the Cornwall Devolution Deal and the continuing centralisation to Cornwall Council

With the Cornwall Devolution Deal announced last week, we must ask what about powers within Cornwall. The fact is Cornwall is one of the most centralised local government areas anywhere in the UK. Lacking the middle tier of local government in districts and boroughs. Although there is lots of talk of localism and 'double devolution', what does this all actually mean? What do the current plans entail?

To turn first to the Case for Cornwall, as readers are probably aware this is the document put together by Cornwall Council asking the government for more powers. (available here). This is where the term double devolution comes from as the document explains:

"Together the Case for Cornwall and the Council’s continuing ambition to devolve embrace the notion of double devolution. Getting powers and responsibilities devolved to as low a level as possible, subject to sound governance and delivery arrangements being in place, demonstrates the common commitment of the Government and the Council to empower communities and ensure true local ownership and accountability." p.18/19

Here there is a great deal on principle and mighty fine it is too. There isn't a clear commitment to address the issue of centralisation in Cornwall and to take some of the powers and facilities and bring them back to local control. 

Nailing down what this actually means is harder to find. There are few mentions of town and parish councils in the document. They overwhelmingly talk about towns and parishes in reference to the council tax referendum cap. Which was placed on principle local authorities by the government to force a referendum if they sought to raise council tax by more than 2%. Interestingly it also includes police authorities, so far Bedfordshire police has been the only authority of any kind to call a referendum, lost overwhelmingly 69.5% against. The reason other authorities haven't is they obviously fear this result, so the coalition government effectively created a block on council tax rises.

However towns and parishes have not, so far, been included in the cap. Which allowed Penzance Town council for example, to raise the precept by 5% for the last year and 35.53% for this year. This is quite common in Cornwall and elsewhere as a result of budget cuts the principal authorities have shed services due to budget cuts and towns and parishes have taken on services and raised their precept to pay for it. Although this is a huge issue and leaving towns and parishes out of the referendum cap and I can understand why Cornwall Council included it in the Case for Cornwall.

However it is the only mention of towns and parishes in any substance in the whole of the Case for Cornwall document. I can understand to an extent that devolution should be bottom up not top down that it shouldn't be Cornwall Council's role to dictate devolution, I still feel it doesn't bode well for how seriously devolution within Cornwall is taken.

As we know the Case for Cornwall was not accepted by government and instead we now have the Cornwall Devolution Deal. If we can criticise the Cornwall Council devolution ideas for not considering devolution downwards then the government's announcement is deplorable. It doesn't even mention town and parish councils.

It does seem like we now will have devolution that gives more power to Cornwall Council. That takes more decisions and puts them in fewer hands. Although I firmly remain in favour of devolution it does trouble me that the Cornwall Devolution Deal does not deliver on 'double devolution'. In 2009 local government was centralised into Cornwall Council and it seems this process of concentrating power and decision making has picked up pace...

Tories block devolution to Cornwall to keep power in Westminster's hands

Whilst here in Cornwall we might fantasise about how things could change with devolution. How powers to make decisions in Cornwall would lead to solutions suited to us not to central government. How we might break the status quo of low wages, high house prices and being one of the least economically productive parts of the EU. At the same time David Cameron has pledged to keep the status quo and retighten the grip on the purse strings. Ruling out devolution of tax raising powers. 

This is ridicously short sighted and ignores the fact most states in the world are happy for not every simple decision to be made in the capital. Local tax raising is a common sense solution. As anyone can see, without a vested interest in how much tax is raised and thus how well the economy is doing, what is the impetus for authorities to focus on growth?

The system of the vast majority of taxes going to the center and it deciding what to distribute outwards is a nonsense and leads to an economy where the capital grows and the periphery struggles. A situation where Cornwall will always struggle and continues to face a future where infrastructure investments lags decades behind.

