households in Cornwall and which this month had only five job advertisements, though such advertisements were to help to pay for it?

Three months ago I put up a quiz about the Liberal Democrats in Cornwall after the unitary seats nonsense: was their county administration a pantomime, or a farce, a circus, an opera buffa, a burlesque, or a cabaret? That was before the shambles of the airport. Eventually, at some ever-receding date we shall get the chance to vote on this Liberal Democrat record.

Additamentum 18 December 2008
The Civil Aviation Authority has now granted Newquay Cornwall airport an operating licence and the airport will reopen on 20 December 2008.

CORNWALL DOES WELL BUT LIBDEMS DO ANNUAL WHINGE

In the local government finance settlement Cornwall council has got a rise of 4.82 percent in its formula grant over last year’s grant: the 2008/09 grant figure has been adjusted to enable like-to-like comparison with next year’s. See here for an explanation of the grant and here for the 2009/10 figures.

This increase was expected as the Labour government introduced a three-year settlement last year to give councils more financial stability and to facilitate sensible planning in advance.

Cornwall’s rise is the sixth largest in percentage terms of the fifty six all-purpose authorities. It is one-and-a-half times that of the average rise for councils in England and larger than the average rise for unitary councils (with fire services). By any measure Cornwall council has done well compared to other councils. And not this year only: the council’s own 2007/08 budget book said that last year’s grant was “above the English average” (page 16).

The response of the Liberal Democrat leader of the council is an unconvincing, routine, annual complaint that the council has not received enough money. I suppose casual observers might wander off from that into the victim agenda: Cornwall short-changed, Cornwall ill-treated while the rest of England drowns in hoards of central government gold, Cornwall done down financially by London again and our services starved while others wallow in plenty.

I repeat, the reality is that Cornwall has done well compared to other councils. Just look at those figures. We should be pleased we have done so well in nationally difficult times.