LEPs - what is going on?

At the last full meeting of Cornwall’s unitary authority on 27th July, councillors unanimously supported a motion that Cornwall should “manage it’s own Local Enterprise Partnership rather than one which combines Cornwall with any other part of the mainland UK.”

Not one councillor argued against the motion tabled by Lib Dem Alex Folkes. A number of contributors to the debate focussed on how the “Devonwall” and “South West” arrangements of the past had so disadvantaged Cornwall and its communities.

And yet last week, a press release was sent out by Devon County Council on behalf of itself and the unitary councils of Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Plymouth and Torbay, announcing a proposed Peninsula Partnership LEP.

Apparently, the Peninsula Partnership LEP would be for “high level strategic purposes,” but there would also be a Cornwall LEP in some bizarre partial two-tier arrangement. This smaller LEP would apparently “focus on day-to-day economic development, tapping into existing structures such as the Cornwall Development Company, its unitary authority and the Convergence Partnership.”

To say that I am angry that the democratically agreed position of Cornwall Council may be circumvented would be an understanding.

I want no part of the sell-out that is going on behind closed-doors at County Hall. A Devonwall LEP is not an option as far as I am concerned and I will oppose it to the utmost.