The Prime Minister shows an abject lack of faith in the people and the usual unambitious desire to limit decision making to the inner circle of the M25. As with Cornwall's Tories response to devolution to Cornwall it's about keeping power in the hands of the select few in London including them and in the hands of George Osborne. The party interest trumps the interests of Cornwall. The same is true of Labour they do not want power distributed across the UK and something as powerful as a Cornish assembly is so hated as it suits their parties and their desire for retaining ultimate control in Downing street. This self serving interest is why none of them, including David Cameron, even think of asking people here what they think, what their ambitions for Cornwall are. The lesson from Scotland is the Tories and Labour will offer considerable powers if it curtails independence and losing of much more power.

This whole process of the PM deciding off the cuff what wil happen, illustrates what is wrong with the current system. The decisions about Cornwall's future are not decided by the people of Cornwall nor people elected by us. So much for democracy!

The Penzance plan starts here, with myself on the board!

This is of course the neighbourhood plan for Penzance, more properly and in the words of a former Cornwall Council planner (Andy England) the process of 'planning for a plan' is well and truly in the offing. Last night at the town council I was elected onto the Penzance Neighbourhood Plan Board. Regular readers of the blog will now I have written on this subject before, back in October last year Should Penzance create a Neighbourhood Development Plan? I think it gives my initial views on the process and also some of the limitations I think it holds. For a more generic description try this from the DCLG.

Briefly a Neighbourhood Plan (NP) guides and informs planning decisions for the length of the plan (typically 20 years). Within the constraints of planning law (i.e. the National Planning Policy Framework) and the local plan (currently being devised by Cornwall Council). Unlike those policies that have already decided crucial matters like number of houses the NP will have the constraint and the advantage of being borne from the community. Although Penzance Town Council has started this process and will work with others it is not our plan, it is the communities plan. The whole process is punctuated by public consultations and then at the end a public referendum. There is a lot of talk about localism at the moment and giving local communities the say on key decisions, the Neighbourhood Plan is one of the few examples of this happening.

I think it would be very easy to underestimate the scale and importance of this task. Simple old fashioned public consultations won't cut it, listening only to consultants or solely to those that shout loudest could mean the plan will be doomed to failure at referendum, it is imperative the vast majority of the public are involved in the process. So it will be a great deal of work but will be better for it.

Policies outlined in Penzance's plan will become planning law. I'm sure any of us could look around the town (or indeed anywhere else) and see planning decisions that for better or worse have changed the fundamental nature of the place. For example, what if planners had never allowed the harbour to be filled in for a car park? what if your local park or green space had been built upon? It's easy to see planning policies as words on a piece of paper but the decisions taken in the plan will help shape the future of our community. I know many of you will be reading this well aware of planning policies you do and don't like, but I do hope there are others reading this now (and in the future of the process) that will think about how planning effects themselves and their neighbourhoods and what they'd like to see from it.

So what is the board? Well firstly it has been named the Penzance Neighbourhood Plan Board and its job is Governance and Management of the NP process. To be more exact:

"Establishing an appropriate governance and management structure - The Penzance Neighbourhood Plan Board (PNPB) and a Project Manager - is critical to the success of the NP. The PNPB will oversee the NP's development, dissemination and community consultation and ensure that the process complies with its statutory duties."

The first task of the PNPB will be to make an application to central government for grant funding for the first stage. From there it is imperative to create a communication and engagement strategy and start the long process of getting people involved in the decisions!

I don't have a great deal left to say at this point. This is a huge task and it will go on for a long time and I'm not even sure how long that will be. I've a lot to learn about a lot of things which really excites me. I'm really looking forward to the challenge and all that is left to say is a thank you to my fellow town councillors that showed faith in me and voted me on to the board. I hope I live up to the expectations.

Just when you think we're getting somewhere, Devonwall and South West regionalism both rear their ugly heads

You'd think things were all fine and dandy, the Cornish have recognition now, the government might just keep it's hands off Cornwall's Euro money and the Cornish Assembly campaign gathering pace. But no were dealing with Westminster so nothing is ever that simple.

Devonwall may well come back to haunt us, it seems the powers that be are still intent on redrawing parliamentary boundaries. Much like the Euro funding u turn, it's not exactly clear what is going on. With some of the ruling coalition telling us Devonwall will return and others saying it won't. So perhaps I'm scaremongering about nothing, but with this lot and their other great policy ideas, I wouldn't be surprised. I don't think it's a coincidence that people are talking about it.

On to the other lot and their "great" ideas, rebranded New Labour have rebranded their old regionalist ideas. Digging through the archives we find John Prescott promising regional powerhouses through the regional development agencies in 1998. 16 years on we now find Miliband taking a break from eating bacon sandwiches to promise pretty much the same thing as Prescott, though I reckon the latter looks most normal when eating a bacon sandwich, a sign things do change?

Rebranded and jigged the idea is now "super councils." Hard to see the detail on this one but the Welsh Assembly Government (Labour) is currently at the moment planning their own super councils aka council mergers. Hopefully this isn't being rolled out everywhere because I don't think many in Cornwall saw the creation (again by Labour and the Lib Dems) of Cornwall Council as super in any way.

LEPs are clearly something Labour is considering as Labour's Lord Adonis told the Western Morning News:

“I wouldn’t want to anticipate what would be the ideal LEP arrangement for the South West. But you’ve already got large LEP regions there and they do embrace real economic geographies. So I don’t see any reason why in principal you couldn’t have combined authorities in the South West.”

A Devonwall LEP on the cards? or perhaps I don't know maybe we could call it the South West Regional Development Agency? 

Again we find Cornwall wanting devolution and pretty broad consensus around the idea that Cornwall needs some form of devolution. Although I'm sure we could all argue about the details, but we won't ever get a chance when devolution/ localism/ regionalism is something forced on local government by central government. We need MPs in Cornwall that will convince central government that we want devolution here and that we want to decide on what terms. Or else history will repeat itself over and over again and we will see government after government rehashing Devonwall style ideas and them telling Cornwall what's good for us. Resulting in no real power being ever devolved and constant rehashing of existing bodies. 

A welcome to the European funding u turn and the scandal no one wants to talk about

In the last few days there's been something of a whirlwind campaign against government plans to seize control of Cornwall's European funding. Quite why this has come out now is not abundantly clear. But it did. After a flurry of Conservative and Liberal Democrat press releases condemning (rightly) this centralisation there's now been a u turn. But the real scandal no one wants to talk about is why the delay in the next round of 'cohesion' funding.

Well not quite a u turn, depending on your view of a u turn. If I drive in my car to London get to Stonehenge and turn around that's a u turn. If I plan to drive to London and get talked out of it and never drive there is that a u turn? It's much the same with this. Apparently the 'government was considering a proposal', quite who in the government this came from isn't abundantly clear. But I guess someone somewhere thought government should take control of all of the ERDF funding centrally, hardly surprising considering the government's patronising approach to decentralisation. Now it seems the government line has softened. Compare and contrast this with a statement by Vince Cable last June, outlining a done deal on local control on ERDF funding.  

But not softened completely the car's still destined to drive some of the way to London. The announcement is that central government will let Cornwall decide to spend it's own money, once Westminster has signed it off as ok. Don't get me wrong this is infinitely preferable to losing the hundreds of jobs widely quoted in administering this money in Cornwall but why should London know best?

The real scandal of course is why the Convergence period ran from 1st of January 2007 to 31st of December 2013. Now rather than being part of the way through the 2014-2020 ERDF funding and actually spending money, government has yet to decide how it is managed and how much they want to centrally control. Which raises the question why 6 months into 2014 am I writing this?  And when will the 2014-2020 funding period actually start?

I can't believe I'm even writing this because it's so obvious and patronising. Cornwall needs investment, latest figures show our economy is faring badly. The problems of seasonal work, low wages, high house prices and high living costs are as evident as they have ever been. What we need is action from the government and Cornish politicians yet all we get is silly public arguments on details. Whilst the bigger picture remains the same and largely ignored. Cornwall can ill afford a gap in this funding whilst the coalition gets it's house in order.

The 'u turn' or change in proposals is a good thing. Local control ought to be the default position of government not central control. So we can decide and the jobs the come with deciding and administering this money should be here in Cornwall, not taken away. The government needs to find fresh impetus to getting new European funding online and stop squabbling about the details and then perhaps the 2014 funding period might start in this year!

Should Penzance Town Council not fund the Jubilee Pool?

Another blog and I'm afraid another can of worms and like all cans of worms who knows what the repercussions could be. Apologies for the provocative title but lets face it many don't care about local issues. I stand ready to see all those who comment and bitch at me without reading this blog fully and understanding it, so please if you can spare a few minutes. Things get built and things get pulled down, public services get closed down and long after the consultation process and campaigners have accepted their cause is lost, the things happens people start to get angry, that something happened in this or that way. I'm hoping this is a slightly different issue, without any risk of exaggeration the Friends of Jubilee Pool are ecstatically gushing about the 3742 people that signed the petition titled Save the Jubilee Pool in Penzance and provide match funding for the application to the Coastal Communities Fund and particularly the comments made on the petition site and I can't say I blame them.

The Jubilee Pool is an icon of Penzance, it's prominence and reputation means having it derelict for perhaps months years or forever is a terrifying thought. I'm not going to wax lyrical about it's importance as a leisure facility, why we need to protect public services or any of the such. To me it speaks for itself, so lets get on to the nuts and bolts.

There was a confusing story about the future of the pool, first Cornwall Council sent out press releases proclaiming their sadness that a grant application to the Coastal Communities Fund was rejected. Then after a number of individuals brought the truth to light, another press release which added the words because we did not match fun the bid (thus dooming it to failure). Thanks to pressure from the Friends of Jubilee Pool, the powers that be have had a rethink. They are now ready to resubmit a bid but it needs to be done by the ninth of May (7 days from now). Which is all relatively simple.

Where it gets complicated is the Town Council's involvement, though my letterbox yesterday was papers declaring a Special Meeting of the Town Council on next tuesday the 6th of May. With a briefing this morning with senior officers and cabinet members in Penzance (a sure sign of their commitment). Still less than a week to consider what was being proposed and come to a decision. Bearing in mind this is the first official papers, discussion or anything to come before town councillors. Now, in broad brushstrokes the answer is so simple, yes the town council should support the pool, but broad brushstrokes it ain't.

There are two recommendations to the council to deliberate upon, but in fact they are not really two they are completely intertwined. Basically it is an offer from Cornwall Council, that basically amounts to an ultimatum. Made more acute by the surprise of the suggestion, the fact it has not been trailed and it needs to be decided now or never. Although Cornwall Council have done a u turn on putting money into the grant bid, it's not that simple. They want firstly for the town council to contribute £40,000 from the Devolution Budget to the bid, which adds more money and demonstrates a local partnership to Eric Pickles along with the petition signatures and the Friend's of Jubilee Pool. (The Friend's are fundraising for this at the moment see their website to contact them.)

The opportunity or catch depending on your view is that Cornwall Council's (very generous) contribution to the bid is also from their devolution pot. So this is not money for putting in bids, capital expenditure or any such thing. So the second part of the recommendation to the town council is that we commit to working together to take over the pool ourselves (or perhaps in partnership with the Friends). Sweetening the deal is the offer of perhaps taking over the car park across the road (St Anthony's) to offset some of the cost of running the pool. Also funding for the transition period of a takeover.

This puts me in a quandary frankly, by the principles my answer is overwhelming yes. Should the town council take on more services, should things be devolved? the answer is yes. Should the pool remain open? is it worth public money to keep it running? yes. But as I wrote above it's not just broad brushstrokes, it would be foolish to take on services without considering the financial implications. Which brings me to the nub of the bid, attached to the agenda for tuesday's meeting is an engineers/ consultants report detailing what works need to be done, to repair the storm damage and work that has been long overdue. The headline cost is estimated at over £2 million. A facility that apparently is uninsurable from storm damage.

So what do you think people? In case it's not clear above, this is a zero sum game, Penzance Town Council says no and the broader community support is not demonstrated in the bid and a lot more importantly Cornwall Council's devolution money goes somewhere else. In other words, unless someone wins the lottery any time soon the pool has no future, without a yes on tuesday.

Now until tuesday is precious little time to consider the ramifications of the decision we will make then, so help me out...

Cornwall stands to be further marginalised by a Labour government

The subject of devolution is never far from the political agenda in UK politics. It's something all parties talk about. We've seen in the last month the Lib Dems make a Cornish Assembly policy and the Conservative party talk vaguely around the idea of more powers for Cornwall.  Now it seems Labour's turn to yak on about shifting power from Whitehall outwards but ignoring Cornwall (again).

Ed Miliband was in the news today, promising regional ministers. In the eventuality Labour form a government in 2015 there will be a South West minister. Shelving my cynicism of fictional ministers promised before elections. We might fear that again Cornwall will be ruled from afar. With Cornish regeneration money funding offices and workers to administer our money from Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol. But a Labour shadow minister tells us things will be different:

“Regional ministers would not be a replica of what came before, but rather would be complementary to our agenda to devolve more power to city-regions.”

Quite how this is different or of any benefit to Cornwall is at best dubious. Quite how this is different to the coalition's city deals is again unclear.

When will the political classses realise that the answer to the centralisation and dominance of London is not making mini Londons?
What does Cornwall have to do to get noticed?
Or does Labour have some unannounced prejudice for Cornwall not having more political power and jobs?

Reforming planning and how to bring power back to communities in Cornwall

I believe that Cornwall Council is not a proper body to adjudge all the planning cases around the Duchy. Below I have noted some of my criticisms of the planning process, I think some of my ideas would alleviate these concerns and have the added benefit of bringing 'localism' (aka local rule) to Cornish communities. I don't think for a moment I have all the answers so please add thoughts to the comments section with any criticisms or anything I have missed.

I believe the fundamental problem facing planning in Cornwall is the monopoly of the Unitary Authority in this process. This in a number of cases presents fundamental conflicts of interest, take for example the supermarket application in Wadebridge (Morrison's). Part of the application was buying a building owned by the authority. In Truro the Eastern District scheme counts the council as one of it's partners in the development. In Penzance the 'Option A' Route Partnership bid also had the council as a partner. So there is here a fundamental conflict of interest, whether the council's involvement influenced the committee is in every case debatable, but it remains, how can an authority be independent from bids in which they have a fundamental vested interest? One of the great losses with the 'One Cornwall' project was the loss of the six district councils and what the Americans call 'Checks and Balances', that is to say that the power of one authority is balanced out by the power of other authorities. This needs to be addressed.

The other great problem is that of the centralisation of decision making, here in Penwith we no longer have a council making decisions for this area, like everywhere in Kernow, everything is decided in Truro. The same is true of the now slimmed down strategic planning committee, made up of 21 councillors from all parties on the council, these councillors have to decide planning applications throughout Cornwall. The three sub area committees are made up of 15 councillors again cross party. Due to their number, there is a lack of geographical distribution, here in Penzance for example was have 1 councillor on both strategic planning and the west sub area. So when the harbour rigmarole went on, or the recent Sainsbury's/ heliport fiasco we had one voice. In effect people from elsewhere not answerable to the people affected made the decisions. (This is true of every area of Cornwall Penzance is just an example).

I think therefore there are two problems with Cornwall's planning system, my suggestion is that the planning committees are reformed, that the council is partly stripped of it's monopoly and local members take decisions affecting people in their towns, villages and communities. This can only come from the existing parish and town councils. I would suggest that planning should be in conjunction with local councils, I know there is at the moment consultation but there needs to be involvement at the decision making process. As a rough suggestion, half of planning committees representation should come from the town and parish councils in the area and neighbouring areas and half from the existing Cornwall councillors. It should be up to the local councils to nominate representatives from across the political parties/ independents on the respective councils. This devolution of the planning process would lead to better decision making, not only by making decisions be made by the people elected in those communities but also by opening up the planning process to other authorities. These other councils would add another dimension of thinking and would hopefully put the best interests of communities affected back to the heart of planning.

Cornwall Council claims to want devolution within Cornwall (localism), hitherto this has meant palming off services like CCTV and public toilets, but this process should not just be about administering facilities but decision making too. Town and parish councils are there to make decisions let them do this in conjunction with the council. Let's open up the decision making process, two brains are better than one, surely the same is true of councils.

On another note why not devolve parking both car parks and enforcement and the revenue it brings down to the local councils and let people elected in that area decide how to run the service and what to charge for it.

Cornish hospital chief unfairly dismissed but cancer services not to change, madness!

Heard the news on the radio yesterday that the old CEO of NHS Cornwall has successfully sued the NHS for unfair dismissal, John Watkinson was awarded £1.2 million as a result. He opposed the move of upper gastro-intestinal cancer services outside of Cornwall in principle and believed that legally there needed to be a public consultation. So the point has been conceded and he was right, they sacked him because he didn't agree with their centralising agenda. I waited to hear if there was more to the story, specifically if the move of cancer services would be reversed, but no. So in effect John Watkinson has received £1.2 million, the trust has spent nearly £400,000 and the people of Cornwall are left in the same position as before. The original argument was that survival rates would be better if the service moved, a point heavily contested.

I believe considering the geography of Cornwall and the amount of people here, the move of any hospital services out of Cornwall is to the detriment of Cornish people. People like me who live in Penzance face a hard enough journey getting to Truro to go to Treliske hospital (24.9 miles, 37 minute bar journey according to google maps it can take longer and believe me feels like an age when your wife is in labour). Penzance isn't the furthest west in Cornwall, or the most inaccessible place. Below are some of the distance travelled to hospital in south and west Cornwall.

Travel times by car to Treliske hospital (according to google maps):

Zennor: 27.3 miles, 42 minutes

St Just in Penwith/ Pendeen: 32.4 miles, 49 minutes

Sennen Cove: 33.9 miles, 53 minutes

St Buryan: 30.7 miles, 48 minutes

Penzance: 24.9 miles, 37 minutes 

Rosudgeon: 24.3 miles, 37 minutes

Porthleven: 23.6 miles, 40 minutes

Lizard: 28.8 miles, 49 minutes

Coverack: 26.1 miles, 50 minutes

St Keverne 26.2 miles, 51 minutes

Helston: 18.1 miles, 36 minutes

So at a guess we have about an average of 45 minutes-in good traffic-for the people of west Cornwall to make it to Cornwall's only major hospital at Treliske Truro. Is this too far for people to travel for cancer treatment? after all once we add on the parking and getting to a department it's going to probably be over an hour. I think it is it's already an unnecessary strain on people who are already suffering. So anyway this was the previous system for upper GI care (also this is the distance to the only major casualty department, fully staffed maternity service amongst other things.) But the powers that be decided to move it to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, so in effect all of Cornwall's near 600,000 residents now have to travel outside Cornwall for this type of care. So let's have a look at the distances and times with the new service:

Travel times by car to Derriford hospital (according to google maps):

Zennor: 79.8 miles, 1 hour 48 minutes. (to Treliske 27.3 miles, 42 minutes)

St Just in Penwith/ Pendeen: 84.9 miles, 1 hour 55 minutes (32.4 miles, 49 minutes)

Sennen Cove: 86.3 miles 1 hour 59 minutes (33.9 miles, 53 minutes)

St Buryan: 83.1 miles, 1 hour 54 minutes (30.7 miles, 48 minutes)

Penzance: 77.4 miles, 1 hour 44 minutes (24.9 miles, 37 minutes )

Rosudgeon: 76.7 miles, 1 hour 43 minutes (24.3 miles, 37 minutes)

Porthleven: 76 miles, 1 hour 47 minutes (3.6 miles, 40 minutes)

Lizard: 82.3 miles, 1 hour 58 minutes (28.8 miles, 49 minutes)

Coverack: 79.5 miles, 2 hours 1 minute (26.1 miles, 50 minutes)

St Keverne 79.7 miles, 2 hours 2 minutes (26.2 miles, 51 minutes)

Helston: 71.1 miles, 1 hour 42 minutes (18.1 miles, 36 minutes)

I despair at the state of society and healthcare in Cornwall, when we are asking really sick people to travel for over another hour each way, to get the care treatment they need and indeed pay taxes for. So a tribunal has decided that Watkinson was unfairly dismissed for acting as a whistleblower for the move of cancer services, they agree this that much they have awarded him a large slice of cash (unfortunately coming out of the already stretched budget). So distance is factor not in the best interests of the patient, widespread public opposition, no public consultation, the tribunal seems to agree moving the services was wrong. So we might conclude the government would see sense and reverse the decision, maybe at last we might see some substance to this localism spiel? alas no. An 'independent' panel (independent of public consultation and decmocratic accountability apparently) agreed with the move and Andrew Lansley rubber stamped it. Yet another example of Devonwall and the centralisation of services and jobs east of the Tamar, undermining the Cornish economy and reducing services for the Cornish people. When will see any benefit to localism? When will the need of Cornish cancer patients become a priority?

For more on the subject read the BBC Cornwall's report on the outcome of the tribunal here.

To read my blog on the chronic underfunding of the Cornish NHS here.

If you want to e mail your MP about this click here http://www.writetothem.com/

Mudhook totally wrong on Mebyon Kernow and localism

This blog is essentially in response to a post by another blogger, but serves to illustrate and clarify Mebyon Kernow's policies toward giving power back to local communities within Cornwall... I sometimes read Mudhook's blog, perhaps this is a little strange for a Mebyon Kernow member as Mudhook does like to denigrate the party and it's principles. Perhaps I am a little masochistic, (much like the left wingers who revel in reading the Daily Mail) or perhaps it's because sometimes he has something useful to say. Unfortunately he (I assume it's a he) doesn't allow comments on his blog, so you can't fully interact with his content and arguments. This is regrettable because I often think he misrepresents Mebyon Kernow, for example recently he blogged about discrepancies within Cornwall in terms of education attainment; The Parts of Cornwall and forms part of his wider argument on the subject, to quote:

"Nevertheless, the differences are startling and I repeat again that Cornwall is not one place; there are many Cornwalls. We must learn from the most successful and target intervention where it is needed. It does not usually make sense to see Cornwall as one uniform place, as nationalism tends to do; and it is not sensible to have countywide policies which do not recognise the needs of different parts of Cornwall."

Now as I am sure he is aware MK led the fight against the imposition of the unitary authority by the then Liberal Democrat County Council and Labour government. It has never been MK policy to see Kernow as one uniform place, which is why we fought to keep the tiers of local government. Mebyon Kernow policy has always been to fight for devolution to Cornwall and within Cornwall. For example at the time condemning the announcement of the centralisation the then deputy mayor of Penzance, Richard Clark said this:

“As it is now certain that the district councils will be abolished, it is up to Cornwall's town and parish councils to seek the devolution of decision-making powers to preserve what we can of locally exercised democratic control." Unitary Decision Devalues our Local Democracy

Recently Stephen Richardson blogged about why Illogan Parish Council (of which he is a councillor) ought to develop it's own planning strategy and not to confirm unconditionally with Cornwall Council's plans for nearby Camborne, Redruth and Pool. See his blog here I can't think of a finer example of fighting for localism and arguing that what is best for one area might not be best for another. Anyone that even has a slight inkling of who MK councillors are on Cornwall Council, they will know that they fight hard for their local areas and do the best to represent them and do not see Cornwall as one uniform place demanding uniform policies.

Mebyon Kernow as a party fights for devolution both to Cornwall and to our communities, believe me if I thought this party only cared for Cornwall and not my home town of Penzance I would jump ship in a flash. The party is committed to devolution within Cornwall to deal with the specific problems of different areas. To quote from the 'Our Policies' section of the Mebyon Kernow website:

"In addition, devolved government based on Cornwall would also create the space to allow the current functions of Cornwall Council to be devolved downwards - to councils that are based on local communities and can provide the grassroots of a living and participatory human scale democracy." Mebyon Kernow

I do not mind Mudhook blogging about why he doesn't like Mebyon Kernow, this is a democracy and freedom of speech is the most fundamental part of that. What I do mind is misrepresenting MK in such a way, if he really wants to see Cornwall's unique and varied problems dealt with better, might I suggest he tackles those that run the centralised Cornwall Council in Truro (Conservative and Independent coalition) and cast a weary eye over those that imposed this upon us in the first place (Labour and the Liberal Democrats). Also he might like to join me in calling for services and departments to be devolved to Cornwall and thus ensuring not only jobs coming to Cornwall as I argue, but local solutions are devised and applied at the local level. Localism, Devonwall and how to bring Cornish jobs back

Localism, Devonwall and how to bring Cornish jobs back

This blog is not about the proposed Devonwall constituency that the government is imposing upon Cornwall and our dear neighbours. It is about the very real and insidious Devonwall that has beset Cornwall for decades. In this blog I am no arguing for notions of national identity, culture or history but about real bona fide jobs and how Cornwall is missing out on them. How we can and must harness localism to bring jobs back this side of the Tamar.

Devonwall has been around a long while, successive governments have sought to amalgamate services and departments of governance between Cornwall and Devonshire. Whether because they wanted offices closer to London, or they wanted to shore up electoral support in the key constituencies of Exeter and Plymouth, or they simply didn't care for Cornwall's economy, the result is the same, jobs moved eastward. With those jobs went more of Cornwall's decision making powers, I am not even talking about devolution here just the sort of decision making that English counties mostly enjoy.

The result of this centralisation is that the Cornish taxpayer involuntarily has 'outsourced' administration and management to Devon and the 'wider south west'. Devon and Cornwall Police is based in Exeter, the Startegic Health Authority is based in Taunton, Westcountry Ambulance Service based in Plymouth, and so the list goes on. It would take someone with a degree in finance and a masters in internet research to work out how many jobs are at these sites and what proportion of funding from Cornwall supports these offices and staff. But I think it's fair to say it is a lot of  money and a lot of jobs and all of these amalgamated offices aren't in Cornwall.
David Cameron told This Is Cornwall, (Nov 27th 2010):

"I think Cornish national identity is very powerful – people feel a great affinity with Cornwall. We're going to devolve a lot of power to Cornwall – that will go to the Cornish unitary authority."

The real question and challenge for Cornish politicians is how to buck this trend, how to keep Cameron to his word and how to harness the governments localism bill into bringing jobs back to Cornwall. So by a process of decentralisation the Cornish taxpayer no longer pays others to do jobs we could easily do here. We must encourage the government's proposals to bring power back to the town hall, if we can uncouple these services mentioned and others it would be a great boost for Cornwall's economy.

Our economy is still in a bad state we under perform in comparison to anywhere in the UK and most comparable regions of the EU and the fact that Westminster has been hitherto reluctant to keep public sector jobs in Cornwall has not helped. We still face a situation whereby Cornish youngsters leave Kernow in search of meaningful employment and those that stay earn well below UK average wages, localism offers an opportunity to alleviate some of these problems.

On the subject of localism, I very much hope that any jobs that are brought back to Cornwall are not all lumped together in Truro. Here in Penzance they would be very welcomed as I am sure they would be in Helston, Hayle, Bodmin, Wadebridge, Liskeard and a whole host of other towns. In terms of implementing this plan there are many buildings that used to house the old district councils (in Penzance for example) surely these could be adapted and/ or Cornwall Council could share offices with devolved bodies.